A person who inspired/influenced me

A handful of my colleges require a supplemental essay with a prompt in the lines of “write about someone who inspired/influenced you in a significant way”.
Does the inspiration/influence have to be academic-related? Does it have to make me a better person in all aspects? If I were to pick a person it would be either Nikola Tesla or Avicii, and I feel like I should write about Tesla over Avicii just because Tesla inspired me to value knowledge and the progress of humanity over personal gains etc and I think that would make a very “righteous” essay. It’s nothing like I’m forcing myself to be inspired by Tesla or anything, I really admire his works and personal beliefs. But I also consider Avicii as a big source of inspiration. Avicii was my “first producer”, I learned the world of electronic music only through him and I’ve been inspired a lot by him in many ways in music.
Either of the essays can be personal. So my question is: is there a particular reason that I should write about one person over the other? Would either be acceptable? Which would stand out more? I have a feeling that quite a lot of people would write about Tesla but I doubt anyone will write about Avicii.

It’s all about how you write the essay. I would say go with the one you feel more passionate about.

That said, it never crossed my daughter’s radar to write about someone she didn’t know personally. She felt she had more information to write a more meaningful essay that way.

@momofsenior1

That’s interesting. I’ve been the other way around; I always thought that it should be a great person from history and not someone I knew personally on everyday basis. Is that a better way to interpret it?

I thought of it as someone my kids knew personally, but if you can write a good essay about a person in history, it would be fine.

The point is not who the person is, but what you took from them/their story and what you did with it. The actual person should be the smallest part of the essay.