Undergraduate / 'I considered myself to be undiscovered' - someone who impacted my life [3]

Topic A: Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.

As late as this summer I considered myself to be undiscovered. My mind was always abuzz with a daunting list of careers which I would eventually have to choose from. But I knew there was some little known talent inside me, hidden somewhere in the uncharted darkness that is my mind. It took a truly inspirational person to shine the light on me that would ultimately help me recognize my talents. That person was Michael, my director at my summer internship at the City Hall. Michael was a newly minted college graduate, who had just recently become employed by the City in the management information services (MIS) department and he was the epitome of what I wanted to become in life. Successful, young, and wealthy.

It took me a few weeks to truly open up to Michael, but we quickly became great friends. Michael had a very straight-forward working attitude, he always chose to finish tasks as soon as they arrived, instead of procrastinating, of which I was a culprit of myself. Michael also made sure to do things right the first time, unlike some of the other coworkers who were satisfied by the simple "quick fix" Michael made sure that his work would be long lasting and of the highest quality. I quickly learned from Michael, and began paying much more attention to deadlines, making sure to finish work as soon as it was given to me. I also became less focused on artlessly finishing things, and instead made sure that I paid attention to detail and went above and beyond expectations.

Besides affecting my key work ethics, Michael also changed the way that I think about life after high school. Being the community manager at the (MIS) department for the City of Farmers Branch was Michaels dream job, and he urged me to discover mine. He advised me not too chose a career based on dollar signs, but instead, something that I had a passion for and something I can see myself doing for ten, or twenty, or even thirty years. Being a naïve 17 year old, I took that advice with a grain of salt, but now that I look back on the end of my internship, I really know I wouldn't have the patience to be in a career that I don't enjoy. With Michael's advice, I have discovered my passion in international business and political science, a career that allows me to interact and do business with distant cultures.

Now almost three months after my wonderful internship experience, I continue to keep in touch with Michael as he makes sure that I am staying on the right path. Since my summer experiences I have kept translating what I learned into my daily life in school, and I can proudly say this has had a profound change in how I complete my work. Michael has allowed me to be a more creative individual in finding something that I enjoy doing. He has helped me open my eyes to other opportunities and I can gladly say without him I would still be lost and undiscovered.

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Undergraduate / ' The loss of Anoninmity' - An Issue of Importance to Me [3]

Topic B: Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.

The loss of Anoninmity

One thing that continues to shock me is our continuous loss of privacy; everyday a little more erodes and falls off into the encrypted abyss that consists of cyberspace. What really bothers me is how little people seem to take note; most people don't know that every time they click that "Allow Facebook" button on a seamlessly harmless application, they are just selling their personal information to online marketers who can use their information in any way they choose. Anything we do on the internet is monitored, starting from when we check the weather, and ending when we check the final scores in the Rangers v. Cardinals game and shut off the computer. No longer do we have the privacy to do our deepest thinking without the intrusion of someone or something, George Orwell called the loss of our freedom to think privately "Thoughtcrime" in his novel "1984."

For most of my teenage life I have personally experienced just how intruded our privacy has become. My father sells security cameras for a living, and some of his products have become so sophisticated that they can use facial recognition software which searches for matches within Facebook and many other online sites photo databases to find a match. A program of that scale, quite frankly scares the daylight out of me, because I know that someday in the near future it will be impossible to be Anonymous. During my summer internship in the Management Information Services department I saw firsthand how easy it is for someone to find something if they have the "know it all's" to do it, especially if something has been posted on the web it is next to impossible to take it off, which is unfortunately the case for anything posted onto Facebook. If I post anything on the web, I always post it with the full consent that anyone may see it.

Some may argue that the massive injunction of technology into our society is a good thing; sure it has helped lower crime, and made it almost technically impossible to be lost with a smart phone and cellular reception. But is it all worth it? I know it would be hard for me to live one day without my iPhone, even knowing that it tracks and stores my location whereabouts. In the end I know my information means nothing as long as I am just a uniform member of society, but what really scares me is the fact that my children and their future generations won't have the same right and privilege to develop themselves without the watchful eyes of someone else.