Admissions Essay

This is my VERY IMPORTANT admissions essay for the Communication school, you know, the one that none of you gave me ideas for. Ya, that one. Well, it's due at 5:00pm MST. Please send me back anything your comments, concerns, changes, etc. It can only be 500 words, and right now it has 517 (which should be okay). Here it is...

Criteria:
You will need to write a 500 word essay about how the Communication major will help you meet your personal and/or professional goals and you will also want to mention at least 2-3 concepts/ideas/terms that you have learned in Comm and apply them. For example, if you wanted to be President of the U.S., you might incorporate the terms ethos, pathos, and logos into your essay, explaining how they would help you to reach your professional goal.

Essay:

“What do you want to be when you grow up? This is perhaps the most frequently asked question in my life, but one that I’ve never been able to answer. That is, until recently. In the last few weeks I have mapped out the next few years of my life. I have always wanted to join the Peace Corp., but I have never known what to do with life after my volunteering. However, as part of my study abroad program in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, I am participating in a program called, “Teaching English as a Second Language.” This class teaches us how to teach English, regardless of our acquisition of the student’s native language. After the Peace Corp. (or during my volunteering) I would like to use the certificate that I earn here to teach children English around the globe. I feel that being a Communication major will help me meet this personal goal because it will prepare me for the importance in the way people communicate, not only the language they use.
Thus far, my pre-communication classes have prepared me for my time abroad. Although they did not prepare me in the Spanish language, they eased the cultural differences. In many of my classes, we have spent time talking about communication concepts, and how they vary from country to country. For example, learning about chronemics was very important before coming to the Dominican Republic. The concept of time is viewed differently here than in the United States. By knowing this ahead of time, I was able to be more accepting (and less shocked) of the culture here. In addition, learning about different interpretations of proxemics around the world helped me adapt to my surroundings. The personal space given in Latin countries is much less than the space we are accustomed to in the United States. Again, being aware of this helped me adapt and left less room for misinterpretation. I think the simple art of communication helps to explain cultural differences that get lost in translation.
As I am learning in my ‘Teaching English as a Second Language’ class, knowing a language is not necessary to communicate. Although I speak very good Spanish, there are times that I cannot find the right word to convey my thoughts. With the use of nonverbals and kinesics, my host family always finds a way to understand what I am saying. The importance of nonverbal behavior and being consciously aware of it is a great lesson I took from my Communication classes.
If I am accepted into the Communication major, I look forward to studying more about intercultural communication (aside from personal experiences). This is an area of communication that interests me. I think it is something that I will be able to apply to my life abroad. I think the perfect addition to my Ethnic Studies major would be the Communication major. The combination of these two majors will give me a well-rounded perspective and worldview, and they are two of the only majors that can help prepare me to be a citizen of the world.