Supporting Multicultural Environment

by Erin Gaines
(Kansas City, KS, USA)

In what way do you see yourself supporting the multicultural environment at the College of Wooster? - I can see myself supporting the multicultural environment within Wooster fully throughout my years there. I see myself as an open-minded student that welcomes and seeks cultural diversity everywhere and in almost anything I participate in. In fact, part of my criteria for choosing colleges was if the college of interest had a good level of diversity in terms of students, clubs and embraced various cultures, then I would consider it for application. I find it an expectation rather than an extra to be exposed to multicultural environments because my high school and my family are rich in diversity. At home, I am given a strong sense of my mainly African-American heritage, and my grandparents tell me a lot about great-grandfathers and other relatives of mine that were of Irish and Native-American descent. It was though my social experiences out of my home that I gradually found and sought out more multicultural knowledge. There are many clubs and groups within my high school that are culturally diverse as well.

I would like to make a goal of participating in at least one cultural club a year. In the club, I want to learn, social customs, phrases and/or writing systems from the language, what kinds of foods are made and hopefully even do some travelling either in or out of college to countries I am interested in. I have participated in a few multicultural clubs within my high school. The first one that I joined was L.E.A.P., which was the acronym for the Latin Ethnic Awareness Program. Within this club, we mainly celebrated Latin holidays such as Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead, held dances and ate foods that are a part of the custom. With these holidays, there was always someone to inform the club members, of the origin and customs associated with them. Through some of the officers, we also learned dances that were done and some of the more familiar celebrations, such as Quinciñeras for girls turning of age.

This current school year, I am a part of Asia Club. Mostly Hmong is represented in this club, but we also branch out and learn about other Asian cultures and traditions. Similar to L.E.A.P., food is brought in during a celebration of Asian holidays or just potlucks, and a knowledgeable officer informs the other club members of the historical background behind foods, customs and holidays such as the Hmong New Year. Through these two clubs, I show my support by sharing my newfound information with other friends that are not in the club and with my family, and conduct further research or ask about questions pertaining to the culture.

I also am a supporter of the Gay/ Straight Alliance within our school. I show my support for this club by befriending other members of this alliance, respecting and not criticizing the rights and beliefs of anyone lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered and by setting an example to other students that just like you can be friends with anyone of a different race, you can also be friends with anyone without letting sexual orientation be a barrier.

Music is the more frequent way in which I show my multicultural support. In my free time, I like to listen to music not frequently heard in the US, but in the other countries such as France, Britain, Russia, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Norway, and many more. Coincidentally, I also get a lot of exposure to different music from other countries through my music theory class. One particular artist that I like is Milton Nascimento, a Brazillian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song “Praying Mantis” contains many stylistic techniques that I found appealing. I also have recently developed a liking of Choro, which is a style of Brazillian music dating back before the 1900s. Combining European dance with African rhythms from Brazil formed Choro and many, more familiar styles of music, such as Samba and Bossa Nova.

I believe that the aforementioned descriptions of how I am able to support the multicultural environment in my own school merely scratches the surface of my ability to support this environment when I graduate and go to college. Aside from learning more about these cultures, I am able to use my newfound knowledge and teach or communicate with other people outside of my original cultural environment – especially since I am going out of state for college. With this being said, I am able to offer support for Wooster’s multicultural by making friends of all races, backgrounds and sexual orientations, learn about his or her customs from different regions of the world, and participate in cultural events. And although I have not held a leadership role in any of the clubs in my school, I could be able to do so within the clubs in college. I am willing to initiate hosting a radio station and broadcasting songs that are sung and performed outside the United States. I also could be in charge of arts or a music related branch of multicultural clubs. The greatest thing about this is that I will also be able to add all of this new cultural information to my own evolving sense of culture.

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Comment from your friendly team at College Financial Aid Advice

Thank you Erin for sharing your essay about “In what way do you see yourself supporting the multicultural environment at the College of Wooster?” We are confident that you will be very successful in life by embracing diversity. Good luck in college and we hope you were accepted to the college of your choice.

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Asian-Hispanic American:
The Amerasian

by Michelle Nguyen
(Windsor, CT, USA)

College Admission Essay

This is my college essay and it helped me get admitted into all the schools I applied to!

Whenever I looked at myself in the mirror, questions formulated in my mind. I often wondered about my appearance. I compared my hair to the rest of my family and saw it was not the same. Everyone else had beautiful pin-straight hair, while mine was curly. I knew something was strange because most Asians do not have naturally curly hair. I was different and it made me insecure. As I grew older, I began to feel impatient and the questions about my hair led me to seek the truth about my identity.

During the 2009 Vietnamese New Year, I learned that my grandfather was actually a Hispanic soldier. He had raped and impregnated my grandmother during the Vietnam War, thus producing my father. Never meeting his biological father once, my father fled the country to avoid racism and torture. Mixed babies produced during the war were coined the term “Amerasians”. Shunned by the Vietnamese society, the Amerasians had no voice. The government took efforts in removing the “enemy’s children,” which left most abandoned and forgotten.

