Share an experience through which you have gained respect for intellectual, social, or cultural differences. Comment on how your personal experiences and achievements would contribute to the diversity of the University of Michigan.
Papua New Guinean-born Filipino-Nigerian that's me. A person with two cultures (Nigerian and Filipino) in one. However - being born and having lived in Papua New Guinea my entire life, with the exception of brief vacations to the Philippines and Nigeria ï the Papua New Guinean culture is a part of me and I consider myself a third Papua New Guinea, a third Filipino, and a third Nigerian. These different cultures within me make it difficult for me to understand how even very minor segregation can occur and also enable me to end minor segregation.
The year was 2007 and I was in my freshman year back in Papua New Guinea. My class was filled with Filipinos and Papua New Guineans and groups were formed depending on the language you primarily spoke ï the Filipinos, Tagalog, and the Papua New Guineans, Pidgin. These groups annoyed me not only because I had friends in both groups but because I could not understand why these groups had formed: to some extent, I can speak both Pidgin and Tagalog and I am not forming groups within myself!
Therefore, I had to join these groups together. Bringing my friends from each group together, differences were laid down and friendships were formed, cultures were exchanged. Now, every student in my previous class in Papua New Guinea are friends with each other and most can speak, to some extent, both Pidgin and Tagalog.
This bringing together of cultures is who I am, partly because I am three cultures in one but mostly because I hate seeing and experiencing separations between people due to cultural differences. Therefore, I would not only add diversity to the University of Michigan through my appreciation and willingness to befriend people from different cultures but also reduce diversity, in a sense, by bringing people of different cultures together and enabling an exchange of cultures to occur.
Papua New Guinean-born Filipino-Nigerian that's me. A person with two cultures (Nigerian and Filipino) in one. However - being born and having lived in Papua New Guinea my entire life, with the exception of brief vacations to the Philippines and Nigeria ï the Papua New Guinean culture is a part of me and I consider myself a third Papua New Guinea, a third Filipino, and a third Nigerian. These different cultures within me make it difficult for me to understand how even very minor segregation can occur and also enable me to end minor segregation.
The year was 2007 and I was in my freshman year back in Papua New Guinea. My class was filled with Filipinos and Papua New Guineans and groups were formed depending on the language you primarily spoke ï the Filipinos, Tagalog, and the Papua New Guineans, Pidgin. These groups annoyed me not only because I had friends in both groups but because I could not understand why these groups had formed: to some extent, I can speak both Pidgin and Tagalog and I am not forming groups within myself!
Therefore, I had to join these groups together. Bringing my friends from each group together, differences were laid down and friendships were formed, cultures were exchanged. Now, every student in my previous class in Papua New Guinea are friends with each other and most can speak, to some extent, both Pidgin and Tagalog.
This bringing together of cultures is who I am, partly because I am three cultures in one but mostly because I hate seeing and experiencing separations between people due to cultural differences. Therefore, I would not only add diversity to the University of Michigan through my appreciation and willingness to befriend people from different cultures but also reduce diversity, in a sense, by bringing people of different cultures together and enabling an exchange of cultures to occur.
