Supplement II. Edited Texts

Text 1-2

Being outnumbered twenty to one can intimidate anybody. This is especially true in Officer Candidate School. As one of only five female officers in a class of one hundred, I quickly learned to overcome sexual stereotypes and to assert my authority with finesse. At no other time in my life have I received so much " training" in loyalty, courage, and discipline--nor had to rely so heavily on my own perseverance. By the time I enrolled in this program, my determination had already been tested on numerous occasions, but Officer Candidate School did more than any previous experience to prepare me for academic excellence and intense leadership positions.

Early in life, I realized that education often determines one's fate. My mother, a Dutch immigrant, never completed the fourth grade, and my father barely passed the GED with the help of his Army recruiter. Neither of them went to college, and although they worked very hard, they had very little to show for it. I instinctively knew that I wanted more out of life, and I became determined to do whatever was necessary to get an education.

After graduating from high school in Holland at age sixteen, I faced an important obstacle in my quest for a baccalaureate degree. My father felt that college was a waste of money and refused to support me financially. My mother could not assist me financially, but she did give me something more valuable: her encouragement. With her support, I moved into my own apartment, got a job working fifty hours per week, and enrolled in college full time. I worked from 4: 30 A.M. until 3: 30 P.M. every day, and I went to school from 6: 00 P.M. until 11: 00 P.M every night. I do not recall when I slept or did schoolwork, but my determination to put myself through school prevailed.

As busy as I was between work and school, I still found time to do volunteer activities. When I turned seventeen, I joined the National Guard to make a more substantial impact on the community and to do something that would enhance my future. I firmly believed, and still do, that nothing in life is free--including our rights and freedom. Even though the National Guard swallowed an additional weekend each month, I still advanced quickly through school and received strong grades.

By the middle of my sophomore year, I developed an intense desire to exercise my leadership ability. At that time, the National Guard was in need of officers, especially female officers. I applied to the Officer Candidate School weekend program and was accepted. As one of just a handful of women, I was singled out from the very beginning of the rigorous and demanding training process. Furthermore, at a time when female officers did not traditionally go into engineering, I opted to enter the Corps of Engineers upon graduation.

Fourteen months later, eleven of the initial one hundred soldiers received Federal Commissions as Second Lieutenants in the United States Army. I was the only female officer among them. The financial advantages of serving as an officer allowed me to cut back on my work hours and to focus more on school. Finally, after a very demanding journey, I received my bachelor's degree in business.

The perseverance required to pursue my degree and commission is the same perseverance that will ensure my success at the University of Maryland. I am guided not only by my desire to pursue an advanced degree but also by the same reasoning that led me to join the military--I want to serve my community from a position of leadership. My background, which includes service in diverse leadership roles, will allow me to contribute a unique perspective to my class. Few individuals have experienced the responsibility of managing thirty soldiers at age nineteen. Equally few have led a 120-soldier unit in overseas deployment during a time of hostility.

The Army has a saying: " Train as you fight and you will fight as you train." I try to apply this philosophy to my education whenever possible. I have selected the University of Maryland because its law clinics, externships, and mentor program will give me valuable hands-on experience and opportunities to apply what I learn. In my quest to become a lawyer and more successfully serve the community, I will indeed draw upon all that I have learned about accomplishing personal goals. As in Officer Candidate School, I will be focused, motivated, and willing both to train and fight.

Text 2-2

As a single mother who has confronted homelessness and poverty, I am committed to reforming public education. I have a particular interest in improving the accessibility of schooling to homeless individuals, single mothers, and disadvantaged women of color. As a result of my own experiences, I am familiar with the despair and frustration endemic to individuals struggling to survive. I am convinced that increasing individuals' access to education can make the difference between despondency and hope. I am applying for my doctorate in educational leadership so that I can pursue my life-mission: to make education accessible to all.