Discovering the truth about my ethnicity changed the way I perceived myself. At first I felt uncomfortable because my father, siblings, and I were so different from the Asian side of our family. Just like the Amerasians in Vietnam, I too felt alone and unaccepted by both cultures. I grew ashamed of my hair because it highlighted my non-Asian features. Growing up in a traditional, strict household was hard enough because of the incredibly high expectations. My parents even told me to keep my ethnicity a secret. I felt discriminated against by my own family, which made me embarrassed to be different. After some time, I finally accepted myself for who I am and not for who my family wanted me to be. I am an Amerasian, I am multiracial, and I am
proud.

My continued research allowed me to embrace the uniqueness of my mixture. I read articles online and explored books pertaining the topic of Amerasians. I grew fascinated with this phenomenon and promised myself that one day I will share my story. Many Amerasians did not have a voice, but that will change starting with me. I will speak out for the silenced voices.
As an individual, I will bring diversity to your institution. I plan to join cultural groups to help strengthen diversity amongst our society. I want to express that race can define a person, but not confine them in any way. I want to be that example. I have a voice, I have a story, and I will share it.

I promise to represent a strong, motivated student, and get the most out of my education through all the resources offered to me. College is the time to grow as an individual and explore your finally find yourself. I will do this by entering the first day of Freshmen year by being simply me and I will succeed.

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Comment from your friendly team at College Financial Aid Advice

Thank you Michelle for your college admission essay to include in our Scholarship Essay Sample. Good luck to you.

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My Diverse Education

by Jonathan Melgar
(Coral Springs, FL, United Sates)

College Admission Essay – Personal Essay Example - It’s amazing the impact an education can have on an individual, and as a foreigner in this country I’ve been exposed to many ways of receiving that education. Without a doubt being exposed to many different kinds of schools in different countries has changed me, but school was not the only place where learning happened. My family, especially my uncle and grandparent have influenced me in what I wanted to do with my life. School and family are the two biggest parts of my life and they done a lot to shape it.

Back in my home country of Bolivia, where I spent twelve years of my life, I was enrolled in a private school all through sixth grade. The school was called Deutsche Schule, it means German School. This was the best school in my country, and I’m grateful my mother was able to put me through it. In this school I got the opportunity to meet a wide diversity of people because most European people that moved to Bolivia would enroll in this school. Aside from interacting with a different race than my own, I also got the chance to be taught the German language, and although I only learned the very basics of it since I was only enrolled till sixth grade, it served as a good basis and helped me later in high school, where I took German as a foreign language course. Aside from academics, which were of the highest standard in the country, I picked up all a different set of good values from the teachers and the way the school was run. I can say that without a doubt, my education in the German School shaped me into a responsible young man that since a young age, understands the value of a quality education.

At the age of twelve, my mother got a job offer to work here in Florida for Citi. This was a big decision that my mom would have to make, and she explained to me and my little brother that we would have a lot more opportunities to be successful in this country. Although my little brother didn’t understand a whole lot of what she was talking about, I explained to him that this move would not just benefit us, but that it would also help our mom and provide us with a better life. After a month of planning my mom, my little brother and I moved to Florida in August 2005. The only person that spoke English was my mom; my brother and I only spoke Spanish. The language barrier was a big obstacle at first, but the language came easy to us and we started speaking English fluently the ladder half of 2006. Adjusting to school here was difficult too, but I adapted to the situation and succeeded, I’m proud to say that even though the move proved to be challenging, I made the honor roll all my years that I was enrolled in middle school here. Currently I am a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school and been able to keep a 3.4 GPA on a 4 point scale. Aside from learning English and continuing my regular education, I learned a new way of life and learned about the American culture and how this country has the opportunities a person needs to be somebody and make their dreams come true.

People spend pretty much half of their life in a classroom, but I believe the most important lessons are learned with the family. My mom always provided the best example for me and always taught me the best values I need to be a good person. Aside from manners, my mom also taught me that everything is achievable through hard work, and the only prove I needed to believe that was her. The only reason I’m in this country is because of her and her hard work, I owe my mom everything and the only way to pay her back is be use what she has given me and become somebody that matters in this world. My mom was not the only influential teacher I’ve had, my uncle and grandparent had probably the most effect on me because is because of them that I want to pursue a career in aviation. Both of them were pilots in my country, one of the first.

Although I never got to meet them, because they both died flying aircraft, I have always been influenced by them because of my family that always paid tribute to them and told me their story. It has been my life’s dream to become a pilot, and I believe part of this ambition comes from my family bloodline. To many people this dream sounded like a joke, but I’m trying to make it reality and my first major accomplishment and step to reach this dream was getting accepted to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. In this institution I will pursue a bachelor’s degree in Science of Aviation Maintenance, and hopefully graduate and become a pilot for the United States Air Force. Getting accepted into this university not only helps me reach my goal, but it also helps to inspire and continues to remind me that everything is achievable through hard work.

And hard work is what I will most certainly will keep on doing to reach my goal, because one thing is getting accepted into the most prestigious aeronautical university in the world, another thing is being able to pay for a private college education. But I know that I can make it and my life has taught me enough to understand that I must keep pushing and that I can overcome this financial obstacle, and again be one more step closer to making my dream come true.

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Comment from your friendly team at College Financial Aid Advice

Thank you Jonathan for sharing your College Admission Essay – Personal Essay Example. We wish you the best in college. Good luck in your chosen career of aviation.

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