The prompt is :Considering both the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying and the unique aspects of the University of Pennsylvania, what do you hope to learn from and contribute to the Penn community? 500 words
As a Caribbean individual, diversity of race, socio-economic status, class, religion and ideology has always been familiar to me. Growing up in a multicultural society, I have learnt the immense importance of respecting the different values, beliefs, traditions, and general ways of life of different groups. Every day I have the privilege of tasting diversity, literally. Creole food has become a part of almost every meal, Indian dishes are made all throughout the year and Chinese restaurants are available on almost every corner. Even though we all stem from a colonial past with much strife and hardship, in the Caribbean food is what can bring us together, no matter the occasion or our differences we can all relate because of our passion for food.
There's a Trinidadian saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child and in my case, it is most certainly true. Most of my neighbours don't even have a college degree but they taught me the most basic values that have gotten me through life thus far. Growing up in a multicultural community, I have learnt the immense importance of respecting the different values, beliefs, traditions, and general ways of life of different groups. It was in my simple village I learnt the true meaning of community despite differences, unity despite diversity. These are the messages that I hope to bring to camps life. It was here that I was given the opportunity to strive for excellence in my academic life, without fear of failure. I learnt to become a well organized, driven and all rounded individual.
Growing up in my village and in a small Caribbean island I have always understood the importance of interacting with others and appreciating a way of life other than your own. This belief and knowledge was strengthened when I attended the Global Young Leaders Conference in 2009. I believe that I will be able use my cultural background and values to the become member of the tightly knit UPenn society - one which prides itself on diversity and understanding.
As I did research on the UPenn community, I was delighted that such diversity and tolerance amongst differences could be found here. I wish to share my knowledge of diversity and my Caribbean perspective to the already culturally rich campus and help preserve the all roundedness of the student population which makes UPenn a great place not to only study, but to learn, play, live and call home.
As an applicant to The School of Engineering and Applied Science to the bioengineering department, the opportunities to learn from UPenn are innumerable. It would be a great privilege to hear the "The Red and Blue" sung at the end of convocation.
This is really good, the only thing I would say is to elaborate more on the last two paragraphs of the essay. The way I see it is the prompt asks you to answer two questions: 1) what will you learn from U-Penn, 2) what will you contribute to U-Penn, and I think you should spend half of your essay on each. You focused more on #2, and I think it would be good if you talked more about U-Penn specifically.
