# Write a short essay on the following topic.
Consider the biography of Annika Rodriguez and the eligibility requirements, and reflect upon your commitment to bringing diverse groups together and/or celebrating the cultures of diverse peoples. How do your community service activities demonstrate your dedication to the ideals embraced by the Rodriguez Scholars Program?
Coming from a multicultural country such as Malaysia and having Indian roots, diversity is a large part of my life and always has been. As a Head Prefect of my school that has a myriad of races, I have always valued diversity and cross-cultural understanding. I was given an opportunity to participate in the Youth Exchange and Study Program, a program developed by the U.S Government in response to the events of September 11.This program brings students from countries with significant Muslim population to promote mutual understanding and respect between cultures. Therefore, I was very grateful of the fact that I was given this opportunity to make a difference and to promote the beauty of different cultures.
During the first days of high school, I received many questions from my American friends. They were naturally curious as they have never met someone from Malaysia. I answered all their questions but I felt that it was not enough to truly reflect what the cultures of the world are really like. As I had the opportunity to experience and live the life of another culture, I believe that my American friends should have the same opportunity to enrich their knowledge of other cultures. Since food has always been considered one of the most salient markers of cultural traditions, I decided to organize an International Potluck Day, where all the exchange students around the area could cook their traditional food and wear their traditional costumes to showcase their culture. I devised a plan and gave it to the American Cultural Exchange Service (ACES) coordinators and had a few discussions with them to plan the event. When everything was approved, we gathered the other exchange students to design flyers, to find a venue and to look for volunteers to help us out during that day. It was a tough task but we managed to pull it through .After two weeks of planning, we handed out the flyers to our friends, neighbors and people in our host community.
On that day, the turnout for the event was overwhelming. We decided to do it in our community church and over 500 people turned up. We had exchange students from Turkey, Egypt, China, India, Bolivia, France, Chile, and the Philippines with their ethnic food and costumes. An array of traditional cuisines was lined up along with the explanation of what the dish really is. I decided to prepare a "nasi lemak", a coconut rice dish wrapped in banana leaf, with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies, roasted peanuts, hardboiled egg, and spicy sauce .What I saw that day still vividly lingers on my mind. I saw my American friends and the exchange students laughing together as they tried on new food and learned about new cultures. But most importantly, I saw them hugging each other as they formed new bonds between them, bonds that crossed geographical borders and cultural barriers. That was when I saw change happening right before my eyes .When these bonds of friendship were created, we opened our hearts and desire to understand and fully accept each other. I realized that something as simple as food could bring so many people together.
When I went to school the next day, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my classmates decided to volunteer at the local foreign exchange student organization. A few of them expressed their desire to be an exchange student so that they could explore the different part and cultures of the world. I am glad to be a part of an event that exposed the vitality cultural diversity to my friends. I was thrilled to know that my American friends were becoming more international when they realized the importance of intercultural exchange. More importantly this event brought people from almost every quarters of the world together and we were able to truly know one another and the different cultures.
I discovered that the very uniqueness of our background, our culture, and within ourselves was what brought us together. In the same way, diversity allows for a community to have people of various backgrounds to come together to share in their differences and better understand one another by appreciating those differences in morals and beliefs. As an exchange student who has had the golden opportunity of literally interacting beyond borders, I realize the importance of tolerance and appreciating the differences between people and cultures. I feel obliged to educate the people around me with the knowledge that I have gained as I am currently volunteering with the Youth Exchange and Study Alumni Malaysia. Upon returning from my exchange program, I continue helping other exchange students in creating events that could bring people of different cultures together as well as disseminating the impact of cross-cultural exchange so that many other teenagers can experience the cultural diversity. Consequently, I am happy to know that I have helped my friends realize that every culture is worthy of exploration and understanding. And I have my nasi lemak to thank.
Consider the biography of Annika Rodriguez and the eligibility requirements, and reflect upon your commitment to bringing diverse groups together and/or celebrating the cultures of diverse peoples. How do your community service activities demonstrate your dedication to the ideals embraced by the Rodriguez Scholars Program?
Coming from a multicultural country such as Malaysia and having Indian roots, diversity is a large part of my life and always has been. As a Head Prefect of my school that has a myriad of races, I have always valued diversity and cross-cultural understanding. I was given an opportunity to participate in the Youth Exchange and Study Program, a program developed by the U.S Government in response to the events of September 11.This program brings students from countries with significant Muslim population to promote mutual understanding and respect between cultures. Therefore, I was very grateful of the fact that I was given this opportunity to make a difference and to promote the beauty of different cultures.
During the first days of high school, I received many questions from my American friends. They were naturally curious as they have never met someone from Malaysia. I answered all their questions but I felt that it was not enough to truly reflect what the cultures of the world are really like. As I had the opportunity to experience and live the life of another culture, I believe that my American friends should have the same opportunity to enrich their knowledge of other cultures. Since food has always been considered one of the most salient markers of cultural traditions, I decided to organize an International Potluck Day, where all the exchange students around the area could cook their traditional food and wear their traditional costumes to showcase their culture. I devised a plan and gave it to the American Cultural Exchange Service (ACES) coordinators and had a few discussions with them to plan the event. When everything was approved, we gathered the other exchange students to design flyers, to find a venue and to look for volunteers to help us out during that day. It was a tough task but we managed to pull it through .After two weeks of planning, we handed out the flyers to our friends, neighbors and people in our host community.
On that day, the turnout for the event was overwhelming. We decided to do it in our community church and over 500 people turned up. We had exchange students from Turkey, Egypt, China, India, Bolivia, France, Chile, and the Philippines with their ethnic food and costumes. An array of traditional cuisines was lined up along with the explanation of what the dish really is. I decided to prepare a "nasi lemak", a coconut rice dish wrapped in banana leaf, with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies, roasted peanuts, hardboiled egg, and spicy sauce .What I saw that day still vividly lingers on my mind. I saw my American friends and the exchange students laughing together as they tried on new food and learned about new cultures. But most importantly, I saw them hugging each other as they formed new bonds between them, bonds that crossed geographical borders and cultural barriers. That was when I saw change happening right before my eyes .When these bonds of friendship were created, we opened our hearts and desire to understand and fully accept each other. I realized that something as simple as food could bring so many people together.
When I went to school the next day, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my classmates decided to volunteer at the local foreign exchange student organization. A few of them expressed their desire to be an exchange student so that they could explore the different part and cultures of the world. I am glad to be a part of an event that exposed the vitality cultural diversity to my friends. I was thrilled to know that my American friends were becoming more international when they realized the importance of intercultural exchange. More importantly this event brought people from almost every quarters of the world together and we were able to truly know one another and the different cultures.
I discovered that the very uniqueness of our background, our culture, and within ourselves was what brought us together. In the same way, diversity allows for a community to have people of various backgrounds to come together to share in their differences and better understand one another by appreciating those differences in morals and beliefs. As an exchange student who has had the golden opportunity of literally interacting beyond borders, I realize the importance of tolerance and appreciating the differences between people and cultures. I feel obliged to educate the people around me with the knowledge that I have gained as I am currently volunteering with the Youth Exchange and Study Alumni Malaysia. Upon returning from my exchange program, I continue helping other exchange students in creating events that could bring people of different cultures together as well as disseminating the impact of cross-cultural exchange so that many other teenagers can experience the cultural diversity. Consequently, I am happy to know that I have helped my friends realize that every culture is worthy of exploration and understanding. And I have my nasi lemak to thank.
