Common App Personal Essay Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
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The first time I fell in love with a museum, I was in fifth grade. It was a traveling exhibit of Monet's best works at The Cincinnati Art Museum. Standing in front of Monet's water lilies as a wonderstruck fifth grader, my love of learning was born. Over the years, museums have allowed my curiosity and sense of wonder to develop outside of the classroom. The idea of a place dedicated to exploration and celebration of art and history has always been magical to me. It seemed that museums captured this idealistic world of learning and beauty. Museums gave me the opportunity to discover what I love. Museums showed me how captivating history can be and soon all I wanted was to become familiar with every little mystery and story. It was like history was the greatest book I'd ever read and museums were a grand extension of the story. I grew up holding on to this notion and it wasn't until I volunteered at a museum that this idea shifted and I saw museums from a different perspective.
The summer between my sophomore year and junior year of high school, I wrote an email to the volunteer coordinator at the Walt Disney Family Museum in hopes of securing a spot as a volunteer while I was in San Francisco for five weeks. It had been my dream to live in a big city and work at a world class museum and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get a glimpse into what that might be like. It was a big step forward in my love affair with museums.
The first few volunteer shifts, I was stuck in a state of awe. Even though I spent the majority of the time pointing guests in the direction of the bathroom, I fell in love with it. It was only when I was assigned to lead a group of middle schoolers through the exhibits that I began to doubt the magic of museums. It wasn't the fact that their group was late. Nor was it the flippant comments they directed at me. I was mad because I watched these kids skip through the entire museum like it wasn't the treasure trove of art that I knew it was. I saw these kids as deviants and ungrateful as if they were somehow lower than me because they couldn't appreciate the art in front of them. The reality of the situation was that they actually couldn't appreciate it. Many of the children, I realized, had never been to a museum before. They had come from an inner city school and it was likely that their parents didn't put much emphasis on school to the extent that mine did. The opportunities that I have had - to visit world class museums and explore cities across the country - wasn't something that everybody had.
Since then, I have looked into various museum access programs for kids who would not otherwise get the opportunity to visit a museum. After my time volunteering, museums became more than the image of a grecian bust against a white wall. Museums became a symbol of opportunity for children to further their curiosity and education just like I had. After many hours of volunteer work at the Walt Disney Family Museum and the Fairhope Museum of History, I have decided to chase my dream of working in museums. I want to pursue a career in Museum Studies because I want to be able to give other kids the almost-magical feeling of discovering something you're passionate about. By volunteering at these museums, I was able to give others the experience that I had as a kid. And by pursing a career in museum studies, the opportunities to share this special experience will only grow.
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Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance :)
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The first time I fell in love with a museum, I was in fifth grade. It was a traveling exhibit of Monet's best works at The Cincinnati Art Museum. Standing in front of Monet's water lilies as a wonderstruck fifth grader, my love of learning was born. Over the years, museums have allowed my curiosity and sense of wonder to develop outside of the classroom. The idea of a place dedicated to exploration and celebration of art and history has always been magical to me. It seemed that museums captured this idealistic world of learning and beauty. Museums gave me the opportunity to discover what I love. Museums showed me how captivating history can be and soon all I wanted was to become familiar with every little mystery and story. It was like history was the greatest book I'd ever read and museums were a grand extension of the story. I grew up holding on to this notion and it wasn't until I volunteered at a museum that this idea shifted and I saw museums from a different perspective.
The summer between my sophomore year and junior year of high school, I wrote an email to the volunteer coordinator at the Walt Disney Family Museum in hopes of securing a spot as a volunteer while I was in San Francisco for five weeks. It had been my dream to live in a big city and work at a world class museum and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get a glimpse into what that might be like. It was a big step forward in my love affair with museums.
The first few volunteer shifts, I was stuck in a state of awe. Even though I spent the majority of the time pointing guests in the direction of the bathroom, I fell in love with it. It was only when I was assigned to lead a group of middle schoolers through the exhibits that I began to doubt the magic of museums. It wasn't the fact that their group was late. Nor was it the flippant comments they directed at me. I was mad because I watched these kids skip through the entire museum like it wasn't the treasure trove of art that I knew it was. I saw these kids as deviants and ungrateful as if they were somehow lower than me because they couldn't appreciate the art in front of them. The reality of the situation was that they actually couldn't appreciate it. Many of the children, I realized, had never been to a museum before. They had come from an inner city school and it was likely that their parents didn't put much emphasis on school to the extent that mine did. The opportunities that I have had - to visit world class museums and explore cities across the country - wasn't something that everybody had.
Since then, I have looked into various museum access programs for kids who would not otherwise get the opportunity to visit a museum. After my time volunteering, museums became more than the image of a grecian bust against a white wall. Museums became a symbol of opportunity for children to further their curiosity and education just like I had. After many hours of volunteer work at the Walt Disney Family Museum and the Fairhope Museum of History, I have decided to chase my dream of working in museums. I want to pursue a career in Museum Studies because I want to be able to give other kids the almost-magical feeling of discovering something you're passionate about. By volunteering at these museums, I was able to give others the experience that I had as a kid. And by pursing a career in museum studies, the opportunities to share this special experience will only grow.
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Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance :)
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