UBC Personal Profile: essay about racial discrimination, language barrier and disparity

What is important to you? And why?

(250 words) Thank you!
Growing up in Hong Kong, I noticed that most people greeted my friends and me with a smile but my mother with mockery, and I often heard my mother coming home from work weeping that "it is not fair!" It was not until I was seven than I realised the problem: my mother looks different and speaks a different language. I began to acknowledge the magnitude of racial discrimination and became determined to remedy the disparity. The simple truth is that no matter how overtime hours people like my mother take, they will never be treated the same and never be thought as a part of Hong Kong. I started to recognise that if I looked more like my mother, I would never have been greeted with a smile and given the same opportunities as other people. This is why I dedicated to eradicating the language barrier and racial discrimination. As a school reporter, I actively reported news regarding minorities in Hong Kong, hoping that my voice could shine a light on minorities. I also was a peer; specifically, tutoring minorities' Cantonese and written Chinese so that the language barrier can be minimised, and locals in Hong Kong can understand that minorities are not so different. To further tackle the existing disparities around the world, I aim to work in business with companies that have visions similar to mine.

@watashiwano Here is the thing, you chose the most unbelievable age to use as your age of enlightenment. The reviewers do not believe that a 7 year old or anybody below the age of of 13-15 can have such an epiphany in their lives even if they are observing it first hand. There is no sense of conscience and logic, nor analytical ability that is fully developed at such a young age. Which is why this essay will not be believed by the reviewer. Additionally, you made the essay all about your mother, when that the essay is asking about is you. What is important to you? The racial discrimination was not something that you directly experienced, it happened to someone else who happened to be close to you. So, while I can see why it might be important to you, and it could be spun into something relevant as a response to this prompt, the problem is that the central figure is incorrect, the age chosen to depict the realization is wrong, and the method by which you are battling racial discrimination is too weak when compared to others who will be submitting a more self centered essay that deals with a topic that has a personal effect upon their person instead of someone else. If I were writing this essay, I would change the whole essay and focus on a topic that has a direct effect me instead. That way, the importance has a more important motivational factor and will show a personal growth on my part because I am trying to change something that affects me. The travails of your mother are not important to the reviewer. You are all he wants to learn about.