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Personal Experience: Moving to the United States Essay

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I never in my life did expect one day to write an essay for the Spanish Travel Scholarship and to write it in English! Fifteen year ago I was a typical Italian architecture student who, beyond doubt, had not yet established her role in the local, national, and global community, or her purpose in life. I spent my college years making my parents proud, and fulfilling teachers’ expectations. Nevertheless architecture wasn’t my college decision. It was my dad’s dream. When I was six years of age, he lost his engineering firm because of a stroke. He reinvented himself various times, after the stroke, but he has never been able to rebuild his engineering firm from the ashes. My architecture degree was his last opportunity to reopen his beloved …show more content…

I had the amazing privilege to serve as an informal ambassador for my country of birth (Italy), clearing up cultural stereotypes, and creating positive connections between two cultures. I had the joy of meeting people from other cultures. Sharing problems, connecting with cultural differences and similarities gave me the opportunity to learn not only about other cultures but also about local and global issues. The desire to understand these issues, and to solve them (like for example immigration issues with Mexican-born people living in the United States) inspired me to apply for the study abroad program-language immersion in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
I chose this program because I believe that knowing Spanish will enable me to become a better person, a better global citizen, and a better teacher. In the past, I had the privilege of working, in my community, with ESL students whose families were unfamiliar with the American school system and recently with the daughter of one of my friends from Mexico. My friend, even after 20 years in the U.S., barely speaks English and because of that she can only work as a housekeeper. Her daughter is sixteen years of age, she never finished secondary school in Mexico and she does not speak English. Her mom decided to find her a job in the housekeeping industry and to not send her to school

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