Reflective Essay On Lewis And Clark College
Lewis and Clark:
1. Lewis & Clark College is a private college with a public conscience and a global reach. We celebrate our strengths in collaborative scholarship, international engagement, environmental understanding and entrepreneurial thinking. As we evaluate applications, we look for students who understand what we offer and are eager to contribute to our community. In one paragraph, please tell us why you are interested in attending Lewis & Clark and how you will impact our campus.
Lewis and Clark has the perfect balance of what I know I love and what will be new and challenging for me. I was raised in Washington and moved to Colorado in middle school. By having the Pacific Ocean 80 miles away and Cascade Mountains 50 miles east, the location has the best of both worlds. I have also gone to both private and public schools so I know how important teacher involvement is. I am interested in a school that has faculty that are as dedicated in their teaching as I am in my want to learn. The fact that 93% of faculty hold the highest degree in …show more content…
their field reveals the school's dedication to hiring highly educated and committed teachers. In addition, I have a passion for helping the environment through my choices to be vegan, the president of my school's environmental club, and to always support local, organic, non-animal tested products. I also want to study environmental studied in college, which largely influences my interest in this college. Due to Lewis & Clark, being the number one green college in the nation in the Princeton Review is extremely persuasive. The amount of passion I could bring and the knowledge I could gain from such an institution excites me.
2. At Lewis & Clark, we believe that diversity strengthens our community. Reflecting on a part of your identity (for example, your culture, race, ability status, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, religion, age, or veteran status, etc.), share with us an experience where you engaged with difference.
I have attended a boarding school for all four years of high school. There are kids from 18 countries and 26 states. As a part of my school, playing sports is mandatory all three season, which pushes people out of their comfort zones and into activities that they have never competed in before. Although, I have been committed to both soccer and volleyball since before high school, this still pushed me out of my comfort zone by having me play with girls who have never played the sport before and many who do not even know English fully. I was urged to take on a leadership role from the beginning and help girls learn the basic skills and become more comfortable. Due to everyone being thrown into a mandatory situation where communication is key, there are language barriers that cause confusion and even frustration. In multiple cases, girls would sub in without knowing what position they were playing or what to do. Forcing me to respond with diligence. By being put in countless situations of diversity throughout my years in high school, I have learned to work with people from drastically different countries. However, I have also learned by having such a diverse student body, that diversity is not just due to ethnicity, but also because of one's upbringing. In order to be a well-rounded person, one must be able to respond to all kinds of differences with understanding and helpful solutions, instead of judgement.
Boulder:
1. As a vibrant community of learners dedicated to inclusive excellence, the students, faculty and staff at the University of Colorado Boulder seek to be open and respectful of contrasting beliefs and opinions. Every student has a unique life experience and a set of circumstances by which they are shaped and influenced. Your background may have been shaped by family history, cultural traditions, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, income, ideology, gender identity or sexual orientation. Reflect on your unique background and tell us about a time when you had to relate to someone whose life experience was very different from your own. How did you approach the difference? If put in a similar situation again today, would you respond differently? If so, how?
I have attended a boarding school for all four years of high school. There are kids from 18 countries and 26 states. As a part of my school, playing sports is mandatory all three season, which pushes people out of their comfort zones and into activities that they have never competed in before. Although, I have been committed to both soccer and volleyball since before high school, this still pushed me out of my comfort zone by having me play with girls who have never played the sport before and many who do not even know English fully. I was urged to take on a leadership role from the beginning and help girls learn the basic skills and become more comfortable. Due to everyone being thrown into a mandatory situation where communication is key, there are language barriers that cause confusion and even frustration. In multiple cases, girls would sub in without knowing what position they were playing or what to do. Forcing me to respond with diligence. By being put in countless situations of diversity throughout my years in high school, I have learned to work with people from drastically different countries. However, I have also learned by having such a diverse student body, that diversity is not just due to ethnicity, but also because of one's upbringing. In order to be a well-rounded person, one must be able to respond to all kinds of differences with understanding and helpful solutions, instead of judgement.
