Topic: Adventure

I have never thought of myself as a particularly adventurous person.  My father, mother, sister, and brother were always the people I admired most for their adventurous spirits, but I considered myself more like Ferdinand.  I liked to stay close to home, spend time with my family, and was painfully shy prior to the age of ten.  I’ve never completely outgrown my shy nature though most people are surprised at that piece of information because I also love to talk and socialize.  I wanted to be like the rest of my family and aspired to take risks and set off on my own, but I was so much more content just to feel safe and comfortable within the environs of my childhood.

 

Still, my brother and sister continued to encourage me to get out and see the world, and they were role models of their words.  K went to several different summer camps to play violin, and went on an exchange to France for a year.  My brother was a legendary  risk-taker.  He came close to death several times in his life, but always managed to find his way out of scrapes and return home once again.  I admired my brother deeply and wanted to emulate him, but I just couldn’t find it in myself to head out on my own adventure until the year I graduated from high school.   That year my brother was living in Wyoming working on an oil rig.  The money was terrific, and he was putting himself through university with the money he earned.  He invited me to come out and join him for the summer, so for my graduation present, I received a bus ticket to travel to meet up with my brother.

Even the bus trip was an eye-opener.  It was a 48 hour trip, and I met two European travelers, a 15 year old girl returning to Casper, Wyoming who was already a mother, and whose child had been abducted by her husband (who in turn was  probably all of 17), an alcoholic who proceeded to drink his way across the nation, and many other colorful characters.  It was like something out of a John Steinbeck novel except that I was in the midst of it.

 I ended up in Rawlins, Wyoming where my brother met my bus. He took me to his trailer, which was parked in the middle of nowhere.  There were antelopes, coyotes, a long stretch of nothingness as far as the eye could see, and a small café/bar/gas station. This was the only sign of civilization for 20 miles.  Even after those 20 miles, there was only a small town of perhaps 200 inhabitants.  People lived hard, drank hard, and aged early.

This was adventure!

“Fellowship in the Land of Fire and Ice” by Josh Roberts for SmarterTravel.com in The American Adventurer

Topic: Adventure

Josh Roberts details a seven day hike he took in Iceland in the summer.  His first impression of the territory is that of J. R. Tolkien’s description of both Middle Earth and the Shire.  He is impressed by the beauty, emptiness, and harshness of the landscape.  The group, led by a British guide named Kelso, consisted of 12 people. 

Their journey began in the shadow of the volcano, Mt. Hekla.  They hiked for six days covering 80 miles and only saw another person after three days of travel. They were above the tree line until the fifth day.  The land and weather were always changeable and variable.  The group witnessed lava field, treeless valleys, moss-covered foothills, bubbling sulfuric pools, glacial rivers, lakes, and snow-speckled mountain ridges.  Sun, snow, and hail were all a part of the weather and this was in the heart of summer.  Roberts also details some of the history of Iceland and how, like Australia, it was a place where convicts were exiled to live or die as they were able a thousand years ago.

Roberts thoroughly enjoyed the rugged journey and the landscape.

My Comments:

Last year my mother gave me a book she particularly liked called, A Good Horse Has No Color.  It is placed in Iceland.  It is a non-fiction tale of a woman’s love affair with Iceland and its horses, which led her to study the country, learn the language, and eventually purchase two horses to ship back to her home in America.  I loved the rich descriptions of the mythology of Iceland.  The stories were harsh and rugged, just like the landscape and people she describes.  Iceland has very special small, sturdy horses called Icelandics.  I have ridden these gaited creatures and they are quite lovely, though small. 

After reading the book, I wanted to travel to Iceland more than ever.  Perhaps I will one day, though I would prefer to ride across the landscape and see the view from the back of a horse as opposed to walking the mountains.  Perhaps one day I will do both.