I began preparing for this mission by volunteering as an intake coordinator at the Christian Assistance Ministry (CAM). Although I had many responsibilities, the role that consumed most of my time and energy was interviewing clients and assessing their physical and emotional needs. One of my greatest contributions was streamlining and updating the paperwork associated with CAM's intake process. I also generated an updated resource list that included many service agencies in the Houston area. By personally contacting each agency to acquire contact information and to learn about its services, I facilitated greater communication between service organizations and ensured that my clients had access to necessary aid.

In my present position as Research Analyst at SeaNet, my primary role is ascertaining the needs of client networks. As an umbrella group, SeaNet has only limited contact with small business development centers, and my job is to ensure that our organization meets these centers' needs. When I took the initiative to send out surveys asking agencies to rate our group's effectiveness, I received an overwhelming response. The information I compiled was so revealing that it was published in the quarterly report that is sent to our funding agency in Washington, D.C. In addition, I have been involved in a number of special, innovative projects. Recently, I analyzed the availability of renewable energy resources in Southern Texas in tandem with The Economic Development Center, Solar Energy, Brooks Air Force Base, and research universities in Texas.

As part of my master's thesis, I collaborated with Upward Bound, Peace Center, and the Davis Education Foundation to underline the importance of community cooperation in public schools. I also provided informational brochures and handouts detailing other such organizations that could assist with the individualized needs of schools. I was gratified when my efforts resulted in teachers and administrators contacting several of the organizations I had mentioned so that the organizations could start outreach in their educational districts.

Although I have not yet been employed in the educational sector, my master's work, as well as my life experiences, has given me a nuanced and sophisticated knowledge of the educational field. I have acted as a mentor at Davis Middle School for many years and have tutored a number of home-schooled children. When my own children attended school, I was involved in their schools' organizations and often took on a leadership role on educational committees. I served on many boards and was active in assisting both instructors and administrators. Fifteen years of experience has familiarized me with the diverse needs of Houston's students, and it has prepared me to act on their behalf.

My short-term goals include advancing my knowledge of quantitative research using programs such as SPSS and Microcas, and acquiring a sophisticated understanding of how to become a leader in the educational field. I wish to use these skills to promote empirical studies in education that can help direct educational reform.

I am attracted to the doctoral program at Texas A& M for precisely this reason. Only Texas A& M offers the kind of collaborative experience that suits my personal needs and professional goals. Over the past four years, I have seen the department blossom into a challenging and innovative program. I am excited about the program's direction and its emphasis on practical application. I appreciate that every course offers the opportunity for independent research, and that the faculty is open to student suggestions for improvement. The flexibility and patience of the faculty and the talent of the students makes Texas A& M a singular choice for my doctoral degree.

My long-term goal is to use my past experience and Texas A& M training to help make education accessible to all, particularly the underprivileged. Whether I am working in the public or private sector, I look forward to addressing the nation's urgent need to educate its citizens efficiently and comprehensively.

Text 3-2

During my freshman year at Yale University, I was sitting in Postcolonial African Literature class when Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o succeeded in attracting me to the study of African literature through nothing more than a single sentence. He asserted that when a civilization adopts reading and writing as its chief form of social communication, it frees itself to forget its own values, since those values no longer have to be part of a lived reality to have significance. I was immediately fascinated by the idea that the written word can alter individual lives, affect one's identity, and perhaps even shape national consciousness.

Professor Ngugi's assertion forced me to think in a radically new way; I was finally confronted with the notion of literature not as an agent of vital change, but as a potential instrument of stasis and social stagnancy. I began to question the basic assumptions with which I had, until then, approached the field. How does " literature" function away from the written page, in the lives of individuals and societies? What is the significance of the written word in a society in which the construction of history is neither necessarily recorded nor even linear?

Ruminating on such questions, I found the general scope of comparative literature to be woefully inadequate, since it did not allow students to question the inherent integrity or subjectivity of their discourse. Comparative literature approaches Asian, African, European, and American texts with the same analytical tools, ignoring the fact that, within each culture, literature may function in a different capacity and with a completely different sense of urgency. Seeking out ways in which literature tangibly impacted societies, I began to explore other fields, including history, philosophy, anthropology, language, and performance studies.

