college essay about being indian

Never Have I Ever…reflected on my identity by Ankita D. '23

"too indian" or "not indian enough"?

May 4, 2020

• in People & Identities

This week, I, like many other Indian American girls I know, binge-watched the Netflix show Never Have I Ever . The show, which happens to be the No. 1 trending series on Netflix right now, garnered a lot of attention for finally, finally giving South Asians the representation in media they deserve. I was, of course, hyped to watch it since I’ve never seen a convincingly spunky Indian female character, let alone a protagonist.

Sadly, this show did not meet my expectations. It did many things well and is obviously a huge step for Indians in Hollywood, but…yeah, it has a lot of issues that have prompted me to think about my culture and where I fit into it.

The main character, Devi, is an outgoing and brash girl whose two main goals are to go to Princeton and to have sex. Alright, relatable. But in an attempt to eschew the “nerdy girl” stereotype for Devi, the show’s creators center the plot development on her trying to get with the hot athlete. It’s great that they try to portray a reality where the teens who get perfect scores on their PSAT’s and participate in a host of extracurricular activities also strive to have vibrant social lives, but…at what cost??

For the record, I had no social life in high school—I took a multitude of AP classes, watched aggressive amounts of anime, and pretty much didn’t leave my house except to go to school or quiz bowl matches. Obviously, I’m thrilled to see Devi embrace a life of partying as a mere sophomore, since I only got to do that at MIT, but damn. She has to be bitten by a coyote to be relevant? She has to ditch her friends, who are grappling with serious personal issues, to go do a favor for the hot athlete in order to get a chance at kissing him? What???

I’m mad, y’all.

Also, there’s “busting Asian stereotypes” and then there’s “giving Asian characters random backstories that aren’t related to their cultural identity in a way that distracts from the fact that they’re Asian.” Indeed, Devi’s trauma is so…intense…and plot-consuming that it hinders any meaningful character development.

What I wanted to see more of in this show was Devi’s struggle between being “too Indian” and “not Indian enough,” since that’s a critical facet of the Indian-American experience. In one scene, where Devi is talking to a college admissions counselor, he tells her that she’s “just another Indian girl” unless she has a compelling narrative to write about in her application essay. That part really struck me since in my Common App Essay, I wrote about my homestay experience in Japan and how I feel more connected to Japanese culture than Indian culture as a result.

Here’s the last few paragraphs of the essay. Disclaimer: I didn’t really care about the Common App, so I kind of…spliced up some ideas from my MIT essays and pasted them together to make this. Not my best work, for sure. so don’t judge me too hard uwu

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. …I often wondered how I could be drawn to Japanese culture when the Indian one is so vibrant. How could I not feel an affinity for the whirling skirts and lively music, the colorful festivals and aromatic foods, or even the sense of community that binds families so strongly together? In truth, I wanted desperately to resonate with Indian culture, but with a Catholic background ⁠ 01 lol my family is from that one Indian state that has a lot of Catholic people and feeble understanding of any Indian dialect, I felt alienated from it. Since my parents gave me the independence to explore my own cultural identity, I gravitated towards Japan’s traditions, and fell in love with the intricacies of the language and the vitality of the customs. I grew to admire the people for their harmony, stalwart nature, and ability to respond to bitter adversity with focused determination. Today, I’m grateful for how much I’ve learned from the Japanese culture and the friends I’ve made through a mutual appreciation for it, but most of all for the family I’ve gained. A 6,800-mile distance is nothing when we’ve already bridged language and culture barriers and forged bonds that will last a lifetime. After all, family is forever.

Growing up, I never felt in touch with my culture. I didn’t attend Shishu Bharati, the school that teaches first-generation kids about Indian languages and culture, and only vaguely went to Indian functions and parties. I never attained fluency in Malayalam, the language native to the Indian state where my family is from, and never learned Hindi ⁠ 02 I know two words: namaste, and anar, which means pomegranate. I distinctly remember walking into the room where Nisha was learning the Hindi alphabet, and leaving right after a:anar either. I watched only the essential Bollywood movies ⁠ 03 Three Idiots, Dhoom 2, Jab We Met, PK, etc and could answer maybe three questions about Indian popular culture. And I didn’t particularly want to do any of these things since I wanted to feel “unique” and separate from the rest of the Indian community. Honestly, the derogatory comments Devi makes about the girls dancing at the Indian festival Ganesh Puja are ones a younger me would’ve made to deride my “too-Indian” peers.

In my essay, I describe how I came to embrace Japanese culture after a six-week homestay with a Japanese host family. My appreciation for it stemmed (surprise surprise) from more than just being a weeb , but from a willingness to immerse myself in a new culture since I didn’t feel all that connected to the one I was born into. I picked up Japanese with ease through my annual visits to Japan and my passion for studying the language as a means of bridging the cultural divide, and eventually was able to feel completely comfortable as a gaijin ⁠ 04 foreigner; Japan is super homogenous, so those who don't look Japanese won't really be treated as Japanese. watch the video 'But we're speaking Japanese!　日本語喋ってるんだけど' for more insight on this living in Japan.

…the closest I’ve felt to immersing myself in Indian culture is eating so many gulab jamuns that I grow closer and closer to becoming a gulab jamun.

Truly, the only connections I have to my culture, at this point, are food and the ideals my parents have instilled in me. I didn’t even consider joining MIT SAAS ⁠ 05 South Asian Association of Students because of the disconnect I feel, and I’d probably feel out of place at any of the Indian cultural events at MIT. My Common App Essay might be emo and dramatic, but it’s true: I feel more connected in nearly every way to Japanese culture.

And although I’m grateful that I found solace in another culture, I’ll always wish I were more connected to my roots. Indian culture is freaking incredible, so I hate that I felt ashamed of it as a kid. I hate that I can’t understand Malayalam, or feel comfortable in any traditional attire, or feel like anything but an outsider.

So, yeah, I’m disappointed in Never Have I Ever.  The show could’ve depicted an uplifting Indian support system that helps Devi reconcile her two conflicting identities, or at least some representation of Devi and her mother understanding each other’s competing cultural mindsets that doesn’t stem from extenuating circumstances, but….nah.

I’m glad that I got to see an Indian girl be gutsy and confident on-screen, but I wish she could’ve been portrayed in a way that wasn’t cross-culturally problematic. Overcompensating for her academic success by making her entire narrative about being thirsty and desperate to party was not it , folks.

I am disgruntled and disappointed and sad that I wasn’t able to gain anything from this show. But I guess that’s my fault for hoping to be enlightened and empowered by a whimsical teen comedy just because it has an Indian girl as its protagonist.

• lol my family is from that one Indian state that has a lot of Catholic people" ⁠ back to text ↑
• I know two words: namaste, and anar, which means pomegranate. I distinctly remember walking into the room where Nisha was learning the Hindi alphabet, and leaving right after a:anar ⁠ back to text ↑
• Three Idiots, Dhoom 2, Jab We Met, PK, etc ⁠ back to text ↑
• foreigner; Japan is super homogenous, so those who don't look Japanese won't really be treated as Japanese. watch the video 'But we're speaking Japanese!　日本語喋ってるんだけど' for more insight on this ⁠ back to text ↑
• South Asian Association of Students ⁠ back to text ↑

Share this post

• Share on Twitter
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Facebook
• Share by Email
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed

• Social Justice
• Environment
• Health & Happiness
• Get YES! Emails
• Teacher Resources

• Give A Gift Subscription
• Teaching Sustainability
• Teaching Social Justice
• Teaching Respect & Empathy
• Student Writing Lessons
• Visual Learning Lessons
• Tough Topics Discussion Guides
• About the YES! for Teachers Program
• Student Writing Contest

Follow YES! For Teachers

Nine brilliant student essays on honoring your roots.

Read winning essays from our fall 2019 student writing contest.

For the fall 2019 student writing contest, we invited students to read the YES! article “ Native and European—How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself? ” by Kayla DeVault. Like the author, students reflected on their heritage and how connected they felt to different parts of their identities. Students then wrote about their heritage, family stories, how they honor their identities, and more.

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these nine were chosen as winners. Be sure to read the author’s response to the essay winners, literary gems and clever titles that caught our eye, and even more essays on identity in our Gallery of Voices.

