[Student Profile]
[Prompt & Essay]
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. (650)
Air. It knows no color, no sound, no shape一 just an invisible blanket cocooning the world in a gentle embrace. Although invisibility often means erasure, air remains tenacious and if you listen closely, you can unlock the untold stories of the billions of lives it carries with it.
Let’s start with mine: I was, well 0, when I got my first real taste of air and five when it began tasting bitter. “No one wants you. Your skin is the color of poop,” it hissed. I was seven when I fell in love with the musical sounds it could produce through Vibrations in my vocal chords and 14 when it started hissing again, louder this time, “Hey [name], I found a picture of you. It’s charcoal.” I was 15, the youngest at my science internship program, when on the daily walks to and from my dorms to the research labs early in the morning, it Empowered me.
Fire. It’s ambiguous either taking on the form of something inspirational like the Radiating, fiery passion that can drive success or the all-consuming, vengeful blaze that burns everything it touches. I have always been able to navigate my way through the smoke left behind by years of colorism because the fire inside of me burns brighter than the fire around me. At five, the fire was my love for making words dance on paper in a poetic, rhythmic progression, and the girl with poop-colored skin went on to win gold at her school's Young Author’s contest. At 14, the writing embers reignited and the charcoal girl went on to represent her graduating class of 500 with a charismatic speech and successfully Self-publish two novels.
Water. It flows in cascades, healing, hydrating, and breathing life into nature to form harmonious connections. At 17, I found a confluence, a junction of rivers, where technology met music through the demos I coded for a laptop orchestra一this time propelling science forward with research while simultaneously composing beautiful melodies that flowed from one heart to the next. I also found some permeability, a crack through the isolation our world was drowning under, from where I could connect the discouraged hearts of many people from across the nation with an entrepreneurial summit I founded and crafted with Ambition and purpose from the ground up.
Earth. It sustains the Tender interrelatedness of nature and nurture and forms the foundation upon which our fragile world rests. It was a rude awakening when I realized I had already excelled in challenging classes, prestigious programs, and grand International competitions. I wanted to extend my roots and make a Lasting difference for someone else. And I did. I worked without pay for a startup stripped of its revenue due to a dependency on the airline industry in a time where flight was restricted. I designed and created a national competition for other high schoolers whose Extracurriculars were canceled. I wrote a free book, available on Amazon, for parents to occupy their restless kids during quarantine. I pioneered partnerships between organizations across the country in support of meaningful causes like funding for small Black-owned businesses.
I am VERSATILE. Business, technology, music, and writing all forge a tight bond within me to foster intertwining rings of creativity, innovation, and impact. I optimize the opportunities I’m presented with and follow through on what I do. And what I do matters. I am resilient, hard and strong like ice, and also beautiful like sparkles of light that shine off the tops of pools of glistening water. A huge part of me forever remains humbled, rooted to the earth and seeking opportunities for growth, while another part rises like a phoenix reborn in confidence, deemed the victor in an epic battle against the fire life throws at me and soars swiftly through the air: All the way to the top.
What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (50)
Isolationism in various struggles for equality. We need collective liberation to abridge inequities like the disparities in opportunities for women of color (WOC) due to the legacy of colonization devaluing bodies of color, perpetuating double consciousness, and making WOC subject to hypersexualization, objectification, dehumanization, and discrimination in workplaces and beyond.
How did you spend your last two summers? (50)
Filled with enrichment and self-development, my summers included publishing two books, taking college courses on women and society, working at Camp Galileo, learning business through two startup internships, coding music through a software development internship with an SCU professor, and founding a national entrepreneurship competition to replace lost opportunities for students due to COVID. (50)
What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? (50)
I would love to have witnessed one of Benjamin Lay’s anti-slavery theatrical productions. Despite coming from a place of privilege as an Anglo-American, Lay was a humanitarian who rose above the racist ideologies of his time to condemn the inhumane institution of slavery as one of the first abolitionists.
(49)
Tell us something that is meaningful to you and why? (250)
The whisper felt like a scream, “She’s too dark. Where do her black shorts end and legs begin?” I snapped my head to match a face to the voice I instantly resented and found a pair of eyes staring into mine. I realized he wanted me to hear it.
My identity as a woman of color gives me solidarity amongst an inspiring network of people with collective values. But hypervisibility and scrutiny centered on my intersectional identity implies repression is innate in the lives of women of color (WOC) making fighting against synergistic forms of structural oppression all the more meaningful to me.
My opposition to injustices are exemplified through my resistance against microaggressions from both the people and institutions I’ve interacted with 一 from overcoming commonplace bullying all the way to carrying the story of derogatory slurs from our assistant principal regarding dress code (that exposed a double standard when juxtaposed with the silence following boys running across campus in just speedos) to local news outlets. The omnipresence of colorism and sexism from very early on in my life exposes how deeply ingrained in our culture prejudices are.
As I saw a resurgence of social justice movements, I jumped at the chance of expanding my understanding of WOC through academia. Being an educated woman of words and action by restoring subconsciously diminished pride within myself and other WOC through activism is sacred to me. I want to make the world see us for who we are: Innovative. Intellectual. Powerful.
(250)