The interdisciplinary nature of my work is best illustrated by my senior thesis, " Time Out of Joint: Issues of Temporality in the Songs of Okot p'Bitek." In addition to my literary interpretations, the thesis drew heavily upon both the Ugandan author's own cultural treatises and other anthropological, psychological, and philosophical texts. By using tools from other disciplines, I was able to interpret the author's literary works while developing insight into Ugandan society and the popular psychology that gave birth to the horrific Idi Amin regime. In addition, I was able to understand further how people interacted with the author's works and incorporated (or failed to incorporate) them into their individual, social, and political realities.

On a more practical level, writing my thesis also confirmed my suspicion that I would like to pursue an academic career. When I finished my undergraduate studies, I felt that a couple of years of professional work would give me a better perspective on graduate school. I decided to secure a position that would grant me experiences far removed from the academic world, yet which would also permit me to continue developing the research and writing skills that I needed to tackle the challenges of a future academic career. I have fulfilled this goal by working as a content developer at a Silicon Valley Internet company for the past two years. The experience has been both enjoyable and invaluable--to the point that colleagues glance at me with a puzzled look when I tell them that I am leaving the job to return to school. In fact, my willingness to leave such a dynamic, high-paying job to pursue my passion for literature reflects my keen determination to continue along the academic path.

Through a master's degree program, I plan to explore further the issues I confronted during my undergraduate years by integrating the study of social, cultural, and linguistic anthropology into the field of literary analysis. I believe that by adopting the tools used in such disciplines, methods of inquiry can be formulated that will facilitate innovative interpretations of works that are both technically sound and sociologically insightful. Thus far, my studies have concentrated largely on African and Caribbean literatures, and I am particularly interested in studying these geographic areas in more specific historical and cultural contexts. I also seek to increase my knowledge of African languages, which will allow me to study the lingering cultural impact of colonialism in modern-day African literature. Eventually, I would like to secure an academic post in a Comparative Literature department, devoting myself to both research and teaching at the college level.

The Modern Thought and Literature program at Berkeley is uniquely equipped to guide me toward these objectives. While searching for a graduate school that would accommodate my interdisciplinary interests, I was thrilled to find a program that approaches world literature with a cross-disciplinary focus, recognizing that the written word has the potential to be an entry point for social and cultural inquiry.

The level of scholarly research produced by Berkeley's Comparative Literature department also attracts me. Sanjay Kadavera's, " Culture, Power, Place, " for instance, provided one of my first and most influential glimpses into the field of cultural anthropology. Professor Kadavera's analysis of the local, national, and foreign realms, achieved through a discussion of postcolonial displacement and mixed identities, has led me to believe that--given the complexity of modern societies--comparative literature's focus on borders (both national and linguistic) has been excessively arbitrary. Even more significant is the accurate rendering of individually-lived realities that may then be synthesized with other experiences. I could greatly benefit from Professor Kadavera's teaching and guidance in applying these ideas to the literary arena, for his work is representative of the rigorous yet creative approach I would pursue upon joining the department.

Text 4-2

The world of today is not the world that existed years ago--nor will it be the same tomorrow. The globalization of the 1990s wrought enormous changes in every facet of the business world, the biggest of which was introducing new variability into business relations.

Companies today can now reach customers in every nation and can cut operational costs through global production and distribution systems. Gillette Co., for instance, manufactures razors in Russia, Fidelity Investment sells its funds in Germany, and Citicorp serves millions of customers from Asia to America. Meanwhile, international markets undergo constant change, intense competition, and heightened customer expectation, which make it increasingly difficult for a company to gain and maintain its competitive edge. Managers in this brave new world must therefore master a broad range of business talents.

Successful managers must survey the competitive landscape and equip their organizations with the strategies, structures, and personnel to compete in a constantly changing environment. In spite of the different approaches managers may choose, one thing remains constant--they must instill a commitment to globalization throughout their companies. Simple exposure to an expanded economy does not make a corporation " international." Instead, there needs to be a widespread adjustment of attitude, as well as sweeping changes in operation, to ensure a company's profitability.

