Personal Statement

“A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.”

“So, where are you from?” The question seems simple enough and yet, it is almost impossible for me to provide a straight answer. I was born in India. Does that help? Of course, the fact that I haven’t lived there for the past ten years cannot be overlooked. My father’s job has led us to a life in almost every continent. Asia aside, I have lived in Africa, my family and I spent three years in Algeria; America, I am currently a Canadian citizen living in Quebec; and Europe, I was in London, England for the past couple of years. I have to take all these elements into consideration while I desperately try to provide the shortest answer I can to the aforementioned question. Let’s just say, people find it hard to stay awake while I am narrating my life story. Therefore, it’s been a recent hobby of mine to try and come up with a self-definition that would help me keep the audience’s interest and I have managed to reduce it to a two-word phrase: I am a world citizen. Fitting, don’t you think? The only thing I would have to do to make that statement absolutely true would be to spend a few years in Australia and South America. Then, I’d be all set. However, I do think that my experience with people from all around the world has made me a richer person in what I have to bring to the college community.

This experience has been greatly added to during my recent stay in London, where I went to an international school. It was there, more than anywhere else, that I actually gained a sense of how diverse our world is. I became very close to people from Japan, Holland, Israel, Norway, Germany, Australia, Pakistan and the United States, just to name a few. That school was a melting pot of different cultures, ideals and expectations and it helped all of us understand how great we could make this world if only we learned to face and accept these differences.

It is this understanding that I bring with me to your community. During my life, I have opened my mind to so many diverse viewpoints that I almost have to consider every single one of them before I can formulate my own opinion about a situation. I have learned to treasure diversity and use my own experience with it to my advantage. After having lived from country to country, changing schools like I change clothes, I am proud to say that I can adapt to almost any new situation in a matter of days. As a world citizen, I bring to you my sense of wonder at what diversity really is and my will to help people see how brilliant we could make our future if only we embraced our differences.

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The end is a little cheesy, I know. So, if anyone has any suggestions, I'm glad to take them.

Danke