It was November of 2018. I was working on my application for graduate programs. Seven tabs on Google Chrome were open — three of which belonged to the universities I was interested in, two of them were dedicated to the courses offered. On one of the tabs, Imagine Dragon’s “Believer” on YouTube was boosting my morale. And finally, on the last tab, I was reading comments made by some Redditors on r/GradSchool.
School applications can possess unique challenges. The nature of these challenges isn’t known before undertaking them, yet almost all of us pretend we know enough about them to procrastinate until our deadlines! One of the many challenges commonly faced is an essay where you are expected to express your career interests and justify them based on your backgrounds and experiences. The elements that go into this essay are Justification, Persuasion, Introduction, Research, Authentication, Actions, Promises, etc., and they must be put within word limits set by universities. Every draft you produce fills your mind with doubts about whether you are carved out for the program and for that university. The situation gets serious when all the pairs of eyes you show your essays to offer diverse feedback, and although that is healthy, the flood of inputs can create crippling fear. At last, you attempt your final draft connecting all the elements as well as considering the feedback, but the fear of rejection, judgment, and living up to expectations never leaves; if anything, it gets more intense until the last second of the deadline and once past that deadline, it exponentially grows because now you wait for the decision.
The essay offers a peek into a candidate’s personality, life, background, and overall outlook towards the field of their liking. If school essays can orient candidates towards focusing their efforts on their career, can they also not align them towards focusing on developing solutions for some of the biggest problems mankind is facing? Of course, there’s a big difference between offering a solution and implementing one, but doesn’t seeking out solutions towards big challenges foster creativity and unique perspectives? Does it not give a chance to recognize problems and acknowledge them?
A simple search on the internet will tell you the potential problems mankind is facing today. There are issues at all kinds of levels – from individual to global, including world hunger, climate change, and access to basic and affordable healthcare, among other things. So long as these issues prevail, we as humans aren’t living up to our highest ideals.
What is the point of education? To dispel ignorance and to kindle the flame of knowledge to shepherd mankind towards their highest ideals.
Unfortunately, today’s education is geared more towards making students better bets in rat races than shaping them towards thinking about the betterment of mankind. One of the ways this can be changed is by introducing essays that aim to solve global challenges in the application of candidacy for enrolling students. This essay is different from the regular essays, like Statement of purpose (SOP) essays that candidates usually submit to their universities. Introducing this essay doesn’t mean the removal of the SOPs, but instead, serves them as a stepping stone towards their career.
Essays can also have a lasting effect. The actions taken by one generation can have an immediate effect on the successive generation. So, what kind of essays can universities introduce in their application candidacy? Here are some examples:
- How will you contribute to solving a particular prevailing global issue?
- How will the program you’re enrolling in, serve as a medium to bring changes in global problems?
- You’re a leader tasked to solve the biggest ongoing global issues that are dearest to you. What action plans will you develop to address the issue? What are some of the skills you’ll need to lead that change?
- If there is a change you want to bring to your community today, what will that be, and how will you measure the outcome?
- In what way will you make the world a better place for the next generation to flourish?
Thus, small shifts in education can produce rippling effects towards larger goals. To summarize the objective of this Op-Ed: “Act Locally, Think Globally!” But with a little bit of twist: Act Locally, Think Globally, Write Indelibly!
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