Universidad

The past week or so has been full of applying to college. While I was able to differ admission to the University of Washington-Seattle, I am not completely sure that I want to go there. To keep my options open for making a decision in the spring, I am applying to a few other schools as well.

I had an interesting conversation with my friend Javier last week. He is 25, has graduated from university, and lives in his parents home with his girlfriend of four years. He told me that the university he studied at is a two minute walk from his home. While studying, he didn't leave his family, his girlfriend, his friends. He was studying and getting a degree, but that was the only thing in his life that changed. I explained how in the United States we typically go away for school, and that I am planning on going pretty far away (Seattle). He looked at me funny and just asked, "why?". And I didn't have a great answer for him. Now I'm not thinking of doing anything as extreme as living at home and commuting to the University of St. Thomas every day, but I am looking into schools a bit closer to home. Being able to take a mega-bus home for a weekend if I wanted to might be nice. Who knows. I may still end up going to Seattle. But for now I'm going to keep my options open.

This is one of my essays that I just submitted. (and yes it is already submitted, so if you see a glaring grammatical error please don't tell me)

Prompt: "The University values an educational environment that provides all members of the campus community with opportunities to grow and develop intellectually, personally, culturally and socially. In order to give us a more complete picture of you as an individual, please tell us about the particular life experiences, perspectives, talents, commitments and/or interests you will bring to our campus. In other words, how will your presence enrich our community?"

Over the past two months, my perspective of the world has been continually challenged and reshaped. I graduated from high school in June, but decided to take a break from the normal routine by waiting a year to attend college. I am spending my gap year in Venezuela, in a city of roughly one million people called Ciudad Guayana. While here, I am teaching English classes at two parishes. One is in a poor area of this impoverished city; the other is even more destitute.

Becoming a teacher has been a struggle. As an eighteen-year-old recent high school graduate, I have absolutely no qualifications to be an English teacher aside from the fact that I speak English. However, almost universally, the English teachers at the schools here are not native English speakers, or really even English speakers at all. They teach their students out of a book by having them copy phrases over and over again. As a result, many Venezuelans are constantly yearning for the opportunity to learn and receive quality instruction from native speakers like myself. One of my classes meets on Saturday mornings at 6:00 AM. On the first day of the class, I did not have high hopes for many attendees due to the hour. I was surprised and a little shocked upon my arrival ten minutes early to find twenty wide-eyed teenagers waiting for me that first morning. Every Saturday since, attendance has been unwavering. These young people, almost all between the ages of sixteen and twenty, both impress and shame me. I cannot help but recall the mornings when I did not have the willpower to get up a half hour early for a review session before school, or the energy to participate in my first class of the day. The complaints of many of my friends about their 8:00 AM college courses also come to mind. My students here understand the value of education, and are willing to make sacrifices to obtain it.

Only a quarter of my planned stay has elapsed, yet I already have garnered experience and fresh perspective that will remain with me throughout my lifetime. Education is incredibly undervalued in the United States. Whether it is a lack of appropriate resources for good teachers, or unmotivated students skipping class, the value of education is under appreciated. We, and I speak now for my generation of Americans, are accustomed to education being a given. What if it was not? This year, as a teacher, I am learning to value education and seeing the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity to learn. Next year, as a student, I plan to carry these lessons with me. The lens through which I see the world is changing, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with my future classmates.