Pitzer College's educational foundation: social responsibility, intercultural understanding, and student autonomy

Pitzer College

Thank you very sincerely in advance for your consideration of my application to Pitzer College, easily the most impressive institution of higher learning from both an academic standpoint and community service perspective that I have encountered in my research.

For a socially involved, forward looking young woman, someone that cares more about the environment and about improving the lives of others than filling my own cup with material goods, the prospect of receiving a positive response to my admission essay is exciting.

While searching through the literature that colleges and universities present to potential applicants, the Mission Statement of Pitzer and the remarkable academic achievements of Pitzer students and graduates, Pitzer stand out like a bright and welcoming beacon of light to a student with my ambitions and ethical values. I want to be nurtured and educated within the glow of that welcoming, future-oriented light.

A Proposed Solution

Among the Core Values at Pitzer that I believe I would like to embrace in terms of helping find solutions to problems in the Greater Los Angeles area, I choose "Social Responsibility" and "Environmental Sustainability." In deciding which Core Values to select, I reflect on my own values and experiences. I have worked with impoverished children and families, I have donated time to bring hope and kindness to sick children in pediatric wards, and I have provided humanitarian assistance to survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake in China in 2008, which took the lives of 87,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Given my activism and passion for helping others, I would like to combine the concepts of social responsibility and environmental sustainability and work with Pitzer College to create a program for elementary-aged children. This program would first of course be well thought out and would receive the blessing of school officials in surrounding communities (Upton, Pomona, San Dimas, Montclair, LaVerne, among others). The idea I have in mind is to use art, theater, humor, multimedia -- and some creative, original music -- to entertain and stimulate young children to understand their social responsibilities vis-a-vis reducing their carbon footprints.

No longer can there be any question that the planet is warming up, and that the global climate change threat is being created -- at least in part -- by human activities. But instead of lecturing young people about science concepts that may be esoteric, I suggest they be shown how the climate is affecting the natural world in creative and entertaining presentations.

There are many aspects of climate change that a very young child can relate to. Certainly they need to know that using electricity when we don't really need to, riding in vehicles when we could walk or take the bus, and other daily human activities, contribute in a small way to climate change. But the most dramatic way to show children that there is a need to reduce our carbon footprints is through demonstrating the changing migration patterns of birds and the changing migration patterns of whales. Perhaps most dramatic to the eye and mind of a 3rd grader is the threat climate change is presenting to polar bears and penguins: they both depend on ice, and the ice is melting. This can be demonstrated in a creative skit that will be fascinating and memorable to young people. Children relate to the animals in the natural world with compassion.