Human ingenuity has driven the success of our modern species for over 50,000 years.  It is the great nature of our species to be able to create magnificent things that ease our lives, free up our time, enlighten us, move us forward at an ever greater pace, and at the same time, they have the potential to destroy us.  Whenever something new is created, even for the betterment of mankind, we cannot know what the final result of its production might be.  As simple as it sounds, I always liked the saying that for every action there is a reaction.  On its simplest level, this may mean that when we speak harshly to someone they may pop  us in the nose, but on  a grander scale there are always unseen affects for everything that is brought forth into our world from an idea to a machine to a theory to a book to a discovery.  We do not have to look very far to see that in the act of publishing The Communist Manifesto, a new political theory brought about monumental changes in the political system in many countries.  Furthermore, by reading something like Animal Farm, we are enlightened enough to see that the reaction to communism in action was not nearly what Marx thought it might be when he first imagined a world owned and controlled by the proletariat. 

Einstein could not help but pursue the atomic bomb as his mind teemed with ability and, yes, ingenuity, but he regretted deeply his part in the creation of a weapon of mass destruction once he saw the reaction (use) based on his initial action. 

Sometimes I think that instead of merely stating, “Let’s create this because we are able to do it”, we should be asking ourselves “Should we create this just because we can?”  We might also ask ourselves, “What will the implications be if we do this?” “Should we do this?” “What are the possible “reactions” or implications of our creation?”

I would actually take this a step further.  Many of us think that none of this applies to us as we are not the next great inventor or creator, but even the act of creating a piece of music can have implications that we might never realize.  When we choose to demand cheap clothing, fireworks, sex, or electronic objects, we put others at risk.  When we choose to have on more electrical lights than we need or to take a twenty minute shower, our actions will cause some reaction in the simplest form.  Some poor adult or child will have to work as a near slave in order to fill our order; the traffic in humans will continue to fill our sexual or labor needs; water will become an increasingly scarce commodity. But here is where it becomes the most critical.  In our desire to stop some of these egregious reactions to our actions, we may harm people.  For instance, if we all stop buying fireworks, what happens to the communities who depend upon the income?  Will there be a means to replace their lost income? 

Thinking is like that.  Actions call upon our deepest reserves to figure out what to do next.  It is easy to throw our hands up in the air and say it doesn’t matter, but it does.  Our ingenuity is our life blood, but we must use it to engineer the betterment of many, not just our own needs.

Article:  “Human Ingenuity”          Bali International School

On a website for Bali International School is an explanation for why the investigation of ingenuity makes perfect educational sense.  The brief essay begins with two essential questions: Why and how do we create?  What are the consequences?

The second question, in particular, drives why the discussion of human ingenuity matters at all.  We are an incredibly capable species and will continue to innovate, develop, explore, construct, invent, destroy, rationalize, and solve for all the time that we are given in this world.  Helping students explore the consequences of human thought and action is germane to what good schools try to achieve in their classrooms.

Using history to find examples of this behavior helps students to understand how human contributions is an ongoing process and shows humans as logical, clever, devious, and fallible.

Moving past concrete examples, students should also look at how ingenuity affects relationships and draws into question scientific, ethical, aesthetic, and technological consequences.  Both positive and negative consequences can be recognized by students when they explore the immensity of this field.

This area of study can involve the whole school community in a holistic view of “human activity” and can generate open-ended discussions and further investigation into the constructive and destructive forces of humans.  The ethical issues relating to progress and the responsibility that each individual and nation must accept in regards to human ingenuity is a way for students to explore the role of the individual within the confines of an integrated world.

Although the above writing is a summary of the piece that I read from the Bali International School, I also added in my own summation of what the author was trying to say.  I specifically chose this piece because I thought it tried to assess the importance of exploring the ingenuity of mankind within the context of an education.  I also appreciated how they assess both sides of the ingenious ability to create but also destroy at the same time.  I always liked the saying “for every action, there is a reaction”.  Though simple it can be taken at so many levels such as the literal, figurative, metaphysical, chemical, and inter-personal.  We never know when we speak, act, or create what the reaction to our action may result in.  That is another reason why this subject is worth exploring and pondering.  It relates to our overall characteristics as a species. 

