Undergraduate / "Being a Beijing Yatou..." [university of michigan (diversity)] [5]

"We know that diversity makes us a better university -- better for learning, for teaching, and for conducting research."
(U-M President Mary Sue Coleman)
Share an experience through which you have gained respect for intellectual, social, or cultural differences. Comment on how your personal experiences and achievements would contribute to the diversity of the University of Michigan. (250 words)

"Travel is not about exploring a new place, but seeing with new vision."
Being a Beijing Yatou, I have learned from Peking its tolerance, geniality, and urbanity, as we all in our formative years catch something of the city and the country we live in. To satisfy my natural desire for discovering, I have been traveled with my parents to more than six provinces in China and over 10 countries around the world.

Different customs serves a mirror for me to examine myself in order to have a better self understanding, and also help me to build the eclectic outlook. Brand new stimulus can bring us with new awareness. Being in a new environment let me think about new information subconsciously. Compared those with my original information, I can reach the great satisfaction by reevaluating my former perspective. No matter standing in the prison room of Elimina Castle (where used to keep slaves) while imagining the bloody crimes once committed by human beings, or strolling in the red-light district in Amsterdam, I was encounter matters which astonishingly conflict against the way I value what is the right and wrong as a Chinese. Through the comparisons with foreigners, I know more about my life, my situation and my own significance. For instance, when I see Chinese cuisine all around the world, I feel the sense of identification; when I later learned that Chinese food is far beyond what the foreigners perceive, I would feel unique and pride.

Thus, I believe my experience will bring culture understanding and diversity to the University of Michigan.

Undergraduate / "A well informed family" - MSU personal statement [9]

Describe the environment you come from - for example, your family, community, or school - and how this environment has affected or influenced your plans for the future.

this is only the first draft, I'm not sure about the topic or the writting, any suggestions?

I was born into a well informed family which has a strict viewpoint on educating the junior generation.
As a child, I envied neighbors' kids because they had the chance to follow the long-established Chinese tradition; they would receive money from the seniors during the Lunar New Years. I was the only one who could only have books year after year. It was difficult to see all my friends with looks of extreme excitement from the money they got. But I was expected to read and collect something from the books and I built my habit of reading at a very young age.

I received my first book from my father. It was a colorfully illustrated story book. I read about the tale of Mermaid and the Snow White, sensing a significantly wonderful world surrounding me. Those happy endings in the stories encouraged me remarkably to be passionate and optimism toward whatever in front of me at a very young age. Although I tend to consider more and more for any decision as I grow up, the passion to life and challenges had never declined.

As I grew older, I began to appreciate the unique traditions of my family. My Parents did not push me to have good grades in school, but rather to read as much as I can.

My obsession to the literary world began when I was in forth grade. I was reading all the time, whether during school hours or in the leisure time. As a child who recently had the skill of reading and understanding letters and words, I was exhilarating to anything with printed sentences on and eager to read whatever I could found. During what I call the reading years, I read about history, literature, science, architecture, and even psychology and geography. My classmates and teachers were impressed by my widely gained background knowledge for lots of subjects and recommended me for the knowledge context in school. This time, my reading habit provided me with the championship.

Reading supported me during my arduous journey in growing up to become who I determined to be. When the infatuation faded gradually, I started to concentrate on the authors who I could truly find connection with. For instance, I was fascinated by the philosophies of Lin Yutang's and have finished reading most of his books. Searching in the "The importance of living", I appreciated not only what the author inferred about having a tranquil life, but also developed my own understanding about living and striving.

During the past 18 years, I have received numerous books from family members. The book is always packed with a brief note which tells me about what the sender feels about the book and why he or she recommends this.

Last year, I sent a book to my nephew for the first time. A wonderful thrill came to me while I was passing the book to my little nephew; I felt that I was not only passing dozens of printed paper to the child, but the spirit of longing for knowledge, the courage of facing reality, the attitude of having a peaceful life, which are, all my distinctive family traditions.