Whitman:
1. One thing Walla Walla is famous for is sweet onions – they’re not only tasty, but also multi-layered. What’s a layer of your life not highlighted in your application that would add to Whitman’s community?
On every team, there is the star. The person who scores the most goals, makes the most baskets, or has the highest hitting percentage; however, I was never this person. Do not get me wrong, I am a competitive athlete who competed at a varsity level in soccer all four of high school and three years in volleyball. However, I did not always make the most impressive plays; instead, I was looked at as the reliable player. The one my teammates could depend on to always be consistent and work hard. Like the sweet onions in Walla Walla, I have always been a dependable staple to my community. Not only in my sports teams, but in classes my teachers look at me as a student who they know will always come to class prepared, with my work completed, and ready to learn. With many interests and passions, my layers vary from being the varsity volleyball captain, to president of my school's environmental club, to thriving in AP Photography. I may not be the A+ student in every class or the MVP of all my athletic teams, but I have a wide range of interests that I dedicate all my time and effort into being the one that people can be count on.
UCSB:
1. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
My school values sustainability throughout all aspects of the campus- from having solar panels on the buildings to composting food waste. However, there are still improvements that can be made. As a member of CONCORPS, my school's environmental club, we work to complete projects throughout the year to bring awareness to the student body and enhancements to the schools greenness. Last year, we decreased the food waste in the dining hall by half by making presentations to the school, working with the dining hall to compost, and getting rid of all paper/plastic containers in the dining hall that used to increase our waste immensely. In addition, we planned Earth Day activities, which ranged from building gardens to building raptor poles to picking up trash. This year, I am one of the clubs co-presidents and we split the club into smaller sub-groups. The group that I am leading joined the Green Cup Challenge and we are taking place in the competitions to spread awareness on our own campus but among all the schools involved in the Challenge. As a whole, being a part of the club has been rewarding because just in my three years of being a part of it I have seen so many advancements and an increase in student involvement.
2. Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.
I have been looking forward to taking environmental science since freshman year. The topic extremely interested me and the thought of taking a class on topics that I read about for enjoyment excited me. This year, I have been challenged in the AP class, but have not had the urge to complain once because even though it is hard; I am learning facts that are so relevant to my generation and our futures. I seek to gain more knowledge on not only how humans are negatively affecting the environment but also how we can solve the dilemmas of deforestation, pollution, extinction of animals and ecosystems… the list goes on and on. My teacher urges us to learn about these problems not through lectures but by seeing it in hands on activities and research. The class has incited even more passion for the environment and my desire to continue studying natural sciences in college.
3. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
A part of my school’s curriculum is Interim, which is an opportunity for every student to get off campus and learn in a hands-on way. My junior year I went to Puerto Rico to learn about deforestation. I went knowing very little of the impact deforestation has on the ecosystems, however I was soon immersed in the jungle living in tents, going to the bathroom in a humanure toilet, and volunteering every day by building path and planting trees. The area which I visited had been deforested in the 1960s however the organization that we helped, Las Casas de la Selvas, which developed secondary forests to rebuild the ecosystem and use for sustainable timber production. The trip made me discover a passion and interest for protecting forests and ecosystems and led me to this year choosing to do my Global Scholar Diploma Capstone project on The Past and Future of Deforestation in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. I will look at two case studies, from both scholarly and human or fieldwork sources and ultimately, create recommendations on best practices that might be applicable to other Central American contexts. This weeklong trip has provoked potentially a lifelong interest.
4. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
I live in America’s melting pot, Pueblo Co, where due to the Bessemer steel mill immigrants from all over the world relocated to Pueblo in early 1900s.
However, due to steel market collapse and major loss of jobs Pueblo’s economy suffered greatly which led to major poverty. This poverty is still an issue and with this often lead to lack of an education. Last year, I was chosen to be a part of the Pueblo Leadership Institute, which is led by Pueblo City Library District. Over 8 months, the organization worked to bring awareness and educational availability to girls of all races on how to become leaders. We also raised $20,000 for the library to help continue education and improvement to the community. Working with a select group of girls from all different schools and with varying interests I thought would make fundraising and planning difficult but everyone was dedicated to the cause, and it was a very impactful
opportunity.