12. Tell us about the neighborhood that you grew up in and how it helped shape you into the kind of person you are today. (Yale and the University of Chicago)

The branches of the oaks still reach across the small, narrow lane sky-carpeting it with a rich dappling when the sun shines above.   The road, only wide enough for one car at a time, is a dead-end, and our house is the last one on the left.  In fact, there are no houses on the right; instead, there is a steep embankment that rises 100 yards up to a road that parallels my street, Crest Drive.  All the houses are positioned around a deep spring-fed lake.  Summer is the season I identify with most from my childhood and nearly all my deepest connections reside in that season. It is difficult to separate the influence of my family from my neighborhood on who I have become, but certainly my internal landscape has everything to do with that childhood place I called home.

The muggy, warm season in Michigan was filled with shorts, bicycles, horses, swimming, reading, fireflies, and hiding in the deep, over-the-head grass in the vacant lot next door to my house.  Up the embankment was a whole other neighborhood with two grocery stores, a five and dime, pharmacy, ice cream store, gas station, and candy store.  But down on Crest Drive, next to the lake, it was a world unto its own filled with peaceful, lazy days, cool shade, simple adventures, delicious food, and always, the inviting water.  Sometimes I think I spent four to six hours a day playing, swimming, boating, and reading by that lake.

It was an idyllic neighborhood of expansive green lawns, attractive clapboard style houses, tall trees, broad roads and open vistas.  There was peace, quiet, and safety.  It always felt separate from the rest of the city.  I knew every road and house in that neighborhood.  Not only did I walk all around it regularly, I ran through the streets at many different times of day and night.  I didn’t need to see that well, all I needed was to feel the road with my feet.  My heart always knew the way.  I felt no sense of fear or danger, but more as if I was cradled in the arms of a loving embrace.  Whereas my home life often left me bewildered and confused, somehow my neighborhood gave me confidence.

The years swept away before me, and soon I stood on the threshold of a departure that would at first only take me some hundreds of miles away from home, but later one thousand, then two and eventually ten thousand miles away from my lake, my house, my avenues, and all the things that had become so familiar to me over the years of my childhood.

Still, it never left me; only I, it. I still am that boisterous girl who would blast out of the back door of my home, feet flying as I raced down the hill and straight into the lake.  I still relish dripping, fresh watermelon from a nearby farm, and its sweet coolness in my mouth.  I still have the boldness of certainty just as I did when I would announce to my mother and father that I was going for a run at 9:00 at night, though it has tempered with time and experience.  The strength of my heart and legs still propel me forward as they once did over those darkened roads, taking a small chance in order to feel freedom and independence while the wind and night air blows past me.   I still enjoy the magic of fireflies lighting up the night, illuminating a point for the briefest moment and then disappearing into the mysterious dark.  Though at times shadowed with greater uncertainty, I have come to understand both the inspiring and sorrowful complexities of life.

 If a landscape can shape who a person becomes, then my first landscape taught me to yearn for wide open spaces, the rush of water, an infinite view that offered scope for the imagination, and gave me the self-assuredness to go out and find those things wherever I found myself.

A bold, adventurous woman emerged from her neighborhood and went out into the world, but the sweetness of spring and summer remained within her. Now, as she begins to move into the late fall of her life, she draws more heavily on those earlier seasons of hope, renewal, wonder, and the endless possibilities that still awaited her.

Emel 

Sunday March 4, 2012

"Engineered Ingenuity"

Issue 87 December 2011

In the Gaza Strip where the Palestinian people struggle daily due to an uneasy relationship with and an occupation by Israel, students at the Khan Younis Training College decided to build a racing car from scratch. Dr. Ghassan Abu-Orf, the dean of the KYTC campus, became the sponsoring staff member who guided the students to reach their goal.  It took approximately one year for nine girls working just on fund-raising to earn the $70,000 needed for the project.  It was difficult to find any companies who were willing to send the necessary parts and even once they did, the Israeli government would not allow the parts to enter the Gaza Strip.  The students did not give up, but scavenged the parts from any resource they could find including motorcycles and plumbing pipes. The students even had to scramble to find the appropriate tools and machines to turn their salvage into parts worthy for a car.  It took one year to build and the day they took their test drive was emotional for "everyone involved."

