Your
background, experiences, and values will enhance and diversify Kellogg.
How? (1-2 double-spaced pages)
The Darden
School seeks a diverse and unique entering class of future managers. How
will your distinctiveness enrich our learning environment and enhance
your prospects for success as a manager?
Your background,
experiences, and values will enhance the diversity of Kellogg’s
student body. How?
During my senior
year in college, my father was diagnosed with terminal skin cancer. Like
most cancer patients, he spent the majority of his time in the hospital;
he often spoke of how nice the staff was, and how much his stay was
enriched by the services offered by the volunteers. I felt a great debt
to those people who helped my father and mother during that difficult
time, and I wanted to do the same for other people in similar
situations.
When I moved to
New York after graduation, I decided to volunteer at the Sloan-Kettering
Memorial Hospital until I found a job. Over the next few months, I
worked thirty hours a week helping patients and their families. One of
the most rewarding experiences at the hospital was organizing patient
voting for the 1992 Presidential election. I was responsible for
coordinating the procurement and distribution of absentee ballots with
nurses, patients, hospital staff, and the various voting administrations
within the five boroughs of New York City.
The response was
overwhelming. The patients were overjoyed to be included in the voting
process. I knew from my father that the most demoralizing circumstance
of a prolonged hospital stay was the feeling that the world was passing
you by. On that November day, however, I was able to help those patients
feel like part of society again. I will always be grateful for that.
Once I found a
job, I had to curtail my hours at the hospital, but I did not stop my
volunteer work. And although my job prohibits me from volunteering as
much as I’d like, I still try to find the time. My volunteer work has
allowed me to help others cope with the terrible pain of illness, which
I have experienced first-hand and through my family. The satisfaction
that I gain when I help patients and their families is unlike any other
feeling I have ever had in my life.
I’ve found that
my work also helps me to deal with and accept the loss of my own father.
If it were not for him, I never would have started volunteering. The
good work I do is a constant tribute to his memory.
As an individual,
I have learned the benefits of altruism, and I firmly believe that
companies should also take an active role in philanthropy. I was pleased
to see in the admissions brochure that other Kellogg students feel the
same, as demonstrated by their Business with a Heart program. I know
that my unique perspective and experiences would contribute to this
group, and enable me to enrich the lives of the community as well as
those of my fellow students.
This essayist is a
good example of someone who chose to focus on one trait rather than
several. By choosing only one quality, her essay is concise, to the
point, and easy to read. She also leaves a strong impression by
introducing only one theme. This essay is particularly strong because
the writer does not simply label herself as a volunteer and leave it at
that. She makes the topic personal. First, she walks us through her
motivation, then through the experience itself, and finally through how
it has affected her and made her different. She gives details to bring
each of these steps alive but manages to do so in a very short amount of
space. She even specifically details how this experience will help her
contribute by listing the name of the program she has targeted.
