A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community.
One hand was gripping my mom's index finger; the other was dragging along my miniature, yellow carry-on suitcase. As my mom searched for my dad through the crowd, I was busy dodging the bodies coming my way. My eyes, nearly three feet above the ground, could see nothing but the pants of frantic bodies trying to find their terminal. My mom's finger was the only thing keeping me from becoming physically lost, however there was nothing she could do to keep me from becoming mentally lost. The myriad of languages hitting me from every direction had me dumfounded; my ears were drowning in a sea of unfamiliar words. Being my impatient self, I took no more than seven seconds to attempt to decipher what I was hearing.
I looked up at the heads towering over me and saw things I had never seen before. At first glance, I thought I had entered into a new world full of strange looking, gibberish speaking people. I gently tugged at my mom's finger and by the look of confusion on my face she knew precisely what was going through my mind. The clothing the people were wearing, the way they interacted with each other, and the languages they spoke all took me by surprise.
Before I moved to America and experienced the diversity and richness of the languages and cultures, I thought the world was all within the country I lived in. That beyond those country boundaries everyone and everything was the same. My naivety at the time caused me to believe there was no such thing as someone who spoke a language other than Arabic or that there existed a place where a woman was not required to wear a headdress.
After a while, I told myself people here were the different ones and I was the "normal" one. My adolescent beliefs, however, faded away. My view of the world was altered once I saw that people in different counties practice different traditions, speak different languages, and believe in different things. In fact, I was the one to add to the diversity of America.
Nowadays, I view everything from two perspectives. My dual-thinking mode naturally applies to any dilemma I face or basically any situation I am in. Rarely do people think twice before they do something, whether it being big or small. I automatically think twice, once with the knowledge I gained in Syria and once with the knowledge I gained in America. Though my train of thought is not seen by others, the outcome is. It brings me a great sense of pride and appreciation towards my background when I hear someone say to me, "Oh, I didn't even think of it that way."
One hand was gripping my mom's index finger; the other was dragging along my miniature, yellow carry-on suitcase. As my mom searched for my dad through the crowd, I was busy dodging the bodies coming my way. My eyes, nearly three feet above the ground, could see nothing but the pants of frantic bodies trying to find their terminal. My mom's finger was the only thing keeping me from becoming physically lost, however there was nothing she could do to keep me from becoming mentally lost. The myriad of languages hitting me from every direction had me dumfounded; my ears were drowning in a sea of unfamiliar words. Being my impatient self, I took no more than seven seconds to attempt to decipher what I was hearing.
I looked up at the heads towering over me and saw things I had never seen before. At first glance, I thought I had entered into a new world full of strange looking, gibberish speaking people. I gently tugged at my mom's finger and by the look of confusion on my face she knew precisely what was going through my mind. The clothing the people were wearing, the way they interacted with each other, and the languages they spoke all took me by surprise.
Before I moved to America and experienced the diversity and richness of the languages and cultures, I thought the world was all within the country I lived in. That beyond those country boundaries everyone and everything was the same. My naivety at the time caused me to believe there was no such thing as someone who spoke a language other than Arabic or that there existed a place where a woman was not required to wear a headdress.
After a while, I told myself people here were the different ones and I was the "normal" one. My adolescent beliefs, however, faded away. My view of the world was altered once I saw that people in different counties practice different traditions, speak different languages, and believe in different things. In fact, I was the one to add to the diversity of America.
Nowadays, I view everything from two perspectives. My dual-thinking mode naturally applies to any dilemma I face or basically any situation I am in. Rarely do people think twice before they do something, whether it being big or small. I automatically think twice, once with the knowledge I gained in Syria and once with the knowledge I gained in America. Though my train of thought is not seen by others, the outcome is. It brings me a great sense of pride and appreciation towards my background when I hear someone say to me, "Oh, I didn't even think of it that way."