It is apparent that the ingenuity and drive that it took Palestinian students, who have rudimentary tools, machinery, parts and lack available materials, is an excellent example of what it means to make something from nearly nothing.  To figure out how to persevere in raising money, finding materials and turning them all into a racing car that runs is surely worthy of note.  Some might argue that students who have such difficult personal circumstances should not be wasting their time on a race car that will do little to improve their situation, but they would be missing the point. The students came together as a team.  Even girls were involved in the process of creating this car.  They learned to fund-raise, find appropriate parts, and to deal with the disappointment of defeat.  They learned perseverance and more importantly how, when everything else has appeared to have failed, to pick up the pieces and use their own human ingenuity to solve the problem and create an object that symbolized all their efforts, trials, and tribulations.

It does not really matter what they built, or even if it could win.  The lessons learned when using ingenuity are so much deeper and richer that they often go unnoticed.  We would do well to all be put in a situation where we reach inside ourselves and create something where nothing once stood, but not with a limitless account or every resource at our fingertips, but when we have to swing and sway in the wind hoping that it will come right and constantly figuring out how to make it happen even when it seems impossible.  That is the curiosity and spirit of ingenuity that makes humans and their creations endlessly interesting.  Yes, we can debate the positives and negatives of what some ingenious creations have brought us, but it is in the task of creation where I find the true test of who we are as human beings.

Yankee Ingenuity

When I was a little girl, my mother was my absolute hero, and I was a momma’s girl through and through.  My mother was beautiful, smart, reassuring and the person I always wanted to be near. And on top of that, she had a clear ability to solve simple problems in a pragmatic, no-nonsense way.  I clearly remember her looking at me one time as we stood side by side near the edge of the lake our home was built upon and saying, “That’s Yankee ingenuity, Karen.”  I’ve never forgotten that moment and in so many ways my memories of my mother are synonymous with my idea of ingenuity.  She embodied it.  She knew how to make do with what she had, solve problems with very little material or financial resources, and keep us all on the road forward.

A perfect example of her ingenuity, though simple, is from one summer when I was either four or five.   I had taken the top off my right big toe in some accident, and it was bright red and extremely tender.  I either went barefoot or wore open-toe sandals that summer.  She had taken us to a beach on a lake not far from our house to spend the day, and my toe was so tender that both the sand of the beach and the water washing over it prevented me from playing or swimming.  I remember the disappointment of watching my older brother and sister having such a good time while I was stuck sitting on the blanket with my mother.

She had nothing with which to wrap it, but she looked around the beach and found the end piece of an old balloon.  It was just small enough that when she stretched it over my toe it stayed put.  I certainly looked funny running around with the end of a red balloon flipping and swinging at the end of my toe, but the rest of the day was spent in blissful play and cool water.  That was “Yankee ingenuity.” 

College Essay Topics

100 College Essay Topics
The College Essay

1. What have you undertaken or done on your own in the last year or two that has nothing to do with academic work? (Northwestern)

2. Imagine that you have the opportunity to travel back through time. At what point in history would you like to stop and why? (Swarthmore)

3. What is the best advice you ever received? Why? And did you follow it? (University of Pennsylvania)

4. Select a creative work -- a novel, a film, a poem, a musical piece, a painting or other work of art -- that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself. Discuss the work and its effect on you. (New York University)

5. What do you think has been the most important social or political movement of the twentieth century? Do you share a personal identification with this cause? (Trinity College, CT)

6. If you were to look back on your high school years, what advice would you give to someone beginning their high school career? (Simmons)

7. It has been said [Andy Warhol] that “in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Describe your fifteen minutes. (New York University)

8. What single adjective do you think would be most frequently used to describe you by those who know you best? Briefly explain. (Stanford)

9. Describe an intellectual experience of the past two years that has given you great satisfaction. (Amherst)

10. Create a question we haven’t asked and then provide the answer. (Something to that effect anyway. Dartmouth used this a few years ago. I had a student who posed the following question and wrote a seven-page response: “Write about a time when life threw you a curve and how you handled it.”)

