Diversity help

[needmuchohelpporfavor]

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Hi,

Sorry for beating a dead horse--seen plenty of posts regarding the "diversity question" but I find myself coming up short. Here are my ideas--I was wondering if someone could tell me if they're crazy or work at all. (Btw am 22 year old white female, grad 2016, just completed "service year") Trying to think of the ways I'm cool or unique.

1. I see the best in things/situations/people. This started young, realized when I had a classmate tell me I smile too much. In college (Jesuit) this translated to one of their mantras of "finding God in all things" and now I tend to be nonjudgemental, assume the best in people, trying to understand different political groups. Not sure how unique this is...

2. Personality type is "outgoing introvert." Pretty sure this is super common

3. Religious (Catholic)--informs my social justice/ethics/caring for all viewpoints

4. Minored in Philosophy in college and wrote senior thesis in that field, even though I was a biology major. This was one of my most meaningfuls.

5. Flip the diversity around--my privileged background of white, middle class and educated (many privilege cards) gives me a duty to reach my highest potential, which is in medicine

Sorry this is a bunch of word vomit. Would appreciate any advice!

 

[MonkeyArrow]

None of them are exceptional. 3 is the most workable, if not standard. DO NOT go with 5.

 

[oopsaloo]

Hi,

Sorry for beating a dead horse--seen plenty of posts regarding the "diversity question" but I find myself coming up short. Here are my ideas--I was wondering if someone could tell me if they're crazy or work at all. (Btw am 22 year old white female, grad 2016, just completed "service year") Trying to think of the ways I'm cool or unique.

1. I see the best in things/situations/people. This started young, realized when I had a classmate tell me I smile too much. In college (Jesuit) this translated to one of their mantras of "finding God in all things" and now I tend to be nonjudgemental, assume the best in people, trying to understand different political groups. Not sure how unique this is...

2. Personality type is "outgoing introvert." Pretty sure this is super common

3. Religious (Catholic)--informs my social justice/ethics/caring for all viewpoints

4. Minored in Philosophy in college and wrote senior thesis in that field, even though I was a biology major. This was one of my most meaningfuls.

5. Flip the diversity around--my privileged background of white, middle class and educated (many privilege cards) gives me a duty to reach my highest potential, which is in medicine

Sorry this is a bunch of word vomit. Would appreciate any advice!

Not a fan of #5, but #4 looks pretty interesting/unique. My instinct is to veer away from the religious topics (just in case one of your readers is subconsciously biased towards certain religions). Not sure I understand what #2 means.

 

[Goro]

Hi,

Sorry for beating a dead horse--seen plenty of posts regarding the "diversity question" but I find myself coming up short. Here are my ideas--I was wondering if someone could tell me if they're crazy or work at all. (Btw am 22 year old white female, grad 2016, just completed "service year") Trying to think of the ways I'm cool or unique.

1. I see the best in things/situations/people. This started young, realized when I had a classmate tell me I smile too much. In college (Jesuit) this translated to one of their mantras of "finding God in all things" and now I tend to be nonjudgemental, assume the best in people, trying to understand different political groups. Not sure how unique this is...

2. Personality type is "outgoing introvert." Pretty sure this is super common

3. Religious (Catholic)--informs my social justice/ethics/caring for all viewpoints

4. Minored in Philosophy in college and wrote senior thesis in that field, even though I was a biology major. This was one of my most meaningfuls.

5. Flip the diversity around--my privileged background of white, middle class and educated (many privilege cards) gives me a duty to reach my highest potential, which is in medicine

Sorry this is a bunch of word vomit. Would appreciate any advice!

All of these are reject material.

Introspection is a required competency for both medical students and doctors. What's cool about you that's other than a positive personality trait?

 

[grapefruit17]

1 could either do you a lot of good or a lot of harm-->depending how you word it. On one end you can come off as self righteous, but another you can come off as someone genuine. The trick would be giving specific elaborate examples of what you mean by this that people can empathize with

2 I wouldn't include, most doctors including myself don't really like when people talk about their personality types. Personality is more how others perceive you, than how you perceive yourself

3 fair to an extent, def can mention it but I'm not sure it would do much if someone reading it isn't catholic

4 not bad, could be an interesting topic depending on what you talk about

5 I would scrap that, it doesn't mesh well with people are looking for in this area. if anything it should read "I was lucky. Blessed even. Some people go through life with nothing but hardships, I was not one of these people. For that ill always be thankful for the oppurtunitys I've been given and have empathy towards the people who haven't been given the same opportunity as me". something like that

 

[needmuchohelpporfavor]

Thanks all for the feedback. I know none are stellar. I was thinking 1 as a way to come across as most genuine, I feel it's one of the biggest parts of my personality and get a lot of comments from others in that direction but wasn't sure if it's sufficient.

@Goro I was saving this for more of challenge question material but what about talking about experience in recent service year where I had a strict <$100/month stipend and shared resources living in community while engaging in a variety of social justice issues? In this year, I've intentionally engaged with race issues, transgender issues, politics issues etc in an effort to learn and understand better.

Or is it better to talk about something that I've done (recent marathon, love backpacking/hiking but haven't done a lot recently, college job in dining hall where I worked with both well-educated students and working class immigrants from all over). I feel that I understand myself well and have practiced a lot of intentional introspection especially this past year, but I'm still not sure what kind of answers are appropriate.

 

[needmuchohelpporfavor]

Or I've lived in the same house that my dad lived in since he was 4, so I really know the specific community where I grew up.

 

[Goro]

@Goro I was saving this for more of challenge question material but what about talking about experience in recent service year where I had a strict <$100/month stipend and shared resources living in community while engaging in a variety of social justice issues? In this year, I've intentionally engaged with race issues, transgender issues, politics issues etc in an effort to learn and understand better.

Better.

 

[vernhart]

Better.

Agreed. If you can't think of a reason why something about you adds diversity, then talk about how your experiences and how they relate to diversity. I talked about my family being a melting pot (seriously you wouldn't believe how diverse our family is, being from such a rural area...). May have been a bit on the nose but I wasn't sure how to state it so I just came right out and described the races and cultures that exist in my family and my experiences with different cultures. Being cultured makes one unique and enhances the diversity of the class (it isn't actually as common as people act sometimes)

 

[needmuchohelpporfavor]

Agreed. If you can't think of a reason why something about you adds diversity, then talk about how your experiences and how they relate to diversity. I talked about my family being a melting pot (seriously you wouldn't believe how diverse our family is, being from such a rural area...). May have been a bit on the nose but I wasn't sure how to state it so I just came right out and described the races and cultures that exist in my family and my experiences with different cultures. Being cultured makes one unique and enhances the diversity of the class (it isn't actually as common as people act sometimes)

Thank you for the advice! I don't even have much diversity in my own family or community in terms of races or cultures, however :/ I didn't even have non white cis hetero friends until college!