I officially declared my undergraduate major in Political Science as a second-semester junior, remarkably late in my academic career. I was expected to both begin and complete all departmental requirements in my remaining two semesters, squeezing double the coursework into half the time typically allotted. In a schedule already brimming with responsibilities as a Head Resident Assistant and as the Captain of the Beloit College women’s soccer team, I squeezed in upper-level coursework alongside their 100-level prerequisites, seeking to learn as much about modern governments as the human psyches that created them. I wrote the majority of my undergraduate thesis while icing my ankles, sore from practice, sitting at the computer in a tiny Resident Assistant (RA) lounge in a building across campus from my room so I could also be available to the team of RAs that I managed.
The study of Political Science is a beautiful combination of many disciplines that I love – cultural studies, history, geography, linguistics, anthropology, sociology. This realization developed during the semester I spent in France, and is what led me to drop my French major in favor of Political Science. My experience abroad and the global perspective I gained during it distilled a passionate interest in exploring the world – not only my own, but that of everyone I shared it with. I never wanted to stop asking questions and in a field as dynamic and varied as Political Science, it seemed that I never would.
This attitude permeated my remaining semesters at Beloit. Indeed, having little subject knowledge of my new academic realm meant that I asked questions of my professors and fellow students constantly. I had only one year to learn as much from my professors as I could. Maintaining a positive perspective became increasingly important as my rigorous academic semester unfolded and my extracurricular activities began to absorb more and more of my time. As I found myself stumbling tiredly into class with broken bones and muscles stiff from soccer, I reassured myself by repeating that I was fortunate to have more to learn than any other students around me.
Unfortunately, I stumbled academically as well. In looking over my transcript, the two semesters that brought my G.P.A. to below the minimum requirement of the Wright Institute were the Fall and Spring Terms that spanned 2007-2008 – my last two of college and my first two as a Political Science major. Ironically, I found out late that spring that I fell short of meeting graduation requirements. Realizing that I could have relaxed my single breathless year into three semesters instead of two was a difficult, but important lesson in accepting my limits and learning to set realistic goals. I put these lessons into practice the following Fall Term, and my academic and extracurricular contributions to campus were significant enough that Beloit College awarded me with an Honors Term in the Spring of 2009.
I don’t meet the minimum G.P.A. requirement set forth by the Admissions Department of the Wright Institute, but I believe that the experiences I had during the single year that makes me ineligible for admission are precisely what will make me an outstanding addition to your student body. I now consider “failures” to be crucial opportunities for introspection and growth, and it is only through my own that I learned to balance tenacity with focus and composure. In those two semesters, I learned that holding an unrelenting belief that I can accomplish anything is a dangerous mindset without tempering my goals with reality, and I learned that with ruin also comes the chance to rebuild. The lesson that I take away from that year though, that I hold onto as more important than anything else, is simply that LIFE-CHANGING COUPLE OF WORDS THAT WILL BLOW THEM AWAY GO!!!!