11. If you were to describe yourself by a quotation, what would the quote be? Explain your answer. (Dartmouth)

12. Tell us about the neighborhood that you grew up in and how it helped shape you into the kind of person you are today. (Yale and the University of Chicago)

13. You’ve just written a 300-page autobiography. Send us page 217. (University of Pennsylvania)

14. If you could be a “fly on the wall” to observe any situation -- historical, personal, or otherwise -- describe what you would choose to observe and why. What would you hope to learn and how would it benefit you? (University of Pittsburgh/94)

15. If we could only admit one more student to the University of Pittsburgh, why should it be you? (University of Pittsburgh/94)

16. Describe a risk that you have taken and discuss its impact on your life. (Kalamazoo College/93)

17. If you could spend a year with any real or fictional person in the past, present, or future, whom would you choose? Why? (Kalamazoo College/93)

18. What invention would the world be better off without, and why? (Kalamazoo)

19. Write you own essay question and answer it. (Kalamazoo College/93)

20. If you had the power to change three things in your community or in the world, what would you change and why? (Middle East Technical University in Turkey/93, provided by an exchange student)

21. If you had the gift of telepathy, the ability to read other people’s minds, would you use this gift or not? Explain. (Middle East Technical University/93)
22. Tell us about one of the best conversations you’ve had. (Stanford/93)

23. If you were to write a book, on what theme or subject matter would it be based, and why? (Stanford/93)

24. Tell us how a particular book, play, film, piece of music, dance performance, scientific theory or experiment or work of art has influenced you. If you choose a novel, film or play, assume we know the plot. (Notre Dame/93)

25. Select a technological innovation of this century and discuss its effects on your family, local community or nation. (Notre Dame/93)

26. Read Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood. Choose one of her observations or ideas and write a creative, reflective or provocative essay. (Notre Dame/93)

27. Read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Drawing upon personal experience, write a creative, reflective or provocative essay. (Notre Dame/93)

28. Attach a small photograph of something important to you and explain its significance. (Stanford)

29. Tell us about a conversation you’ve had that changed your perspective or was otherwise meaningful to you. (Stanford)

30. Evaluate a significant experience or achievement that has special meaning to you. (Harvard)

31. Tell one story about yourself that would best provide us, either directly or indirectly, with an insight into the kind of person you are. For example, the story can simply relate a personal experience, or a humorous anecdote; it can tell about an especially significant academic encounter or about an unusual test of character. The possibilities are unlimited (well, almost so). You choose. Just relax and write it. (Princeton)

32. Sartre said “Hell is other people,” while Streisand sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” With whom do you agree? (Amherst)

33. If you could hold a conversation with someone (living or deceased) you consider significant, whom would you talk to and what would you talk about? Describe your conversation. (University of Oregon)

34. Describe your hometown and how you are a product of this environment. (Puget Sound)

35. You are on your dream vacation and have just finished shooting a roll of film. As you go to develop the film, the local merchant offers to make a postcard of one of your photos. Describe the photo, why you selected it and write a brief note to your friends back home. (Be sure to include where you are and what you have been doing there.) (University of the Pacific)

36. Select any issue that is of importance to you and discuss your views. (New College of University of South Florida)

37. Describe how a piece of art, a work of literature, or a dramatic presentation has had a significant impact on your intellectual development and your appreciation of the fine arts. (Santa Clara University)

38. If you could go back and change one day in your life, what would you change and why? (Santa Clara University)

39. Tell us about the most embarrassing moment of your life. (Santa Clara University)

40. Seattle Pacific University seeks to admit students who will best succeed in and benefit from an environment where learning and Christian faith are integrated (although a profession of Christian faith is not required for admission). How would enrolling at SPU help you accomplish your educational and personal goals? (Seattle Pacific University)

41. Why are you interested in attending Willamette? (Willamette)

42. What are the responsibilities of an educated person? (University of Puget Sound)

43. Explain how your experiences as a teenager significantly differ from those of your friends. Include comparisons. (University of Puget Sound)

44. Who are the people who have done the most to influence your personal development and in what ways were they influential? (Carleton College)

