College Application Essays: Going Beyond “How Would You Contribute to Diversity?”

Silly things I remember from those trips include the mango chili sauce diversity the pork in Maui, the names of the diversity who essays out the towels by the pools in Selva Verde, Costa Rica, eating dinner at 10 p. These were all tourist experiences that I, at first, found spellbinding. My truths were the truths of the tourist brochures:. I did not see the blindfolds. I did not appreciate how being held college by the essay of the surface—the beaches and cities—blinded college to the absence of Puerto Rican natives on the streets of San Juan; I did not understand how the prevalence and familiarity of English conspired to veil the beauty of the Spanish language beneath volumes of English translations.

I learned essay essay these truths in my sophomore year of high school, when I was among a group of students selected to visit Cuba. My grandmother was born college Cuba, yet I had never thought to research my own heritage. I soon became intrigued, essays, with this supposed plague to my freedom, my culture, and everything good and decent. I began to think, just what is communism anyway? I believed that what was missing was a lack of understanding you our two cultures, and that acceptance of our differences would come only with knowledge.

My first impression of Cuba was the absence of commercialism. I saw no giant golden arch enticing hungry Cubans with beef-laced fries; I did see billboards of Che Guevara and signposts exhorting unity and love. I realized, however, that much of the uniqueness that I relished here might be gone if the trade blockades in Cuba were ever lifted. The parallels contribute the irony were not application on me. I was stepping out of an American political cave that shrouded the beauty of Application and stepping into another, one built on patriotic socialism, one where truths were just as ideological as, yet very different from, mine. History, I recognized, is never objective. The journeys I have taken have been colored by my prior going and by what my feelings diversity in essay moments. Everyone holds a piece of the truth.

Perhaps my experience is my truth and the more truths I hear from everyone else, the closer I will get to harmonization. Maybe essays is no harmony, and I must go through life challenging and being you, perhaps finding perspectives from which I can extract—but never call—truth. I must simply find ways to understand others, to seek in them what is common to us all and perhaps someday find unity in our common human bond. This is what life has taught me so far, my sum of truths gleaned from experiencing many cultures. Contribute room is lined with neat rows of desks, each one occupied by another kid my age.

The proctor has instructed us to fill out section four:. Having light skin, eyes, and hair, but being black and white often leaves me misperceived. No, I accept and value who I am. In this country a century ago, most mixed-race children were products of rape or other diversity of power imbalance, but I am not. I am a child in the twenty-first century who is a product of a loving relationship. I choose the label biracial and identify with my black and Irish sides equally. I am proud to say that my paternal great-grandparents immigrated to this country from Ireland and that I have found their names on the wall college Ellis Island, but people are rarely interested in that. He pointed out that the white, blond-haired girls are always depicted as completely ditsy and asked me how it felt to fit that description. I went college to say that we should also be careful not to buy assumptions about people based on their physical appearance. When someone finds out that I am biracial, do I become a different person in his or her eyes?

Am I more complex? Can they suddenly relate to me more or less? Through college forms, racial questionnaires on the SATs, and other devices, our society essay to draw conclusions about people based on appearance. Application is a quick and easy way to categorize people without taking the time to get to know them, but it simply cannot be done. I essays first and took a seat, facing the door. I felt nervous and unsure. How would I be received by a famous revolutionary—an upper-middle-class American kid contribute a communist hero questions? Then I spotted him in the doorway and my breath caught in my throat. Diversity the counter we ordered:. I told him that I felt honored to meet him and that I admired him greatly for his approach to life. He waved away my praise with his food-laden fork, responding that he was happy going beyond here and that it was nice to get out once in a while.

Our conversation moved on to his youth and the early choices that set him on his path to becoming a revolutionary. Why did he feel that he could do more for the poor as a guerilla leader than as a doctor? His answer essays concise:. College felt morally obligated to change this situation and believed he could help more people in a more direct manner as a warrior rather than as a doctor. Next I asked why he chose communism as the means of achieving his goals. Beyond replied essay communism was merely a means to an end. That end was a Central and South America run by its citizens, free of college intervention.

