Undergraduate / 'Filipino' - Boston University- The Importance of Diversity around the world [2]

BU attracts students from more countries than are represented in the United Nations. Our global presence and reputation are important and are reflected in the perspectives, opinions, and experiences of our students. Why is this type of environment important to you?

My experiences on the other side of the world have helped attract me to Boston University because I have learned to embrace the diversity I have as an individual of many different perspectives. As a "Filipino American" who celebrates the Lutheran religion, I am a minority in a country where being part of a minority in some way is simply "the norm." In other countries however, this is not the case. In the Philippines, I learned that mostly everyone not only has similar physical features, but people also all come from a similar way of life and have a shared perspective. Therefore, during my trip, I enthusiastically anticipated to be perceived as a member of the Filipino majority.

In my efforts to do so, I became my Filipino cousin's shadow and followed her everywhere she went. Yet, although I hoped to blend in the crowd, when I sat in her classroom among thirty other pupils that Friday morning, I immediately noticed that I was the un-uniformed sore thumb in the room. Again in mass on Sunday, her whispered translations of the morning's Catholic prayer were followed by glares from nearby families. Even in places where there was nothing I did to draw peoples' attention I still got stares and I soon learned why. Although I had inherited the Filipino brown skin, chocolate eyes, flat nose, and round face, one of my inherited features didn't match up-my curly German hair, which again made me a minority in a place where I had hoped to be part of the majority.

I soon became jealous of my cousin's life because, unlike her, I have never been able to share similar, if not the same perspective as everyone around me. And my curiosity came with never ending questions. "What's it like living on an island?" "Do roosters always wake you up?!" She giggled at my naivety but what always surprised me were the questions she asked me in return. "Do maple trees make syrup?!" "Is snow real?!"

And then it hit me. I realized that my cousin was to me the same that I was to her: a source of diversity. I was the only person in her life that offered something other than a Filipino perspective and vice versa. Even though I was again a minority in the Philippines, my diversity was something I could share not only with her, but with everyone else as well. In fact, it was something that made me different from the crowd in a good way. So, the next day I asked to talk to the younger students at her school. I taught them American games like Hide and Seek and Simon Says that may have been redundant to me, but exciting for all of them.

In my experiences in the Philippines, not only did I gain a perspective on the importance of diversity, but I also found confidence being a member of a minority both in the Philippines and in the United States. I realize now that without minorities, diversity would not exist. Therefore, while diversity found in the BU community is very important to me, I think what is even more important is being proud to be part of a minority and willing to share that diversity with others-a role that I would proudly fulfil as a student at Boston University.

Undergraduate / 'Dancers are the luckiest people' - NYU Supplement- What intrigues you? [4]

What intrigues you? Tell us about one work of art, scientific achievement, piece of literature, method of communication, or place in the world (a film, book, performance, website, event, location, etc.), and explain its significance to you.

Dancers are the luckiest people in the world. Their job is to express a story through their bodies and to me their stories become the most beautiful form of art there is. My eyes cannot stray from the leg extensions, the pirouettes, the flexibility of dancers, young and old, ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap---I love it all.

All my life, I've wanted to be a dancer, but when I was little I couldn't afford to take class so my first experience with dance was in my first year of high school. At my first ballet class I made wonderful discoveries of new muscles in my legs, fingertips, and torso that I had never worked before. I worked different areas of my brain as I tried to pick up the routines we learned that day. I was diligent in trying to recognize the patterns and I finished class feeling exhilarated. It wasn't as easy as it looked, but I enjoyed it just as much as I thought I would.

Unfortunately, I also discovered that because I started so late, I probably wouldn't be able to dance professionally. I was shattered by fact that I would never be able to dance like the professional ballerina's I constantly admired, but yet, I didn't give up.

I now know that my performance during that first ballet class wasn't good. I was missing basic technique. I know that now however because I didn't stop dancing and learning. Throughout high school, I took all types of dance classes in and out of school, watched videos on dance, read books, looked at pictures and I couldn't stop.

