Prompt:
In the space provided, please write a concise narrative in which you describe a meaningful event, experience or accomplishment in your life and how it will affect your college experience or your contribution to the UF campus community. You may want to reflect on your ideas about student responsibility, academic integrity, campus citizenship or a call to service.
Concerns:
I am not sure if my essay properly responds to the prompt or if it is strong enough. Any thoughts? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Essay:
It is said that your life can take a drastic turn at any time, and for me, that time was my mission trip to New Orleans. Visiting the slowly recovering city not only gave me the chance to view life from a new perspective, but it opened my eyes and taught me many things that I feel will positively impact my college experience and allow me to contribute to the UF campus.
Though more than ten years have passed since Hurricane Katrina struck the city, many citizens are still suffering from the lasting effects. With the storm came many lost lives, hurt people, and destroyed homes. While on my two-week mission trip, my youth group was able to contribute to the rebuilding of our "adopted family's" home and help provide clothes and home-goods to help them start fresh. Seeing the conditions that this family had been living in was heart breaking and helped me realize how fortunate I was to have the things that I do. I believe that this will help me throughout college to make the most of what I have.
On the Forth of July, my church along with several others from around the state, came together to hold a free festival for the people of New Orleans. Throughout the day some five hundred people visited us to eat a hot meal, get new shoes and enjoy many activities. While there, individuals were also invited to visit the 'prayer tent'. Here, the youth had the opportunity to talk with and pray for many men, women and children. These opportunities enabled me to gain experience helping and working with others. I feel that this will allow me to better work with, understand and help my fellow peers on the UF campus.
Reaching the children of New Orleans was also an important mission for my youth group. We took our opportunity in the city to hold a weeklong camp to prepare the kids for the upcoming school year. Having the chance to provide the students with new school supplies was one of the many highlights of the camp. Many students were not able to get new supplies each year and seeing them excited about learning was a heartwarming experience. This inspired me to have a new perspective on learning and showed me that I should never take an opportunity to learn for granted. Because of this, if I was given the opportunity to attend UF, I would work hard to learn from my professors as well as others around me.
Giving back to the community is an important aspect in my life and visiting New Orleans was more than just a chance to contribute, it was a chance to learn. The things that I learned on this trip will continue to impact me as I move on to the next chapter of my life. My hopes are that through my experience I will be able to continue to impact others as others have impacted me.
While on my two-week mission trip, my youth group was able to contribute to the rebuilding of our "adopted family's" home and help provide clothing and home-goods to help them start fresh.
On the Forth of July, my church, along with several others from around the state, came together to hold a free festival for the people of New Orleans. Throughout the day, some five hundred people visited us to eat a hot meal, get new shoes and enjoy many activities.
We took our opportunity in the city to hold a week long camp to prepare the kids for the upcoming school year.
Giving back to the community is an important aspect in my life, and visiting New Orleans was more than just a chance to contribute, it was a chance to learn.
:)
