Undergraduate / Rice U Essay - My Passion for Change [3]

The quality of Rice's academic life and the Residential College System is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What perspective do you feel that you will contribute to life at Rice? (most students write a 2-3pages double-spaced essay)

Sitting on the aged but clean wooden floor of Mary Chapman School for the Deaf, looking at these deaf kids intently learning ballet, I think back of those moments when "the activists through art", which was consist of seven students from my school, introduced the same deaf kids the skill of painting as well as the concept of innovation. As one of the members of "the activists through art", I witnessed how these deaf kids, who were formerly considered as less creative kids by others, improved their painting skills, and even created some outstanding art pieces. However, when we initially started this project named "the World under a Pencil", which aimed to help the deaf kids in Yangon, I doubted if these deaf kids could really understand the concept we instructed in three months, yet later these deaf kids showed me that they had the ability to achieve their goals. Since they were passionate of what they were doing and they really tried hard on that, they could achieve something that other people thought they could never attain.

The project "the World under a Pencil", which was one part of the EARCOS Global Issues Network (GIN), was initially started by seven of us. Aiming to raise the awareness of innovation and creativity among local people by promoting art education, we chose the Mary Chapman School for the Deaf since the deaf kids were the ones who needed the most help. Once we decided what we were going to do, we made an appointment to visit the school. My first impression of the school was the significant comparison between the dusty aged wooden school buildings with the welcomed smiling faces of the innocent deaf kids. Despite the facts that they could neither hear anything we said nor speak anything they wanted to say, the deaf kids communicated with us by their gestures and body languages. They tried to find all the ways to express their thoughts, and they gamboled happily when we finally understood what they were trying to say. When we were "talking" to these deaf kids, we felt like talking to children who were eager to see what the world was like. Our "conversation" covered from the Pacific Ocean to the Himalayan Mountains, from the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Yangon to the Statue of Liberty in New York. Although writing was the easiest way to communicate with them, I felt that most of the kids there did not like writing; on the other hand, they enjoyed to express their thoughts by painting. Therefore, after the first visit, we decided to instruct the deaf kids painting as the first step of the art education.

Putting the forefinger and the middle finger together in front of the forehead means both "hello" and "thank you" in Burmese gesture language. It was also the most common gesture we used when we instructed the deaf kids the skills of painting. The reason for this was because instructing the deaf kids to paint was so much harder than we expected. Although the kids were thirst for the art, they had never learned any art skills before. In order to raise the confidence of the deaf kids, we made the "thank you" gesture with our smiles to them whenever they made some progress. Yet the warmth filled my heart since all of the kids would make the same gesture back to show their appreciation. We went to the Mary Chapman School for the Deaf every Friday from 3PM to 5PM, and during these two hours, all my stress was released since I got to see the naive Burmese deaf kids standing at the school gate waiting eagerly for us and smiling innocently to welcome us. Sometimes I even neglected the fact that they were deaf when I saw their earnest faces while painting.

More than fifty outstanding paintings were collected after three months of studying, most deaf kids were managed to paint well and to create their own art pieces. Their final artworks included the fantasy of the old Burmese architectures as well as the beauty of the future world they had always dreamed about. Despite the fact that they were living in a nation ruling by the cruel and corrupted junta government, these deaf kids expected to live in a nation with freedom and happiness. One of the students used an abstract way to paint the Statue of Liberty, showing that the statue was walking towards Myanmar, bringing the light and the freedom to the butterfly nation.

By auctioning these paintings and selling the T-shirts and calendars we designed, we raised around 800 dollars. In order to make our project sustainable, we built an art studio in their school by the donation and the sale benefit. The children were delighted when they saw an all-new art studio in their school, and all of them put their forefingers and middle fingers together in front of their foreheads. At that moment, I felt that all the effort we had made was valuable and worthy. We achieved a goal that some people thought we would never achieve. These deaf kids were innovative and creative while people used to believe that they could not do anything. Since we, both the "activists through art" group and the deaf kids, were passionate and motivated about changing our lives, a goal was finally made.

Currently, we are instructing the deaf kids ballet. And at the end of the year, we are going to organize a ballet performance in the city. I believe the audiences will be amazed by these deaf kids' performance, and they will understand my belief that one can achieve anything if he/she is passionate about it and trying hard for it.

After all, as a Chinese student who has been living in Myanmar for just one year, I desired to help the Burmese people who are now living in one of the poorest nations in the world. I believe my passion and strength in doing community service will contribute to the Rice community greatly, and therefore, make Rice University a better place.

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I think it is waayyy too long. But the instruction says most students write this much...so yea...Could you give any suggestions to my essay? Thanks a lot.