Middle School Winner: Susanna Audi

High School Winner: Keon Tindle

High School Winner: Cherry Guo

University Winner: Madison Greene

Powerful Voice: Mariela Alschuler

Powerful Voice: Reese Martin

Powerful Voice: Mia De Haan

Powerful Voice: Laura Delgado

Powerful Voice: Rowan Burba

From the Author, Kayla DeVault: Response to All Student Writers and Essay Winners

Gallery of voices: more essays on identity, literary gems, titles we loved, middle school winner.

Susanna Audi

Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, N.Y.

BRAZIL: MY HEART’S HOME

Saudades. No word in the English language sums up the meaning of this Portuguese term: a deep feeling of longing that makes your heart ache and pound like a drum inside your chest. I feel saudades for Brazil, its unique culture, and my Brazilian family. When I’m in my second home, Bahia, Brazil, I’m a butterfly emerging from its cocoon—colorful, radiant, and ready to explore the world. I see coconut trees waving at the turquoise waves that are clear as glass. I smell the familiar scent of burning incense. I hear the rhythm of samba on hand-beaten drums, and I feel my grandma’s delicate fingers rub my back as I savor the mouth-watering taste of freshly made doce de leite .  Although I’m here for only two precious weeks a year, I feel a magnetic connection to my father’s homeland, my heart’s home.

My grandfather or vovô , Evandro, was born in Brazil to a family who had immigrated from Lebanon and was struggling to make ends meet. His parents couldn’t afford to send him to college, so he remained at home and sold encyclopedias door-to-door. My vovô eventually started a small motorcycle parts company that grew so much that he was able to send my father to the U.S. at age sixteen. My father worked hard in school, overcoming language barriers and homesickness. Even though he has lived in America for most of his life, he has always cherished his Brazilian roots. 

I’ve been raised with my father’s native language, foods, and customs. At home, I bake Brazilian snacks, such as the traditional cheese bread, pão de queijo , which is crunchy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. My family indulges in the same sweet treats that my father would sneak from the cupboard as a child. Two relaxing customs we share are listening to Brazilian music while we eat breakfast on weekends and having conversations in Portuguese during meals. These parts of my upbringing bring diversity and flavor to my identity. 

Living in the U.S. makes me feel isolated from my Brazilian family and even more distant from Brazilian culture. It’s hard to maintain both American and Brazilian lifestyles since they are so different. In Brazil, there are no strangers; we treat everybody like family, regardless if that person works at the local shoe store or the diner. We embrace each other with loving hugs and exchange kisses on the cheeks whenever we meet. In the U.S., people prefer to shake hands. Another difference is that I never come out of Starbucks in New York with a new friend. How could I when most people sit with their eyes glued to their laptop screens? Life seems so rushed. To me, Brazilians are all about friendships, family, and enjoying life. They are much more relaxed, compared to the stressed and materialistic average American. 

As Kayla DeVault says in her YES! article “Native and European—How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself,” “It doesn’t matter how many pieces make up my whole: rather, it’s my relationship with those pieces that matters—and that I must maintain.”  I often ask myself if I can be both American and Brazilian. Do I have to choose one culture over the other? I realize that I shouldn’t think of them as two different cultures; instead, I should think of them as two important, coexisting parts of my identity. Indeed, I feel very lucky for the full and flavorful life I have as a Brazilian American. 

Susanna Audi is an eighth-grader who lives in the suburbs of New York. Susanna loves painting with watercolors, cooking Brazilian snacks, and playing the cello. On weekends, she enjoys babysitting and plays several sports including lacrosse, soccer, and basketball. Susanna would love to start her own creative design business someday. 

High School Winner

Keon Tindle

Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

Walking Through the Forest of Culture

What are my roots? To most people, my roots only go as far as the eye can see. In a world where categorization and prejudice run rampant, the constant reminder is that I am Black. My past is a living juxtaposition: my father’s father is a descendant of the enslaved and oppressed and his wife’s forefathers held the whips and tightened the chains. Luckily for me, racial hatred turned to love. A passion that burned brighter than any cross, a love purer than any poison. This is the past I know so well. From the slave ship to the heart of Saint Louis, my roots aren’t very long, but they are deeply entrenched in Amerikkkan history.

This country was made off of the backs of my brothers and sisters, many of whom have gone unrecognized in the grand scheme of things. From a young age, White children are told stories of heroes—explorers, politicians, freedom fighters, and settlers whose sweat and determination tamed the animalistic lands of America. They’re given hope and power through their past because when they look in the mirror they see these heroes. But what about me? My stories are conveniently left out of the textbooks; I have never been the son of a king or a powerful African leader, just expensive cargo to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. It seems we, as a people, never truly left the ship.

Even now, we’re chained to the whitewashed image of Black history. I can never truly experience the Black tradition because there are multiple perspectives. The truth is clouded and lost due to the lack of documentation and pervasive amount of fabrication. How am I supposed to connect to my heritage? America tells me to celebrate the strength of my ancestors, the strength of the slaves, to praise something they helped create. The Afrocentrics tell me to become one with the motherland, celebrate the culture I was pulled away from. However, native Africans make it clear I’ll never truly belong.

Even the honorable Elijah Muhammad tells me to keep my chin pointed to the clouds, to distrust the creation of Yakub, and to take my place among the rest of Allah’s children. Most people don’t have the luxury of “identifying with all of the pieces of [themselves],” as Kayla DeVault says in the YES! article “Native and European—How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself?” 

They’re forced to do research and to formulate their own ideas of who they are rather than follow the traditions of an elder. For some, their past works as a guide. A walk through life that has been refined over generations. Others, however, are forced to struggle through the dark maze of life. Hands dragging across the walls in an attempt to not lose their way. As a result, their minds create stories and artwork from every cut and scratch of the barriers’ surface. Gaining direction from the irrelevant, finding patterns in the illogical. 

So what are my roots? My roots are my branches, not where I come from but where this life will take me. The only constant is my outstretched arms pointed towards the light. A life based on the hope that my branches will sprout leaves that will fall and litter the path for the next generation.

Keon Tindle is unapologetically Black and embraces his African American background. Keon is an esports competitor, musician, and producer, and especially enjoys the craft of pairing history with hip-hop music. He is always ecstatic to dabble in new creative outlets and hopes to pursue a career in neuroscience research.

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.

Tying the Knot

The kitchen smells like onions and raw meat, neither unpleasant nor pleasant. Nainai’s house slippers slap against our kitchen floor as she bustles around, preparing fillings for zongzi: red bean paste, cooked peanuts, and marinated pork. I clap my pudgy hands together, delighted by the festivities. 

Nainai methodically folds the bamboo leaves into cones, fills them up with rice, and binds the zongzi together with string that she breaks between her teeth. I try to follow suit, but when I try to tie the zongzi together, half the rice spills out. Tired from my lack of progress, I abandon Nainai for my parents, who are setting up the mahjong table. 

After raising me to the age of ten, my grandparents returned to China. They dropped back into their lives like they had never left, like they hadn’t shaped my entire upbringing. Under their influence, my first language was not English, but Chinese. 

At school, my friends cajoled me into saying Chinese words for them and I did so reluctantly, the out-of-place syllables tasting strange on my palate. At home, I slowly stopped speaking Chinese, embarrassed by the way my tongue mangled English words when I spoke to classmates. One particular memory continually plagues me. “It’s Civil War, silly. Why do you pronounce “L” with an ‘R’?” Civil. Civil. Civil.

At dinner, my dad asked us to speak Chinese. I refused, defiantly asking my brother in English to pass the green beans. I began constructing false narratives around my silence. Why would I use my speech to celebrate a culture of foot binding and feudalism? In truth, I was afraid. I was afraid that when I opened my mouth to ask for the potatoes, I wouldn’t be able to conjure up the right words. I was afraid I would sound like a foreigner in my own home. If I refused to speak, I could pretend that my silence was a choice.

In Kayla DeVault’s YES! article “Native and European – How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself?” she insists that “Simply saying “I am this” isn’t enough. To truly honor my heritage, I found I must understand and participate in it.” And for the first time, I wonder if my silence has stolen my cultural identity. 

I decide to take it back.

Unlike DeVault, I have no means of travel. Instead, my reclamation starts with collecting phrases: a string of words from my dad when he speaks to Nainai over the phone, seven characters from two Chinese classmates walking down the hall, another couple of words from my younger sister’s Chinese cartoons. 

The summer before my senior year marks the eighth year of my grandparents’ return to China. Once again, I am in the kitchen, this time surrounded by my parents and siblings. The bamboo leaves and pot of rice sit in front of me. We all stand, looking at each other expectantly. No one knows how to make zongzi. We crowd around the iPad, consulting Google. Together, we learn how to shape the leaves and pack the rice down. 

