Scholarship / 'City of Refuge' - for full ride: Antioch College- Inquiry, Work, Community [3]

This essay could get me a full ride!!!! I've had crippling anxiety over writing it so I'm just now facing the facts and getting it over with. I have until midnight tomorrow to make revisions! Its only 410 words instead of 500 so how could i appropriately add more words?! I'm afraid of sounding too cliche but i'm afraid I might be too broad.

City of Refuge (COR) leaders ; Antioch C - inquiry, work,community

Is this too long-winded? I need help!!

Today and tomorrow's pressing issues will not be solved by a single neurosurgeon, or a world class engineer but through the work of communities. After the earthquake in Haiti, help rebuilding and restoring came not only from individual Haitians, but also the UK- based Shelter box, and the American Red Cross. The issues soon discarded by the media, ones like freedom from oppression, racism, and sexism, that invade all cultures, will require the collaboration of nations, but I believe such change starts when one person's inquiry turns into a passion and inspires others.

With my first year accomplished, the time for choosing next years classes arrived. Upon scavenging through the course catalog I ran through the listings of the Social Sciences to find Global Studies. Due my to experience with World History and past preparatory classes too easily conquered, Global Studies' lure of culture-rich and accelerated learning excited me and I have not since taken a class I did not see as a similar challenge, resulting in Art History AP which studies art from the ancient Egyptians to Dadaism, and Global Literature, which studies writings and works created by places and ideas not American. In December, 2009 Global Studies left me packed with knowledge on the specific global impacts of swine flu, the 2008 recession, and Iranian protests, but more importantly my passion for learning had neither abated nor ebbed, inciting me to search for new opportunities to apply and increase my newfound love of knowledge.

In June of 2010, I applied my passion towards working with the City of Refuge Children's Home in Content Gap, Jamaica. This cemented the lessons I learned more firmly than any amount of teaching could. In Jamaica I, along with 26 others, met with City of Refuge (COR) leaders to lay the foundations for a new school, providing a safe, versatile meeting place for all children, in COR or not. COR provides medical help and resources to the community of Content Gap along with providing for some of Jamaica's 12,000, and growing, population of orphaned children. Before me, firsthand, was the manifestation of cultural differences, similarities, depravities, and wonders. The Jamaica presented to tourists is amenity-filled and problem free in contrast to the Jamaica that is reality to 90% of its population, where happiness, like respect, is created, not given. In that Jamaica, I earned respect by persevering against the heat and the mosquitoes, matching pace with the best, and encouraging others who had fallen, sometimes quite literally as we transported more than 100 shafts of bamboo up an incline to serve as supports, reducing the overall need for 2x4's. The unifying theme of the project was reduce, so to provide for more and on the last day we celebrated the cause that brought us together and the far-reaching effect our groups will have on influencing others.

Through my experiences I have come to appreciate the interdependence these three terms, inquiry, work, and community, have in societies and college essays alike. The initial formation of this essay required an interest and curiosity into Antioch's mission, work to determine the effect Antioch could enact on me and the effect I can produce in Antioch. Furthermore, this essay, and to a larger extent me, would not be the same without the experiences I have shared in the communities I have belonged in.

Undergraduate / Large household and homeschooling - Who and what was Infulential? [5]

I am applying to Antioch college, a very very small private liberal college located in Ohio. It's beginning again after closing down in 2008 and they're looking for students to help re-create Antioch college. I'm hoping to get across that Antioch's size and mission coincide with my own.

This is a short answer question about why I chose to apply to Antioch.

I come from a large household where everyone contributes and at Antioch I feel like I can create a similar community. In addition, I went from being homeschooled to a highschool of 4000 and felt lost. After slowly discovering my eclectic group of friends, there is an overwhelming sense of acceptance, despite the inevitable strife, due to so many distinctive personalities. It is their acceptance, support - and competition - pushing me towards progress that influenced me to apply. I had been looking at big ten schools but their large populations were not the environment I was looking for. It was not until learning about Antioch that I felt excitement about attending a school. it will be my school to help form and I can be more than just one out of 20,000 students.

H.S