UW - Does my work with people with disabilities satisfy "cultural understanding?"

College Essays
1

I volunteer passionately and regularly with people suffering from physical and developmental disabilities in my community. This experience has shown me the struggles that these individuals face and even my own past-misconceptions about those with disabilities. Might this satisfy UW’s personal statement requirement for “cultural understanding.”

I feel like this “disability culture” isn’t something that they may expect to be reading about.

UW says, "Cultural Understanding:
Thoughtfully describe the ways in which culture had an impact on your life and what you have learned about yourself and society as a result. How has your own cultural history enriched and/or challenged you?

NOTE: Culture may be defined broadly. Cultural understanding is often drawn from the ethnic background, customs, values, and ideas of a person’s immediate family, community, and/or social environment in which they live."

Thank you!!

2

How were your past conceptions of disabilities part of the values and ideas you’d gotten from your family and broader cultural context? Have those ideas been challenging to overcome? Have the people you work with come from a variety of cultures themselves that impact how they respond to their disabilities?

I’d say that would be an interesting twist. Of course there’s a risk it could veer off topic (and risk not answering the question), but it could also address the issue from an unexpected angle that really stands out. I suspect that adcoms like reading about something they don’t expect to be reading about. Wakes them up :wink:

3

Thank you, MomOnALaptop! :slight_smile: