Undergraduate / 'Jewish athletes' - Apply Texas: A person who has influenced you .... Aly Raisman [3]

I remember watching the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. My favorite sport to watch was Women's Gymnastics. Watching the US women win gold in the team competition was inspirational. However, one gymnast stood out to me in particular Alexandra Raisman. Watching her perform such a fantastic routine to such an important and famous Jewish song enforced my pride in my heritage and religion. There are not a lot of Jewish people in the world, especially not a lot of Jewish athletes.

Raisman motivated me for the rest of the summer. Instead of spending all day at the pool or hanging out with my friends I spent more time studying and improving my overall fitness. Although I knew that I was never going to win any golden medal in the Olympics, I looked up to Aly Raisman and treated her as my rolemodel.

Aly came into the Olympics as the underdog and managed to beat out her teammates for a spot in the all around competition. The fact that she was able to accomplish even more than what was expected of her inspires me to do the same.

First and foremost, I appreciate Aly's dedication to gymnastics. There have always been times where such thoughts plagued my mind such as quitting all of my extracurricular activities, and hanging out with my friends instead of studying for a test. However, when I think about how hard Raisman works and how many hours she puts into her routines, I become instantly motivated. If she spends eight hours a day in the gym then the least I could do is spend one hour at dance practice or a half hour setting up for a bakesale for one of my clubs.

I am inspired by how she manages to integrate her Jewish heritage in everything she does. She does it in a proud manner and not a posh manner. Because of Aly and her dedication to her religion, I started to attend synagogue more and more this year.

Aly was the team captain of the "Fierce Five". Because of that I immediately knew that I wanted to try out for a leader role in my school's dance team. The night before the audition, I practiced my routine over and over again. I made it. During practices I assist in running practices and improve my team's performance.

Although I have never met Aly Raisman, her actions and her qualities have influenced me in more ways than people who I actually have met.

I realize that Aly Raisman's path and my own path are quite different. But her going to the Olympics is like me going to college, it takes quite a bit of work but the rewards that come out of it are endless. I intend to make my college experience and the rest of my life golden like Aly Raisman.

Undergraduate / TEXAS B: - CHINA AS A GLOBAL SUPERPOWER [2]

When I was growing up, the word 'China' only brought up images of fried rice and Jackie Chan. I faintly remember seeing the words 'Made in China' on every electronic or piece of clothing I owned but nowadays as China ascends to a global superpower, the name 'China' seems to be everywhere: seemingly in every newspaper article and on every news station. Even at the 2012 US presidential elections, China was discussed as its own topic and question.

As I heard more and more about China I began to research the country and the culture. It was so blatantly different than the western culture that I had been shrouded in. What really stuck out the most were the characters that are used in Chinese, the Hanzi. They were so enigmatical and fascinating and so different from the letters that I use in English. China fascinated me so intensely that I immediately jumped at the opportunity to take Chinese when it was available at my school.

I began learning Chinese when I was in seventh grade, drawn to the language by the enigmatical yet fascinating characters. As the number of words I learned and would have to lean increased, I began to regret my decision. There were plenty of times where I wanted to quit learning Chinese, I would complain that it was too hard and that clearly I was not smart enough to learn it. However, despite my pleas I continued with the language all the way until my senior year in High School. Out of all of my classes I would definitely rank my Chinese class as the most difficult class but the most rewarding. Nearly one-fifth of the people in the world speak Chinese and I retain pride in knowing that I can communicate with these people. When people learn that I spoke Chinese, they are always flabbergasted. They always tell me that they never would have I am bound to be rich in the future. And when I order my food in Chinese at a Chinese restaurant the waiters are just as shocked. They tell me that they never would have expected me to be able to speak Chinese.

I plan to always use Chinese in the future and I always want be connected to China, regardless of its economic status whether I am just a businessman in China or whether I am the Secretary of State who is visiting China to have a meeting with the president of China.

The emergence of China as a global super power has shaped my past, present, and will eventually shape my future.

***** I'm not entirely finished yet but I just wanted to see if my essay at least fits the prompt... thank you!

Undergraduate / Significant setback/challenge/opportunity - "Male Cheerleader" [2]

When one usually pictures cheerleaders, one usually thinks of blonde girls with short skirts bouncing up and down with a pair of pom poms. I suppose that I am a contradiction because I was a cheerleader and I definitely was not a blonde girl with a short skirt. My school is fifty years old yet has never had a male cheerleader before. However, this statement changed in 2010 when I became my school's first male cheerleader. I had made school history but I did not feel like joining the school's cheer squad. The reaction from the school after the pep rally was mixed. Some applauded my efforts and even congratulated me on my courage and my performance. Others did not have nice things to say and did not seem to like the fact that I joined the cheer squad. I was foolish and let other peoples' comments get to me. I would get hateful messages on Facebook. Some people said that I should not even be wasting my time with cheerleading because it is not a sport. These comments could be considered nice when compared to other things that people talked about me. It got so bad that the night before the pep rally I cried all night. Personally, I think Cheerleading is a sport. It requires determination, athletic ability, and teamwork just like football and soccer. I did not let the words phase me and instead spent time at practices practicing and honing my skills for cheerleading. As the pep rally approached I knew that I was under an immense amount of pressure. I had to go out there and give it everything I have in order to prove those people who did not believe in me wrong. As my team mates and I entered the gymnasium we were met with deafening screams of excitement. As the music started, my body began to run through the motions, as if it were any other day at practice. As the routine closed to an end, I realized that there were only seconds in the routine and I performed my round off back handspring. It was the most amazing feeling, the closest thing to flying. I stuck the landing and threw my arms up as if that single action showed all the people that did not want me to do this. The entire school erupted with shouts as the routine ended. I knew I had a point to prove and I proved it. Some people doubted that I joined cheerleading for the right reasons. However, I not only proved that I was serious about the sport and that I was actually pretty good at it, regardless of my gender. I showed that I could do everything that the girls on the team could do.

Unfortunately, I had to leave cheerleading due to an injury in my sophomore year. It was one of the saddest moments of my life to leave something that has given me so much courage. Nevertheless, I will always draw joy from the fact that I was my school's first cheerleader and although no other guy has joined the cheer squad since me, I hope that my actions inspired others and that they will do what makes them happy despite any challenges. Cheerleading will always have a special place in my heart. It not only showed me that my body could physically do anything but it also showed me that I could mentally do anything I desired.