Introduce Yourself to Your Classmates
What is important for your classmates to know about you that is not on your resume
(2021): We will learn a lot about your professional background through your resume and letter of recommendation, but we want to get to know you further. Please introduce yourself. Select only one communication method for your response. (250 words)
I’m a Chicago native, but I spent much of my childhood in Frying Pan, a tiny mountain town in Idaho. Growing up in Frying Pan gave me a passion for adventure: by age four, I was casting a fly-rod in my backyard; in elementary school, I was up at 4 AM to go backcountry skiing with my parents.
When I was 15, this passion for adventure led me to Uganda as a volunteer with the global charity, “The Water Project.” Carrying drinking water up a 1,000-foot mountain, alongside Ugandan villagers, was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. With a 30-pound “jerrycan” of water on my back, I was easily passed by children and barefoot village elders. I thought I was fit – at the time I was a nationally-ranked soccer player – but I learned that “strength to survive” is an entirely different quality.
For the adventures I can’t experience first-hand, I turn to books. I keep every book I’ve ever read. The first book I remember reading was Winnie The Pooh – it’s still on my bookshelf, now accompanied by hundreds of others. Just looking at each book reminds me of where I was when I read it, the lessons I learned and the emotions they evoked: Silent Spring speaks to the ongoing struggle for conservation, while The Medications of Marcus Aurelius makes me think about simplicity and decency. Two challenging books I’m recommending to my friends these days are The Happiness of Pursuit and A Brief History of Equality.