My College Admissions Essay: My Journey To A Community

Growing up as a first-generation college-bound Hispanic woman has proven to be a difficult journey. Both of my parents left their home countries at a young age and came to this country without any ideas or real opportunities on where to begin. At a young age, I have been taught that having a higher education is the key to having a successful and plentiful life. However, the journey towards achieving my dream of receiving a higher education has been filled with moments where I have challenged the stereotypes about getting pregnant and dropping out of high school, facing my grandma’s unexpected illness that affected me both academically and mentally, and the challenge of being a first generation college bound student in my family.

Growing up in a small community exposes a person to unfortunate situations, such as crime, death, and poverty, that directly impact the quality of life. Experiencing different situations can physically, mentally, and emotionally break a person. It's even more challenging to remove yourself off the dark path that you have seen so many people go down. When you do break yourself out of the inevitable cycle of negativity, it builds your self-confidence and pushes you to strive for better. I feel that certain circumstances I have been forced to accept and experience have morphed me into the person I am today. I am person that works hard for everything I want to achieve. I am dedicated, and I will always remember the ones who have helped me in my success. This career plan is influenced by my community, much like my drive to attend college. My community has a lot of stray animals and only one veterinary clinic. Each time I see a pack of dogs eating out of a trash can or playing in an overgrown, empty lot, I am reminded of what I am working toward.

In an America where Latinos are likelier to be incarcerated than in college, I have a responsibility to make my four years at a fancy university meaningful for people from South Phoenix other

I was born in El Paso, Texas to Mexican immigrant parents who did their best to raise me and my three siblings. Growing up in El Paso I never even saw myself applying to college, but then my dad made a bold choice to start a career in homeland security and that was when we moved to the DFW area. Ever since we moved to DFW every grade in junior high, i was talked to about college: how to get there, how to pay for it, and how to make it a reality. The thought of going to college never even crossed my mind before coming here. Now as a Senior in high school I'am doing everything in my abilities to make my dreams come true, to go to college and graduate to make my parents proud and prove to them that all their sacrifices haven't gone by without

Ever since I was a kid I have always thought about what college I was eventually going to go to. I made the decision in high school that I wanted to be a special education teacher, so I thought about some schools that had that teaching program. My number one school I wanted to attend that had the best teaching program was East Carolina University. Having ECU as my number one choice lead me to apply there. Weeks after I applied I got a letter telling me some sad news that I was not accepted. Since I applied to ECU and did not get in, I was now thinking about applying to other schools like Methodist University or maybe a community college.

As the son of impoverished Mexican immigrants, I never experienced the luxuries and everyday joys of other children my age. For instance, while other children worried about missing their favorite television shows or about what gifts they were going to receive for Christmas, I spent a majority of my time worrying about whether or not my parents would be able to put food on our table or be home in time to say goodnight. Yet, thanks to the support of my family and an unsurpassed desire to obtain a better life, I have immersed myself into my studies, in hopes that I can one day better the situation for those around me.

Growing up in a less privileged household has not only offered financial and academic challenges, but has also helped me to realize the value and power of achieving a higher education.

Ever since I was able to reach the sink, I have helped to clean the dishes. My family takes longer to wash dishes than most because we wash every recyclable before putting it in the bin. I always threw a fit because I did not understand why we had to wash our garbage, and it was not until later that I learned it was so that everything we put in our bin would be accepted by the recycling plant.

A lot of places consider Syracuse to be a mid-size school, but I come from a town with the population of 2.409 people, so to me Syracuse was huge. That was the one thing that made me reluctant to make the seven hour road trip to the open house. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot, and I am so glad it did. Much to my surprise, when I arrived on campus for an open house I did not feel overwhelmed by the size of the school, I felt welcome. As I walked around I started to picture myself sitting in the classrooms and walking down the sidewalks. A phrase I kept hearing throughout the day was “small school feel, large school resources”. The more I thought about that the more I realized that that was exactly what I wanted. I wanted a school with

In order for oneself to develop, we have to process what is going on around us and adapt. Living in a community like San Bernardino where crime rates are high and financial benefits are low there's problems to fix all over. The emotional exhaustion of living in a city at war with itself comes through and I could not stand by and let my city be defined by crime. Becoming a mentor to incoming students in high school gave me an opportunity to help establish the mentality for future leaders and be able to give students hope to help develop a stronger career driven community. What inspired me to act was the hope I need myself when I was younger, I was not able to see the possibilities needed to create a career until I was given hope by endless of teachers.

Community involvement and education are important to me, and as I make my way in the world, I never forget about where I came from. I realized early in life that attending college would be my greatest opportunity to beat the odds for a young man coming up in this era of crime, drugs and violence. It’s a well-known fact; the African-American male incarceration rate is much higher than our college graduation rate, so the odds are against young men who look like me. This reality is what inspires me to do more to help African-Americans and specifically young people in my community.

My entire life, I have wanted nothing more than to leave my hometown. There is nothing wrong with it, aside from the increasing crime rate and less than desirable weather at times, I have just always possessed a craving for the rest of the world. I have always had a passion for wanting to know what else the world has in store for me, besides brutal weather bipolarity and miles of soybean fields. Missouri is a beautiful state, but there are 49 others I have yet to live in. There is a whole planet out there, ready to be enjoyed by eager college aged students like myself, and that was my plan, to make my mark on this earth, to leave my footprint in every possible place I could. There is nothing wrong with being in the middle of the state that is located in the middle of the country, but my wanderlust was unquenchable

I come from a place of privilege, in a town where the majority of citizens are caucasian. I attend a school that is well furnished and has adequate teaching materials as well as a large staff. I am a white woman who has never suffered from racial oppression or been harassed due to my ethnicity. It is that fact that I acknowledge my place in the world and the space I occupy. Although I fall into a large class of students who are from affluent white backgrounds, my identity is composed of a strong sense of empathy, loyalty, self-reflection, a passion for social justice, and a constantly active and inquisitive mind. My main purpose in life is to not only voice my opinions towards the injustices that minorities face today but to also make sure that their voices are heard in a way that resonates on the same level as my own thoughts. From the first moments that I can recall, I had a quiet, reserved nature that made me an unusual child to my mother. She noted that I was

On the Wednesday of the year 2000, my parents have already envisioned how my life would turn out to be. My mother expects much of me only because she was the first to ever attend college in our family. All my life because of that, I was always expected to: go to college, have a successful career just like my mother does, and eventually surpass her. Yet as I grow and develop my understanding of how this chaotic world works, I get lost. Throughout my life, I have had many hardships which I sadly at first did not take care of correctly. I am still human however as I understand that making mistakes is a part of life. Life is about giving the perfect effort. I know as I grow and develop, I don’t need to meet anyone’s expectations as long as I continue to try even when my limit has long been passed. I just want to continue to learn and and improve myself as a person. This world does not choose for me nor does it decide what I have to do with my life. It is my sketchbook and I am the one who decides what to draw in it. Right now, I am doodling the most complex eighteen-hour piece.

To be a useless citizen is intolerable. To be simply employed is satisfactory. To be trained and experienced in one’s field is great. However, to be a philosopher is worthy to be praised. To prove oneself as an intellectual one’s ideas must be able to be articulated through speech and writing. Thus, one must be able to read, analyze, and study other great intellectual’s work to grow in complexity and style. Moreover, one must be able to learn from those who constantly bath in heaps of knowledge from educating generations of learners. I feel that the best place for me to nurture my intellectual seed will be at college. I have proved that I have the basic capabilities to learn by finishing high school as the valedictorian of class. Many look