My phobia for wasting— yale supplement (250)

Yale student, faculty, and alumni engage issues of local, national, and international importance. Discuss an issue that is significant to you and how your college experience might help you address it.

Thanks for any time put into reading this!

wasting food is unacceptable

What I find extremely perturbing is the fact that there are still undernourished people in the world. Ironically, the world wastes 1.3 billion tons of food each year. If all that food could be used to feed those in need, how different the world would be. But instead, we opt to scrap the edible parts of vegetables, dump mounds of unfinished spaghetti into the bin, or throw away two-day ("best before") expired food without a second glance.

I assume my specific frugality for food came from the way I was raised. I was taught to never leave even a single grain of rice stuck on the plate, and my parents were raised like that, too.

In college, I wish to do more than patrol through the cafeteria, yelling at people to finish their food or stay behind or gloomily stare at the bin filled with uneaten things. I aspire to create a club dedicated to cutting back on food waste called the Mottainai-club after the unique Japanese word blending the concepts of saving and not wasting. We would tally the amount of food that is wasted each week and aim to reduce the amount of food waste by setting a quota, or make use of the waste by composting it. The main purpose of the club, however, would be to increase awareness of the issue by spreading the fervor. I am sure that my passion for food and strong Mottainai mentality will enable me to make a positive change.

You addressed the issue and why it is significant to you. However, why would you choose Yale over all other colleges? What makes Yale a perfect or fitting college for you and the issue you addressed. Try adding some specific programs from Yale that can help you during your college years at Yale.

Anna, you already mentioned this passion of yours in a previous essay. You must avoid presenting the same information to the reviewer in different essays. You must show that you are a well rounded person with varied interests and passions. Not just a passion for one cause. While I can understand your passion for food wastage prevention, you cannot discuss that topic to death in the forthcoming prompts. This is an activity that you presented quite clearly as a passion that you hope to pursue in the other essay that you wrote. Don't discuss this topic to death. Surely that is another social issue that you can discuss. How about that topic about helping the orphan children in the Philippines? That is a different topic which gives you the opportunity to highlight a different interest that has an international importance. Something different, something that shows you off to the reviewer as a person whose sense of social responsibility goes far beyond the confines of university concerns. That is an activity that will attract the attention of the reviewer and also show your caring side when it comes to social causes.