I still take dance in school and now my teacher puts me in the front of the class so that the other students can watch me if they forget the steps. I choreographed my first piece this year, in ballet I am en pointe and I have finally officially been able to call myself "a dancer."

Although I will never become a prima ballerina or a Rockette, I have found another way to incorporate dance into my life. Dance helps me concentrate. As I try to memorize a monologue, or study for my exams, I dance while dictating the facts to myself. Dance helps me remember and darn it, I'll dance forever.

Undergraduate / NYU Supplement- My experiences that have helped cultivate my interests, etc. [9]

Regardless of whether or not you have an intended major or concentration, please elaborate on an academic area of interest and how you wish to explore it at NYU's campuses in New York or Abu Dhabi or at one of our global academic centers around the world. Please share any activities or experiences you have had that have cultivated your intellectual interests leading you to choose to study at the NYU campus of your choice.

"I don't know what I want to do." It's a sentence that I have just recently come to terms with saying aloud. For three years of high school, I was dead set on being a broadcast journalist---the perfect balance of my interest in performance, writing, interviewing, and travel. It's what I wanted out of my career as a high school freshmen and what I convinced myself I wanted out of my career senior year.

But now, I have finally broken out of my cage and in many ways my new internship in NYC in the field of pre and post natal wellness has been able to give me that reawakening that I needed. I decided to take this internship because it would give me a taste of a totally different field from the one I had been studying for the last four years at my performing arts high school, but it has provided me something way more significant than that. I have finally had a real taste of New York City.

Surrounded by my peers in a performing arts school who were all interested in auditioning for vocal training, BFA acting programs, and other theatre related universities around the globe made me struggle to decide. "Did I want to pursue a career in the arts after all?" But one day as I strutted to a NYC street performer's drumbeat, I came to the realization that you don't need a studio to perform.

I have learned so much about myself just by having this experience in New York City. Nowadays, I think to myself "Maybe I could be a nurse...or an obstetrician...or...or...or" ...I am still constantly discovering new opportunities. The Hudson River might as well be a border between two different countries because my experiences in NYC have helped me make so many novel discoveries about myself career wise that I would love to see the career paths that NYU's campuses in London, Paris, even Abu Dhabi have to offer me. The truth is---I am not afraid to follow the wrong path because I know that at NYU the world is my stage and lucky for me, there are no dead ends.

Undergraduate / 'mom moved to the US from the Philippines' - Why NYU? [5]

I'm ready to take on New York City in its entirely and I think the only way to really do that is to attend New York University because there are no boundaries between the two. My desire to go to NYU is a very personal one because my family background has given me the independence that it takes to survive in the Big Apple. My mom moved to the US from the Philippines six months after my birth and while I was raised into the American culture my mom had to learn everything, including the English language, all from scratch. My dad is also very different from the father's of my peers. Born in the 1930's he has yet to touch the keys of a computer or even own a cellphone. Therefore, its become my job to update him with the cyber information of the virtual world. I have amazing parents, but because of their backgrounds, I have also been responsible for some of the parenting that has only shaped me to be self-motivated and independent---qualities that will help me strive at NYU.

NYU is close to home, but can also seem very far away so its great to have a mix of both and a hop, skip, and a jump off "campus" are amazing internship opportunities that I would be able to take advantage of as a student. I plan to spend a lot of my time in college studying abroad and I am comforted by the fact that while I study in another country, I am still being taught by NYU professors and being enriched with the core NYU curriculum, but surrounded by the beauty and culture of another world.

"If you want it, it's out there." -something I've heard from many current NYU students. The diversity of NYU that reflects the diversity of the city itself attracts me because the student body and faculty seem to have an appreciation for all different types of ethnicities, religions, cultures, sexual orientations as well as appreciation for academic diversity. With all my work in the arts the last four years, although I don't plan to pursue a career in the arts, it would still be great to be around people who don't throw it off as just an extracurricular. The accepting atmosphere, cutting edge technology, and the fact that your experience is literally what you make of it are all qualities that shape a clear picture of the successful "me" at NYU.