45. Ask and answer the one important question which you wish we had asked. (Carleton College)

46. If you had a day to spend as you wish, how would you use your time? (Carleton College)

47. At Colorado College, diversity is considered an integral component of every student’s liberal arts education. Discuss your division of “diversity” and the ways in which you expect it to affect your college experience. (Colorado College)

48. Name one book you have read in the past year, describe your reason for considering this book significant and what you gained from reading it. (Lewis and Clark College)

49. Describe your most important academic accomplishment or intellectual experience to date. We don’t want to know about test scores or course grades, rather we want to know about your creativity, your willingness to take intellectual risks or your affinity for scholarly endeavors. (MIT)

50. Tell us about yourself. (University of California)

51. Please provide information that you feel will give a more complete and accurate picture of yourself, e.g., background, personal philosophy or traits, goals, etc. Be sure to describe the influence of these factors. Please be concise and limit your response to one or two pages. (Pomona College)

52. The subject of food is never far from our minds here in College Admissions. It is a topic of serious conversation this year on campus, too, with the publication of a book called The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature, by Leon Kass, M.D., a Chicago faculty member who teaches in the College. The book takes a philosophical look at what food, eating, and table manners have to tell us about our human estate. Compose an essay about a memorable meal you have eaten. We are especially interested in the details: the occasion, your company at this meal, its physical setting, the kinds of foods you ate, or their preparation. (University of Chicago)

53. Discuss a significant experience or achievement that has influenced your life.

54. Discuss how some negative experience (disability, illness, failure) has had a positive influence on your life.

55. Discuss an important personal relationship you have had and explain how it has changed your life.

56. Discuss how your travel experiences have affected you as a student and a citizen of the world.

57. Describe a personal habit that helps to define you as a person.

58. Discuss the most important piece of advice you have ever received and explain its effect on your life.

59. Discuss how a specific place can be used to help illustrate your personality.

60. Select three adjectives that describe you and explain.

61. Describe a fictional character. Be sure to point out what you do or do not like about the character and relate these attributes to yourself.

62. Discuss how something you have read has affected you or changed your mind about something.

63. Discuss an activity, interest, experience, or achievement in your life (this could be a book, movie, or an activity or experience at work, home, or at school) that has been particularly meaningful for you. (University of Florida)

64. How has your family history, culture, or environment influenced who you are? (University of Florida)

65. What qualities or unique characteristics do you possess that would allow you to contribute to the University community? (Florida State)

66. Pick a story of local, national, or international importance from the front page of any newspaper. Identify your source and give the date the article appeared. Then use your sense of humor, sense of outrage, sense of justice—or just plain good sense—to explain why the story engages your attention. (University of Chicago)

67. At a crucial point in his career, the African-American writer James Baldwin withdrew to a secluded spot in the Swiss Alps. “There,” he later wrote, “in that absolute alabaster landscape, armed with two Bessie Smith records and a typewriter, I began to try to recreate the life that I had first known as a child and from which I had spent so many years in flight… It was Bessie Smith, through her tone and her cadence, who helped me to dig back to the way I myself must have spoken…and to remember the things I had heard and seen and felt. I had buried them very deep.” Inevitable, certain things—songs, household objects, familiar smells—bring us instantly back to some past moment in our lives. Start an essay by describing one such thing and see where it takes you. (University of Chicago)

68. Modern improvisational comedy originated in Hyde Park on the campus of the University of Chicago with the Compass Players. Some of the Players went on to form the Second City comedy troupe, precursor to the Saturday Night Live show on TV. With this essay option we invite you to test your own improvisational powers by putting together a story, play, or dialogue that meets all of the following requirements:

1. You must begin with the sentence, “Many years later, he remembered his first experience with ice.”

2. All five senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell—have to figure in the plot.

3. You have to mention the University of Chicago, but please, no accounts of erstwhile high school students applying to the University—this is fiction, not autobiography.

4. These items must be included: a new pair of socks, a historical landmark, a spork (the combination of spoon and fork frequently seen among airline flatware), a domesticated animal, and the complete works of William Shakespeare.