The gap in knowledge bothers me. Does it still count as honoring a family tradition when I follow the directions given by a nameless pair of hands on YouTube rather than hearing Nainai’s voice in my mind? 

Instead of breaking the string with my teeth like Nainai had shown me, I use scissors to cut the string—like I had done with my ties to Chinese language and culture all those years ago. And now, I’m left with the severed string that I must hurriedly tie around the bamboo leaf before the rice falls out of my zongzi.

Cherry Guo is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. Cherry rows for her school’s crew team and plays the viola in her school orchestra. She spends what little free time she has eating pretzel crisps and listening to podcasts about philosophy.

University Winner

Madison Greene

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

Carrying the Torch

I have been called a pizza bagel–the combination of a Catholic Italian and an Ashkenazi Jew. Over time, I have discovered the difficulty of discretely identifying the ratio of pizza to bagel. It is even more arduous when the pizza and the bagel have theologies that inherently contradict each other. Therefore, in a society that emphasizes fine lines and exact distinctions, my identity itself becomes a contradiction.  

In the winter, my family tops our Christmas tree with the Star of David. I’ve recited the Lord’s Prayer; I’ve prayed in Hebrew. I attended preschool at a church, and my brother was a preschooler in a synagogue. Every week at Sunday morning mass, my maternal family donates money to the collection basket during the offertory. My paternal family has donated authentic Holocaust photographs to a local Jewish heritage museum. Growing up, none of this was contradictory; in fact, it all seemed complementary. My Jewish and Catholic identities did not cancel each other out but rather merged together.

However, the compatibility of my Catholic-Jewish identities was in upheaval when I decided to become acquainted with the Jewish community on campus. While attending Hillel events, I felt insecure because I did not share many of the experiences and knowledge of other Jewish students. Despite this insecurity, I continued to participate — until a good friend of mine told me that I was not Jewish enough because of my Catholic mother. She also said that families like mine were responsible for the faltering of Jewish culture. I wanted my identity to be validated. Instead, it was rejected. I withdrew and avoided not only my Jewish identity but also my identity as a whole.

I soon realized that this friend and I look at my situation using different filters. My Catholic-Jewish identities have evolved into a codependent relationship, and I am entitled to unapologetically embrace and explore both aspects of my identity. I realized that even without my friend’s validation of my identity, I still exist just the same. Any discredit of my Catholic-Jewish identities does not eliminate my blended nature. So, after a few months of avoiding my Jewish identity, I chose to embrace my roots; I resumed participating in the Jewish community on campus, and I have not stopped since.

Kayla DeVault’s YES! article “Native and European – How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself?” describes the obligation to one’s ancestral chain. The best way to fulfill this duty is to fully dedicate oneself to understanding the traditions that accompany those cultural origins. In this generation, my mother’s Catholic-Italian maiden name has no men to carry it on to the next generation. It is difficult to trace my last name past the mid-1900s because my Jewish ancestors shortened our surname to make it sound less Semitic, to be less vulnerable to persecution. Given the progressive fading of my family’s surnames, how do I continue the legacies of both family lines?

On behalf of my ancestors and for the sake of the generations still to come, I feel obligated to blend and simultaneously honor my Jewish and Catholic heritage to ensure that both prevail. 

Now I know that whether I am sitting next to my Jewish father at my young cousin’s baptism, or whether I am sitting at the Passover Seder table with my mother’s Catholic parents, it is up to me to keep both flames of my ancestry burning bright. The least I can do is hold each family’s candle in my hands. Imagine the tremendous blaze I could create if I brought the flames of my two families together.

Madison Greene is a Communication Studies major at Kent State University. Madison is also pursuing a minor in Digital Media Production. She is currently the president of her sorority.

Powerful Voice Winner

Mariela Alschuler

Behind My Skin

My roots go deeper than the ground I stand on. My family is from all over the world with extended branches that reach over whole countries and vast oceans.

Though I am from these branches, sometimes I never see them. My Dominican roots are obvious when I go to my abuela’s house for holidays. My family dances to Spanish music. I fill my plate with platanos fritos and my favorite rice and beans. I feel like a Dominican American girl. Maybe it’s the food. Maybe it’s the music. Or maybe it’s just the way that my whole family—aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins— laugh and talk and banter in my grandparents’ small, beautiful apartment.

Even though I am blood to this family, I stick out like a sore thumb. I stick out for my broken Spanish, my light skin, my soft, high-pitched voice and how I do my hair. I feel like I don’t belong to my beautiful, colorful family, a disordered array of painted jars on a shelf.

If my Dominican family is like a disorganized and vibrant shelf of colors, then my European family is a neat and sparse one with just a hint of color. For Christmas in New York, there are dozens of us crammed in the small apartment. For Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, there are rarely more than twelve people in the grandiose, pristine house that looks like something out of House Beautiful . I adore my grandparent’s house. It is expansive and neatly painted white. After growing up in a small house on a school campus and visiting my other grandparents’ small apartment in New York, I thought that their house was the greatest thing in the world. I would race up the stairs, then slide down the banister. I would sip Grandma’s “fancy” gingerbread tea, loving the feeling of sophistication. There, I could forget about the struggles of my Dominican family. I was the granddaughter of a wealthy, Jewish, Massachusetts couple rather than the granddaughter of a working-class second-generation Dominican abuela and abuelo from the Bronx.  

I don’t fit in with my European family either. My dark skin and my wild hair don’t belong in this tidy family. In Massachusetts, the branches of my Dominican family, no matter how strong and extensive, are invisible. The same way my European roots are lost when I am in New York.

So what am I? For years I have asked myself this question. Wondering why I couldn’t have a simple garden of a family rather than the jungle that I easily get lost in. As Kayla DeVault says in her YES! article “Native and European—How can I honor all parts of myself?,” “Simply saying ‘I am this’ isn’t enough.” And it isn’t. My race, color, and ethnicity do not make up who I am. I am still a daughter. A sister. A cousin. A friend. My mixed identity does not make me less whole, less human. I may have lightly tanned skin and my lips may not form Spanish words neatly, but behind my skin is bright color and music. There is warm gingerbread tea and golden platanos fritos. There is Spanish singing from my abuelo’s speaker and “young people” songs that play from my headphones. There is a little, cozy apartment and a large, exquisite house. Behind my skin is more than what you can see. Behind my skin is what makes me me. 

Mariela Alschuler is a seventh-grader at Ethical Culture Fieldston School and lives in the Bronx, New York. When she’s not in school, Mariela likes to read, write, do gymnastics, watch Netflix, and spend time with her friends and family. She hopes to be a doctor and writer when she grows up.

Reese Martin

University Liggett School, Grosse Point Woods, Mich.

A True Irishman?

Similar to Kayla Devault in her YES! article “Native and European-How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself,” I hold holistic pride in my cultural identity. As a descendant of Irish immigrants, my childhood was filled with Irish folk music, laughter, and all things green. I remember being a toddler, sitting on my Popo’s lap wearing a shiny green, slightly obnoxious, beaded shamrock necklace. There, in the living room, I was surrounded by shamrocks hanging on the walls and decorations spread throughout, courtesy of my grandmother who always went overboard. My father and his siblings were Irish fanatics, as well. My aunt, whom I loved spending time with as a child, was notorious for wild face painting, ear-splitting music, and crazy outfits on St. Patrick’s Day. The holiday typically started in Detroit’s historic Corktown for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the promise of authentic Irish corned beef and soda bread at the Baile Corcaigh Irish Restaurant following the festivities. Charlie Taylor, a local Irish musician, belted folk songs from Baile Corcaigh’s makeshift stage. It was one of the few days a year my father and his large family came together. Although my aunt and grandparents have passed, our family’s Irish pride is eternal.

There was, however, one peculiar thing about our Irish heritage— none of my family looked classic Irish. My father and his five siblings have nearly black eyes and fairly dark skin, not the typical Irish traits of blue eyes and light skin. DeVault wrote, “When I was older, the questions came, which made me question myself.” I fell into a similar predicament, questioning my heritage. It truly came as a shock when a couple of my paternal aunts and several cousins took DNA tests through 23andMe and AncestryDNA. The results revealed the largest percentage of our ethnicity was Lebanese and Middle Eastern, not Irish.

