Here are my two supplement essays for Loyola Marymount University, and their prompts. ANY help is appreciated and I will gladly provide feedback to anyone who helps me. Thank you.
Supplement #1:
Prompt
Speaking about education, Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.''
Critical thinking
Prompt question:
Critical thinking is a central goal of Jesuit education, and at LMU you'll be asked to think critically and intensively in every class. Dr. King suggests that critical thinking results in our ability to inform intelligence with character, and strengthen character with intelligence. Please talk about a situation that demanded critical thinking from you, and how your choices or decisions integrated intelligence and character.
Of the many problems with the world, there is one grand harsh truth that humanity has yet to resolve: War and violence reign all around. Syria, a neighboring country to my homeland, has been suffering from a civil war since 2011. As a result of the unbearably violent incidents occurring every day, many children had to migrate to Turkey in hopes of finding better life conditions. In the summer following my junior year, I spent a week doing a community involvement project (CIP) with those unfortunate kids.
Even though I had previous experiences doing CIP's with kids, the problems I had to deal with were quite different in this one. One of the many challenging complications I confronted was the kids' attitudes towards each other: sometimes surprisingly mature, but sometimes downright harassing. Siblings were fighting all the time. Older kids, especially boys, were physically abusive to younger ones. Even the simplest thing, like a place on the lunch table, was a reason to fight. The kids would actually and intentionally hurt each other.
One kid in particular, the 11-year-old Hassan, was so violent and bullying towards his friends that we had to speak to him in private. We told him that what he was doing was wrong and that he was hurting people. At the end of the talk, I smiled at him, and he looked up at me with big innocent eyes, a bit scared. I wasn't sure if it helped in any way, though; we still decided to have the school nurse nearby just in case.
Fortunate for me, I was already prepared for a chaotic environment because I had made my educated suppositions about the project beforehand. I had read A Long Way Gone, and I was expecting this. After all, they were psychologically damaged after everything they witnessed, or so I thought. I blamed it on the usual culprit: the war.
I was wrong.
At the end of the second day, when it was time for kids to get on buses and go home, Hassan had went missing. The advisor teachers instructed couple of us to go look for him. I frantically searched everywhere, until I found him somewhere in the woods, sitting under a tree, just about to cry.
"Is there something wrong, Hassan?" I asked. He was frightened to see me.
"No, nothing."
"Well, the buses are about to-" ...at that point, I decided that whatever this kid was worrying about was more important. The buses could wait.
I sat by him, trying to present myself as a friend, not just another boring grown-up telling him what to do. Slowly, he opened up:
"I hate that translator. I am going to kill him when I grow up."
Hesitantly, I asked: "Why? What makes you hate him?"
He averted his gaze to the yard, and replied: "He beats me if I don't behave."
There have been very few moments in my life that I felt as lost as I did when I heard him say it. I didn't know what to do. It was getting late and I had to take him to his bus, but if I were to do that, I would be putting him in the same vehicle with the translator once again and there was the chance that he would get beaten again since he was late and didn't "behave". On the other hand, not doing what my teachers told me was a crime that could get me expelled from the project, besides if I didn't take him to the buses his family would get concerned could blame me for the incident later on. But this time it wasn't just a matter of what would be the most efficient way to solve the situation. This kid was counting on me for help. If I let him down now, I could impact his life negatively; moreover, I would have let that translator to get away with what he did.
I took Hassan's hand, and I took him to where the buses are. The translator he was talking about came towards us quite angrily and attempted to pull Hassan's arm and take him to the bus. I shouted: "STOP!"
All of the advisors were looking, Hassan was terrified, and I had to say something.
"I was the one who kept him late. I was the one who decided not to bring him here, because he was afraid that you would beat him again."
Everyone was looking at me now.
"Whatever you do to him, he does to someone else. You say you are trying to eliminate violence but you are the one who's in fact provoking it. This kid is only 10, and how he is behaved to and taken care of can have permanent damaging effects for the rest of his life. Thank you for volunteering, but I don't believe you are fit for being around children."
Neither did I have the right to keep Hassan late, nor tell the translator how to do his job. I knew that I was very probably going to get a punishment for this. But nevertheless, I would it again. Because at school, we are thought that psychological effects of violence include a chain effect that keeps a person doing it to someone else, helping it spread. I am not the one to be indifferent to this when it's happening right in front of my eyes.
After that day, the translator was replaced and another volunteer took his place. Hassan was much more responsive and happy. The last day, before he went home, he ran out of the bus, hugged me and said: "Thank you". At that moment, I knew: I did the right thing.
Supplement #2: Please briefly state your reason for wishing to attend LMU and/or how you came to select your major.
Whether it be a single person, or a large cultural group, I want to understand why people act the way they do, how their mental process works, and what the psychological causes are hidden in their unconscious. I seek to be a person who is an expert at analyzing patterns of behavior and is able to use her knowledge to unravel the core reasons of an issue. For these aims, I chose psychology as my intended major; and I believe that Loyola Marymount University would be the most beneficial guide through my intended journey.
LMU is a place where I could challenge, improve, and discover myself academically and socially-all while being part of a diverse and expressive community. The rigorous academics of LMU would be an invaluable source for the knowledge that I seek. The intellectual rigor of professors in class and the small student-faculty ratio would allow me to share my thoughts and engage in scholarly conversations. Besides theory, LMU would also provide me numerous opportunities, such as research and creating community service projects, which would allow me to experience what I had learned and demonstrate my skills outside of the classroom. With a world-class education from Loyola Marymount University, I would feel confident that I could build a rewarding life after graduation.
In addition to the academic aspects, with the numerous clubs, extra-curricular activities and student organizations at LMU, I would have the opportunity to continue to fulfill my passions for music (singing and playing cello) and writing. With LMU Magazine, I would be able to share my writing with an intellectual community and seek their feedback. As an outgoing and cooperative individual, I feel ready and motivated to put all my efforts to LMU's dynamic environment.
I believe that I am an innovative individual that has the potential to make a difference; and I know that Loyola Marymount University would be the best guide through my journey of achieving my aspirations. After all, if you want to be a lion, you have to train with lions.