During high school, I have developed two of the dimensions of an educated person. These include being socially responsible and intercultural understanding. The third dimension that I would like to develop at Kalamazoo College is career readiness. I also have set several goals for my first year at Kalamazoo.

I have developed social responsibility through my involvement in school organizations such as National Honor Society. I have done community service as well as service projects within my own school. I have participated in several blood drives by helping to organize, run, and donate blood at the event. I organized a Dance-A-Thon at my school last year to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. I have also helped out at other NHS events such as “Tag Day”—a day when we position NHS members throughout the community of Chelsea to collect money for Chelsea High School Scholarships. Last year the scholarships were a great success because almost every graduating senior who applied received some kind of scholarship. Also, through working for a non-profit organization, the Ann Arbor YMCA, I have given back to the community. I spent the summer working with young children. As a camp counselor, it was my job to be responsible to the kids, to organize activities for the day camp, and to role model appropriate behavior.

Through travel in Europe and studying Spanish in school I have developed intercultural understanding. I have traveled in Europe both as a tourist and as a family member staying with my relatives. This has given me two different perspectives—that of the average visitor who doesn’t always understand all of the customs, and that of a more experienced local person. During stays with my relatives, I had to learn about their customs and traditions. There were some customs that I didn’t like at first or I wasn’t comfortable with, but after some time I learned to accept them. Also, in school, I have enjoyed learning about Spanish cultures and traditions. I have progressed through the course sequence to Spanish 5. One of the activities that we did every year in that class was to put on a Spanish Fair in May. Each Spanish class in the school would have a different project to do during the fair. This included making food, making videos, and doing traditional Spanish dances. During the last year in Spanish 5, as the most experienced Spanish students in the building, we were in charge of organizing the event.

The third dimension that I would like to develop at Kalamazoo is leadership. I believe that it is one of my weaker areas because I am a quiet person. I need to work on my public speaking skills as well as better ways to organize a group to get tasks done. I was a swim team captain my senior year in high school, but I still think that I need improvement on my leadership skills. I hope to eventually become a leader in several of the organizations that I participate in. I believe that this can be accomplished by getting involved early in several organizations. I also hope that LandSea will help me achieve this goal.

My three goals for the year are to work on academic development, to meet new people, and to work on organization and time management skills. I believe that the most important goal is time management because without it, I won’t be able to do everything that I hope to. I will have a busy schedule with two swim practices and tough academic classes. I also want to have fun and meet new people. This won’t be very hard, but I will need to budget my time well. Academic development is my most important goal. I am going to college to improve on my weaknesses and to learn about my own interests. I plan to achieve this by taking challenging courses and working hard to do well in them.

Overall, I know that my first year will be a success because I have taken the time to write down my goals, and I have thought about how to achieve them. I will work on progressing toward my goals of leadership, academic development, meeting new people, and working on time management.