It felt like a punch to the gut. I was clueless on how to move forward. According to the numbers, we possessed an insignificant amount of Irish blood. How was it possible to be wrong about such a huge part of my identity? Not only was I confused about my culture and history, but I also experienced a great deal of shame—not of my newfound Middle Eastern heritage, but the lack of Irish DNA, which I had previously held so close and felt so proud of. It felt as though I was betraying the memory of my late grandparents and aunt.

Even amidst my confusion, I found this new heritage intriguing; I was excited to explore all that my newly found Lebanese culture had to offer: unique foods, unfamiliar traditions, and new geography. In addition to the familiar boiled and mashed potatoes, my family now eats hummus and shawarma. I also know more about the basic facts, history, and government of Lebanon. One thing dampens my enthusiasm, however. I wonder how I can fully develop a love for my newly discovered culture without being too deliberate and appearing to be insensitive to cultural appropriation.

It is here, in the depths of uncertainty and intrigue, I relate most to DeVault’s question, “How do I honor all parts of myself?” Although my Irish ancestry may not be as authentic as I once believed, I still feel a strong connection to the Irish culture. I’ve found that to truly honor all pieces of my identity, I must be willing to accept every aspect of my ancestry. I don’t need to reject Lebanese ethnicity, nor disregard the Irish memories of my childhood. I am allowed to be everything all at once. At the end of the day, with both Irish culture and Lebanese heritage, I am still simply and perfectly me.

Reese Martin is a junior at University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. Reese plays hockey and soccer, swims competitively and is a violinist in her school orchestra. She enjoys volunteering, especially peer tutoring and reading with young children.

Rowan Burba

Saluting Shadows

On the floor, a murdered woman lays bloody and dead. Two young boys stare in horror at their dead mother. At only 10 years old, my great-grandfather experienced unfathomable suffering. A generation later, my grandfather and two great-uncles grew up under an abusive roof. My great-uncle Joe, the youngest of three boys, endured the worst of the abuse. Joe’s scarred brain altered during the sexual and emotional abuse his father subjected him to. From the time he was 18 months old, trusted adults of Joe’s community violated him throughout his childhood. These traumas spiraled into a century of silence, the silence I am determined to break. 

My father’s lineage is littered with trauma. Our family doesn’t openly share its past. We constantly masquerade as “normal” so we can fit in, but the alienation we experience is understandable. In Kayla DeVault’s YES! article “Native and European—How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself?” she explains her numerous identities, which include Shawnee, Anishinaabe, Eastern European, Scottish, and Irish. Although I don’t have her rich ethnic ancestry, I question my roots just as she does. I have limited photos of my deceased relatives. There are only two prominent ones: my paternal grandmother as a child with her siblings and my maternal grandmother’s obituary photo. These frosted images hide the truth of my family’s history. They’re not perfect 4″ x 6″ moments frozen in time. They’re shadowed memories of a deeply disturbed past.

For 17 years, my family was clueless about our past family trauma. Two months ago, my great-aunt explained Joe’s story to me. Joe developed Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as a result of his abuse. By the age of 18, his brain contained 95 alters (fragments of his identity that broke off and developed into true individuals), causing Joe to appear as the “weird one,” the one who my family dismissed, the outcast of my dad’s childhood. My dad only learned one year ago, long after Joe died, about Joe’s DID. My family’s adamancy to hold secrets outweighed accepting and helping Joe. The shadows around these secrets quickly dispersed. 

The silence and shame from a mother’s death a century ago still have a chokehold on my family today. My family appears a disaster to outsiders.  My mom’s side is so religious they would never fathom a conversation about these harsh realities. In addition to Joe, my dad’s side has uncles who struggle with codependency and trauma from past abuses. Joe’s brother coped by latching onto another “normal” family, and my grandfather coped by never talking about issues. My parents married soon after my maternal grandmother and three of her four siblings died within a few weeks of each other. Despite years of therapy, my parents divorced when I was 11 years old. I grew up surrounded by dysfunction without recognizing it. 

How do I honor my roots? I work to break the silence and stigmas of abuse and mental health. I’ve participated in therapy for about five years and have been on medicine for about two. I must reprogram my brain’s attachment to codependent tendencies and eliminate the silence within me. I’m working through my intrusive thoughts and diving into my family’s past and disrupting harmful old patterns. I’m stepping away from the shadows of my ancestors and into the light, ensuring that future generations grow up with knowledge of our past history of abuse and mental illness. Knowledge that allows us to explore the shadows without living in them. Knowledge that there’s more in life outside of the frames.

Rowan Burba, a junior at Kirkwood High School in Missouri, loves to participate as a witness in Mock Trial competitions, build and paint sets for the KHS theatre department, play viola in her school orchestra, and do crafts with kids. She is involved in politics and wants to help change the world for the better.

Mia De Haan

Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale, Ariz.

What Being a Part of the LGBTQ+ Community Means to Me

Being queer is that one thing about me I am most proud of, yet also most scared of. Knowing that I am putting my life at risk for the simplest thing, like being gay, is horrifying.

Let’s talk about my first crush. Her name was Laurel, and she was always in front of me when we lined up after recess in first grade. I remember wishing that girls could marry girls because she had the prettiest long, blonde hair. I left these thoughts in the back of my head until middle school. I couldn’t stop staring at a certain girl all day long. That one girl who I would have sleepovers with every weekend and slow dance with at school dances—but only as friends. She changed my life. She was the first person to tell me that I was accepted and had no reason to be afraid. 

Being part of the LGBTQ+ community isn’t all rainbows and Pride parades. It is watching your family turn away from you in disgust but never show it on their faces. It’s opening Twitter and learning that it’s still illegal to be gay in 71+ countries. It’s astonishing that we had to wait until 2015 for the U.S. Supreme Court to make it legal to marry in all 50 states.  

My identity is happiness yet pain, so much pain. I hated myself for years, shoved myself back into a closet and dated my best friend for two years because maybe if I brought a boy home my family would wish me “Happy Birthday” again or send me Christmas presents like they do for my brother and sister.

When I began to explore my identity again, I asked myself, “Am I safe?” “Will I still be loved?” I was horrified. I am horrified. Legally, I am safe, but I am not safe physically. I can still be beaten up on the streets for holding a girl’s hand. Protesters at Pride festivals are still allowed to shout profanities at us and tell us that we are going to burn in hell—and the cops protect them. I am not safe mentally because I still allow the words of people and homophobes in the media and on my street get inside of my head and convince me that I am a criminal. 

When I read Kayla DeVault’s YES! article “Native and European—How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself?” I could feel how proud DeVault is to be Shawnee and Irish. While we do not share the same identity, I could tell that we are the same because we both would do anything for our cultures and want to show our pride to the rest of the world.

I honor my LGBTQ+ identity by going to Pride festivals and events. I also participate in an LGBTQ+ church and club, where, for years, was the only place I could be myself without the fear of being outed or harmed. Whenever I hear people being ignorant towards my community, I try to stay calm and have a conversation about why our community is great and valid and that we are not doing anything wrong. 

I don’t know if the world will ever change, but I do know that I will never change my identity just because the world is uncomfortable with who I am. I have never been one to take risks; the idea of making a fool of myself scares me. But I took one because I thought someone might listen to my gay sob story. I never expected it to be heard. If you have your own gay sob story, I will listen, and so will many others, even if you don’t realize it yet.  

Amelia (Mia) De Haan was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Mia has devoted her entire life to art, specifically theatre and dance. While she has struggled to figure out what she wants to do for the rest of her life, she does know that she wants to inspire people and be a voice for the people of the LGBTQ+ community who still feel that no one is listening. Mia dreams of moving to New York with her cat Loki and continuing to find a way to inspire people.

Laura Delgado

Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala.

I moved to the United States when I was eight years old because my father knew Venezuela was becoming more corrupt. He wanted to give his family a better life. My sense of self and belonging was wiped clean when I moved to the United States, a country that identified me and continues to label me as an “alien.” On U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) documents, I am Alien Number xxx-xxx-xxx.  I will not let that alien number define who I am: a proud Venezuelan and American woman.

In her YES! article “Native and European—How Do I Honor All Parts of Myself?” author Kayla DeVault says that “to truly honor [her] heritage, [she] found [she] must understand and participate in it.” This is why during Christmas I help my mom make hallacas (a traditional Venezuelan dish made out of cornmeal, stuffed with beef, pork, chicken, raisins, capers, and olives, wrapped in a banana leaf that is boiled to perfection), pan de jamón (a Christmas bread filled with ham, cheese, raisins, and olives—the perfect sweet and salty combination, if you ask me), and ensalada de gallina (a chicken, potatoes, and green apple salad seasoned with mayonnaise, salt, and pepper). While the gaitas (traditional Venezuelan folk music) is playing, we set up the Christmas tree and, under it, the nativity scene. The smell of Venezuelan food engulfs our small apartment. Every time I leave the house, the smell of food sticks to me like glue, and I love it.

