Rip it up, folks!
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:26 pm
*****Should we title???****
My high school, ____________, hosts a student body consisting almost entirely of young pupils from the upper crust of _________. As great as the school is, it places the students in a bubble, which shelters them from the oftentimes-harsh realities of urban life. Consequently, outside of summer and school year employment, I seldom spent time with people from different backgrounds until my freshman year of college. This sheltered lifestyle led to one of the reasons I transferred to Vanderbilt; I wanted to see and meet people from entirely different backgrounds, so that I could absorb the new ideas and perspectives in order help form a better, more just world.
Two experiences in my life helped cultivate this mindset: my internship with Congressman _______ in the summer of 2011 and my valuable time working as a fry cook the summer before my freshman year of college. Each day at Congressman _______'s office we read from reputable sources such as the New York Times, and after a few weeks perusing various topics, I began to focus on a subject of great concern for me – educational equality – and in the end submitted an analytical paper to ________ discussing education. This research caused me to think back to a previous summer when I interacted with my Mexican-American co-workers at a poolside cantina. My time flipping burgers alongside people from totally different backgrounds informed me of the innate disadvantages of which some people are assigned at birth. Here, the inequities in the American educational system became disturbingly apparent. My co-worker Jojo, for instance, who – just like me – made the same celebratory walk across his high school’s stage to receive his diploma a few weeks before, consistently committed grammatical errors and misspelled common English words. Being the same age and having grown up not too far apart, the dichotomous relationship between our education and upbringing really struck me – my bubble burst. If education, a likely precursor to a person’s success, becomes stratified between classes based on socioeconomic status, how can we still claim the “American Dream?”
Because of this newfound interest, I began working in addition to my internship with Preston Taylor Ministries, a service group founded to combat the complications present in the Preston Taylor housing project. Hoping it would spark an interest in reading literature, I started a Harry Potter reading class within Preston Taylor Ministries for a small group of children. In my experience, I was overjoyed by even the most basic semblances of change such as being asked upon entrance into the room: “What’s going to happen this week, Mister Joe?” Although many of the children were too young to really sharpen their reading skills, I sensed a growing excitement from week to week, which demonstrates their increased willingness to learn. My time with these children affected me greatly, as it helped engrain an interest in public justice, and has cultivated a particular interest in educational advocacy.
In law school, I will expand my knowledge of human rights and forms of educational advocacy in order to hopefully practice law in the educational realm. I want to learn what I can do, through legal action, to rectify the many injustices on a domestic, but more importantly, global scale. Through my internship with Congressman _______ and my work with Preston Taylor (in addition to subsequent volunteer activities such as "Vanderbuddies"), I have become aware of some of these breaches in equality and I have seen how they can be improved. Unlike many professions, lawyers and policy makers have the ability to produce real, tangible effects on society, and thus I will use this opportunity to cause change to help better the world in which we live.
Any advice is welcomed, but specifically:
- What do you think of length?
-Of Structure/ Content?
-Am I to title my ps?
-etc.
My high school, ____________, hosts a student body consisting almost entirely of young pupils from the upper crust of _________. As great as the school is, it places the students in a bubble, which shelters them from the oftentimes-harsh realities of urban life. Consequently, outside of summer and school year employment, I seldom spent time with people from different backgrounds until my freshman year of college. This sheltered lifestyle led to one of the reasons I transferred to Vanderbilt; I wanted to see and meet people from entirely different backgrounds, so that I could absorb the new ideas and perspectives in order help form a better, more just world.
Two experiences in my life helped cultivate this mindset: my internship with Congressman _______ in the summer of 2011 and my valuable time working as a fry cook the summer before my freshman year of college. Each day at Congressman _______'s office we read from reputable sources such as the New York Times, and after a few weeks perusing various topics, I began to focus on a subject of great concern for me – educational equality – and in the end submitted an analytical paper to ________ discussing education. This research caused me to think back to a previous summer when I interacted with my Mexican-American co-workers at a poolside cantina. My time flipping burgers alongside people from totally different backgrounds informed me of the innate disadvantages of which some people are assigned at birth. Here, the inequities in the American educational system became disturbingly apparent. My co-worker Jojo, for instance, who – just like me – made the same celebratory walk across his high school’s stage to receive his diploma a few weeks before, consistently committed grammatical errors and misspelled common English words. Being the same age and having grown up not too far apart, the dichotomous relationship between our education and upbringing really struck me – my bubble burst. If education, a likely precursor to a person’s success, becomes stratified between classes based on socioeconomic status, how can we still claim the “American Dream?”
Because of this newfound interest, I began working in addition to my internship with Preston Taylor Ministries, a service group founded to combat the complications present in the Preston Taylor housing project. Hoping it would spark an interest in reading literature, I started a Harry Potter reading class within Preston Taylor Ministries for a small group of children. In my experience, I was overjoyed by even the most basic semblances of change such as being asked upon entrance into the room: “What’s going to happen this week, Mister Joe?” Although many of the children were too young to really sharpen their reading skills, I sensed a growing excitement from week to week, which demonstrates their increased willingness to learn. My time with these children affected me greatly, as it helped engrain an interest in public justice, and has cultivated a particular interest in educational advocacy.
In law school, I will expand my knowledge of human rights and forms of educational advocacy in order to hopefully practice law in the educational realm. I want to learn what I can do, through legal action, to rectify the many injustices on a domestic, but more importantly, global scale. Through my internship with Congressman _______ and my work with Preston Taylor (in addition to subsequent volunteer activities such as "Vanderbuddies"), I have become aware of some of these breaches in equality and I have seen how they can be improved. Unlike many professions, lawyers and policy makers have the ability to produce real, tangible effects on society, and thus I will use this opportunity to cause change to help better the world in which we live.
Any advice is welcomed, but specifically:
- What do you think of length?
-Of Structure/ Content?
-Am I to title my ps?
-etc.
