Rutgers Essay

What I Can Bring

By Austin Chen

The word "diversity" may be foreign to many people. However, I believe that I am the perfect illustration of diversity. Growing up, I have lived in four completely dissimilar countries: China, Mongolia, Taiwan and United States. Each of these countries posed difficult challenges at me such as the differences in language, culture, religion, people and education. The obstacles made me stronger, more independent and mature. Today, as a 17 year old, I am proud to say that I traveled a unique life journey and overcame tribulations that many adults can not even imagine. However, diversity is not the only aspect that I have gained from living in different environments. Aside from the diversity that I am capable of brining, I can also present a positive learning attitude. The motivation of improving everyday came from the misfortunate incident that occurred in my childhood. Due to variety of reasons, my parents got divorced when I was 8 and I chose to live with my mother. Suddenly my once peaceful and patterned life was knocked into the ocean of chaos. Unable to find the right place to start over a new life, my mom moved from places to places. The continuous migrations caused my focus on school to drop and eventually deserted academics completely. When my parents finally decided to take me back to US to live with my aunt, my level of education was approximately the same as a 3rd grader; I was in 7th grade. If other kids were put into the same situation, they probably would have been depressed and horrified. However, I refused to allow any obstacle hinder me. I decided to get back up and face my problems with courage and positivity. After years of hard work and dedication, I now stand above most of my peers academically. A positive attitude can really turn things around, even from worst to best.

In addition to my diversity and positive attitude, I also developed really fluent social skills. After spending 12 years in four different countries, I have learned to communicate and approach different types of people with confidence. The truth is different cultures may have different ways of associating with each others but expressing your ideas with confidence while you are speaking with someone is always the most effective method to communicate with others. Being a confident speaker, I believe that I can adapt to any new environment while putting a positive atmosphere around it.

With the combination of diverse culture, positive attitude, and confident social skills, I believe that I am ready for the next chapter of my life, college. Diversity is the art of thinking independently together and combining the ideas together in order to form a better one, therefore I am one hundred percent sure that I am the