Scholarship / 'dreamed of making a difference in this world' - Scholarship Application [4]

Please describe yourself and write a clear and detailed description of your academic objectives and the reasons why you wish to pursue them in the USA. Discuss your goals both in terms of your field of study and your own personal development. Describe the type of program you wish to pursue in the USA and how it relates to your academic background and interests and your objectives for the future. The essay is an essential part of the selection process and of your application for placement into an appropriate program. Be sure to include any details that highlight your personality and individuality.

As a little girl, I have always dreamed of making a difference in this world. Staring goggle eyed at those reporters reporting news from the most unthinkable and unlivable places from the around the globe, bringing to the forefront, the various atrocities happening from around the globe to the purview of the common public, I knew that I wanted to be an international journalist when I was a ten-year-old girl. Who better to uplift the society than the wielders of the mighty pen? In other words, what could be stronger than words used by a journalist, but with a world living and breathing one common language, namely English, I have had no other option but to live, breathe and sleep in English, which was very tough at the beginning, since my mother tongue is Vietnamese. Being an independent teenager thanks to the experience of being a monitor for nine years at school, at the age of fifteen, I, carrying my childhood dream with me, alone, moved from my small hometown to the biggest city of the country to start high school, so as to receive a better education in English. Staying with my sister, who always supported me but I hardly got a chance to see or talk to for weeks due to her busy work schedule, I started to learn how to cook and do laundry, how to take care of myself and manage with my study well simultaneously, just as if I were living alone in Ho Chi Minh City.

At eighteen, I proudly surpassed 10,000 students at the entrance exam to become an English Literature student - my first step towards my destined goal of being a world successful journalist, which started the chain of meaningful days full of surprises and challenges of my life. Having my own project named "I love Vietnamese", initially inspired by the similar project in Japan which I was fortunate enough to hear about in the Japanese class, to help expatriates in the city study Vietnamese and learn more about Vietnamese culture and people, has earned me precious leadership skill, for I have the chance to interact with different individuals at different ages, from different countries, with different backgrounds, recruit the tutors, coordinate the schedules and lesson plans, spread the passion to the tutors so that they will help the project work on well and arrange certain regular meetings to make sure that everything is on the right track and everybody is happy doing his own role, by myself. More importantly, the sharing and unpredictably tough questions from my international "students", which I have never thought about for even once in my entire life about my own language and country has helped me learn about the world and understand more about my mother tongue and motherland, which has evidently made teaching Vietnamese and spreading Vietnamese culture to foreigners an incredibly fascinating experience. On the other hand, joining several internationally cultural activities, Vietnam International Week and CIEE program, for example, as a host family has granted me a chance to communicate with and understand more about my fellow human from the other half of the globe, and thus satiate my thirst of obtaining more knowledge about the world around me, which I know, together with my English, Japanese and Arabic language skills, will certainly elevate myself to a staggering heights of achievements of my journalism career.

What truly beautifies my years of being a human, except from the regular donation of food and kindness to the less privileged ones, must be the English lessons I have had with a blind student. Understanding the fact that as a sighted person, I might not be able to understand what my student was going through, I started to close my eyes to try learning new words in Japanese and realized how hard it was for me to memorize the words without actually seeing the words or the pictures! I, thus, decided to learn Braille so as to facilitate communication between us and make it easier for me to help the student learn English. After weeks of learning Braille, I was able to read what my student was writing and write extra exercises for her to do after class, which gave me immense pleasure to know that I was truly helping her achieve her goal of being a college student. The experience in itself is fulfilling yet a mutually learning one for both of us as she has taught me perseverance and patience, the two major keywords of living life, not to mention the fact that I have learnt a "new language" as well.

Life has been full of surprises and challenges which has always urged me to vanquish. As an English Literature student with the ultimate goal of being a journalist, taking Political Science abroad as a major subject which I am not able to pursue in my home country would be the next challenge that I want to conquer. It goes without saying that Politics has control over nearly every single aspect of any country across the world, and to truly understand whatsoever thing happening in the world, I, as a future reporter, should always have a thorough penetration in the Political system of the country. It is for this reason that I want to pursue Political Science in the U.S.A, which would be my gateway to a whole new world of developmental challenges and learning experience, thrusting me even closer to my life's pursuit, so as to bring my home country and then the world from Darkness to Light, like the lone shining pearl dispelling the darkness around it, which however happens to be the meaning of my Vietnamese name.

It's supposed to be a 500-word essay but I still haven't figured out how to cut off 446 words now :(
Thanks in advance for proofreading it!!! It means the world to me!!