1. Lewis & Clark College is a private college with a public conscience and a global reach. We celebrate our strengths in collaborative scholarship, international engagement, environmental understanding and entrepreneurial thinking. As we evaluate applications, we look for students who understand what we offer and are eager to contribute to our community. In one paragraph, please tell us why you are interested in attending Lewis & Clark and how you will impact our campus.
Lewis and Clark has the perfect balance of what I know I love and what will be new and challenging for me. I was raised in Washington and moved to Colorado in middle school. By having the Pacific Ocean 80 miles away and Cascade Mountains 50 miles east, the location has the best of both worlds. I have also gone to both private and public schools so I know how important teacher involvement is. I am interested in a school that has faculty that are as dedicated in their teaching as I am in my want to learn. The fact that 93% of faculty hold the highest degree in …show more content…
their field reveals the school's dedication to hiring highly educated and committed teachers. In addition, I have a passion for helping the environment through my choices to be vegan, the president of my school's environmental club, and to always support local, organic, non-animal tested products. I also want to study environmental studied in college, which largely influences my interest in this college. Due to Lewis & Clark, being the number one green college in the nation in the Princeton Review is extremely persuasive. The amount of passion I could bring and the knowledge I could gain from such an institution excites me.
2. At Lewis & Clark, we believe that diversity strengthens our community. Reflecting on a part of your identity (for example, your culture, race, ability status, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, religion, age, or veteran status, etc.), share with us an experience where you engaged with difference.
I have attended a boarding school for all four years of high school. There are kids from 18 countries and 26 states. As a part of my school, playing sports is mandatory all three season, which pushes people out of their comfort zones and into activities that they have never competed in before. Although, I have been committed to both soccer and volleyball since before high school, this still pushed me out of my comfort zone by having me play with girls who have never played the sport before and many who do not even know English fully. I was urged to take on a leadership role from the beginning and help girls learn the basic skills and become more comfortable. Due to everyone being thrown into a mandatory situation where communication is key, there are language barriers that cause confusion and even frustration. In multiple cases, girls would sub in without knowing what position they were playing or what to do. Forcing me to respond with diligence. By being put in countless situations of diversity throughout my years in high school, I have learned to work with people from drastically different countries. However, I have also learned by having such a diverse student body, that diversity is not just due to ethnicity, but also because of one's upbringing. In order to be a well-rounded person, one must be able to respond to all kinds of differences with understanding and helpful solutions, instead of judgement.
Boulder:
1. As a vibrant community of learners dedicated to inclusive excellence, the students, faculty and staff at the University of Colorado Boulder seek to be open and respectful of contrasting beliefs and opinions. Every student has a unique life experience and a set of circumstances by which they are shaped and influenced. Your background may have been shaped by family history, cultural traditions, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, income, ideology, gender identity or sexual orientation. Reflect on your unique background and tell us about a time when you had to relate to someone whose life experience was very different from your own. How did you approach the difference? If put in a similar situation again today, would you respond differently? If so, how?
I have attended a boarding school for all four years of high school. There are kids from 18 countries and 26 states. As a part of my school, playing sports is mandatory all three season, which pushes people out of their comfort zones and into activities that they have never competed in before. Although, I have been committed to both soccer and volleyball since before high school, this still pushed me out of my comfort zone by having me play with girls who have never played the sport before and many who do not even know English fully. I was urged to take on a leadership role from the beginning and help girls learn the basic skills and become more comfortable. Due to everyone being thrown into a mandatory situation where communication is key, there are language barriers that cause confusion and even frustration. In multiple cases, girls would sub in without knowing what position they were playing or what to do. Forcing me to respond with diligence. By being put in countless situations of diversity throughout my years in high school, I have learned to work with people from drastically different countries. However, I have also learned by having such a diverse student body, that diversity is not just due to ethnicity, but also because of one's upbringing. In order to be a well-rounded person, one must be able to respond to all kinds of differences with understanding and helpful solutions, instead of judgement.
Whitman:
1. One thing Walla Walla is famous for is sweet onions – they’re not only tasty, but also multi-layered. What’s a layer of your life not highlighted in your application that would add to Whitman’s community?
