|
|
|
A portion of Ivana's winning essay:
As a Writing and Literature student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a school infamous for science and engineering, I am often asked why I chose to pursue such an unusual path. The truth is that I was originally planning on majoring in chemical engineering when I chose MIT as my dream college. In fact, MIT had been my dream college from the first moment I decided to become a chemical engineer at the age of seven. I wanted a way to help the environment and thought that making environmentally friendly plastics would be the best way for me to create an impact. Thus, at the age of seven, I decided to become a chemical engineer specializing in biodegradable plastics, and after researching various schools, found that MIT would be the best school to help me accomplish such a goal. After spending my middle school and high school career doing everything in my power to fulfill my goals, I was finally accepted into MIT and all of my dreams seemed to be coming true. The problem is that nobody can truly know themselves and everything they want with their lives when they are seven. Things change. People change. Dreams change. All of those years I spent chasing a dream without ever pausing to consider whether or not that dream was what I truly wanted. Looking back at the past years, my passion has always lied in journalism. Sure, I worked hard in all areas and could pull off good grades in the sciences; but, writing and journalism always had a special place in my heart and always occupied the majority of my efforts. My first real introduction to the world of journalism was my sophomore year of high school. I lost the election to become Key Club President and was appointed the Key Club Bulletin Editor. This turned out to be one of the best things that could have ever happened. Having never considered a task like that before, I set out to learn everything there was about being a Bulletin Editor. Designing and editing each monthly bulletin became my favorite activity. That year, I received the second place award for Outstanding Bulletin Editor in our California-Nevada-Hawaii district and I found that I enjoyed my job as Bulletin Editor so much that I became involved in my school’s journalism class and club. I soon became in charge of layout and copy-editing, both of which I found to be things that I am truly passionate about. As my high school years progressed, my interests began to pull me more and more into the direction of journalism; however I was very reluctant to let go of my prior goals. I had planned on being a chemical engineer my whole life and my family, teachers, and friends all expected me to go into chemical engineering. To all of them, my thinking about pursuing a different path meant that I was considering changing my perfect plans for a one-way road to failure. I decided that it was better not to alter the status quo that had developed around me and told myself that I would simply maintain the journalism thing as a hobby for the rest of my life.
The summer before my senior year of high school, however, I had a very life-changing experience. That summer I had to have spinal surgery in which two full length rods and fourteen screws were placed in my back due to my severe kyphosis and scoliosis, which was causing my spine to curve so much that it was interfering with the functions of my other organs. After that, I had a very difficult recovery period in which I had to relearn how to do everything from walking to washing my own hair. I wasn’t allowed to bend for four months, which meant that if I dropped something, I had to figure out a way to pick it up without bending. This was extremely comical, considering that I had chosen not to tell anybody about by back because I wanted to maintain a normal life. The problem was that the people who did know about my back would not accept that I could do anything that I put my mind to and were trying to control my life. I became very tired of people telling me what I could and could not do, so I put extra effort into my recovery, pushed through the pain, did extra exercises—everything I could possibly do to recover more quickly. The difficulties of that summer made me realize that life is far too short and that I needed to start taking chances, doing the things I love, and shooting for my true dreams no matter how crazy they may seem. I started by signing up for a marathon, which I had always wanted to do but was always talked out of doing by people who said that I would fail miserably. Granted it was a stretch that I would be doing a marathon since I had never been an athletic person, it was only six months after my spinal surgery, I had never been in any sports, and I had not even had any sort of physical education class since middle school; but I was determined. Somehow the marathon became more than a marathon to me. It was a symbol of everything that people had told me I wouldn’t be able to do in life. It was a symbol of everything that I wanted to do and was always too afraid to stand up and try. It was a symbol of strength. It was a symbol of perseverance. I told myself that if I could finish that marathon, I could do anything. And really, that marathon was a life changing event for me. Even though I had to walk the entire thing and it ended up taking me ten hours to walk the 26.2 miles that make up a marathon, it was truly one of my proudest moments. It wasn’t until after the marathon that people were suddenly supportive of me and I realized then and there that people only support you when you are on top, but while you are climbing the mountain, you need to learn to support yourself and most of all to believe in yourself when nobody else will. I decided that I needed to start believing in all of my dreams.
Journalism was definitely a dream that I was terrified to pursue. My entire life up until that point had been directed toward becoming an engineer. I had only applied to engineering colleges and did not have any choices that would allow me to pursue journalism, yet I decided that I would not allow myself be stopped. I am currently double majoring in Writing and Literature at MIT and it is definitely one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. I would have never expected a technology school to have such a strong humanities program, but the program here is incredible. Due to the fact that they are very small departments, there is a large amount of contact with the professors and the literature professors even have tea with the students every Monday. Also, MIT allows undergraduates, including freshman, to be involved in research. Currently I am spending my summer aiding a professor with his research in the serial publication of Victorian literature. There are a ton of other opportunities here as well. I am in charge of all the layout and copy-editing for the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal. In addition, I have had two front page articles in The Tech, MIT’s student newspaper. Next semester, I will be taking a class taught by Pulitzer Prize winner, Junot Diaz. The great thing about being at a non-traditional school for the career that I am pursuing is that I can tailor my academic studies to my own personal interests. I would like to go into editing or publishing, both of which are becoming highly media based jobs. Thus, I am able to incorporate several computer science and media studies classes into my literature and writing curriculum to help me to become more well rounded. Also, MIT has a science core, which means that I have had to take several high level science classes, which have prepared me such that I am versatile enough to go into any type of media that I would like. Whether it be science, news, or textbook publishing, I am becoming prepared to pursue a variety of paths and am very open to wherever life leads me. When I had originally started to consider a career in journalism, one of the reasons that I had been very reluctant to switch was that I believed that I could only make a difference through an engineering career in which I could actually create change in the world, such as creating environmentally friendly plastics. Throughout my years of working for my school newspapers, however, I have realized that science is not the only thing that drives change in our culture. More than anything, media is the vehicle for change in our society. Journalism is a career that comes with a huge responsibility to the public because it definitely does have the potential to change the world. I don’t know quite where I will end up in the world of journalism; however I know that wherever I am, my goal will always be to help provide society with honest media to help people make informed opinions.
|
