Undergraduate / Learning beyond the classroom; U Minnesota-Why live in Dorm?/ Experience [2]

In order to assist us with selection of community members and appropriate roommate placements, please answer the following questions. The combined answers should be no more than one page.

1. Why do you want to live in the Students Crossing Borders community, and how would living in this environment enhance your experience at the University of Minnesota?

2. What experiences, ideas, and characteristics will you contribute to the community (including language(s) spoken, study abroad experience, international travel experience, interest in cross-cultural experiences, etc)?

Here's my essay:
After researching about housings through the Housing website and asking other "Gophers", I know the Students Crossing Borders community is the place that fits me, where learning beyond the classroom means learning from roommates and friends. I will have the opportunity to improve my English from listening and talking to my roommate to a point that I will have no accent. Moreover, spending my first year in college with a roommate who has the desire to explore another culture is a privilege and living together will be a learning experience for both of us. I can learn more of American culture that can benefit my career in doing business in the States in the future.

Not only living with my roommate, the Students Crossing Borders community allows me to make connection with a diversity of friends, especially other international students whom I can explore new culture and language. Through the community, I hope to have a French friend so I can improve my French language and culture to help in my studying abroad in France for the international experience requirement from the Carlson School.

Joining the Students Crossing Borders, I am eager to contribute my experiences as well as personality to a growing community. Before the fall of 2013, I have been in the States for over two years staying with a host family in Boise, Idaho. Staying away from home, I have to be independent in both thinking and living. I cook Vietnamese cuisine, introduce Vietnamese culture to my host family, and hope to contribute the same idea to the Students Crossing Borders community. Moreover, I love to travel because every trip is a learning experience. Two years in the States, I have been to 15 different states in the U.S. both with my host family and by myself. Dallas is a vibrant and young city while Washington D.C. has its own formal and historic atmosphere. Crossing the Mississippi river border between California and Arizona, I can see the contrast between a desert land and the fruitful soil. Each trip gives a different view of the vast diversity and culture in America. Not only travelling inside the U.S., I have also visited four countries in Asia with my parents and last August, I explored Seoul, South Korea by myself in 10 hours while transferring at Incheon Airport in Seoul. France will be my next destination and that led to my decision to take French class, which will be my third language, besides Vietnamese and English. Although I am in second year of high school French, but skipping French II and learnt it myself over the summer helps me to graduate high school with French III. In the free time, I also play the guitar and have been studying for over two years.

Students Crossing Borders community provides opportunities that fit my future plan as well as I have a chance to contribute to the community and help to make it a growing community.

*I need help with the transitions between ideas and how to improve my last paragraph. Thank you and appreciate your help*

Undergraduate / Wisconsin App, Enrich Community, My Community Service [3]

Here's the prompt: The University values an educational environment that provides all members of the campus community with opportunities to grow and develop intellectually, personally, culturally and socially. In order to give us a more complete picture of you as an individual, please tell us about the particular life experiences, perspectives, talents, commitments and/or interests you will bring to our campus. In other words, how will your presence enrich our community?

My essay:
"Taking advantages as a Communication Secretary of his Class, Bach organized a charity event for less fortunate children and called for support from friends and family members. He decided to donate all the profit of his event to our Organization" is an excerpt of the article published on "Understanding The Heart Organization" website, a charity fund for heart disease operations on poor children in Vietnam. After watching a commercial on their website showing hundreds of families were in need of money for operations on their kids, I came across of organizing the "Clearance Day" fundraising event, the spirit of all my community service works.

It was a summer Saturday morning of 2010, I laid out all the items included movies, books, and toys on the mat. As customers coming to my booth, I explained the purpose is not to make money for myself but to pay for part of a heart disease operation on a child. After seeing me talking to a foreigner in English about the event, a Vietnamese man gave me 20 dollars and said "For your effort to organize this spectacular event." After 12 hours convincing and selling, the profit came to $100. Even the profit did not help much, the event showed that customers' hearts are gold.

I have always wanted to spread the idea of charity and community service to many young Vietnamese; I decided to become the Volunteer Coordinator and Tutor for my Summer Senior Community Service at Anh Linh Love School, a school aimed at giving poor students education. On the last day of volunteering, the kids at Anh Linh gifted me a handmade bamboo bracelet with my name engraved on it. Suddenly, my mind sparked an idea of expanding my "Clearance Day" into a bigger event that involved Anh Linh School, the students, and the handmade accessories. I called it "The 2012 Annual Clearance Day Event" and that year profit reached a record amount of $300, which sent two Anh Linh students to college and funded their first year.

This year at Bishop Kelly, I was elected President of three different clubs: Key Club, Dead Economists Society, and Asia Club. I was in charge of Dead Economists Society fundraising events and gives microloans to small businesses in Ghana, Cambodia, and Honduras. Especially, I had a chance to meet a Vietnamese activist who is currently running an orphanage house in Vietnam and on behalf of Asia Club; I invited her to Bishop Kelly to share her stories to the whole student body in late April. Through these events, I hope to transform "Clearance Day" to a not-for-profit organization that gives microloans to poor families in Vietnam so their kids can afford college while the parents can work and make ends meet.

It's still missing the Conclusion but it's my first draft. Do you think I'm on topic and is it too many information? Does it sound like I'm showing off? Thanks a lot for your comments and I will help with your essays if you help mine. Thank you:)

Undergraduate / TRAFFIC JAMS & RULES - UNC Chapel Hill /Solving Problems [3]

Here's the prompt: Carolina encourages students and faculty solves problems. What problem are you trying to solve, and why is it important to you? 500 words limit

HONK
"Beep, beep, beep", car honks bounce against each other creating a chaos of sound in the humid air. For years, the transport system is the nightmare of people living in Ho Chi Minh City. Traffic jams are common because people do not follow the driving rules. When I was 13, an Australian tourist angrily questioned me on the street, "Why do the motorcyclists run the red light? Are there rules in this society?", "Well", I replied, "we do, but people rarely follow it." I answered it spontaneously and any Vietnamese can give the same answer. However, that night, I started to think, "Why don't they follow the rules? The traffic will flow smoothly when drivers follow the rules."