We go to our fellow Venezuelan friend’s house to dance, eat, and laugh like we were back in Venezuela. We play bingo and gamble quarters as we talk over each other.  My favorite thing is how we poke fun at each other, our way of showing our love. There is nothing better than being surrounded by my Venezuelan family and friends and feeling like I belong.

My ancestors are Spanish settlers, West African slaves, and Indigenous Venezuelans. To my peers, I am a Latina woman who can speak Spanish and comes from a country they have never heard of. To my family, I am a strong and smart Venezuelan woman who is succeeding in this country she calls home. 

I was immediately an outcast as a young newcomer to this country. I was the new, exotic girl in class who did not speak a word of English; all of that led to bullying. Growing up in a country that did not want me was—and still is—hard. People often ask me why I would ever want to identify as American. My answer to their question is simple: This is my home. I knew that the chances of us going back to Venezuela were slim to none so I decided to make this country my home. At first, I fought it. My whole life was back in Venezuela. Eventually, I made lifelong friends, had my first kiss and my first heartbreak. I went to all of the homecoming and prom dances and made memories with my best friends to last me a lifetime. Yes, I was born in Venezuela and the pride of being a Venezuelan woman will never be replaced, but my whole life is in the United States and I would never trade that for the world. 

I am Venezuelan and I am American. I am an immigrant and I am Latina. The United States government will always know me as Alien Number xxx-xxx-xxx, but they will not know that my heritage is rich and beautiful and that I am a proud Venezuelan and a proud American woman.

Laura Delgado is a Junior at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, majoring in Graphic Design and minoring in Hispanic Studies. Laura and her family migrated to the United States from Venezuela in 2007 to escape the Chavez regime. She is a DACA recipient and a first-generation college student who has a passion for graphic design and hopes to one day open her own interior design company.

Dear every human who wrote in this contest or thought about writing,

I want to start by addressing all of you. 

I think stepping out of your comfort zone and writing your truth—even if you think you aren’t a writer— is a brave thing to do. 

I want you to understand that not being selected does not mean your story isn’t valid or that your identity wasn’t “enough.” Remember, you’re always enough. You’re enough to God, to Allah, to your Higher Power, to the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the sky, to your parents, and to your ancestors who endured long enough for you to come into existence. 

As I read through the various essays, I saw a common thread of food . Whether it’s the pierogi sales at churches in Pittsburgh, the neverias around Phoenix, or the soul food joints in Birmingham, the history of our ancestors’ movements have left their impressions in our cuisine. 

Another theme I found in several essays was a “uniformed diaspora.” Some of you talked about not being able to fully trace your lineage, having your history stolen by some method of political racism, and even grappling with finding that your genetics are not all you thought they were. As a Native person, I know all too well that we had much taken from us. I know that the conquerors wrote our history, so ours is recorded with bias, racism, and flippancy. 

And now to the essay winners:

To Susanna: Obrigada for your story. I encourage you to keep exploring your identity and how it informs your existence today on Lenape, Rockaway, and Canarsie traditional lands (New York City). Your imagery reflects saudades well. I think there is an intriguing and untapped story embedded in your father’s experience from Lebanon, and I encourage you to explore how that merges with your Brazilian identity.

When I read that passage about Starbucks, I thought about how the average young American seems to be private in public, but public in private—meaning this culture and its technology isolates us (private) when we are around other people (public), yet so many of us share most about ourselves on social media (public) where we can pick and choose if we want to engage with someone (private). By the way, I, too, played lacrosse… Did you know it has Indigenous roots?

To Cherry: 非常感谢你!  Don’t listen to the American stereotypes of who you are, as hard as that can be. You sadly may always hear them, but hearing is not the same as listening. People undermine the things they don’t understand because the things they don’t understand scare them. While it is not your job to feel you have to educate them, you do have the freedom to choose how you navigate those spaces.

I understand how it may feel inauthentic to learn how to make traditional foods like zongzi from a YouTube video. For me, I have had to learn beading and other crafts because I was too ashamed to learn them when I had the elders still in my life. I  tell young folk to know their elders now while they can. Furthermore, please speak every language no matter how imperfect because it’s a gift. Also, I’ll eat your zongzi any day, even if all the rice falls out!

To Keon: The imagery and symbols of slavery you use, powerfully describe a revisionist history that further blocks access to what would be a culturally-rich ancestry. 

I remember standing on the shores of Ouidah, Benin, from where the majority of slaves left, looking through La Porte du Non Retour (The Door of No Return) memorial, and hearing a local say, “Our relatives, they left these shores for the ships and then… we never heard from them again.” And so we come to realize our stories are known only so far as they have been carried. 

I see hope in the way you have embraced your roots as your branches to move forward. I believe that, in looking towards your branches, you have actually found your roots. You are a product of all the stories, told and untold, remembered and forgotten. I encourage you to keep writing and exploring how your seemingly contradicting and somewhat unknown roots shaped your ancestors and shape their product: you. Don’t hold back. 

To Madison: Grazie and תודה. First of all, pizza bagels are delicious… just saying… talk about the best of both worlds! You write about the challenge of fitting into your communities, and I can certainly see how religious differences can become contentious. 

I am sorry that you had a negative Hillel experience. In the end, we can’t let the persecutors steal our ancestral identities from us because that allows them to win. Cultures are fluid, not rigid and defined as peers might bully us into thinking. It’s rotten when people label us with things like “pizza bagel,” but if you boldly embrace it, you can turn it on its head. So I encourage you to be the smartest, wittiest, and most deliciously confident pizza bagel out there, writing your experience for all to read!

To Laura: Gracias , you write with a motif of sorts, one that conflates your identity to a number and the label of “alien.” For people in the United States to be dismissive of immigrants and judgmental of their cultures and languages is for the same people to forget their own origins, their own stories, and their own roles (as benefactors or as victims) in this age-old system of oppression for gain. It is also rather ironic that we call people “aliens;” unless they are from an Indigenous nation. Are not nearly all Americans “aliens” to some degree?

You write about being bullied as the new, exotic girl in school and I have also experienced that as my family moved around a bit growing up; however, I have also had the privilege to speak English.

It’s sad that these experiences are still so proliferate, and so I think it is vital that people like you share their experiences. Perhaps your background can inform how you think about spaces as an interior designer. 

To Mariela: Gracias and תודה for the story you shared. You write about a complex existence that is a mix of poor and wealthy, white and brown, warm and cool. Learning to navigate these contrasting sides of your family will help you work with different kinds of people in your future.

I can understand your point about feeling out of place by your skin color. Lighter skin is largely considered a privilege in society, yet for those of us with non-white heritages, it can make us feel like we don’t belong amongst our own family. We have to walk a fine line where we acknowledge we may be treated better than our relatives in some circumstances but we have to sit with the feeling of not being “brown enough” other times. I encourage you to keep exploring your branches and sharing your feelings with your relatives about these topics. Perhaps one day you can use your deep understanding of human relations to inform your bedside manner as a doctor!

To Mia: Thank you for your brave piece, despite your fears. Your emotional recollection about the first girl you loved is very touching and powerful. 

I am sorry that you don’t feel as though you are treated the same by your family on account of your identity and that you have to take extra steps to be accepted, but I believe your continuing to be your authentic self is the only way to prove you mean what you mean.

I hope the utmost safety and acceptance for you. I also thank you for seeing and relating to my pride that I have for myself, and I encourage you to consider creative outlets— maybe even podcast hosting—to uplift your story and the stories of others, spread awareness, and facilitate change.

To Reese: Go raibh maith agat . That’s how you thank a singular person in Irish, if you didn’t know already. I enjoyed your piece because, of course, we have an Irish connection that I understand.

I find it pretty interesting that you came back with a lot of Lebanese results in your family tests. Understand those tests only represent the inherited genes, so if both of your parents were a quarter Irish but three-quarters Lebanese, for example, you would get half of each of their genes. You might get half Lebanese from both and you would appear full Lebanese—or any other variation. My point is those tests aren’t exact reports.

