|
|
 UNDERGRADSMain Page2007 RankingsAdmissions Q&AsCareer Q&AsUndergrad ForumReading ListRecruiter Q&AsSchool Report CardsSchool ToursUndergrad 24-7Undergrad VideosNews HeadlinesPREMIUM CONTENT
| |
MBA INSIDER: SAMPLE APPLICATION ESSAYS NYU (Stern): Essay 1 NOTE: This essay was submitted as an optional application essay
Growing up in the Philippines as a third-generation Chinese immigrant has had a significant effect on who I am. My experience is not exactly a unique one, as there are over a few hundred thousand ethnic Chinese living in Manila alone. Many of them, like me, were born and raised here. But it is exactly the presence of this big Chinese community that has made our "immigrant experience" that much more defining.
Being very close-knit, the Chinese community has actually created a wall around us, and it was behind these walls that I grew up. As a child, I had only Chinese friends, went to an all-Chinese school, and even had to attend compulsory Chinese classes. In fact, my first language was Fookien, and I only learned to speak Filipino after I had started school. We were essentially living in a world of our own, a world separate from the rest of the Filipinos "out there". During my junior year in high school, a spate of kidnappings hit Manila, targeted mostly at Filipino-Chinese children. A teen-age Chinese girl was actually killed in one of these incidents. This created widespread panic in the Chinese community. An "unofficial curfew" was established, since everyone was afraid to go out after dark. Social life practically came to a standstill, as parties and even prom night was cancelled. Civic action groups were formed and rallies were staged to protest the government's lack of action. At no other point in recent history had we felt our status as Chinese living in a foreign country as acutely as during these turbulent times. The feeling of persecution, though perhaps not as bad as what was experienced by other races in other countries, was still intensely real. We felt as if it were "us against them." College has been a real eye-opening experience. Although I was accepted into [deleted] University, a school which, traditionally, has had a large proportion of Filipino-Chinese students, I chose to study at [deleted] University. Here, for the first time, I actually had close Filipino friends. Of course, it was quite an adjustment at the start. I had to consciously check myself to avoid inserting familiar Chinese words into conversations with Filipino classmates and friends. And I often found myself having to explain Chinese concepts and ideas to them. Being a member of [deleted], the organization of Filipino-Chinese students in [deleted], helped a lot. We conducted informal Chinese tutorial classes, held exhibits on Chinese history, and even organized "mooncake dice games" during the August Chinese mooncake festival. Activities like these have helped expose the greater [deleted] community to Chinese culture. Being a Filipino-Chinese has made me a more broad-minded person, open to the intermingling of ideas, concepts, and opinions. For instance, I am a Catholic and have obtained my education from a Jesuit university. However, my grandmother, who grew up in China, is a devout Buddhist. Consequently, I am quite familiar with Buddhist beliefs and traditions. In fact, my value system has actually become a quaint mixture of Catholic beliefs and Buddhist ideas. Being very organized and precise by nature, I usually want everything in black and white. But my racial heritage has taught me to accept the fact that things are not always clear-cut. I have learned to live with and even appreciate the ambiguity and vagueness which result from the interweaving of ideas and culture. Perhaps born out of my efforts to transcend the box that I often find myself in because of my being ethnic Chinese, I have also developed a strong sense of self. For instance, many people assume that my being Chinese automatically means that I am very practical and business-minded, that I am good in quantitative subjects like Accounting or Finance, but that my creative or artistic side is somehow stifled. Although it is true that I like working with numbers, and am quite practical when it comes to managing my finances, I don't believe that this is necessarily a result of my being Chinese. At the same time, I also love to write, to paint, and am a big fan of plays, musicals, and other creative works of art. I have not tried to avoid being something that I really am just because I want to stop reinforcing certain ideas that people have about Filipino-Chinese, but I have also tried to pursue other paths which are traditionally non-Chinese. I feel that as we grow toward a more global community, we must try to outgrow the ethnic labels being put on us. This doesn't mean that I didn't feel proud when Filipino singer Lea Salonga made it big in Broadway with Miss Saigon, or that I don't cheer every time China lands on the top three of the Olympic medal standings. But I strongly believe that we are who we are, and although a substantial part of that may be due to our heritage and upbringing, each of us is still distinctively unique. 
BW MALL
SPONSORED LINKS
Buy a link now!Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | SEPTEMBER Learn about your online education options |
 Copyright 2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |
MBA Insider
Printer-Friendly Version
