1. How did you find out about Brown? For example, from a person, publication, campus visit, etc.? (max 300 CHARACTERS)
I began my college search focusing on one crucial approach: best and happiest colleges.
Brown quickly flooded the screen under numerous acclaimed articles, and as I poured over them, I was drawn to the school's one common goal: applying our individualism in paving our own paths.
2. A distinctive feature of the Brown Curriculum is the opportunity to be the"architect of your education."Why does this academic environment appeal to you? (max 700 CHARACTERS)
"People can steal many things from you, but they can never steal your education," my parents constantly reminded me as a child. Since then, I have lived by this personal mantra.
Having the autonomy and encouragement to set the foundation and structure of my education tells me Brown trusts me and itself enough to make the right decisions, enough to set me off on my own future. The comfort and reassurance of being trusted is the appeal in this idiosyncratic approach, knowing that regardless of the decisions I make, Brown will be there to offer the blueprint paper, entrusting me with the silver marker.
3. Tell us where you have lived-and for how long-since you were born; whether you've always lived in the same place, or perhaps in a variety of places. (max 300 CHARACTERS)
We left Cape Verde Islands after I turned 2, meeting my parents in the U.S for a one year stop. Portugal was our next destination, where I spent the most memorable seven years of my childhood. Kosovo presented itself in both the thrill of diversity and terror, suddenly changing to a "small" little town I like to call Miami, FL 7 months later.
4. What is something you created that makes you especially proud, and why? (max 700 CHARACTERS)
As the Harry Potter series came to a close for J.K. Rowling, I was, naturally, determined to keep it alive within and around me. The merge came sooner than anticipated when I suddenly faced the rite-of-passage tissue-box project in my biology class: the biogeochemical cycle. "Why not?" I asked myself, going off on a rampage of ways to incorporate my "minor" obsession with the four sides of that box, feeling my happy bubble swell to an unconventional size. My Harry Potter-themed biogeochemical cycle creation allowed me to not only thoroughly enjoy the learning element, but also the creative side, a side I previously dispelled in the arms of utter frustration. It was this level of perseverance that led to my prospective mutualistic relationship with the occasional mundane project.
5. We all exist within communities or groups of various sizes, origins, and purposes; pick one and tell us why it is important to you, and how it has shaped you. (max 1000 CHARACTERS)
Whenever people ask me about my parents, I find myself having a difficult time answering with accuracy, so I often respond: "My mom was raised by Fidel Castro and my dad is a Cape Verdean left-wing liberal . They met in then communist Russia. Questions?" After years of answering this question and witnessing the broad range of reactions, I've come to one simple conclusion: Acceptance is innate in my small, little family.
Growing up, as my friends' parents constantly yelled "Don't do it!", mine encouraged me to "Try it!" reminding me that open-mindedness could not be achieved otherwise. Accepting ideas was only part of the step for my parents, while taking action to understand such ideas completed the equation.
My dad has been accepting job offers abroad ever since I can consciously remember, often in small, obscure countries not frequently heard of. Fortunately, wherever he seemed to drag himself, we followed for a "glimpse."As a result, this meant encountering countless people with countless interests, and incidentally, countless ideas. Such exposure has allowed me to develop a more open and broader mind as I grow older and come across different experiences, each with a special lesson to teach. That my identity had been shaped by the diversity within and around me, allowing me to embrace change in whatever shape or form it presented itself.
B. Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz once said, "Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different. It is a point of view." With this in mind, describe a moment when your perspective changed.
"I never want to see you again!" was the last thing my teacher roared in class as the security escorted the student, Vince, to the office. We moved on, disregarding the outburst as we expected it again the next day. But the next day never came because that same Friday night, a speeding truck in the hands of a drunk driver hit Vince, who the paramedics pronounced dead upon their arrival.
The words hung heavily in the classroom that Monday morning, no one daring to mutter a sound, afraid any word would trigger the implosion of the four, asphyxiating surrounding walls. Too many personal viewpoints changed that morning, where through the stun and silent tears, my choice of words never felt so vital or my I-can-always-fix-it-tomorrow mentality so foolish.
I've never walked out of a door angry or without fixing the reason for being so. I cannot end a phone argument with "I hate you!" or without warm sentiments because not only have I never actually meant those words, but there is simply too much on the line to do so. "I feel infinite" whispered Charlie, the fictional character created by Stephen Chbosky in his compilation of anonymous letters "Perks of Being a Wallflower". This is how I've found myself taking every moment these past few years: as if though it can all end before the dawn of a new day. Every experience is meant to be taken fully, regardless of how dull they may seem to others, because why should I wait for tomorrow when I have an infinite amount of time today?
