Featured Supplemental Essay Prompt For Kilachand Honors College Applicants:

Kilachand Honors College offers a challenging liberal arts education grounded in critical and creative thinking and interdisciplinary problem-solving. What do you think this approach means? Reflect on what has been missing in your education to date, giving at least one concrete example to support your response. How would Kilachand’s interdisciplinary curriculum fulfill your academic, creative, intellectual, and/or professional goals? 600 Words Maximum.

Successful Supplemental Essay Example From Our Accepted Alumni Student:

A story from my dad’s childhood, that I love to hear him tell, starts on one average school day. He’d received an apple from his teacher for scoring the highest in his class on a test. It was only one apple, yet it made him the happiest boy alive that afternoon. Living in Bogota, Colombia with an unemployed mother, chauffeur father, and five siblings, my dad’s family struggled.

My dad raced home, then exclaimed that he won a big, shiny red apple. He ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and immediately cut the apple into eight even slices to share with his family members. They each ate a slice, and it made everyone’s day.

My dad had one apple. He easily could’ve eaten it on his walk home. But he chose, rather, to share his prized apple with his loved ones. That’s just the type of person he’s always been. Beyond just teaching us to share, he has also taught my siblings and me what the true meaning of selflessness is and to aspire to embody it.

Having my altruistic father as an example has helped shape me into the person I am. Helping others has always been a key value of mine. Further, hearing his stories and visiting Colombia have always made me think on a global scale: I often think, how can I help others in underprivileged communities and nations?

Further, growing up as a Latina in today’s tumultuous climate has led me to notice nuanced perspectives. I know that the Kilachand Honors College at Boston University would be a place where I could meet others of diverse perspectives and continue to discuss and take on the challenges that society faces today.

I love that Kilachand Honors College allows students and faculty of diverse passions and perspectives to meet, discuss, and grapple with contemporary issues. To me, this approach means that we all can more holistically discuss challenges and potential solutions.

It is important to consider all sides of contemporary issues, and the Kilachand program embraces that wholeheartedly. As a hopeful Health Sciences major, I would love to engage in coursework that also allows me to learn effective communications, political science, international relations, psychology, and writing. It is incredibly important to me to not only delve deep into the Health Sciences, but also to be an effective speaker, writer, researcher, and influencer in public policy. Interdisciplinary problem-solving can allow for us as students to integrate perspectives and truly learn how to tackle issues that seem insurmountable right now.

As a teen, it is easy for me to feel as though world issues today are insurmountable. The aspect that has been missing in my education to date is the opportunity to take textbook learning and bring it to life through service. I have been incredibly fortunate to work to unite my school and hear diverse student perspectives as Class President. I have been even more fortunate to work with the [NPO Name], a coalition to reduce and prevent youth substance abuse in the community. I have been involved in this organization for four years now, and I currently serve as Co-Chairman for the Youth Committee.

I have been fortunate to see my extracurricular activities have an impact in several ways. As Class President and a proud Latina, I have been happy to make students of all backgrounds feel welcome in our school. As I lead outreach projects with the [NPO Name], I have been able to see families and students have increased communication about substance abuse prevention. However, I wish that my coursework in school could have been directly connected with these types of community influences.

I know that I know that through Kilachand’s interdisciplinary curriculum, I will be able to integrate my coursework with human connections, global perspectives, and community impact. I am especially thankful that the Kilachand Honors College embraces cross-cultural perspectives and inclusivity. I love Kilachand’s co-curricular events and experiential learning opportunities. I would love to hear from experts in each field through the co-curricular discussions. It is so amazing to see that students this year have been able to discuss topics including Gene Editing and Ethics, Koru Meditation, mindfulness, and even personal branding. All of these topics are incredibly intriguing to me, and I would love to join with experts and other Kilachand students in delving into these topics.

Further, through the Kilachand curriculum, I want to integrate learning with service through Experiential Learning opportunities. The Partnership for Humanitarian Engineering and Refugee Studies hits particularly close to home for me. As a child of an immigrant father, I am incredibly fortunate to be welcome into the United States. With the current global refugee crisis, it is so important for me to become a part of Kilachand’s Partnership. I would love to collaborate with an internationally-diverse team and learn from peers from other cultures. Further, integrating with students from different disciplines would allow us to better investigate these issues. Most importantly, I truly would love to make an impact for underprivileged populations that are sustainable and problem-focused. Professionally, I would love to learn how to benefit communities from a health-focused standpoint and help with accessibility of human rights.

I am endlessly inspired by the missions of Kilachand—to benefit communities, to have global impact, and to make a lasting difference.