The initial steps a manager must take are twofold: He must clearly outline the challenges and opportunities of an international market, and he must address the individual talents of each employee. A successful manager will tailor his company's global strategies to suit its resources and capacities. This involves setting realistic goals without losing sight of more elevated ones. Not every corporation, for instance, has the size and reach of Citicorp, which will have one billion customers by the year 2010. While a manager should take the limitations of his corporation into account, he must also remember that the quality of his products and services can foster success that mere global reach cannot. Instead of being " all things to all people, " a smaller company can take a more specialized approach to the global market by focusing on a certain sector in which it can excel.

To achieve this, it is critical to match the talents and experience of each employee to the task best suited to him. For instance, a salesman who excels in the United States may not possess the cultural knowledge needed to succeed in China or Brazil. Different cultures, laws, and market conditions make international operation a complicated process of system engineering. A manager must develop working teams that have the skills necessary to interact with people throughout the world. It is therefore the duty of the manager to decide which strategies work best and to follow up with appropriate policies in international marketing, finance, and human resources.

This is an ongoing task that requires continual monitoring of new advances in the business world. A manager must shape his company into a flexible organization that can learn from and respond to fast-changing environments. Another critical aspect of success is the proper integration of technological developments into the corporation. Technology enables a manager to direct and control operations in a multitude of business environments. With the growing availability of technology to all competitors, moreover, a manager must properly implement technological initiatives to give his company a market advantage. In a world fraught with intense competition, ideas are the ultimate asset of a successful corporation. In order to be recognized and chosen by customers, a company must be both creative and unique. A manager's responsibility thus includes stimulating new ideas and innovations that will push the company forward in the marketplace.

In the field of finance, globalization compels managers to make decisions in the shadow of uncertainty. Numerous forces affect international capital markets. As the markets become more and more integrated, changes in one region will initiate chain reactions that can eventually affect all others. One such example is the Asian currency crisis of 1997, which is still affecting the world's economy today. However, as the world moves toward common standards of financial governance and market valuation, new opportunities have arisen for international financial operations. Financial managers must therefore look for innovative ways to manage risk.

Every global corporation will have to address the cultural and legal differences among countries to protect corporate assets and earnings. This requires that the financial manager play a larger role in the company's decision-making process to develop strategies to address concerns. He must keep abreast of new resources for international financing that arise from improvements in the financial services industry. Globalization has also triggered new operational standards. Citigroup, for instance, is a one-stop destination for financial services that include commercial banking, investment banking, insurance, and retail brokerage. Much like traditional industries in which returns to scale are critical for achieving maximum profitability, Citigroup demonstrates that providing such a variety of options to customers ensures a continued revenue stream.

Tackling the global economy is a task that every manager must be prepared to meet. In addition to knowledge of international business, he must have such skills as leadership, communication and organization, as well as the ability to guide his company through any form of change. As the leader in global management education, XXX is uniquely positioned to equip its students with cutting-edge business knowledge and skills. The school's international environment grants firsthand exposure to how people of different cultures think, act, and communicate. Acquiring these crucial skills is the key to any future that involves globalization.

Text 5-2

When I walked through my front door, the first thing I noticed was the odor. Then, I heard the groaning. I remember the occasion quite vividly, although it was ten years ago. My sister and I had just returned from the park with a neighbor, expecting everything to be normal. I soon discovered that nothing would ever be normal again.

As we slowly inched into the living room, a staggering sight met our eyes. There, lying facedown on a couch, was my father, ashen-faced and trembling. His head was completely bald, and his grisly figure appeared enervated. He was gasping for air, and then suddenly, he grabbed a blue pan, plunged his face into it, and vomited with such vehemence that I shivered. Only then did I fully understand what it meant for my Dad to have cancer. At seven years old, I confronted the horrors of cancer in my living room, and realized for the first time that my father was fighting to survive. Catching me out of the corner of his eye, he raised his head from the blue pan and uttered a weak, " Hello, " only to vomit again--this time missing the pan. My neighbor saw my face, put his hand on my shoulder, and whispered, " Let your Dad rest--he has been fighting brave and hard."

