Graduate /
'Life without light, gas, food..' - diversity statement for law school [7]
Thank you both for your input, it is helpful! I wrote another draft, please share any ideas on how I can improve this draft. Thank you so much.
Draft#2
As an African American woman, whom lost her mother at the age of eight, only to be raised by a single black man in a small town, I can honestly say my past has provided me with a strong personal foundation which I will utilize throughout my life. Each attribute of my past, has shaped my thinking and outlook on life in a way, never possible had I not been born the person I am or faced any of the trials and tribulations which arose in my life. My background did not break me, it is my story; details of which others within the student body at California Western may share, but none exactly the same.
I am the second of four girls born to a mother, who began parenthood at the young age of sixteen. Of my sisters, ages: twenty-eight, nineteen, and seventeen, I am the first to graduate from college, one of two to finish high school, and the only who has not had to experience single parenthood. My father, too, was a single parent as he was mine and my older sister's father. Shortly after my mother's death with two young girls to raise, my father was let go from a job he had held for over twelve years. As a result, our lives quickly became impoverished, even though my father held two and sometimes three jobs in order to provide for us. Throughout this period, I learned what it meant to struggle and the importance of dedication, hard work, and education. Through time I realized that in order to break the cycle of poverty and the additional resulting discrimination, I would need higher education and I would need to be open minded while earning it. My most distinct memory of when these tools came in handy was during my senior year of high school when my English teacher told me that I should go to a junior college, because not many people are able to handle a four year institution's curriculum; she said this to me, despite the fact that I was earning an A in her course and had been just as qualified as the other students she taught. So I applied to the University of California, Santa Barbara and was accepted.
During my undergraduate studies, it was a great struggle learning to manage the curriculum while working, sometimes even full time, but it was needed in order to survive economically. It was during these years that I learned to appreciate the struggles of my past. By confronting and surmounting the obstacles of my past I was able to, not only graduate from college, but learn that there are a great deal of people who have overcome many things and went to do better than those of their past. As a law student, my objective will be to learn how to assist people legally, in order to impose positive change. I believe that in order to fully help a person or cause change, you must, first be able to understand where a person is coming from. My past allows me to be open minded but not blinded or mystified by the differences found in people, thus allowing me to focus on the real issues at hand. Looking back on first job at a Boys & Gils Club, the acceptance and understanding of diversity was very important, as it drew me to take on a tutoring position. I knew that many of the kids in the after school program were less fortunate and many came from homes that did not have anyone who could or would take out the extra time to help them achieve more. Just as these student needed help without being judge by went on outside of school, I had once needed that and I got it from people who didn't judge me by my skin, economic situation, or the fact that I had lost my mother at a young age
Allowing me, T.Rogers to become a member of the student body at California Western School of Law (CWSL) would mean the affordance of an opportunity of a life time for me. As a law student, I will share not only my experiences and unique perspective, but my determination to use this perspective to effect positive change in my law school community and within those I will come in contact with during my future endeavors.