I am excited you have found new aspects of your heritage and I hope you will continue to explore—as best you can—what your ancestral history is. And, by the way, I, too, play hockey and the violin—fine choices!

To Rowan: Many families put up a facade, and it’s only the brave ones, like you, addressing the trauma head-on who will be able to break the cycle that causes intergenerational trauma. 

When we explore the parts of our identity, many of us may find how much trauma —including historic policy, racism, and displacement—has impacted our ancestors, perhaps centuries upon centuries ago. Learning about my family history and about religious factors has revealed stories of abuse and secrets that have been hushed wildly, even within my immediate family. Photos can be sad when we know the stories behind them and even when we never knew the person; they’re still a part of us and we can honor them by remembering them. I think you choosing to write about your Uncle Joe and the effects of trauma in your family— especially as you process and heal yourself—will be a tremendous resource both internally and for others. Thank you for sharing and I hope you find happiness in those frames.

Again, thank you all for your essays. It is exciting to see the youth writing. I am grateful for my piece to have been chosen for this contest and, I hope I’ve encouraged readers to consider every part that makes up their whole and how it has informed their life experiences.

Kayla DeVault

“ In seventh grade, I went to an affinity group meeting. And all I remember was being called a bad Asian again and again. I was called a bad Asian because I couldn’t use chopsticks. I was called a bad Asian because I didn’t know what bubble tea or K-pop was. Time and again, I was called a bad Asian because I didn’t know the things I was expected to know, and I didn’t do the things that I was expected to do. That meeting made me truly question my identity. “ . —Sebastian Cynn, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y. Click here to read the entire essay.

“It’s difficult being Dominican but born and raised in New York. I’m supposed to speak fluent Spanish. I’m supposed to listen to their music 24/7, and I’m supposed to follow their traditions. I’m supposed to eat their main foods. I’m unique and it’s not only me. Yes, I may not speak Spanish. Yes, I may not listen to their kind of music, but I don’t think that defines who I am as a Dominican. I don’t think I should be discriminated for not being the same as most Dominicans. Nobody should be discriminated against for being different from the rest because sometimes different is good. “ —Mia Guerrero, KIPP Washington Heights Middle School, New York, N.Y. Click here to read the entire essay.

When I hang out with some of my older friend groups, which are mainly white, straight kids, I don’t mention that I’m Asian or Gay, but as soon as I’m with my friends, I talk about my identifiers a lot. A lot of them are part of the LGBTQ+ community, and 11 out of 14 of them are a person of color. With my grandparents, I am quieter, a good Asian grandchild who is smart, gets good grades, is respectful. And I don’t act “Gay.” … Why do I have to act differently with different people? Why do I only feel comfortable with all of my identities at school?

—Gillian Okimoto, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y. Click here to read the entire essay .

“ Torah, Shema, yarmulke, all important elements of Jewish identity—except for mine. All these symbols assume the existence of a single God, but that doesn’t resonate with me. Religion is a meaningful part of my family’s identity. After all, wanting to freely practice their religion was what brought my great-grandparents to America from Eastern Europe. Being very interested in science, I could never wrap my head around the concept of God. Can I be Jewish while not believing in God? “ —Joey Ravikoff, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y. Click here to read the entire essay.

“ Yes, I am transgender, but I am also a son, a friend, an aspiring writer, and a dog trainer. I love riding horses. I’ve had the same volunteer job since sixth grade. I love music and trips to the art museum. I know who I am and whether other people choose to see me for those things is out of my control.  Holidays with my family feels like I’m suffocating in a costume. I’ve come out twice in my life. First, as a lesbian in middle school. Second, as a transgender man freshman year. I’ve gotten good at the classic sit-down. With hands folded neatly in front of me, composure quiet and well-kept, although I’m always terrified. “ —Sebastian Davies-Sigmund, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo. Click here to read the entire essay.

“ No longer do I wish to be stared at when civil rights and slavery are discussed. In every Socratic seminar, I shudder as expectant white faces turn to mine. My brown skin does not make me the ambassador for Black people everywhere. Please do not expect me to be the racism police anymore. Do not base the African American experience upon my few words. Do not try to be relatable when mentioning Hannukah is in a few days. Telling me you tell your White friends not to say the N-word doesn’t do anything for me. “ —Genevieve Francois, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo. Click here to read the entire essay.

“ I often walk into the kitchen greeted by my mother sitting on her usual stool and the rich smells of culture—the spicy smell of India, the hearty smell of cooked beans, or the sizzling of burgers on the grill. Despite these great smells, I find myself often yearning for something like my friends have; one distinct culture with its food, people, music, and traditions. I don’t have a one-click culture. That can be freeing, but also intimidating . People who know me see me as a fraction: ¼ black, ¾ white, but I am not a fraction. I am human, just human. “ —Amaela Bruce, New Tech Academy at Wayne High School, Fort Wayne, Ind. Click here to read the entire essay.

“‘We just don’t want you to go to hell. ‘ I am not an atheist. I am not agnostic. I have no religion nor do I stand strong in any one belief. My answer to the mystery of life is simple: I don’t know. But I live in a world full of people who think they do.  There will be a day when that capital G does not control my conversations. There will be a day when I can speak of my beliefs, or lack thereof, without judgment, without the odd stare, and without contempt. The day will come when a life without religion is just another life. That is the day I wait for. That day will be Good. “ —Amara Lueker, New Tech Academy at Wayne High School, Fort Wayne, Ind. Click here to read the entire essay.

“¡Correle!” yell the people around him. He runs to the grass, ducks down and starts to wait. He’s nervous. You can smell the saltiness of sweat. He looks up and hears the chopping of helicopter blades. You can see the beam of light falling and weaving through the grass field … out of a group of thirteen, only four were left hidden. He and the others crossed and met up with people they knew to take them from their own land down south to the opportunity within grasp up north. That was my father many years ago. I’ve only asked for that story once, and now it’s committed to memory. “ —Luz Zamora, Woodburn Academy of Art Science & Technology, Woodburn, Ore. Click here to read the entire essay.

“ How do I identify myself? What do I connect to? What’s important to you? Here’s the answer: I don’t. Don’t have a strong connection. Don’t know the traditions. Don’t even know the languages. I eat some of the food and kinda sorta hafta** the major holidays but thinking about it I don’t know anything important. I think that the strongest connection to my family is my name, Mei Li (Chinese for “beautiful” Ana (a variation on my mother’s very American middle name: Anne) Babuca (my father’s Mexican last name). “ —Mei Li Ana Babuca, Chief Sealth International High School, Seattle, Wash. Click here to read the entire essay.

“ My whole life I have felt like I don’t belong in the Mexican category. I mean yeah, I’m fully Mexican but, I’ve always felt like I wasn’t. Why is that you ask? Well, I feel that way because I don’t know Spanish. Yes, that’s the reason. It may not sound like a big deal, but, for me, I’ve always felt disconnected from my race. I felt shameful. I felt like it was an obligation to know what is supposed to be my mother tongue. My whole family doesn’t really know fluent Spanish and that has always bothered me growing up. “ —Yazmin Perez, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kan Click here to read the entire essay.

“ I believe differently from DeVault, who believes it’s important to connect and participate with your heritage. I believe that our personal pasts have more to do with who we are as people than any national identity ever could. Sure, our heritage is important, but it doesn’t do nearly as much to shape our character and perspective as our struggles and burdens do. Out of all my past experiences, illness—and especially mental illness—has shaped me. “ —Chase Deleon, Central York High School, York, Penn. Click here to read the entire essay.

“ … I can now run that whole grape leaf assembly line, along with other traditional plates, by myself. I have begun speaking out on current topics, such as Middle-Eastern representation in acting. I have become so much closer with my relatives and I don’t mind busting a move with them on the dance floor. Although a trip to Syria is not in my near future, DeVault made me realize that a connection to your geographical cultural roots is important. According to my aunt, I have become a carefree, happy, and more passionate person. I no longer feel stuck in the middle of ethnicity and society. Becoming one with and embracing my identity truly is ‘A Whole New World.’” —Christina Jarad, University Ligget School, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. Click here to read the entire essay.

“While my bow is not made of wood and my arrows lack a traditional stone tip, the connections are always present, whether I am stalking bull elk in the foothills of the Rockies or fly fishing in the mystical White River. The methods and the technologies may be different, but the motivations are the same. It is a need to be connected to where my food originates. It is a desire to live in harmony with untouched lands. It is a longing to live wild, in a time where the wild is disappearing before our eyes. “ —Anderson Burdette, Northern Oklahoma University, Stillwater, Okla. Click here to read the entire essay.

