Thank you very much if you can review this for me, due today:) very excited!!!
A. How did you first learn about Barnard College and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? Why do you think the College would be a good match for you?
In a sophisticated restaurant, the dining area was given over to an elegant and dynamic crowd of women. It was 4th February 2012. And they are Barnard's alumnae. Intrigued by their conversation about Aung San Suu Kyi's running for a seat in the national parliament, gradually, I joint in. It was an inspiring dialogue on Asian women's rising power and leadership. First, it was a rush of admiration for these women's knowledgability and confidence, then a stronger thought occurs: I want to be one of them. I expressed my wish to become a financial advisor, to have the ability to make people's dreams financially possible. Sharing my interest in finance, one of the alumnae, a retired investment banker, mentioned how a Barnard education granted her full potential to pursue a career in the financial field, even in the 1980s, when the business was dominated by men.
To be a successful financial advisor, I will need effective communication skills to interact with international personalities and collaborate with partners, or critical thinking to negotiate deals, the interdisciplinary Liberal Arts foundation in Barnard's curriculum will encourage me to expand my active understanding on various professional fields, and to start building a sturdy knowledge base since First-Year Foundations. Through courses in the Economic track like international business, I can always be on the ball and be vigilant on world issues. Furthermore, the relationship network I gain from my job and the Barnard sisterhood will enable me to draw broader public attention to charity work, engage in raising global quality of life and call on gender equality, especially in less-developed Asia. Adopting Barnard's motto, Following the Way of Reason, I can be the innovative and courageous young woman who I want to be, to bring a difference to Asian women's life, by learning through gender education and build leadership through the Athena Scholars Program.
B. Pick one woman in history or fiction to converse with for an hour and explain your choice. What would you talk about?
Both being seventeen-year-old fledgling women leaders in advocating women leadership and gender equality, I would like to bring Sylvia Plath at seventeen in November 13, 1949 to the modern world and converse with her. We both face similar struggles which all seventeen-year-old girls would, only that the world since then has evolved. Sylvia would tell me about her optimistic view towards youth while worrying about the responsibility of gender role when she grows up. I too share the same feeling, our life is still just beginning, but I am very lucky to be spared from the traditional gender tether. In today's world, I believe I possess equal rights as men do in pursuing my dream. I want to find my place in the financial field, which at Sylvia's time was an elite private club that only men could gain access to. We both have ambitions about our future, only that she found the conventional surrounding of the community constraining and suffocating. Then we can evaluate today's world together. Unsatisfactorily, nowadays, gender remains a status quo in the highest rank of leadership albeit years of up-hill battle. I have a feeling that women share some of the blame. Women often underestimate their capability and held back from opportunities. Sylvia is struggling with conflicts on female independence and feels awful when she finds herself almost succeeding. This heart-breaking loop still haunts today's young women, and not only in developing countries. Some opulent far-east Asian regions like Japan, Korea and Hong Kong are still under this shadow of passĂŠ casing. At age seventeen, Sylvia helped these women by leaving poems and writings which make impacts in the future, I want to tell Sylvia that I will take her relay baton on arousing public attention on women's social status by utilizing my knowledge gained from Barnard and bring them back to Asia, to be the bridge to taper gender gap and call for gender equality in Asia's work place. Last question to Sylvia: If you live in today's world, given the chance to success and be respect as a female, what will you do with you life? I think I don't need an answer, she had taken her steps, there is nothing to regret. I will now take mine, make history and build a better path for future generations.
C. Alumna and writer Anna Quindlen says that she "majored in unafraid" at Barnard. Tell us about a time when you majored in unafraid.
My take on "unafraid" is not about stepping out of the comfort zone, it is to expand my scope of capability and comfort, to embrace more opportunities available. But the premise is, one has to be well equipped enough to be challenged. So that when any new challenge knock on my door, I would welcome it as I would my best friend, knowing that I am competent to excel. The first time I acknowledge one of my weaknesses was in a relative's wedding. It was a lovely moment when the host invites friends and families onto the stage to give impromptu toasts. I was one of the "lucky" ones, and was dragged down from my fortress to meet my greatest enemy: public speech. Needless to say, it was a catastrophic. I could hear my voice trembled and I was mumbling balderdash. Courteous people came to me afterwards and said, "Darling, you have done an exceptional job! Imagine how hard it is for a ten year old." Yet at that moment, I figured that what I needed was not a bandage to hide my wound, I need to strengthen myself to concur that fear, ergo I started volunteering for every opportunity to make open speeches. In inter-class debates, despite butterflies in my stomach, I would raise my hand to be the captain enthusiastically. Initially, I made gazillions of mistakes and because I did so poorly, it only motivated me to talk more to correct my faux pas and improve. At night, I would talk to myself in the mirror, emulating Obama's flair, perfecting my eyes, my expression and my body language. Then the moment of truth came, at the Gala night of my school's Drama Production; I stood on that stage as the leader of the production team, ready to give a speech on behalf of the school. In front of hundreds of guests, some of them respectable politician, successful tycoon, principles from elite secondary schools, counselors from the British Council, surprisingly, there were no dismay, but only a burning flame of confidence and courageousness in my heart. And afterwards, I was quoted in the school magazine and praised as the "lionhearted leader".
I had achieved something on my own that never thought I could. That was the point when I proudly majored in unafraid.
