Undergraduate / "the lessons I have learnt from my parent's pasts" - UC Prompt 1 [6]

For UCLA, UCSB, UC Berkeley and USC

Describe the world you come from (family, school, community) and how it has shaped your dreams and aspirations etc...

There is often no more significant an influence on us as we grow up than our family, and that of the values they teach us as we mature. I do not intend to wax lyrical about a 'rags to riches' tale of suffering, however neither of my parents had an easy childhood. Both overcame monetary and emotional obstacles to achieve success. This has taught me the true value of persistence and strength; in short (without wanting to sound like a dubious self-help book) that if you work hard enough, you can find the strength to achieve your objectives.

My sister and I have always been given a great deal of independence at an early age. Freedom to roam around a great city like London, make our own mistakes (whilst learning from them) and taking our own view on our surroundings and how to deal with them has helped build our confidence. This means that the prospect of embarking on an education thousand miles away from home is seen as a natural evolution of my education in life rather than a frightening experience.

On a personal level, the lessons I have learnt from my parent's pasts have permeated many aspects of my life, most notably in the latter stages of my school education. Moving schools in my penultimate year was a challenge that helped shape my personality rapidly...Whilst my exam results proved that all that time spent in the library had indeed paid off I knew that, after 12 years at the same school, I craved a different environment to complete my last year of study. My parents had always taught me that 'the easiest choice is not always the best choice' so I moved to boarding school and never looked back (in every sense of the phrase). I soon found myself discovering enormous satisfaction in working hard to embrace my passions. I indulged my love for drama and dance, started choreographing the school's performances, writing for the school magazine and developing incredible bonds with the people around me, thriving in the more international, cosmopolitan community of my new school. I achieved straight A's in my A-Levels, with full marks in many modules. In short, I started to realise the value of persistence and following your dreams, the same lesson that drove me to apply to university in America; something that has always been a dream of mine. I wanted to spend the next 4 years getting the best and broadest education available worldwide, both in terms of the curriculum and the life lessons I would learn along the way.

After our road trip to visit several UC schools last week, I felt elated to see the fantastic diversity of the students there and the obvious enthusiasm the teachers I spoke to had for their subjects. I am sure this is a place in which I can both reach my academic potential and give back fully to university life, and that the confidence and desire to succeed that I developed during my school years will help me truly embrace the opportunities of such a fantastic education.

Undergraduate / "Morocco, 2000." - UC System, help for a confused British applicant? [9]

Hello! I am a student applying to UCLA, Berkeley and Santa Barbara from the UK...If anyone could help me with my first attempt at my admissions essay I would be very, very appreciative! It's a bit of a strange concept to me and am worried of not being on the right wavelength...

Describe the world you come from - for example, your family, community or school - and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

Morocco, 2000.
Hands pressed forcefully against the thick glass, I noticed the shameful tears pool and spill onto my lap. I wiped them away hurriedly, my face growing hot. I watched my knuckles turn white against the window, foolishly, as if their pressure could break the glass that separated 'us' from 'them'. Us; in our shamelessly immaculate white taxi cab...them; some sitting by the dusty roadside, some outside dilapidated houses with corrugated iron roofs, eyes glancing wearily up at our painfully incongruous vehicle that practically screamed 'rich tourist'. We sat, eyes averted, feigning blissful ignorance towards the knocks on the windows, the pleas for a few pennies as we slowed at a junction, on our way to a place where we would be sheltered, protected from this world our consciousnesses didn't want us to see. It was clear the barrier was hardly confined to the physical, the glass through which I stared with a hollow feeling in the depths of my stomach, a confused guilt, which in that moment, helped define me as the person I am today. This was my first real exposure to injustice, and it is one that has stuck firmly with me ever since.

I am proud that my experience travelling as a younger child has inspired me to take control of my life and realise the potential of the individual, to 'be the change you want to see in the world.' I am very aware that claiming to be worthy, compassionate and empathetic to the plight of others holds very little merit unless one chooses to act on those feelings. It seems slightly hollow and self-indulgent to claim passion towards a cause whilst doing nothing to support it. It is to this end that I chose to take a year out after school to explore ways in which I could use my ability in languages and confidence in travelling alone to make what little difference I could to the lives of others. In a week I will be headed for Brazil, where I will be starting my journey by volunteering in a favella school in Salvador that is in great need of volunteers. I will be continuing to Mexico and Africa after Christmas, returning in June 2010. The prospect of using my ability in Spanish to teach English in Mexico will only increase my passion for the subject, especially where the ability to speak English is invaluable in giving children living on the streets a greater chance of finding employment. I will then help with manual work and teach English and AIDS/HIV Education Programs in Zimbabwe and Kenya, in villages which depend on volunteer support to create a sustainable micro-economy to help them survive, and hopefully to reduce this dependency in time and become self sufficient.

My decision to spend a year travelling solo appeals to my love for adventure (addiction is perhaps more accurate), culture and desire to learn as much from the world around me as I can. It is also linked closely with my choice of degree. I plan on majoring in Spanish and Economics, a combination which will allow me in the future to work within charitable organizations in South America, particularly in the area of promoting microfinance- something which I passionately believe is a key part of alleviating poverty. To this end I have also started studying Brazilian Portuguese in my free time and wish to reach fluency by the time I finish university. I will also be doing a work placement at an advertising agency in Barcelona in July in order to gain a better insight into the economic workings of a business, and to improve my Spanish further.