“Black people always say that White people don’t use seasoning. This saying is one of those sayings that I always heard, but never understood. I am Black, but I was adopted into a White household … Even though I identify as a Black woman, all my life I have struggled with breaking into the Black culture because other people around me consciously or unconsciously prevent me from doing so. “ —Brittany Hartung, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala. Click here to read the entire essay.

We received many outstanding essays for the Fall 2019 Student Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye:

How can other people say that I only have one identity before I can even do that for myself? —Arya Gupta, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y.

‘Middle Child’ by J. Cole blasts through the party. Everyone spits the words like they’re on stage with him. J. Cole says the N-Word, and I watch my Caucasian peers proudly sing along. Mixed Girl is perplexed. Black Girl is crestfallen that people she calls friends would say such a word. Each letter a gory battlefield; White Girls insists they mean no harm; it’s how the song’s written. Black Girl cries. —Liz Terry, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

To me, valuing my ancestors is a way for me to repay them for their sacrifices. —Jefferson Adams Lopez, Garrison Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.

A one-hour drive with light traffic. That’s the distance between me and my cousins. Short compared to a 17-hour flight to the Philippines, yet 33 miles proved to create a distance just as extreme. Thirty-three miles separated our completely different cultures. —Grace Timan, Mount Madonna High School, Gilroy, Calif.

What does it mean to feel Korean? Does it mean I have to live as if I live in Korea? Does it mean I have to follow all the traditions that my grandparents followed? Or does it mean that I can make a decision about what I love? —Max Frei, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y.

Not knowing feels like a safe that you can’t open (speaking about her ancestry) . —Madison Nieves-Ryan, Rachel Carson High School, New York, N.Y.

As I walked down the halls from classroom to classroom in high school, I would see smiling faces that looked just like mine. At every school dance, in every school picture, and on every sports team, I was surrounded by people who looked, thought, and acted similar to me. My identity was never a subject that crossed my mind. When you aren’t exposed to diversity on a daily basis, you aren’t mindful of the things that make you who you are. —Jenna Robinson, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

When my Great-Great-Grandfather Bill was 12, he ran away to work with his uncles. And then when he was older and married, he called up his wife and said, “Honey, I’m heading off to college for a few years. Buh-Bye!” Because of his adventurous spirit, Bill Shea was the first Shea to go to college. Ever since my mom told me this story, I’ve always thought that we could all use a little Bill attitude in our lives.  —Jordan Fox, Pioneer Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.

I defy most of the stereotypes of the Indian community. I’m a gender-fluid, American, Belizean kid who isn’t very studious. I want to be a writer, not a doctor, and I would hang out with friends rather than prepare for the spelling bee. —Yadna Prasad, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y.

While my last name may be common, the history behind my family is not. A line of warriors, blacksmiths, intellectuals, and many more. I’m someone who is a story in progress. —Ha Tuan Nguyen, Chief Sealth International High School, Seattle, Wash.

My family is all heterosexual. I did not learn about my identity from them. LGBTQ+ identity is not from any part of the world. I cannot travel to where LGBTQ+people originate. It does not exist. That is the struggle when connecting with our identities. It is not passed on to us. We have to find it for ourselves. —Jacob Dudley, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

My race is DeVault’s childhood kitchen, so warm and embracing. Familiar. My sexuality is DeVault’s kitchen through adulthood: disconnected. —Maddie Friar, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

At school, I was Dar-SHAW-na and at home DAR-sha-na. There were two distinct versions, both were me, but neither were complete. \ —Darshana Subramaniam, University Liggett School, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

I do not think that heritage and ethnic roots are always about genetics. It is about the stories that come with it, and those stories are what shapes who you are. —Lily Cordon-Siskind, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y.

In my sixteen-year-old mind, the two ethnicities conflicted. I felt like I couldn’t be both. I couldn’t be in touch with Southern roots and Cuban ones at the same time. How could I, they contradict each other? The Cuban part of me ate all my food, was loud and blunt, an underdog and the Southerner was reserved, gentle, and polite. —Grace Crapps, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala.

I thought I was simply an American. However, I learned that I am not a jumbled mix of an untraceable past, but am an expertly woven brocade of stories, cultures, and hardships. My ancestors’ decisions crafted me…I am a story, and I am a mystery. —Hannah Goin, Pioneer Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.

We received many outstanding essays for the Fall 2019 Student Writing Competition, and several students got clever and creative with their titles. Here are some titles that grabbed our attention:

“A Mixed Child in a Mixed-Up Family” Caitlin Neidow, Ethical Culture Fieldston Middle School, Bronx, N.Y.

“Diggin’ in the DNA” Honnor Lawton, Chestnut Hill Middle School, Liverpool, N.Y.

“Hey! I’m Mexican (But I’ve Never Been There)” Alexis Gutierrez-Cornelio, Wellness, Business & Sports School, Woodburn, Ore.

“What It Takes to Be a Sinner” Amelia Hurley, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

“Mirish” Alyssa Rubi, Chief Sealth International High School, Seattle, Wash.

“Nunca Olvides de Donde Vienes ” ( Never forget where you came from ) Araceli Franco, Basis Goodyear High School, Goodyear, Ariz.

“American Tacos” Kenni Rayo-Catalan, Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale, Ariz.

“Corn-Filled Mornings and Spicy Afternoons” Yasmin Medina, Tarrant County Community College, Fort Worth, Tex.

Get Stories of Solutions to Share with Your Classroom

Teachers save 50% on YES! Magazine.

Inspiration in Your Inbox

Get the free daily newsletter from YES! Magazine: Stories of people creating a better world to inspire you and your students.

Growing Up a Desi Girl: What It Means to Be Between Two Worlds

When I'm presented with a "Where are you from?" I usually run through this multiple-choice quiz in my head:

a. Say that I'm American and be prodded to admit where I'm really from, as though being born on native soil isn't enough of a token of my American-ness.

b. Say that I'm Indian and sit through the whole FAQ, ("Wait, red dot Indian or Native American? Do you eat curry every night? Do your parents speak English? Will your marriage be arranged?")

c. Say "around here" and fake that I have to go to the bathroom.

I roll the dice with options A-C, depending on how much energy I have that day. But, the truth is? I'm not sure myself some days.

Being a woman of color, people often press you even harder on that "Where are you from?" question. Questions that are often considered harmless can sometimes result in an awkward, stumbling identity crisis. My standard reply of, "California, around the SF… Bay Area," never seems to placate people, because my tan skin, big dark eyes, and thick eyebrows betray me. I don't look like I'm really American to a lot of people (read: sun-kissed, California-beach-blonde beauty), and so the label never quite fits. Add in the fact that my name is "Nikita" and I've truly thrown the audience a plot twist. Is she from here? Is she mixed-race? Is she an alien? Stay tuned to find out!

I've lived in four big cities in under 18 years: Chicago, New Delhi, San Francisco, and New York. New York is now home, and technically because my family is in California, so is San Francisco. It's odd to juggle specific regional identities that pertain to the U.S. only while negotiating the complications of my ethnic and cultural identities as well. Saying I'm from California means something different to people than "American," and saying I'm Indian carries other implications. Plus, the "Indian" identity is an umbrella term for a series of different identities all woven together by a similar overarching cultural thread and a political boundary. India is a vast country with dozens of languages, cuisines, and more — no two Indian experiences can ever neatly intersect.

Perhaps if I were entirely born and raised in America, I'd feel as though I wasn't too Indian to fit under "American" neatly. And, maybe if I didn't spend the better part of my 21 years in America, I'd feel better just saying I am Indian. I love being Indian, but sometimes I don't feel Indian enough, really. I am Indian. I am American. I am Indian-American. Neither there, nor there — but somewhere in between.

I lived in India for the better part of the first 5 years of my life, and once I moved back to the U.S., I immediately felt alien amongst my classmates. With my broken English, my funny accent, and the fact that I had no idea who Pikachu was, I may as well have been from another planet. I was a quick study, though: I laboriously repaired my accent, always making sure to pronounce my Vs and Ws correctly, and never allowing my Rs to linger on my tongue for too long; I watched all the "Blue's Clues" I could get my hands on; I asked my parents to take me to movies, the works. However, despite all my efforts otherwise, I felt culturally inept.