On every team, there is the star. The person who scores the most goals, makes the most baskets, or has the highest hitting percentage; however, I was never this person. Do not get me wrong, I am a competitive athlete who competed at a varsity level in soccer all four of high school and three years in volleyball. However, I did not always make the most impressive plays; instead, I was looked at as the reliable player. The one my teammates could depend on to always be consistent and work hard. Like the sweet onions in Walla Walla, I have always been a dependable staple to my community. Not only in my sports teams, but in classes my teachers look at me as a student who they know will always come to class prepared, with my work completed, and ready to learn. With many interests and passions, my layers vary from being the varsity volleyball captain, to president of my school's environmental club, to thriving in AP Photography. I may not be the A+ student in every class or the MVP of all my athletic teams, but I have a wide range of interests that I dedicate all my time and effort into being the one that people can be count on.
UCSB:
1. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
My school values sustainability throughout all aspects of the campus- from having solar panels on the buildings to composting food waste. However, there are still improvements that can be made. As a member of CONCORPS, my school's environmental club, we work to complete projects throughout the year to bring awareness to the student body and enhancements to the schools greenness. Last year, we decreased the food waste in the dining hall by half by making presentations to the school, working with the dining hall to compost, and getting rid of all paper/plastic containers in the dining hall that used to increase our waste immensely. In addition, we planned Earth Day activities, which ranged from building gardens to building raptor poles to picking up trash. This year, I am one of the clubs co-presidents and we split the club into smaller sub-groups. The group that I am leading joined the Green Cup Challenge and we are taking place in the competitions to spread awareness on our own campus but among all the schools involved in the Challenge. As a whole, being a part of the club has been rewarding because just in my three years of being a part of it I have seen so many advancements and an increase in student involvement.
2. Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.
I have been looking forward to taking environmental science since freshman year. The topic extremely interested me and the thought of taking a class on topics that I read about for enjoyment excited me. This year, I have been challenged in the AP class, but have not had the urge to complain once because even though it is hard; I am learning facts that are so relevant to my generation and our futures. I seek to gain more knowledge on not only how humans are negatively affecting the environment but also how we can solve the dilemmas of deforestation, pollution, extinction of animals and ecosystems… the list goes on and on. My teacher urges us to learn about these problems not through lectures but by seeing it in hands on activities and research. The class has incited even more passion for the environment and my desire to continue studying natural sciences in college.
3. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
A part of my school’s curriculum is Interim, which is an opportunity for every student to get off campus and learn in a hands-on way. My junior year I went to Puerto Rico to learn about deforestation. I went knowing very little of the impact deforestation has on the ecosystems, however I was soon immersed in the jungle living in tents, going to the bathroom in a humanure toilet, and volunteering every day by building path and planting trees. The area which I visited had been deforested in the 1960s however the organization that we helped, Las Casas de la Selvas, which developed secondary forests to rebuild the ecosystem and use for sustainable timber production. The trip made me discover a passion and interest for protecting forests and ecosystems and led me to this year choosing to do my Global Scholar Diploma Capstone project on The Past and Future of Deforestation in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. I will look at two case studies, from both scholarly and human or fieldwork sources and ultimately, create recommendations on best practices that might be applicable to other Central American contexts. This weeklong trip has provoked potentially a lifelong interest.
4. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
I live in America’s melting pot, Pueblo Co, where due to the Bessemer steel mill immigrants from all over the world relocated to Pueblo in early 1900s.
However, due to steel market collapse and major loss of jobs Pueblo’s economy suffered greatly which led to major poverty. This poverty is still an issue and with this often lead to lack of an education. Last year, I was chosen to be a part of the Pueblo Leadership Institute, which is led by Pueblo City Library District. Over 8 months, the organization worked to bring awareness and educational availability to girls of all races on how to become leaders. We also raised $20,000 for the library to help continue education and improvement to the community. Working with a select group of girls from all different schools and with varying interests I thought would make fundraising and planning difficult but everyone was dedicated to the cause, and it was a very impactful
opportunity.