Prompt: Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State. This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. We suggest a limit of 500 words or fewer.
Although born in India, I was raised in the United States all of my life. I grew up melting into the American culture. However, my parents never let me forget the roots where I originally came from. As I continued to live the American life, I kept my Indian culture with me. Our family does not speak English at home. Instead, we speak a popular Indian language called Telugu. Although just the language alone cannot help one understand a whole culture, it helped me understand my culture in many ways. In order to maintain cultural roots, I visit India once every two years. As I exit the airport and enter into the land with vibrant colors, loud auto car noises, road side food stands, and crowded streets, I feel as if I have stepped into another world. Even though India is a beautiful country with many natural colors and joyous people, it also has many components that could improve mainly orphans. As you stroll through the streets of southern India, specifically the town where my father is from (Narasaraopet), I see numerous children on the streets with tattered clothes and with no food. Four years ago, in 2013, my family and I were traveling to a nearby town (Ongole) to visit some of our relatives. After we arrived, I was talking to my cousins about how many orphans there are in India and they told me about an Orphanage Center nearby and asked me if I wanted to visit it. I definitely wanted to visit it so the next day my uncle took me and my cousins to the orphanage center. The orphanage center's name was Premananda which means love and happiness in Telugu. As we went inside there were numerous children studying and playing. The building looked really old, the rooms were small, and apparently all the classes took place outside. Apparently the orphanage was not getting enough funds in order to maintain the building and provide better supplies for the children. Later, we started interacting with the kids and they were all very excited to engage with us because they usually do not get any visitors. All of them were so kind and so grateful for what they had, making me feel slightly guilty for all the privileges I had. In particular, this one young girl named Priya approaches me and asks me if I want to play with her. She shows me all of the outdoor games her and her friends play. She tells me about how happy she is in this old building because before she was working at someone's house washing dishes and cleaning clothes. She said the only thing she misses here was her mom who died five years ago. Spending time with so many kind hearted people who felt content with almost nothing made me look at life differently. I appreciated the things I am able to have like my family and my education. For the next week, me and my cousins collected funds from many people living nearby and also contributed to the orphanage by donating some clothes and books. Although I volunteer a lot, this one week providing service to few of the many orphans made me feel accomplished as a human being.
Please give me any feedback! Thank you!
Although born in India, I was raised in the United States all of my life. I grew up melting into the American culture. However, my parents never let me forget the roots where I originally came from. As I continued to live the American life, I kept my Indian culture with me. Our family does not speak English at home. Instead, we speak a popular Indian language called Telugu. Although just the language alone cannot help one understand a whole culture, it helped me understand my culture in many ways. In order to maintain cultural roots, I visit India once every two years. As I exit the airport and enter into the land with vibrant colors, loud auto car noises, road side food stands, and crowded streets, I feel as if I have stepped into another world. Even though India is a beautiful country with many natural colors and joyous people, it also has many components that could improve mainly orphans. As you stroll through the streets of southern India, specifically the town where my father is from (Narasaraopet), I see numerous children on the streets with tattered clothes and with no food. Four years ago, in 2013, my family and I were traveling to a nearby town (Ongole) to visit some of our relatives. After we arrived, I was talking to my cousins about how many orphans there are in India and they told me about an Orphanage Center nearby and asked me if I wanted to visit it. I definitely wanted to visit it so the next day my uncle took me and my cousins to the orphanage center. The orphanage center's name was Premananda which means love and happiness in Telugu. As we went inside there were numerous children studying and playing. The building looked really old, the rooms were small, and apparently all the classes took place outside. Apparently the orphanage was not getting enough funds in order to maintain the building and provide better supplies for the children. Later, we started interacting with the kids and they were all very excited to engage with us because they usually do not get any visitors. All of them were so kind and so grateful for what they had, making me feel slightly guilty for all the privileges I had. In particular, this one young girl named Priya approaches me and asks me if I want to play with her. She shows me all of the outdoor games her and her friends play. She tells me about how happy she is in this old building because before she was working at someone's house washing dishes and cleaning clothes. She said the only thing she misses here was her mom who died five years ago. Spending time with so many kind hearted people who felt content with almost nothing made me look at life differently. I appreciated the things I am able to have like my family and my education. For the next week, me and my cousins collected funds from many people living nearby and also contributed to the orphanage by donating some clothes and books. Although I volunteer a lot, this one week providing service to few of the many orphans made me feel accomplished as a human being.
Please give me any feedback! Thank you!
