Undergraduate / DVD collection of music videos - Pomona Supplement [3]

Prompt: Although it may appear to the contrary, we do know that people have a life beyond what they do to get into college. Tell us about an experience you've had outside of your formal classroom and extracurricular activities that was just plain fun and why.

The new webcam my parents had given me as a surprise present did not go to waste. In fact, it was put to perfect use once my best friend Miles and I discovered during a sleepover the myriad selections of video effects that could be utilized. At first, our distractions were limited to taking pictures of ourselves with digitally-rendered crowns, Mardi Gras masks, and hats. Once we noticed the Fun Filters, though, I made the comment "These look like the effects in music videos!" and our night embarked on a path towards the more embarrassing.

A few hours later we had completed the filming of upwards of 20 music videos, complete with improvisational choreography, amateurish lip-syncing, and two hyped up teenage boys definitely breaking a sweat. The disco number "One Night Only" from Dreamgirls featured copious amounts of finger-pointing and a vaguely recognizable form of the running man ï of course, accented by overly soulful facial expressions ï and was made strangely reminiscent of a nightclub by the blacklight/neon Fun Filter. A clichï use of the fake rose we found in a vase behind a hutch in my living room was showcased with High School Musical's flamenco-esque tune "Bop to the Top". How my dad stayed asleep while we recorded such works of greatness I will never know.

Rocking out until the early morning to contemporary staples such as Weird Al Yankovic's "Polkarama!" was not how I had envisioned my teenage years. Nothing about the situation, not even my oversized Mickey Mouse shirt artfully paired with "Ho Ho Ho" pants or Miles' Spongebob Squarepants pajama set, seemed at all "cool." Yet with no inhibitions, only a best friend since preschool and a cheap webcam with Fun Filters, I felt more at peace and myself than I ever do trying to keep up appearances. As a result, I've somewhat given up trying to hold a certain appearance in favor of being my own self, a person who is unsurprisingly much more well-liked and happy than the me who suppressed himself within a cultural mold for normality's sake. The DVD collection of these music videos will live on in a shoebox in my closet, safe from harm (or any wandering eyes). However, the copies we distributed to our parents might live on in DVD players to be enjoyed every so often, and to remind ourselves that there is great value in letting the walls down and losing yourself in laughs with friends.

Please please please read with feedback in the next few minutes!

Undergraduate / Youth2Youth organization. Short Extracurricular activities essay - for you critique! [2]

Prompt: Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below (1000 character maximum).

Response: Youth2Youth is an organization in which high-school age youth encourages middle-school age youth to live a lifestyle free of drugs, alcohol, or other substances. Annually there is a local large conference that I attended in eighth grade and now staff. At this conference I assume the role of a "Family Group Leader" and, with a co-facilitator, lead my "Family Group" of about 10 middle-schoolers through the day. We convene at least four times to have honest, open, and profound discussions while bonding with one another. Youth2Youth continues on after the conference with a Community Advisory Board that is active in the community against drug, alcohol, and substance abuse. This organization showed me the impact that I can have on the lives of others, and assisted me in maturing into my position as a role model, which in turn improved every aspect of my life. I take my role in the younger youth's lives very seriously and am affected by them in a positive manner just as I try to affect them.

just some quick critiquing please :)

Undergraduate / A Holiday Gift (CommonApp Essay) [4]

Prompt: Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. (250-500 words)
Word count here comes in at 488.

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" had always been my favorite song to hear my school's Chamber Singers sing before I made it into the group. I was enamored with the course the song took, beginning as a soft pitter patter of "brum bum bum"s, gently crescendoing into a healthy chorus of soaring women's voices akin to heraldic trumpets, and finally ending at a strong forte of homophonic glory. Now singing the solo for that song was more joy than my 15-year-old mind could manage.

After a number of songs at the usual holiday house party, our group's performance ended. Content with the evening's gig, we made our way out of the home in a fashion typical of teenagers dressed in equally unsightly holiday garb. I was halted by a tug on the sweater from a young boy hanging onto me, with glinting blue eyes as round as the quarters he probably got when he lost his first tooth. With the most poignant infusion of innocence and awe as only a child can have, he whispered to me "You were my favorite singer" and scurried back to the safe place behind his mother's knees.

He relayed so much more than those five words to me - I saw the true excitement and spirit of both youth and the holidays stirred up in him by our songs and performance. His expression showed a new interest and passion in his life that we had instilled. The ability to sing I had been born with by a stroke of luck; yet it actually sparked something in another person. I saw that music is, in its most pure form, a connection of expression between people.

What he will never know is that he instilled in me a great appreciation for that connection in my life. Music was already key in my existence, but he opened my eyes to the reason it affected me so deeply. His words inspired me to pursue the development of the force I had uncovered. Music now seemed to saturate all aspects of my days: reading a book for English class became an exercise in synthesizing ideas across disciplines as I identified the aspects that related to a certain song I was crafting; math began to impose itself on my sheet music, helping to point out patterns and explaining the physics behind the phenomenon of pitch relationships.

My new dedication had its cost, to be sure. Free time became scarce due to a high number of commitments. Many of my friends could not understand my perspective, and were confused by my choices. Yet every sacrifice I made was a contribution towards not only the advancement of my musical skill but towards the person I know I can be. The symbiotic relationship between performer, song, and audience has taught me more than I could have ever expected - more than I knew was possible until a child revealed it to me.