How I am prepared to participate in this UGRAD program?

inspiring others academically and socially

Ever since I was a little kid, I've always thought that successful figures are born successful. They don't know what failure is, nor how hard it hits. Therefore, I decided to adopt this methodology, which is, to move forward on a straight path not knowing what failures, nor hard times feel like. I was blindfolded to think I could survive the world that way. It all worked well through my primary stage in school, where I was ranked the first every year among my classmates. I felt proud and worthy of becoming a successful person for keeping on. I can pretty much call my self an introvert nerd all that time until high school. A nerd who knows nothing about real life but in books. Has no idea about experiences and engagements, different cultures, different ethnics and most important of all FAILURE. It was that day when life decided to wake me up, or shall I say punch me.

It was Wednesday when my dad decided to surprise me with my ranking. Nevertheless, this time I wasn't ranked at all and my grades were so bad. I was shocked, thinking that it's time to put aside my dream and just let it be. I didn't know that it's time to upgrade my self to the next level. However, I'm thankful for this as I didn't realize I was that kind of person who refuses to give up easily. I started to read more about the lives of those famous, successful people from while to while to realize that failure is the cornerstone of being successful. My personality, characteristics didn't change dramatically until I went to college, at this stage of my life my personality started to change exponentially. I started to balance my life, have a real social life and at the same time a good academic one. It is true that I'm not among the top-ranked yet I still get A's.

I discovered a great interactive personality in me, a humorous, intelligent and loving person. Making way more friends than I could imagine, even inspiring more students who used to be me. It's such a good feeling when C students ask for your help in assignments and at the same time A+ students are validating their answers with you! But, being a challenging person, I still could consider my self within my comfort zone, my country.

Hence, I decided to apply for, a new challenge, a semester abroad in Germany offered by my university and since my grades were good I was accepted. It was a different culture, different people another discipline. People are very punctual, unlike my people and rules are strictly applied. I can't deny I was worried yet excited at the same. I stayed for 5 months there with a 73-year-old woman. At first, I could feel from her emails that she was somewhat nervous about hosting me at her place. All I could say now, that I received a package from her last month containing chocolates, a novel entitled " The Little Prince" and a lovely letter addressing me as one of the most intelligent, inspiring people that she met across her life.

Having all that said, I can, now, call failure as a friend. I'm no longer afraid to fail nor challenge myself because that's what going to make the person I seek, a person who will always not afraid to inspire others with his failure.

Therefore, I'm looking forward to meeting new people, new challenges, and new inspirations through this exchange program. And, whether I was rejected or accepted, in both cases it's a challenge.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANY FEEDBACK ON ANY POINT IS VERY WELCOMED. GIVE ME ALL YOU GOT. MANY APPRECIATION IN ADVANCE!

Ahmad, the reviewer will not believe any claims that you made about "ever since I was a little kid". You have not lived a full life yet with which to make such boastful claims in your presentation. That is the sort of presentation used by our grandparents and parents. It is not used by young adults in their essay presentations. By the way, under no circumstance should you use caps lock when writing anything in your essay. That is considered disrespectful of you as a writer and creates a non-academic paper. this essay is academic in nature and therefore, must follow formal writing guidelines.

Your essay should focus on reasons that will help build your image as a an asset to the diverse community that the UGrad program develops with each batch of participants. You should discuss your strong personality traits in this so that you can highlight how you will be an asset to the program. In particular, I believe you should focus on your animated personality as it applies to the way that you can be friendly and help to develop cooperation and friendship between people of varying nationalities who are participating in the program.

Discuss how you are academically inclined, without mentioning failure. Just indicate how you look forward to interacting with like minded individuals and having an exchange of ideas either in an academic or cultural context. These are some of the objectives of the UGrad program that, if you embody, will tend to remain with the reviewer during the consideration rounds.

One thing you should definitely highlight in the essay is your semester abroad in Germany. This is something that will show how prepared you are to participate in this program and that you are capable of performing well as a participant based upon your previous experience as a foreign student in Germany for a semester.