Have fun, and try to keep your brilliance and wit to three pages max. (U of Chicago)

69. One of Ramapo’s goals is to increase your capacity for learning and to teach you to think “outside the box.” Describe an experience that has had a significant impact on your intellectual development. (Ramapo College)

70. React to a crisis or critical moment in your life at which time thinking as usual was no longer possible. Such a situation may have occurred after the death of a loved one, a drastic move from one part of the country to another, or during a public catastrophe. Do not feel limited by these examples. Describe the event and tell us how it changed your thought process. (Ramapo College)

71. Write about a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. (Hope College)

72. There are many ways to define words like diversity and multi-cultural. However, what defines our culture as much as anything is the food we eat. Please explain how food plays an important part in your family’s culture. Provide examples as to how food defines you, your family, and your ethnicity. Be as specific as possible.

73. Write about some issue of local, national, or international concern and its significance to you. (Hope College)

74. Write about something that is important to you. (Hope College)

75. Community service can be a valuable part of the college experience. If you were to devote one year of service to a volunteer project, what would it be, and what would you hope to accomplish? (Goucher)

76. What do you think has been the most important social or political movement of the 20th century? Do you share a personal identification with this cause? (Goucher)

77. Discuss some issue of personal, local, or national concern and its importance to you. (Hood)

78. If you could travel through time and interview any historical figure, whom would you choose, what would you ask, and why? (Hood)

79. Explain why and how you would, if given the opportunity, change a decision you made in the past. (Salisbury State)

80. Describe how the character of a literary work you have read recently has made a lasting impression on you. (College of Notre Dame of Maryland)

81. Optimistic futurists envision a world without boundaries; an interdependent global society. Write about your personal impression of this idea. (College of Notre Dame of Maryland)

82. Select two people who have been role models in your life and describe why. (College of Notre Dame of Maryland)

83. State in a well-written essay: a) your reason for selecting Loyola College and b) your personal goals and professional plans upon completion of college. (Loyola)

84. You are encouraged to use the space below to supply any additional information or background you believe will be of assistance or service in the consideration of your application. We would also be interested in knowing how you would analyze your academic strengths and weaknesses as a potential University student. (Towson State University)

85. Please complete a one-page personal statement and submit it with your application. (James Madison University)

86. How would you describe yourself as a human being? What quality do you like best in yourself and what do you like least? What quality would you most like to see flourish and which would you like to see wither?" (Bates College)

87. Do you believe there's a generation gap? Describe the differences between your generation and others. (Denison University)

88. Write a brief essay about your activities, interests, achievements and talents. 89. The goal of the essay is to help us to get to know you as an individual. Point out your strengths, and explain any inconsistencies in your record.

90. Describe a humorous experience you have had.

91. Please write about a life experience that has influenced your intellectual and personal growth.

92. If you had to formulate the perfect admissions question, what would it be, and how would you answer it?

93. Briefly describe how [the name of the college] can help you to achieve your academic and personal goals.

94. Choose one of the following topics about which you would like to write: your family, friends, or another person who has influenced you, the best and worst features of your secondary school, a recent development in your community, a scientific or other problem which you would like to solve, travel or living experiences in other.

95. Select a technological innovation of this century and discuss its effects on your family, local community or nation. (Notre Dame)

96. Look through old family photos and pull out a few that remind you of important times or significant moments. (Remember that the impact of a moment is what makes it significant. A hike through the woods can sometimes be more significant than a birthday.) Choose one of these "Kodak Moments" to describe and explain its significance to you. Speak about the photograph and your feelings about what you see in it.

97. If you were to develop a Mt. Rushmore representing the 20th century, whose faces would you select and why? (William and Mary)

98. History has recorded the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Sexual Revolution. Today we are witnessing a revolution in the way we receive information. What do you think will be the next great revolution, and what will be its impact on you and your society? (Northwestern)

99. Using a piece of wire, a car window sticker, an egg carton, and any inexpensive hardware store item, create something that would solve a problem. Tell us about your creation, but don't worry: we won't require proof that it works. (Johns Hopkins)

100. Princeton’s unofficial motto is “Princeton in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations.” In what ways do you imagine using your talents and convictions in service to communities—large or small—during your lifetime? (Princeton)

101. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.” ~ Albert Einstein. Write about a personal experience or an aspect of the world that has engaged your curiosity or inspired awe in you. (Princeton)

102. What historical event of the 2000’s has most influenced your perspective on the world or your approach to life, and how? (Princeton)

103. Tell us about a person who influenced your life in a significant way. (Princeton)

104. What is your favorite quotation and why? (Princeton)

105. Elvis is alive! Okay, maybe not, but we have been persuaded that recent Elvis sightings in highway rest areas, grocery stores and laundromats are part of a wider conspiracy involving five of the following: the metric system, the Mall of America, the crash of the Hindenberg, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, lint, J.D. Salinger, and wax fruit. Construct your own theory of how and why five of these items are related. (University of Chicago)

http://www.hpregional.org/departments/english/mhassenplug/100%20topics.html

Blog Assignment

Description and Details:

Over the next eight to ten weeks you are to create and post to your blog twice a week.  The entries need to be a minimum of 300 words per entry, though it would be wise to vary the length and challenge yourself to write several 500-1,000 word entries when you are in the midst of a good topic.

You are required to write four to six entries on a single topic.  In total we will do this three times.  The topics should be chosen based on your passion, curiosity, and interests.  Do not pick so broadly that you lack focus in your postings.  In fact, narrow your interest down to a category of some type.  Instead of music pick a genre, a particular artist, or an innovation that is occurring.  Don’t write merely about video games (and by the way, most student writing I’ve ever read about gaming is absolutely bone boring), but some controversial component of gaming, or design, or innovation in the field.  Likewise, if you are passionate about the environment, pick more than “water”; choose some aspect of water conservation that is in the news.  Biology is too broad, so how about a piece of biology that is fascinating to you?

To help your posts along, a minimum of two of the six entries must be based on news articles from either a newspaper, magazine, or other online resource.  The first half of your post can be a summary of what the article states, and the last 150 words should cover what you think about what you read.  Dialectical journal style is fine for this portion of the post. Do include the title of the article, author, journal, and date. It is acceptable for two of the six entries in a three week period to be entirely of your own creation and not based on an article.

In addition, on my blog, you will find a list of college essay topics.  During each three week session you will choose a minimum of one of these topics and write a college essay.  It would be great if you could choose a topic that would allow you to bring in your area of interest for those three weeks.  As you may or may not know, it is a great idea to incorporate your culture, beliefs, passions, heritage, and interests into your college essay, so that is why I encourage you to write about your passions, interests, and beliefs.

These college essays will give you an excellent opportunity to fulfill one of those 500-1,000 word entries.  This way, you will have a series of college essays by spring.  They may not all be brilliant, but they will be a group of stock rough drafts to choose from for next semester.  We will also complete several more polished college essays after the AP and AS exams are finished.

It is all well and good to write college essays, post responses to things you’ve read, and to ruminate on a topic, but the most important part of this assignment is to focus on good, intelligent, interesting writing.  This is your chance to explore ideas, passions, and who you are and what you care about in this world. It is an opportunity to explore the “life of the mind.” Do remember that you will be posting to the world, so you want to strive for well-written, clear, error-free writing.  Use your editing tools for each post, so that each entry is the strongest writing you can produce.

On that note, since this is a public forum, be thoughtful about what you post.  Do not include personal information, names of friends, your home, and even weigh if you want to mention your school by name.  When you are writing, if you have any hesitation or question about whether to include something that may be too personal, then don’t include it.  Save your most private thoughts for a personal journal.

Grading: First Week Only:

A+ If you are able to reach the challenge goals you will earn a top score with this caveat:  they must be of strong quality, not repetitive, and relatively error-free.

                A – 2400 words

                B 2100

                C 1800

                F  Anything below the minimum required, which is 1800.

Challenge: In the first three week set, see if you can reach 2700 words.

                                In the second three week set, see if you can reach 3100.

                                In the third and final set, see if you can reach 3500 words.

Due Dates:

Sunday, March 18, 2012 10:00PM

Monday, April 9, 2012 10:00PM

Monday, May 7, 2012 10:00PM