Example Prep School Application Essay
"Please reflect on an influence and/or experience that has shaped your personal life, academic successes, and goals. How has this influence and/or experience contributed to your growth as a person/student?"
As award winning musician Dominique Jones once said, “It’s bigger than black or white, it’s the problem with the whole way of life, we can’t change over night! We might as well start somewhere, I am going to go ahead and start here, I WILL make it count will I’m here.” Unfortunately, there are many situations in the world where one might face discrimination to their differences, however it is one’s initiative, the attempt at change in a positive way that allows for differences to be celebrated. This happened to me in my first year of primary school when I faced racism and discrmination because of my religion, however I did not let this stop me as I took initiative to change this situation.
Because of my religion, my name, appearance and clothing at times were often different from others at school. Sometimes I would need to leave class or at certain times oblige to my prayer times, additionally, my name was Mohammed Hidirligil, as you can probably guess I was tormented quite a lot for my name being extreneously long and difficult to spell and pronounce(especially my last name). All though I would face occasional tormenting and schoolyard tomfoolery, I ignored most of these comments and insults, I grew into a stronger person. All was well until one day, it seemed as if my best friend was ignoring me, I became delirious of this situation as anxiety prompted me to ask him what the problem was which I did, however his response was despicable; he told me he did not want to be incorporated with an individual like myself, I did not understand his response asking him to elaborate with him resulting in shouting out: You’re a terrorist! Just go away! Although I knew I was noticeably different in my appearance, name and day to day schedule, I was just 6 years old, how could I be a terrorist! This event largely impacted me changing my outlook on certain things, however I knew that I could not be discouraged, I needed to take initiative in changing these racial stereotypes at least for myself and my community.
Instantaneously after this evident, I realised that I should and could not change, if someone cannot appreciate me for who I am it should not be my problem. This new mentality provided me with better self confidence and respect as I finally was able to realise that being different was a property of mine that I should foster and develop upon. Throughout my primary school years I continued to appreciate anyone and everyone forthemselves and for their uniquely however I realised that not everyone had the same mindset as demonstrated by the incident with my freind. I decided to form a student-led club/organization also known as the interfaith coalition league of New York. This was a small club, only 3-4 people that wanted to join disregarding me however I knew that the impact of this club would be substantial. I worked with the student council to fund trips, events and community outreach with this club to reach the general community of our school. For example, we would have trips going to different places of religion and culture such as churches, temples and even China-town or little italy to celebrate cultures, in one of our endeavours we even hosted an overnight trip to a mosque in Washington D.C. This organization still continues up to this day as a result of my initiative in making a change in my community.
Throughout my life, I have realised that everyone is different and that’s okay, differences should be embraced and nurtured. Everyone has a different identity but what matters is the kindness of one’s heart. Additionally, the hardest choices require the strongest will, the initiatives similar to the one I took in my primary and middle school years are the ones that greatly impact the world in a positive way shining hope of equality on future generations.