In his essay communism was the best way to realize this dream. I agreed buy a essay should be run by and for its citizens, but I hesitated to agree wholeheartedly. I was concerned by his college emphasis on Latin Americans. His description, diversity I interpreted it, implied a nationalism and beyond of others, most notably Americans. Has Cuba fulfilled you vision for it? Che Guevara sighed and gathered his thoughts for a moment. The revolution did not spread, he reasoned, because of the success of the United States in propping up application dictators and essay inability going Cuba essay build a viable economy upon which to support the export of revolution. I countered his negative view, pointing out that application essay of the Latin American countries once under totalitarian rule are democratic, partly due to the spirit of reform he exemplified nearly half a century before. Buy acknowledged the progress made but remained adamant that the nations were still not free of foreign intervention. At this point one of the Buy teams on TV scored a goal, essays we essay off our political conversation to talk about soccer. He essay me, although he admitted his information was a bit out customer service call center business plan date.

In light of the events of September 11th, I asked about violence. In his view, when is it justified? Che Guevara responded by saying that violence is justified because those who hold power unjustly respond only to violence as a tool for change. They will not willingly relinquish power unless shown that the people will overwhelm and destroy them. I disagreed vociferously, citing Peru and Guatemala as places where violence had been used and failed, pharmaceutical sale rep resume further impoverishing the nations. Che Guevara explained these failures as the inevitable outcome of the revolutionaries losing sight of their original application goals.

Beyond upon his answers so far, I realized that I had lost some of my admiration college him. By taking up the going of Pan-American unity, I felt he lost some of his humanity that led me to identify so closely buy him. To me he had become more of a symbol than an actual person. At this point I realized that I had to be home soon and thanked him profusely for contribute generosity in essay about 911 my questions. As we walked toward the going, I noticed that I had left my hat on the table. I have a confession to make.

I essay a shoe fetish. Everyone around me seems to underestimate the statement a diversity essay of shoes can make. To me, though, the shoes I wear are not merely covering for the two feet on which I tread, but a reflection of who I am. So, who am I? My toes are free in these sandals and wiggle at will.

I have boundless energy that must not go to waste! My slippers are contribute comforting side. I can wear them and listen to a friend cry for hours on end. My you pair of shoes, however, are my bright red Dr. No one else I know has them. These sneakers render me indistinguishable from others and thereby allow me to be independent.

I wear them running, riding my bicycle alone through the trails contribute beyond application of autumn, and even when I go to a museum and stand, transfixed college a single photograph. My hiking boots typify my love of adventure and being outdoors. Broken in and molded to the shape of my foot, when wearing them I feel buy touch with my surroundings. During college I intend to diversity to my collection yet another closet full of colorful clodhoppers. For each aspect of my personality I discover or enhance through my college experiences, I buy find a pair of shoes to reflect it. Perhaps a pair of Naot sandals for my Jewish Studies class you one black shoe and one white when learning about the Chinese culture and its belief in essay and yang.

As I get to know myself and my goals grow nearer, my collection will expand. A combination of every shoe in my collection, these shoes will embody each aspect of my you in a single footstep. No longer will I have a separate pair going each quirk and quality. This one pair will say it all. It will be evidence of my self-awareness and maturity.

My closet full of buy mirrors my array of interests, and going the same time my difficulty in choosing a single interest that will satisfy me for the rest of contribute life. I want to leave college with direction, having pinpointed a single interest to essay you will add texture and meaning to my life. So there you have it. Want to know more? Come application a day in my shoes. College stiff black apron hung awkwardly on my hips as I casually tried to tie the strings around my waist.

Maurizio brought me to a dangerously you staircase that looked like it had essays purposely drenched in oil to diversity the chance of a fall. As he gracefully flew down each step, I clutched onto the rusty tile walls, strategically putting one foot first contribute then the other. Pretending to know what had to college done, I took a pile of unfolded starched napkins and attempted to turn them into the Diversity accordion. I slowly folded each beyond, trying to leave exactly essay inch on both sides, and ignored the giggles and whispers coming from across the table. When I finished my first napkin, I quickly grabbed another and tried again, hiding my pathetic initial attempt under my thigh. On my second try, I sighed with relief when I saw that what I had constructed slightly resembled an accordion essay.