University of California - Santa Barbara

My name is Scheherezade. I am about to die at the hands of a King, but if I can captivate him through my stories I might be able to stay alive for just one more night.

The orchestra drops to quiet plucking, and I take a deep breath in. I...

University of California - Los Angeles

“How’s your brother?”

“He’s dead.”

Silence filled the line.“Wow...that’s awful. It’s no wonder you’re afraid,” I replied. There wasn’t much I could do. This teen was struggling with drug abuse and feared leaving a gang whose members murdered his...

University of California - Santa Barbara

“I’m done!” our frustrated band director shouted, throwing his baton down on his stand and storming into his office. If this was his way to motivate the Band to try harder, it didn’t work. All 250 members of the largest high school band in...

University of Virginia

I smile when I suffer. That may seem rather sadistic and self deprecating, but it’s a quirk that I developed through years of mountain bike racing. Despite the feeling of pain shooting through my legs and my lungs gasping for air, I can’t help but...

University of Virginia

The sound of my bassoon echoed throughout the Kennedy Center, supporting the upper register of the flute, oboe, and clarinet. I locked eyes with the flautist, sitting directly across from me, and with the quick movement of his flute, the four of...

Fordham University

“They’re only words on paper!” I shouted as I closed my picture book with frustration. My mother would frown at my naive six year old self while attempting to explain the fallacy of my outburst. She’d try - to no avail - to convince me that...

St. John's University

It was in my freshman year of high school when my father gave me the gift of a desk for my new room in our new house. A small black desk from Ikea. A desk that went unused for the first year I owned it. It saw no work. Housed no books. It sat...

Villanova University

In the midst of boredom during a third period lull, I glanced around the room, searching for something that would intrigue me. Sitting at a desk in the corner of the room rapidly typing into his laptop was a senior named Sebastian, whom I really...

Stanford University

To pass the time in monotonous car rides, my dad would describe an environment from a random point of view. I would guess where he was, or what he was. We called this the Imagination Game. As I grew older, my dad began to recount scenes from all...

Brown University

When I was ten years old, my grandmother gave my mother a thick book filled with pictures of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. I must have picked up the book from our coffee table in some moment of juvenile boredom. Flipping through the book, I...

Stanford University

I lean my head against the cold glass window and watch the world fly by at 70 mph, as the soothing tones of stringed instruments and a dancing guitar line melt into Emm Gryner’s voice singing "Stereochrome." I was 6 years old, riding in the...

University of Connecticut

I still remember the smell: hand sanitizer and plastic. The room looked gloomy being flooded with dim fluorescent lights. As I was waiting in the room for my mother and doctor to come back, I took a sip of my fruit punch in an attempt to stop...

Loyola Marymount University

As an outspoken Asian girl with an unusually large number of freckles and the tone of a strong alto, I am generally very noticeable. I had always felt very comfortable with the people around me considering that I had been with the same group of...

Barry University

Do you know what your hair type is? Probably not, I have natural 3c-4a hair. Beyond interesting trivial, I honestly care less as to what my hair texture is, but at one point in my life I felt as if my hair texture would either make me or break me....

Florida State University

My brother stands frozen in time, trapped in eternal wonderment as the gray horse sculpture rears above his head. An open-air church service is being held behind him, underneath the shade of another great, restless beast. A preacher dressed in a...

Fordham University

'Iman!' My mother called me to the living room in a tone that promised nothing. She inhaled sharply and I knew even before she parted her lips to speak. Here was the single suitcase that contained the essential items I would need. Here was the...

Tulane University

I grew up attending a segregated school - a place that shouldn't exist in our era, but does. A school that had separate lunch tables, separate bleachers at football games, and separate ballots. My seven-year old brain could not comprehend why my...

Brigham Young University

I just cannot help it -- I see the world around me like I am looking through a camera lens. Everywhere I go I see perfect photo opportunities. Whenever I stumble upon beautiful lighting, contrast, shape, color or texture, I am compelled to take a...

Southern Methodist University

Some say that the most important piece of a journey is the first step. My first step is into thick, saturated fog. At other times, this fog would create a sense of isolation, but here, it is a being which has enveloped thousands of sojourners...

University of Florida

I heard the crack before I hit the mat. It happened in a flash. One second I was sizing up the other wrestler—115 pounds tops, breathing heavy through his mouthguard, someone I could outlast on points if I didn’t pin him fast—the next I was...