Diversity Secondary Topics

[Heliobacter]

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I'm working on prewriting secondaries right now, and I'm wondering how I should take my diversity secondary. I have a few ideas:

1. I have experience as a medical interpreter for my heritage language, some background in literary translation (for a different language), and my overall narrative is framed in the context of language.

2. As an LGBT minority (ORM), I've always felt that I could only find people to look up to in one or the other of these identities, and not anybody who was both. I believe an intersectional treatment of issues (such as this) is important. This would tie into cultural competence/understanding and has made me want to learn more about the story and experiences behind each patient.

3. My academic background is in computer science, and I've worked a summer internship at a tech firm that creates software for healthcare providers. I think that my background will help me to get more involved in interdisciplinary research and better understand the state of technology in healthcare from the tech side.

The first was sort of addressed in my personal statement, so I was thinking of doing mostly #2, and adding some #3 for schools that might particularly like technology. However, I only have one LGBT-related activity on my AMCAS, and it started pretty recently, but this is because I only really started to develop myself in this regard after getting to college. Would it come off as less strong since I don't have yet sustained involvement in the LGBT community?

Also, for schools that also have an adversity prompt, would #2 work as a possible topic as well? In that case, I would probably end up using a combination of #1 and #3 for the diversity prompt.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Moko]

Agree with your current plan. Any of these can be used.

Since you don't have significant LGBT-related activities, #2 would be better served as an adversity essay. You could discuss your own path to coming out and any internal or external struggles that you've encountered from that.

#3 would make for a good answer to the diversity prompt, with a brief mention of #1 again to remind folks that it's a central theme of your application.

 

[deleted972488]

I strongly prefer #2. You have an LGBT-related activity (much better than none) and I think being able to talk about intersectionality is an asset to your application.


From the information you've provided here, I don't think #2 would make a strong adversity essay. FWIW, I'm using something similar to #2 for my diversity (with some adversity components mentioned) and something else entirely for my adversity.