Undergraduate / Brown essay - "The Pickup" [4]

What is an academic experience, project, class or book that has influenced or inspired you?

Have you ever wondered? Have you ever wondered if you are walking on the right path of your life? If the path you set your foot on is really "it"? Frankly, I have not thought about my identity until I was confronted with The Pickup in my junior year at high school.

It was not love at first sight. As I generally dislike the required readings at the school, I recall contemptuously opening the drab and tasteless front cover. However, as the saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover" I soon fell in love with the novel. An aficionado of romance, I remember having butterflies in my stomach as I flipped through the pages. The story of a rich, white South African woman, Julie, falling in love with an illegal immigrant, Abdu, presented a scope of issues at hand from the culture to wealth vs. poverty.

Yet, as there always exists a bickering between two lovers, I could not understand why the author had to separate Julie and Abdu at the end of the novel, Julie in an unknown, foreign country with Abdu's family and Abdu in America. It was not until the third time I picked up this book last summer in a coffee shop waiting for my friend that I finally understood the hidden intentions behind their separation: the search for their identities.

As lovers make up after a trivial dispute, The Pickup soothed my anger by enabling me to comprehend the reasons behind Julie staying in a foreign country and Abdu departing for America. No matter how much they loved each other, the love could not be complete if they didn't know who they were, without the sense of identity.

As relationships allow each partner to evaluate himself in order to become a better individual, I took this opportunity to further reflect upon myself, upon my own identity. Like any other child under the influence of parents, I remember having wanted to become a dentist for most of my childhood without a definite reason. Now coming to think of it, I cannot believe how juvenile I was in thinking that the wealth and the material goods I attain from a solid occupation would ultimately lead to my happiness? At this very moment, I realized how fortunate I am to have found my identity, the aim which is to become a human rights activist by studying the health conditions of homeless. By putting down my avarice and facing the world as my vulnerable self, I picked up my identity.

Have you ever picked up? Have you ever picked up a novel that ever questioned your identity? A novel that you fell in love with, had a quarrel with, and made up with?

I did. I picked up The Pickup that gave me a sense of satisfaction, no, a sense of achievement, in assuring me that I am indeed walking on the right path of my life.

thanks

Undergraduate / UPenn, Brown, - short answer Thank you [7]

Penn offers its undergraduates an eminent faculty and a wealth of research opportunities. Use the space below to name a Penn professor with whom you would like to study or conduct research and explain why. (It is not our expectation that you contact faculty directly to answer this question.) Please answer in this space provided. (1000 character with space limit)

"I think that some people thought it was cheap for society to ignore poor people and, if they had to, let them starve on the street... But it turns out that having people live on the street isn't cheap after all" Reading an article of Dr.Dennis Culhane, I realized how true his statement is. Seeing firsthand the severity of homelessness in my city, Vancouver, I want to bring my experience of having worked with numerous homeless to Philadelphia, where the situation is just as serious. As I have seen a dramatic change in working with Project Share, a club devoted to alleviating the homeless conditions, and conducting a research on homeless youth, I now wish to study more extensively on this issue. By conducting research with renowned Dr.Culhane on his innovative, integrated administrative databases, I wish to discuss further on the critical social issue and take a peak at the professor's the profound prospect.

How did you become interested in Brown, e.g., college counselor, undergraduate, relative, web site? (900 characters with space)

Like a stranger, I first learned about Brown 4 years ago when my sister was in the process of applying. To a high school freshman, the word "Brown" sounded no different than the color orange. Like an acquaintance, I became familiar with Brown during my visit to the university two winters ago. Falling in love with its friendly atmosphere, I recall rubbing the nose of John Hay statue to wish myself luck in the near future. Like a friend, I developed an amiable relationship with Brown through my frequent visits to the website. Surely, I found myself to be the perfect aspiring candidate as Brown offers the Community Health major, in which I wish to study and conduct research on the homeless health with the passionate professors. I am no longer a freshman who could not distinguish between orange and the Brown university. Like family, the next time I approach Brown, I wish to be a Brown Bear.

Thank you very much