A. How did you first learn about Barnard College and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? Why do you think the College would be a good match for you?
In a sophisticated restaurant, the dining area was given over to an elegant and dynamic crowd of women. It was 4th February 2012. And they are Barnard's alumnae. Intrigued by their conversation about Aung San Suu Kyi's running for a seat in the national parliament, gradually, I joint in. It was an inspiring dialogue on Asian women's rising power and leadership. First, it was a rush of admiration for these women's knowledgability and confidence, then a stronger thought occurs: I want to be one of them. I expressed my wish to become a financial advisor, to have the ability to make people's dreams financially possible. Sharing my interest in finance, one of the alumnae, a retired investment banker, mentioned how a Barnard education granted her full potential to pursue a career in the financial field, even in the 1980s, when the business was dominated by men.
To be a successful financial advisor, I will need effective communication skills to interact with international personalities and collaborate with partners, or critical thinking to negotiate deals, the interdisciplinary Liberal Arts foundation in Barnard's curriculum will encourage me to expand my active understanding on various professional fields, and to start building a sturdy knowledge base since First-Year Foundations. Through courses in the Economic track like international business, I can always be on the ball and be vigilant on world issues. Furthermore, the relationship network I gain from my job and the Barnard sisterhood will enable me to draw broader public attention to charity work, engage in raising global quality of life and call on gender equality, especially in less-developed Asia. Adopting Barnard's motto, Following the Way of Reason, I can be the innovative and courageous young woman who I want to be, to bring a difference to Asian women's life, by learning through gender education and build leadership through the Athena Scholars Program.
B. Pick one woman in history or fiction to converse with for an hour and explain your choice. What would you talk about?
Both being seventeen-year-old fledgling women leaders in advocating women leadership and gender equality, I would like to bring Sylvia Plath at seventeen in November 13, 1949 to the modern world and converse with her. We both face similar struggles which all seventeen-year-old girls would, only that the world since then has evolved. Sylvia would tell me about her optimistic view towards youth while worrying about the responsibility of gender role when she grows up. I too share the same feeling, our life is still just beginning, but I am very lucky to be spared from the traditional gender tether. In today's world, I believe I possess equal rights as men do in pursuing my dream. I want to find my place in the financial field, which at Sylvia's time was an elite private club that only men could gain access to. We both have ambitions about our future, only that she found the conventional surrounding of the community constraining and suffocating. Then we can evaluate today's world together. Unsatisfactorily, nowadays, gender remains a status quo in the highest rank of leadership albeit years of up-hill battle. I have a feeling that women share some of the blame. Women often underestimate their capability and held back from opportunities. Sylvia is struggling with conflicts on female independence and feels awful when she finds herself almost succeeding. This heart-breaking loop still haunts today's young women, and not only in developing countries. Some opulent far-east Asian regions like Japan, Korea and Hong Kong are still under this shadow of passĂŠ casing. At age seventeen, Sylvia helped these women by leaving poems and writings which make impacts in the future, I want to tell Sylvia that I will take her relay baton on arousing public attention on women's social status by utilizing my knowledge gained from Barnard and bring them back to Asia, to be the bridge to taper gender gap and call for gender equality in Asia's work place. Last question to Sylvia: If you live in today's world, given the chance to success and be respect as a female, what will you do with you life? I think I don't need an answer, she had taken her steps, there is nothing to regret. I will now take mine, make history and build a better path for future generations.
C. Alumna and writer Anna Quindlen says that she "majored in unafraid" at Barnard. Tell us about a time when you majored in unafraid.
My take on "unafraid" is not about stepping out of the comfort zone, it is to expand my scope of capability and comfort, to embrace more opportunities available. But the premise is, one has to be well equipped enough to be challenged. So that when any new challenge knock on my door, I would welcome it as I would my best friend, knowing that I am competent to excel. The first time I acknowledge one of my weaknesses was in a relative's wedding. It was a lovely moment when the host invites friends and families onto the stage to give impromptu toasts. I was one of the "lucky" ones, and was dragged down from my fortress to meet my greatest enemy: public speech. Needless to say, it was a catastrophic. I could hear my voice trembled and I was mumbling balderdash. Courteous people came to me afterwards and said, "Darling, you have done an exceptional job! Imagine how hard it is for a ten year old." Yet at that moment, I figured that what I needed was not a bandage to hide my wound, I need to strengthen myself to concur that fear, ergo I started volunteering for every opportunity to make open speeches. In inter-class debates, despite butterflies in my stomach, I would raise my hand to be the captain enthusiastically. Initially, I made gazillions of mistakes and because I did so poorly, it only motivated me to talk more to correct my faux pas and improve. At night, I would talk to myself in the mirror, emulating Obama's flair, perfecting my eyes, my expression and my body language. Then the moment of truth came, at the Gala night of my school's Drama Production; I stood on that stage as the leader of the production team, ready to give a speech on behalf of the school. In front of hundreds of guests, some of them respectable politician, successful tycoon, principles from elite secondary schools, counselors from the British Council, surprisingly, there were no dismay, but only a burning flame of confidence and courageousness in my heart. And afterwards, I was quoted in the school magazine and praised as the "lionhearted leader".
I had achieved something on my own that never thought I could. That was the point when I proudly majored in unafraid.
