A little bit about myself. UGRAD application

Why would you be a great participant in this program?

In that educational program, I can show and develop my leadership skills. In my life, I usually demonstrate them in the university. Sometimes it is just assistance to my classmates if they do not understand a subject or they have some difficulties with it. Sometimes I have to help my lecturer to arrange open lessons for freshmen and for students of high schools, who want to enter our faculty. Of course, these activities need a great responsibility and regular control. Nevertheless, I like thinking about being useful to people around me.

The next reason why I feel like being a good participant in this program is a readiness for communicating with people from different cultures. I am sociable, friendly and tolerant of other people. These qualities were developed when I went to the theater school. I have studied there for 7 years and now I understand that it has changed all my life. Actually, it has changed me. I have become more communicative, positive. My teacher showed me how to present yourself and what to do if you are too shy. But the most important, I think, is that I have become self-motivated. It was the last week before a new year, and as usual, we played in the festive performance every day. At such times I am always organized and concentrate but anyway some mistakes happen sometimes. I started to read the text on the stage but it was wrong because I had already said it before, in the previous scene. I was ready to escape from there, but I did not do that. I improvised and I managed to get back on the right way. My teacher did not scold me but just complimented. This case taught me to trust myself in different situations and always go ahead in spite of everything. I ready to show you this purposefulness in any activities of this exchange program.

As for the goals in the academic sphere, I want to connect my future profession, which is translation and Interpreting, with the journalistic field. I would like to write about American's culture and customs. I know that sometimes we are provided distorted information about the USA. That is why Russian people have some unreasonable prejudices about Americans and their way of life. Therefore, I want to tell people in Russia how ordinary Americans live is. I would like to show their traditions and culture and perhaps draw a parallel between our ways of life. I also care about the fact that many American books and studies remain untranslated into Russian, and thus it is inaccessible to many Russian students and scientists. I know that there is a plenty of new studies in the ecology sphere which you cannot find in Russia. For instance, the latest research of the University of Central Florida and the "Projeto TAMAR". This is a very interesting project about protection of sea turtles from extinction, but I daresay that Russians don't know about that. We have to create the common information channel between our countries without language barriers.

To sum up the idea, I have some thoughts and I'm ready to share them with people from the USA and I'm looking forward to doing that. I am sure in my goals and I definitely understand how I can realize them if I participate in this program.

Павел, you must never toot your own horn when you write an application essay describing why you might be a good candidate for the program. Never say that "I would make a good candidate because". That is just so wrong in so many ways. The first reason why that is wrong is because you have absolutely no idea what the main criterion for judging the candidates are. Only the people screening the applicants within the program know that. Therefore, you should not be making boastful assumptions that could make you appear to be over confident in the eyes of the reviewer. Be humble. Speak of what you can bring to the program in terms of diversity, cultural exchange, and improved international relations instead. Describe how this program can help you with cross promotion. You can promote a better understanding your country and the culture you come from, while you can go home at the end and represent the United States in a clearer manner in your country as well. The information about your theater participation is irrelevant to your application. It doesn't show how you can help to enhance the UGrad program so you can omit that presentation. Your academic goals are sound. Your mention of wishing to introduce the real America to Russia is interesting and should gain the interest of the reviewer. The presentation you made is relevant to today's time and can help to increase the validity of your qualifications. I would leave out that very short closing statement though. It made the essay you wrote feel like an IELTS Task 2 essay instead of an academic application essay.