File Reading

One of my job titles is: File Reader. It doesn't sound too official and that's because my job isn't very official. I work for the admissions committee for the MBA program where Cortney goes to school at look at files of incoming applicants, read their essays, take notes, and give an overall opinion on the applicant before it goes on to the committee. You're probably thinking, that sounds pretty official to me! But let me clarify that I have no power over who gets in or who doesn't at all. I just make a summary of the applicant, where they're worked, if they're a good writer, etc so the admissions committee doesn't have to read every single thing in their file.

These get very monotonous because everyone has the same topics to write their essays on. I read applications from all over the world and while most of them are boring and I am glad to just check another file off the list, others really impact me and I'd like to share a few of those with you today. These are all foreign applications and to go to school in America is usually something that only the very upper class can accomplish because many of them come from small villages where good schooling isn't very accessible and they don't have the money to try to go to a better school where they would have to leave home and pay more money to live somewhere else. Here are a few applicants that have really caused me to contemplate our relationship with education in America.

An applicant from India talks about the religious and political unrest in his community and for a span of 3 years, his whole family slept in one room (for protection) and their dad slept with a knife in case anyone came to attack them in the night. While he was still in grade school, there was a massive earthquake and he only remembers his mom carrying him outside just wrapped in a blanket as they tried to get to safety and they lived on the streets for a few days until the aftershocks subsided and they could return to their home.

An applicant from a very small Chinese village recalls as a girl being accepted to a top notch school and her parents paying their life savings for her to be able to attend. Her school was a 2 hour bike ride (20 miles, each way) away from her home and she rode that everyday, in every season saying that some days the snow or mud was too thick for her to ride her bike and she would walk most of the way.

An applicant from India oversees a "quiz carnival" for children from impoverished areas. The day involved face painting and other carnival festivities, but the main attraction were the quizzes and mind puzzles because the winner of the day gets to enroll in the college's computer class. Normally you wouldn't think this would be a big prize, however most of these children go to schools where there is only one computer for the entire student body.

Another applicant from a small village in China was sponsored by a few people in her town because her parents could not afford to send her to the school she was accepted to. She was the only person in her village to ever be accepted to this school and she was only one out of 2,000 students who were accepted out of 350,000 applicants. Just this past year, when the earthquake in China hit, the school in her small village collapsed to the group with school children trapped, dead, inside. Just 10 years ago and she would have been one of them.

I am always so amazed at how much education means to these students and that they plan their entire family's lives around it and how nonchalant we are about education in America. Can you imagine what would happen to America if we put our lives on the line to go to school? To put every ounce of energy into getting into that top school or saving every last penny to support our kids to get the schooling they need? What would happen to the family unit as a whole if we were just a little more goal oriented (a natural result of obtaining education), and therefore unified? I am ashamed to say that while I really value my bachelor's degree, I cannot say that I put in even a fraction of the effort that so many people do, nor did I really try to get everything out off it that I could. I will do everything that I can to help my children gain as much education as they possibly can. Besides gaining a testimony of Jesus Christ, I don't believe there is anything more valuable I hope I can help my children achieve than helping them develop a love of learning, and therefore a life long education.