Applytexas Application Essay 2014
Sean McElvogue
Essay Topic A
Our world is huge; 7,000,000 people live their workaday lives on this planet, each with their own experiences and cultures. Secluded in different sections of the world, people form their own ideologies, institutions, and languages. However, when these different peoples meet, how do they interact? How do their cultural differences impact their actions? In the summer of 2013, I began to work at the Kumon Learning Center, tutoring kids on various math subjects from grades 1-9. I noticed a possible conflict within this job the moment I stepped in for my interview: The owner was Vietnamese, and most of the students I taught were from Asian countries. The owner and the students spoke English well enough, but the culture clash was unavoidable. My first experience with the culture of these people came on my very first day. After on-the-job training, I actually had the opportunity to teach some of the kids. Students of all ages, heights, and ethnicities came to my table throughout the day, and I left that night in a stupor: Not a word was spoken between the kids and me that day. The Kumon system relies mostly on self-taught lessons and individual problem solving on the kid’s part, which completely turned my preconception of collaborative learning on its head. As I went through my first week, I had to help a few kids each day and teach some lessons to those who were unable to learn the lesson on their own, but most of the students either figured it out by themselves, or with their parents at home. This ideology, individual’s responsibility to society, was alien to me, as I grew up in a capitalistic country that focuses on the gains to the individual, whereas these kids were brought up in a world where the family and the community are more important than the individual. Although I have only spent a few months at Kumon, I can already see the changes it has made in me. This community has altered my work ethic somewhat, making me
Essay Topic A
Our world is huge; 7,000,000 people live their workaday lives on this planet, each with their own experiences and cultures. Secluded in different sections of the world, people form their own ideologies, institutions, and languages. However, when these different peoples meet, how do they interact? How do their cultural differences impact their actions? In the summer of 2013, I began to work at the Kumon Learning Center, tutoring kids on various math subjects from grades 1-9. I noticed a possible conflict within this job the moment I stepped in for my interview: The owner was Vietnamese, and most of the students I taught were from Asian countries. The owner and the students spoke English well enough, but the culture clash was unavoidable. My first experience with the culture of these people came on my very first day. After on-the-job training, I actually had the opportunity to teach some of the kids. Students of all ages, heights, and ethnicities came to my table throughout the day, and I left that night in a stupor: Not a word was spoken between the kids and me that day. The Kumon system relies mostly on self-taught lessons and individual problem solving on the kid’s part, which completely turned my preconception of collaborative learning on its head. As I went through my first week, I had to help a few kids each day and teach some lessons to those who were unable to learn the lesson on their own, but most of the students either figured it out by themselves, or with their parents at home. This ideology, individual’s responsibility to society, was alien to me, as I grew up in a capitalistic country that focuses on the gains to the individual, whereas these kids were brought up in a world where the family and the community are more important than the individual. Although I have only spent a few months at Kumon, I can already see the changes it has made in me. This community has altered my work ethic somewhat, making me