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Karen Blixen's Out Of Africa, Cornell Supplement


holdenzhao 2 / 5  
Dec 30, 2010   #1
Prompt:Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore your interests, intended major, or field of study. (college of Arts and Sciences)

Three weeks ago I co-founded Roots&Shoots Organization with my colleague Sam. Due to the colorful and gigantic poster hung on the lobby wall of our school building, and our tireless propagation maneuver, we were able to recruit more than 20 "new bloods" into the group. And now it was the fourth week and I was seeking desperately for something original and inspiring.

The idea popped out of my head one day when I was at home on bed doing my pre-sleep reading. It was Karen Blixen's Out Of Africa. And though I was lying on bed, I read the words as if I can really hear the wind breezing, feel the wildness of the rambling creatures, and see the beauty of the Ngong Hills and Rift Valley. I knew then what I shall do: read.

I decided to make every fourth Friday of a month the special day for our organization. Every special day when class is over, all club members shall go to the mini central park in our school reading a book relevant to nature or environment concerning. And it went really well.

I brought Karen Blixen's Out of Africa, while others brought Jane Goodall's Harvest for Hope, or Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. The best part is that we could share our books, and discuss our feeling about the story while surrounded by blooming trees and inhaling the smell of plants and dirt. As if, by communicating to each other while exposing in nature and absorbing the sunlight, we were communicating to nature itself as well. Born and since then lived in a metropolitan city like Beijing, nature never seemed so closed, so real to me until that time. It made me feel that preserving and protecting it was a well-established fact that needed no more propagation but should had already been ingrained in every single human being's mind and blood.

I suddenly remember Kafka's word, "A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul." I never thought words can be such a power to melt one's heart until that engaging moment we all felt while reading. My passion grows each day as my exploration on the magic of words proceeded from Out of Africa to On the Road, from the Catcher in the Rye, to the Great Gatsby.

It was this passion that appeals me to the study in the department of comparative literature at Cornell University. For so many times I have felt my love toward reading while staring at awe the revealing of a completely diverse world and culture through mere rhetoric words and language. And now here in Cornell, I want to study European literature comparative with Asian's, I want to explore the mystery of Literature, comparative to other art forms, as well as media; most importantly, I want to pursue the essence of literature, cross-disciplinarily, comparative to history, philosophy, or even sociology.

Guys, check it out!
Vbalandina 2 / 17  
Dec 30, 2010   #2
Hey! :)

The essay is nice, but I think that you don't answer the second part of the question, you simply list the possible fields of study, but don't mention how you will utilize them to further explore your interests))

Also write more about the purpose of your organization in the first paragraph, or else it doesn't make sense)
Good luck! I am also applying to Cornell!)


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