When I think about this topic, I only have one thing that comes to mind that has actually been really important to me, but I've heard some people say that this should just be about a "unique/cool factor." I have some ideas that might work for the latter, but they seem boring to me. The ideas I don't love are:
1. I played soccer from the time I was 5 until about 17. Along the way I tore my ACL and medial meniscus in both knees, resulting in 4 knee surgeries. Kind of an interesting experience, allowed me to learn a lot about sports medicine. I also just really enjoy sports but like... so do a ton of other people?
2. I got into viola in middle school kind of by accident and I ended up becoming super passionate about it/playing at a high level. I performed twice at Carnegie hall in college which was kind of a huge moment and very meaningful for me. But I also feel like a lot of people do this too and I don't necessarily see how this would introduce diversity to my med school class.
The story I have that actually really influenced my world perspective/my way of thinking and interacting with others:
3. I lived in a SUPER homogenous area up through middle school (all white, upper-middle class). For high school I applied to a magnet school about an hour away that I decided I would commute to. The school was about 95% minority students and I was really excited about it. I got to experience diversity for the first time in my life and learned how much I love learning about other people and their stories/life experiences. I was also the first jewish person that a lot of my classmates had ever met, so it was cool that I felt like we all learned something from each other. It was also the first time I experienced being at the MOST underfunded school in my entire county. I learned a lot about economic disparities in education and it became really personal and important to me. Some kids that I had gone to middle school with I heard made really negative/messed up comments about the high school I ended up going to, and I think it just taught me a lot about how prejudiced this world can really be. The whole experience was very formative for me and my love for learning about people unlike myself and different kinds of life experiences has really developed because of it. I think deciding to go to that high school is probably one of the best decisions I ever made.
BUT the problem with the last choice is that it isn't really about my diversity but rather my love for diversity and how I think it makes us all better people.
Sorry for the long post. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!
1. I played soccer from the time I was 5 until about 17. Along the way I tore my ACL and medial meniscus in both knees, resulting in 4 knee surgeries. Kind of an interesting experience, allowed me to learn a lot about sports medicine. I also just really enjoy sports but like... so do a ton of other people?
2. I got into viola in middle school kind of by accident and I ended up becoming super passionate about it/playing at a high level. I performed twice at Carnegie hall in college which was kind of a huge moment and very meaningful for me. But I also feel like a lot of people do this too and I don't necessarily see how this would introduce diversity to my med school class.
The story I have that actually really influenced my world perspective/my way of thinking and interacting with others:
3. I lived in a SUPER homogenous area up through middle school (all white, upper-middle class). For high school I applied to a magnet school about an hour away that I decided I would commute to. The school was about 95% minority students and I was really excited about it. I got to experience diversity for the first time in my life and learned how much I love learning about other people and their stories/life experiences. I was also the first jewish person that a lot of my classmates had ever met, so it was cool that I felt like we all learned something from each other. It was also the first time I experienced being at the MOST underfunded school in my entire county. I learned a lot about economic disparities in education and it became really personal and important to me. Some kids that I had gone to middle school with I heard made really negative/messed up comments about the high school I ended up going to, and I think it just taught me a lot about how prejudiced this world can really be. The whole experience was very formative for me and my love for learning about people unlike myself and different kinds of life experiences has really developed because of it. I think deciding to go to that high school is probably one of the best decisions I ever made.
BUT the problem with the last choice is that it isn't really about my diversity but rather my love for diversity and how I think it makes us all better people.
Sorry for the long post. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!
