Undergraduate / UVA Supplement - Favorite Word "Soar" [3]

just a first draft, trying to see if it gets my point across

A powerful eagle rides the frigid northern air with ease, gliding over thick, snow-covered evergreen forests and rough mountains. The word "soar," meaning "to fly high with little effort," paints a vivid picture in my mind, and its meaning provides me with a way to live my life.

To soar is to roll with the punches, to take what life throws at you and go with it. A soaring bird does not try to move against the current; it goes where the air takes it and uses it to their advantage. Even though life may switch its direction for me, I try to find the best of my position, and understand that I can discover ways to make a seemingly bad situation into a great one.

When one soars, they excel at what they do. Instead of staying with the pack, a bird soars above the rest of the competition. If any mountainous obstacles appear, they simply rise above them. In all of my endeavors, I give it my all and hope to succeed. If I do not, I can be satisfied that I tried my hardest and left no doubt that the outcome could have been different. This ideal has given me strength to work hard and triumph over many problems in my own life.

Undergraduate / Bates Supplement - "the emancipating potential of the liberal arts" [2]

The prompt is to say what one phrase of this mission statement means to me:

"Since 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts. Bates educates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. With ardor and devotion-Amore ac Studio-we engage the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action. Preparing leaders sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world, Bates is a college for coming times."

"The emancipating potential of the liberal arts" is a phrase that represents a Bates education's ability to free someone from the inability to see the world in different ways. It allows for a student to understand differences in people, thus "emancipating" them from intoleration of others. A hallmark of Bates is its close, small community of students dedicated to increasing their understanding. These students possess a variety of cultures, values, and ideas. Knowledge of these differences helps a student to realize that all types of people have amazing abilities that should be respected and encouraged. A student who comes in contact with different races, cultures, and religions on a daily basis will truly understand how each human is unique and . If a student is unable to realize this fact, they may become close-minded, making them intolerant and unaware of others' opinions, values, and emotions. Bates' liberal arts education changes this by forming a melting-pot of a community that aides people's connection with people who are different than them.

"Emancipation" from ignorance is another essential payoff of an education in the liberal arts. The lack of focus on one major subject allows for a student to understand the world around them more clearly. This is done by showing a student how the world works through many different points of view. A business student may see a simple vacant lot as economic opportunity; a biology student may view the exact same scene as a multitude of interactions between organisms and their environment. If you can see the various ways people understand how the world works, you can take each of those lenses and apply them to solve any problem. An info tech-intensive student would never be able to understand crowd dynamics. But if they possessed an understanding of sociology, however, they would easily be able to understand complex human interactions. An education in the liberal arts is able to free one's mind from the constraints of intolerance and ignorance, and a college such as Bates is able to provide this "emancipation."

Undergraduate / 'a tradition of helping people with cognitive disabilities' -U Wisconsin Statement #1 [4]

the prompt is "how will your presence enrich our community?"

While most families pass down stories or cherished heirlooms to their children, my family has passed down a tradition of helping people with cognitive disabilities. Once I turned sixteen, I began to work at a Chicago Park District summer camp for people with cognitive disabilities. At first, this task seemed extremely difficult. Leading six preteens in sports, arts and crafts, swimming, and other activities for six hours a day, five days a week? These kids' parents had years to figure out how to keep their children happy; I had only a few days.

Despite this hesitation, I quickly learned to use my campers' interests to make the whole day interesting and fun. From Justin's passion for the Cubs to Matthew's adoration of Sherlock Holmes, my campers made me work to think of fun activities, like wiffleball World Series games and detective cases through the "back alleys of London." Swimming was the one activity everyone looked forward to each day. I would spend the whole time with one of my campers hunting an imaginary "shark" in the deep end. The creativity required each day pushed my imagination to places I never thought it could, which made getting up at 7 in the morning in the summer more than bearable.

Even though I was having fun working, I had to learn how to handle many difficult situations, like keeping my kids together on field trips, the occasional temper tantrum over what was for lunch, and frequent bouts of homesickness. These experiences, though stressful, made me appreciate how truly strong these campers' parents are, because I know that they have to overcome these obstacles on a daily basis. This empathy has helped me understand how people are thinking and feeling in other aspects of my life, like school or sports.

I could say that this experience taught me time management skills, effective communication, and proper occupational etiquette, but despite the accuracy of that statement and importance of those lessons, they were not the most vital things camp taught me. I learned that acting like a child is not always bad, that playing in a sandbox for an hour can be the best stress-reducer out there, and that I have more fun catching "bank robbers" in a park than I could ever have in front of a television or computer screen. I learned to never judge people by what they look like or the disability they have, because the kids at camp are some of the most caring and accepting people I have ever met. They never judge anyone by the way they look or act; if everyone was as accepting as my campers are, the world would be a much more tolerant place. By far the largest impact this camp had on me was to show me how truly happy helping others makes me. By the end of the summer, my paychecks were taking a backseat to the smiles on my campers' faces. I believe with this understanding and appreciation of the way others think and feel, I can add to the diversity of the UWM student body and prove myself as a great asset to the university.

Undergraduate / 'Soccer as a Stress Reliever' - Common App Short [3]

this is just a first draft, so any/all criticism is greatly appreciated. thanks!

As I high school student, I can say that I face stress everyday. Tests, projects, and essays attempt to strain my mental state. This changes, however, once soccer begins after school. The brotherhood of my teammates, my compassionate coaches, and the familiarity of the sport I am passionate about melt my stress from my body. Besides this, I finally have a way to vent my tension It is as though my stressors stand on the field before me, taunting my current tranquility. But not for long. Now I can take matters into my own hands, and control what I couldn't before. Each powerful kick at the soccer ball chips away at their foundations; every pounding footstep in the mud grinds them into dust. At the end of practice, the shattered relics of my problems remain on the pitch as I leave relaxed and ready to tackle tomorrow's new challenges.