Undergraduate / 'My first instrument' - Common App Essay, Topic of my Choice, Music [3]

Music has always been a love of mine. Like every other child, I started listening to music at a young age but it wasn't until I grew older that I found that I had a deep passion for it. Growing up in my home, I was always surrounded by music. My mother taught piano and my father had a deep love for music of the 'Soul' and 'RnB' genres and would constantly play them. Since my mother taught piano the house always had children with the similar interest in music that I had, or whose parents forced it upon them.

My first instrument was the recorder which I started to play at about the age of eight and was part of my church ensemble for about a year performing at various church events and services, but soon realized that it was not the instrument for me. I then found my knack for playing the piano at about the age of nine and began lessons with my mother. I would then take a yearly exam, administered by the Associated Board of The Royal School of Music (ABRSM), to assess my ability and determine whether or not I should go up a grade or repeat the current one. During my years of lessons I moved from Preparatory level to Grade 5 in piano and music theory and even skipped a grade. Now I play for recreation and stress relief and plan to one day continue my lessons and go the highest level.

Over the last two years I performed at various locations. My most memorable ones were my Grade 11 luncheon, my churches musical evening and most recently my father's funeral. When my father died, I found it hard at times to get things off my mind and when I would play the piano I would feel better. During the service there were various tributes given by various family members and since I found it hard to go up and speak I made my tribute in the form of an appropriate RnB genre piece and since then every time I think about him or am just feeling down I go to the piano and let my fingers do the talking. Music, especially piano, has impacted on my life greatly and I could not imagine going without it for even a day.

Undergraduate / Duke Supplement Essay - Why Engineering and why Duke [3]

As a child I never wanted to be the usual doctor, lawyer, fireman etc, I always dreamt about becoming 1 thing, an Engineer, more specifically an Inventor. Growing up on shows like Power Rangers and Transformers and being surrounded by toys like Lego and modern technology like iPods is what made me like the field even more. I would always wonder as to how they could create these. I then decided that I was going to create my very own. After a while I particularly started to like the field of Aerospace Engineering thanks to my love for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. This soon died down and I began to move towards careers and majors mainly based on Mathematics like Financial Math.

Then earlier this year Isa Phillips, a well known athlete here in Jamaica, came to my school to talk to the final year students about college and college life and he brought along a friend of his who talked about the various black inventors. This was where I found back my love for engineering. His speech about how black people made a much bigger impact on the world of technology than most people thought and with inventions like the Traffic Light, the Toilet and even the Super Soaker water gun is what particularly re-inspired me and I thought if these people can make a change so can I as a fellow black man and become the next best inventor in the world.

I always heard about Duke but never really paid attention until my final year when I was browsing through colleges to apply to and I saw Duke and realized that it is a high end school and that Pratt is one of the highest rated engineering schools in the U.S. What really caught my eye was the fact that Duke is not as old as most colleges but its reputation is one that would rank it above many older universities and put it on the same ranking as a Harvard or a Yale. This means that Duke must have been doing something good over the years and are producing the best of the best in the world and I think the home of the Blue Devils will be the place for me as I pursue my engineering degree while being an active member of the various extracurricular activities that it has to offer, like Soccer, Circle K and many more.

Undergraduate / Colgate Supp Essay - Diversity in our community [4]

Diverse communities can play a big role in a person's life. They can be found all over the world. The Caribbean itself is one with various races and religions coming from it. The island of Jamaica is a diverse community as well. With virtually all the major races and religions living there, it is hard to find an area or community with just only one, as a matter of fact, it is almost impossible.

I am from a Black and an Indian descent so I have multiple traditions. Although I do not participate in the Indian celebrations, I still respect my heritage. In my school there are people of various racial and cultural background, whether they are students or teachers, why, my previous Chemistry teacher was Hindu and told us that she doesn't eat beef and follows her Hindu traditions. My family is a devout Christian family so I am a Christian, more specifically, a Baptist myself and so I do celebrate many Christian traditions, for example, Easter, Lent and Christmas.

People always say that it is good to learn from the mistakes of others and I agree wholeheartedly but I also believe that we can benefit from the achievements of others, more so than the mistakes. When you are part of a minority the achievements made are much more important than the mistakes and this has made me realize that anything is possible and that everyone in the world has an equal place and should be treated as such.

Undergraduate / Lafayette Supp - Describe an academic or creative interest or accomplishment [3]

Mathematics has always been a subject that I loved. Ever since I was a child I loved Math and always tried to be a step ahead by always trying to learn new topics and go further in the class. In Jamaica to be placed into High School you must take an exam consisting of 4 tests, Math, English, Science and Social Studies with topics ranging from 4th grade to 6th grade. My highest test result was the one for Math getting above 90%. I was then placed into high school and Math was not my strongest subject in my first year. Actually, I ended up failing it and I could not determine the reason but I had to stop worrying and move on.

The next 4 years, my math grade improved significantly, rarely getting a grade below 85, this, in my school was an A. At first I put the blame to my low grade in my fist year on my teacher but he then taught me again in my final two years and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't 100% his fault but I couldn't say that there was no blame on him at all. In the Caribbean the final exams were done in 11th grade, your final year of high school. I did my Math exam a year before, getting a distinction which was the highest grade achievable. Since I did it privately, I had to do it over in 11th grade and I ended up getting the same grade. This came as no surprise to me.

I recently did Advanced Proficiency exams in Math as well as Chemistry, Computer Science and Communication Studies and to my surprise although I passed, Math was my lowest grade and I was very angry with myself. I even tried to query my grade but could not get all the documents in on time so I plan on doing it over this year. I have now realized that the reason why I didn't achieve the highest was not because I didn't know the topics, in fact I understood the topics quicker than most people, but it was because the practice I thought I did was just not enough and I suffered the consequences and learnt from my mistakes and I do not plan to let any time get away from me this year.