I am an upcoming second year student at a community college, majoring in English and Creative Writing, and applying to universities this upcoming Fall 2015.
My brain is bombarded due to reading my personal statement over and over for hours. This essay is on rough draft condition, and has a lot of major flaws.
I still need to add that I have tutored high school students, a member of Honors Transfer Program and Honors Society (Alpha Gamma Sigma) – where can I insert these extra curricular activities?
Also, please disregard the last paragraph of my essay. I need to talk about the infinite possibilities of literature as a conclusion rather than what I have written.
Lastly, I need to shorten this essay. This personal statement can only be up to 1000 words, and I already have 993 words.
PROMPT 1
What is your intended major? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had in the field — such as volunteer work, internships and employment, participation in student organizations and activities — and what you have gained from your involvement.
I often ask myself, “Why do we only have one life to live?” There are so many things for us to do, let alone learn. Though faced with so many choices, I am certain about the career choice I want to pursue—just like Amir, a gifted fictional character who later became a published novelist, from the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I want to become a writer, tell stories, and leave my footprints with the words I use. Nonetheless the parallels, Amir and I inhabit disparate characteristics such as my passion of sharing knowledge; Amir was a sole writer. I once encountered Charles Brannan’s quotation: “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” In writing, I believe that I can present a clever idea whether through sarcasm, satire, symbolism, or irony; however, I also believe that solely a reader can collect ideas from a writer due to time reality. In contrast, being an English professor provides me the opportunity of exchanging thoughts and opinions with the students regarding Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, and other well-known writers.
I first fell in love with writing when I was in sixth grade in the Philippines because of Carmencita Pacis, my journalism teacher who introduced me to the various jobs of a journalist—from gathering information to presenting it in either written or spoken form in news stories, featured articles, or documentaries. Since then, I have expanded my aforementioned writing skills to writing fiction and poetry heading to the infinite possibilities of literature. Writing continues to be a source of enjoyment for me—a substitute to self-harm; it also allows me to create my own world, my own utopia, or my own apocalypse; writing saves me when reality is relentless in its veracity.
Writing for me has been a method of recording my own memories, as well as a source of that learning I have talked about above. My mother had always told me when I was little that there would be a writer in the family—I guess that would be me. My dream to become an educator and a writer might seem somewhat far-fetched attributable to this era’s towering unemployment rate, but I am willing to pursue these dreams and help others through my teaching and writing.
In an effort to get involved and gain insight into the Santa Ana College community, I took part in the 2014 Summer Bridge Program provided by the Student Support Services Program. This introduced me to various clubs and organizations on campus, specifically clubs that focus on writing. Therefrom, I joined SAC Literary Journal in Fall 2014, a club that celebrates the voice of not solely the Santa Ana College students and staff, but as well as the citizens of the aforesaid city. On the same note, the advisors of this club, Stephanie Keefer and Nidžara Pečenković, have strengthened my fanaticism for writing—they believed in my writing skills and helped me publish two of my short stories! As the club’s Media and Marketing Officer, I play an active role in soliciting submissions, revising and editing writing, and disseminating the product. By publishing students’ writing, we help them to impact the community with their poetry, stories, and opinions. In a way, we are able to leave our footprints behind and be remembered.
PROMPT 2
Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
I, too, know a few things about overcoming challenges and pursuing dreams. Moving to the United States about four years ago from the Philippines was not easy; I had in front of me, a new daily-used-language, a new culture, and a new beginning. For the greater part of my life, it has always been my mother and me. My father died months before I was born leaving my mother to work tirelessly to support me. In the Philippines, my mother always pushed me to do my best and emphasized the importance of education—there were times when I considered giving up on education due to financial obstacles; however, having been raised to be a disciplined and independent young man, I realized quitting was not an option. In hindsight, my mother’s efforts were rewarded even more than she could have hoped for; I was so advanced in my studies that I was able to move up a grade when I arrived in the United States and graduate a year sooner in high school. Still, although I had taken advantage of the educational offerings in the Philippines and learned English prior to coming to the United States, I was not confident in my pronunciation and proper use of grammar. In order to overcome this language barrier, I joined various clubs and organizations, attended readings—where couple of these featured my short stories—and open mics, and volunteered to present a lecture throughout high school as I still do in college—it made me realize how powerful this language is, and that I can adapt and be successful in any environment. My previous accomplishments in academics and confidence in my ability to overcome adversity allowed me to flourish, and I soon immersed myself in the American culture and became a part of this diverse society.
I am an ambitious, hardworking and challenge-oriented individual who is eager to fulfill a lifelong desire to become a qualified English professor. It is for this reason I am eager to begin the next step in my academic journey. Graduating at a young age provides me the opportunity to slow down and focus my attention on my undergraduate studies, and the ability to reap the benefits that only the University of California experience can provide. I look forward to the opportunities ahead, and to the future that we will shape together. Indeed, education will be the pathway to my successful future.