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MBA INSIDER: SAMPLE APPLICATION ESSAYS Vanderbilt (Owen): Essay 1
There were two Caucasian males in perfect suits sitting down when I arrived in the main lobby of [deleted]'s world headquarters in [deleted], New York. They looked up at the same time when I entered, then looked down again just as quickly, as if no one was there. It didn't matter to me; that's the treatment I usually receive from white males. When the fourth member of our [deleted] Interview Day group arrived, however, I was elated. Black hair, brown skin, high heels, and a warm smile that I promptly returned. She sat across from me, looked at the Brooks Brothers, who offered her the same indifferent glance they gave me, then gave me a knowing grin.
Her name was [deleted], she wasn't Hispanic, as I first thought, and she looked as scared as I felt. She was an American-born East Indian, and less than a month from where we sat in the lobby, nervous and worried about whether we would end up working for the company behind the little yellow box, she would become my dearest friend. We interviewed, accepted offers, and started on the same day. We were both from the Southern U.S.: she from [deleted], Florida, myself from [deleted], Tennessee. That, however, was where the similarities ended. As I got to know her, I learned that her family was from the state of [deleted], a southern state on the Indian subcontinent, and instead of being Hindu in religion, as I'd always assumed Indians were, she was Catholic, a minority of significant number in India. I learned that her name was the name of a holy river in India, her middle name is her ancient family name her last name, is actually the first name of her father, a custom that is prevalent only in Christian Indians. I learned that her ethnic group was Malayalay, the nickname for which is Mallu, and even learned a few words in Malayalem, the tribal language. I even changed her parents' impressions of African-Americans. When the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred, [deleted] and I were together, talking with each other about the earlier weekend when we heard from a colleague's radio about the attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. We were both shocked and terrified, and saddened profoundly, but we scrambled for news and information. I can't remember being scared like that before, but it was so comforting to have her around. When she came to my cubicle in tears a few days later, I thought she was still feeling the effects of the attacks, but it turned out to be the treatment she began to receive from other [deleted] employees because she just happened to share a complexion with the people who were identified as the perpetrators of the tragedy. It was frustrating to hear that because [deleted], who is neither Arabic nor Muslim, is an American-born U.S. citizen, and to hear the pain in her voice, when she would never hurt anyone, or support anyone who would. It taught me that no matter how civilized or educated we think we become, we are never more than an unexpected tragedy away from degenerating into hatred and intolerance. In learning about [deleted] as a person and getting to know her family and home culture, I find myself somewhat ashamed of having the mind-set that our way of life is the right way of life, and that all others would do themselves a world of good to incorporate themselves in this culture, which is not necessarily true. After having a rousing discussion with her and some of her cousins, it became apparent to me that although the September 11 attacks are in no way excusable, it is a testament to how untouchable we feel that we are in this country. In Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow points out that the hierarchy is just that—hierarchical, meaning that motivation cannot be located at a higher level of the pyramid than the needs that have been actualized. This means that there is no such thing as a person being driven by his/her love of something (self-actualization) if their physiological (food, water, and shelter) needs are not being met. If we look at the same hierarchy from a culture point of view, we realize that as societal and economic needs are met, cultural interests and motivators become more and more trivial. In America, the tools are available to meet all needs, from the physiological level to the safety level, and all the way up to self-actualization, which is where motivation for survival or completing a task is done for the internal satisfaction of the individual. This is the highest part of the pyramid. The more economic needs are met, the less pressing concerns are likely to be. In essence, when all your major problems are solved, the smaller ones seem more important. After September 11, our culture fell down the pyramid to the safety level, where we felt that our everyday lives were at risk, and like a step down the evolutionary ladder, our behavior degenerated just as quickly, as evinced by the treatment [deleted] and others like her received after that day. This is not my way of saying that American culture should stop being what it is—on the contrary. Some of its beauty lies in its ability to allow us the leisure to put so much emphasis on things that just do not matter in the long run. Still, I find myself not liking the softly banal, bovine-like implacability with which I assume that my life is lived well. It's embarrassing to me to think that we, as a people, were so shocked that the kind of violence that's run rampant in the world would dare to visit on our doorsteps, as if we were above it all. It is this kind of complacency that I don't want bred into my management style. I intend to build cultures that operate at the self-actualization level, but are still "clean slate" enough to place emphasis on the major concerns, and realize when other cultures are experiencing the problems that we have already resolved for ourselves. It's changed my interpersonal style in that I am no longer as myopic as to believe that my way of life is idyllic or morally upstanding. It's changed my communication skills in that I no longer enter a situation believing that my reality is the same as someone else's reality, and taught me to respect that difference. Finally, it's made me desire a management career even more in that I can identify current managers who operate under the old paradigm, and plan what I will change when I assume similar responsibilities. After working intensively with human resources, [deleted] was able to return to a safe environment, and she demonstrated her resilience by returning to a normal work life. I, on the other hand, have been changed forever. My knowledge of East Asian cultures has grown significantly from what I knew before, and I am cognizant of some of the experiences that [deleted] and people like her go through on a daily basis, and although the trials and tribulations that African-Americans go through are difficult, there are other peoples who have it just as difficult. Working and being with [deleted] has enriched my life in such a way that I am able to not only understand the background of others, but to truly look with a global view at my behavior and assumptions. 
BW MALL
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