Undergraduate /
Humans at fault? / Cornell University Common App/Intrests &experiences on Major [2]
This is the prompt:
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: How have your interests and related experiences influenced the major you have selected in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences?Can someone look over my essay and give feedback please? I would greatly appreciate it!
Here is the essay:
Thanks!
It was a hot drought ridden summer while in Texas. My dad's company scheduled a volunteer weekend at a lake near Fort Worth. Our main objective was to do beach clean up and to record data for a local organization. I knew something was wrong once we arrived. Being a lake, I imagined a sandy, crowded area with a large body of water. This wasn't the case; it turned out to be a dry area with a clearly depleting body of water. I thought to myself, "Wow, were humans at fault?" Of course Texas was extremely hot and dry, but why did this happen? With a discussion with my dad a while later I learned that the reason the water had depleted was because the city around the lake was using that water as a resource. However, the one thing that really stuck out to me that day was the sight of the remains of two dried up turtles. At that point I guessed they died because of the lack of water and extreme heat, but I wanted to know what I could do to help solve this problem.
Until high school I never thought about the lake situation again. It was when I first joined my school's environmental club that I remembered the situation at all. At that point I had moved out of Texas and into Northern Illinois, but the issues were still present like water pollution and the depletion of natural resources. Through the club I was exposed to the issues facing the environment again, and I was able to have the same motivation to help the environment as I did when I first witnessed the depleting lake in Texas. I even remember my first meeting in the environmental club. I was told right away that a couple of students and I were able to attend an HSBC webinar with other schools under the same "Green Schools" program. That meeting day fascinated me because I remember discussing what other schools around us, even a school in Ireland, were doing to reduce their school's waste and increase awareness about problems facing our environment today. On that day I heard the term "environmental engineer" and from that day on I knew what my future study in college was going to be-environmental engineering.
Once I knew I wanted to be an environmental engineer, the next step was to find a University that I would fit in to and fulfill my goal of becoming an environmental engineer. I searched across many schools only to find that their program was not for me, many because the program was listed as a concentration and not a major. Then I came across Cornell University and the environmental engineering program under the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. I fell in love right away and quickly became my top choice. I know that it will not be an easy path towards success at Cornell but I will have the motivation and passion to fulfill my goal.