My Dad, my hero. The source of my love and guidance was now battling for his life. After the doctors detected the colon cancer in 1987, the tumor became more and more malignant, and the effects on my family were more and more severe. A long series of debilitating surgeries and chemotherapy treatments consumed my father's life, and by extension, enveloped my entire family. My mother, now a de facto nurse and breadwinner, spent her time and energy, not to mention large amounts of the family's money, fiercely battling my father's cancer. Meanwhile, my sister and I began to " lag" behind in school and in life--willing casualties of cancer's war.

Growing up without a father figure at my side, I always felt distanced from my classmates. In elementary and middle school, I noticed that most other kids communicated and played with ease. I, by contrast, was quiet, timid, and introverted, isolated at home and at school. I feared human contact so much that, for a period of time, I could not even bring myself to look into the faces of people who spoke to me. Some children considered me an outcast--an easy target for harassment and ridicule.

My depreciated self-esteem affected my performance in school. Ridiculed by my classmates, I lost the confidence to excel. In a vicious spiral, each bad grade would not only further undermine my confidence, but also make me feel as if I had failed my father, who cared so much about academics when he was healthy. I was ashamed of every report card I showed him, mistaking his concern for disappointment.

One day, I decided finally to change my life. Listening to my classmates' stories of art lessons and gymnastics, activities as foreign to me as family car trips and vacations, I recalled my neighbor's statement: " Let your Dad rest--he has been fighting brave and hard." I finally realized that the example of how to improve my life had been in front of me the entire time. My Dad had fought and struggled to survive his disease--a disease that has claimed millions of victims. By fighting it and enduring the suffering to live another day with his family, he had taught me in the clearest possible way that I should never give up, that I could surmount any obstacle, and that I could build a happy life for myself. I made up my mind. I would face the world " brave and hard, " and I would cast off the anxiety which had so shackled my personality. I would work to improve my grades and would shine as a student. I would cultivate my talents with an active passion. No more delays. No more fear. No more shame. Most importantly, no more giving up.

After reaching this decision in middle school, I worked persistently to catch up and surpass my peers. I have accomplished my goal. Since the sixth grade, my marks in school have steadily improved, and I have been particularly proud of my strong marks in high school. In addition, I have applied my eager determination to mastering the piano, and I continue to cultivate my love for the instrument to this day. Although I have competed with musicians who have been playing since childhood, I have always remained resolute and committed. With the strength my Dad taught me to apply to life, I have pushed myself forward, doggedly practicing despite the increasing demands of my high school curriculum. I recently passed " Level 9" of the Certificate of Merit exam, catching up with--and even surpassing--many other students my age and older.

More than any other milestone I have reached, I am most proud of my success in overcoming my shyness. In eighth grade, I made the decision to join an Asian youth leadership program, which would compel me to communicate frequently with my peers. I knew that my role as a mentor and community leader would teach me to speak clearly and confidently. My participation in this program worked wonders. I now feel at ease amongst my classmates and friends, and last year, I even hosted an open house event for the program, speaking comfortably in front of a large audience.

I am proud of the changes I have made in my life, and I owe all my strength to my father. My Dad has been at my side every step of the way. Even as a bedridden cancer patient, ravaged by chemotherapy, his example taught me to face adversity and to conquer it, no matter the nature of the challenge. His struggle with colon cancer became a model for my own struggle to improve myself. Even today, I continue to fight, struggling with college entrance tests. Despite the challenge, I continue unshaken, knowing that the truest test of my ability is my determination to live bravely like my father and to overcome the hardships of life. I can never thank my Dad enough for what he has given me. He has become my role model, and I hope that one day, many years from now, he will say to me, " I'm proud of you son--you have been fighting brave and hard."