Vietnam is famous for its scenic tourist destinations, and for the traffic. The landscape is truly fabulous, but not so much for the traffic. With 7 million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City, it is easy to imagine the traffic chaos in rush hours. Motorcycles fill in all the spaces between two cars stopping at an intersection; they funnel into the narrow alleys and shortcuts, people ride a motorcycle with five people on board even the law only allow two, and red lights hopelessly stare at drivers running the light all the time. Car honking composes a piece of music with different pitches and sometimes the high notes are in harmony with the lower notes adding to the chaos.

At the age of 16, I first stepped on America soil and to my surprise: there was no honking except for emergencies. Drivers patiently waited at the intersection, they stopped at stop signs, and they drove the speed limit. I began make connections with the situation in Vietnam, "Why do they wait at the red light? They don't have to. There was neither camera nor police." Suddenly I realized "It's consciousness. Drivers in Vietnam are lacking consciousness." I have kept that question in the back of my mind for years, now I have the answer. Once drivers become conscious, they will follow the traffic lights and traffic jam will no longer exist.

Thinking back in time, the question from the Australian tourist hurt me because Vietnam is blurred in foreigners' eyes. They do not see the charming scenes but a chaos and disarray nation. "Are there rules in this country?", "Ouch" I think to myself. It is an issue of a society as a whole but each individual counts. Each person can make a difference and together to improve the situation.

It will take time to raise conscious in people because it is not easy to self-realize but there is a solution. Nowadays, teenagers in Vietnam have the best education system comparing to the last 30 years, they are educated to become conscious citizens. When they have consciousness, they are the models for others to follow. Will you run a red light if all of the vehicles stop at the red light? Will there be honking if nothing cuts in front of the car? The answer is: no!

Please comment and please be critical. Help me to improve this essay. Thank you

Undergraduate / Excess supply of graduates in finance related fields; Texas A&M/ Significant issue [2]

Here's the prompt: Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.

This is my first draft, please give me any advice or comments if I am going the right direction. Please be critical, the more critical the happier I am:)

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"From the Fall Semester 2013, colleges will not admit students major in Finance, Banking, and Accounting" is a part of the letter sending from the Ministry of Education to universities in Vietnam two days ago when I started to write this essay. The reason stated by the Ministry is that there is an excess supply of graduated students major in those fields while the demand is at a low rate. This is not simply an issue that impact myself but an issue of a generation yet in two places: the generation of Vietnamese college students and the generation of Vietnamese students studying abroad.

According to the proposal, new college applicants will have to declare any majors but Finance or its related majors, such as Banking or Accounting. The proposal forces a generation of Vietnamese youth to major in a field that they are neither interested nor passionate. Those students will not be motivated to study, not to mention success or joy in learning.

To my generation who is studying abroad and specifically me, the proposal frustrated me because it crashed the dream of a generation. However, I am motivated and eager to go back to Vietnam to prove that the proposal is not the solution to the excess supply of labor. The Vietnamese education system does not provide its graduates skills or language to communicate as globalization emerges, international banks start to invest and jump into the market will hold a high standard of its staffs and only employ quality workers. The international students coming back to Vietnam will create a new wave of labors that is the vivid evidence that there is no reason to stop to educate but to improve the education system that produces quality products, the graduates. Together, this generation will raise Vietnamese workers' quality

Undergraduate / My Dad had once been in prison; Texas AM / Impact Person [8]

Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.

It was a humid night of the rain season in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and the plane from Idaho just landed. I quickly got my baggage then walked out of the gate. I could not find my family from hundreds of eyes looking at the door I just walked passed. A man ran at me. My heart skipped a beat. He hugged and kissed me gently on the cheek. He is Ba Hung, my Dad. I hugged him and I knew, "I am home."

"Tell me about Ba Hung's life", I asked my Mom one day. "He, himself, will tell you when the time comes!" The night before I left Vietnam to study in America, my Dad and I had a conversation. "I was in prison for a year, economic crime." I still remember that night clearly in my mind. I was shocked, my Dad's image collapsed. He decided to share his story before I left for the States because he wanted to use his own life as most precious lesson that I've ever learned. He had failed to the deepest place on Earth that it could take him a lifetime to stand tall and recover, not to mention success in life. However, he did it in 20 years. "You will succeed if you can stand up after failure and there is no reason that you cannot not stand up, because I did it once."

Last summer, I booked a long flight back to Vietnam with three transits at Seattle, Vancouver and Hong Kong. It was a very different itinerary because usually, airlines will fly direct from the States to main Asian cities. Yet I was eager to see different airports and the culture itself. However, I was stuck at Seattle Airport because I did not have the required visa to transit at Vancouver Airport. I was crashed at the check-in counter because I will have to miss the rest of my flights returning home that I have been waiting for a year. I called My Dad and he said, "Remember what I told you the night before you left? I will leave this for you to solve!" I was frustrated hearing that from my Dad, but he started to see me as an adult. At 2 A.M., I sprinted through Seattle International Airport with two massive baggage on hand; I took the light rail to the International terminal, and booked a brand new flight to Vietnam just 32 minutes from departure.

I did not solve the problem myself because my Dad was in the back and gave me the chance to be independent. He always told me "There is no greater lesson than lessons from life." However, I see my Dad as my greatest lesson because his life is a lesson that I need to learn.