So I stepped up my efforts. I began shirking my Indian-ness and wholly adopting American culture in an attempt to fit in. I spent the better part of my teenage years acting as though my own culture was backwards, primitive, and something worth being ashamed of. I turned up my nose at Indian food, maligned religion, and was just kind of a brat. "I'm like, the whitest Indian girl like, ever," and all that jazz. I tried so desperately to lose all the things that made me different so that I could fall into a dominant narrative that wasn't mine and didn't need to be mine — despite how much the world sometimes made (and still makes) me feel otherwise.

I had made an error in naively assuming that assimilating wholeheartedly would make my life easier, but the truth is: whiteness didn't fit. And somehow, full on Indian-ness didn't either, given that I was (mostly) raised and schooled in America. I didn't feel as though I could relate to either fairly. In retrospect? As much as I desperately wanted one label or the other to fit in an absolutist fashion, they never needed to: it's okay to be who I am, the way I am. I think I fall somewhere in between Indian and American; I am the definition of a hyphenated, hybrid identity.

The truth is, it's okay to feel like you're neither here nor there — we are all shaped by the experiences we've lived through. There is no right way to be Indian, and there is no right way to be American. We're formed by our individual experiences and beliefs, and it's daunting to collapse millions of experiences into one label for a curious stranger (or even yourself!). It is normal to feel confused by your own identity from time to time, to feel like an enigma. Trust me though — as much as the world keeps making you feel like an absolute weirdo, you are not. Learning and knowing that I have a place in this world has been healing; finding people who have shared similar struggles, experiences, and stories has been instrumental. Know that you are not entirely alone, and as you go through life you will encounter your people.

I still don't know how to really answer that dreaded question, though. I'll keep rolling the dice and get back to you.

*Editor's Note: This headline has been adjusted from "Growing Up Indian and American" since its original publish date to reflect that Neelam Gill, the model pictured, is Indian and British.

Want more Teen Vogue ? Go behind the scenes of our August cover shoot with the new faces of fashion!

Related: I'm Not Your Stereotype: One Middle Eastern Girl Talks Growing Up in America The Makeup Problems Only Middle Eastern and South Asian Girls Understand 10 Misconceptions About Islam That Muslim Americans Are Tired of Hearing

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

6 Diversity College Essay Examples

What’s covered:, how to write the diversity essay after the end of affirmative action, essay #1: jewish identity, essay #2: being bangladeshi-american, essay #3: marvel vs dc, essay #4: leadership as a first-gen american, essay #5: protecting the earth, essay #6: music and accents, where to get your diversity essays edited, what is the diversity essay.

While working on your college applications, you may come across essays that focus on diversity , culture, or values. The purpose of these essays is to highlight any diverse views or opinions that you may bring to campus. Colleges want a diverse student body that’s made up of different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and interests. These essay prompts are a way for them to see what students can bring to their school.

In this post, we will share six essays written by real students that cover the topic of culture and diversity. We’ll also include what each essay did well and where there is room for improvement. Hopefully, this will be a useful resource to inspire your own diversity essay.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. That said, you should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and they will not have a favorable view of students who have plagiarized.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of race in college admissions was unconstitutional. In other words, they struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions . This will affect college-bound students of color in a number of ways, including lowering their chances of acceptance and reducing the amount of direct outreach they’ll receive from colleges. Another change to consider is the ways in which students should tackle their diversity essays.

Although colleges can no longer directly factor race into admissions, students aren’t prohibited from discussing their racial backgrounds in supplemental application essays. If your racial background is important to you, seriously consider writing about it in your diversity essays. If you don’t, admissions officers are extremely limited in their ability to consider your race when making an admission decision.

As in the essays listed below, discussing your race is an excellent tool for showing admissions officers the person behind the grades and test scores. Beyond that, it provides admissions officers with an opportunity to put themselves in your shoes—showing them how your background has presented challenges to overcome, helped build important life skills, and taught you valuable lessons.

Diversity Essay Examples

I was thirsty. In my wallet was a lone $10 bill, ultimately useless at my school’s vending machine. Tasked with scrounging together the $1 cost of a water bottle, I fished out and arranged the spare change that normally hid in the bottom of my backpack in neat piles of nickels and dimes on my desk. I swept them into a spare Ziploc and began to leave when a classmate snatched the bag and held it above my head.

“Want your money back, Jew?” she chanted, waving the coins around. I had forgotten the Star-of-David around my neck, but quickly realized she must have seen it and connected it to the stacks of coins. I am no stranger to experiencing and confronting antisemitism, but I had never been targeted in my school before. I grabbed my bag and sternly told her to leave. Although she sauntered away, the impact remained.

This incident serves as an example of the adversity I have and will continue to face from those who only see me as a stereotype. Ironically, however, these experiences of discrimination have only increased my pride as a member of the Jewish Community. Continuing to wear the Star-of-David connects me to my history and my family. I find meaning and direction in my community’s values, such as pride, education, and giving—and I am eager to transfer these values to my new community: the Duke community.

What the Essay Did Well

Writing about discrimination can be difficult, but if you are comfortable doing it, it can make for a powerful story. Although this essay is short and focused on one small interaction, it represents a much larger struggle for this student, and for that reason it makes the essay very impactful.

The author takes her time at the beginning of the essay to build the scene for the audience, which allows us to feel like we are there with her, making the hateful comments even more jarring later on. If she had just told us her classmate teased her with harmful stereotypes, we wouldn’t feel the same sense of anger as we do knowing that she was just trying to get a drink and ended up being harassed.

This essay does another important thing—it includes self-reflection on the experience and on the student’s identity. Without elaborating on the emotional impact of a situation, an essay about discrimination would make admission officers feel bad for the student, but they wouldn’t be compelled to admit the student. By describing how experiences like these drive her and make her more determined to embody positive values, this student reveals her character to the readers.

What Could Be Improved

While including emotional reflection in the latter half of the essay is important, the actual sentences could be tightened up a bit to leave a stronger impression. The student does a nice job of showing us her experience with antisemitism, but she just tells us about the impact it has on her. If she instead showed us what the impact looked like, the essay would be even better.

For example, rather than telling us “Continuing to wear the Star-of-David connects me to my history and my family,” she could have shown that connection: “My Star-of-David necklace thumps against my heart with every step I take, reminding me of my great-grandparents who had to hide their stars, my grandma’s spindly fingers lighting the menorah each Hanukkah, and my uncle’s homemade challah bread.” This new sentence reveals so much more than the existing sentence about the student and the deep connection she feels with her family and religion.

Life before was good: verdant forests, sumptuous curries, and a devoted family.

Then, my family abandoned our comfortable life in Bangladesh for a chance at the American dream in Los Angeles. Within our first year, my father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He lost his battle three weeks before my sixth birthday. Facing a new country without the steady presence of my father, we were vulnerable—prisoners of hardship in the land of the free.

We resettled in the Bronx, in my uncle’s renovated basement. It was meant to be our refuge, but I felt more displaced than ever. Gone were the high-rise condos of West L.A.; instead, government projects towered over the neighborhood. Pedestrians no longer smiled and greeted me; the atmosphere was hostile, even toxic. Schoolkids were quick to pick on those they saw as weak or foreign, hurling harsh words I’d never heard before.

Meanwhile, my family began integrating into the local Bangladeshi community. I struggled to understand those who shared my heritage. Bangladeshi mothers stayed home while fathers drove cabs and sold fruit by the roadside—painful societal positions. Riding on crosstown buses or walking home from school, I began to internalize these disparities.

During my fleeting encounters with affluent Upper East Siders, I saw kids my age with nannies, parents who wore suits to work, and luxurious apartments with spectacular views. Most took cabs to their destinations: cabs that Bangladeshis drove. I watched the mundane moments of their lives with longing, aching to plant myself in their shoes. Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day.

As I grappled with my relationship with the Bangladeshi community, I turned my attention to helping my Bronx community by pursuing an internship with Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda. I handled desk work and took calls, spending the bulk of my time actively listening to the hardships constituents faced—everything from a veteran stripped of his benefits to a grandmother unable to support her bedridden grandchild.

I’d never exposed myself to stories like these, and now I was the first to hear them. As an intern, I could only assist in what felt like the small ways—pointing out local job offerings, printing information on free ESL classes, reaching out to non-profits. But to a community facing an onslaught of intense struggles, I realized that something as small as these actions could have vast impacts.

Seeing the immediate consequences of my actions inspired me. Throughout that summer, I internalized my community’s daily challenges in a new light. I began to see the prevalent underemployment and cramped living quarters less as sources of shame. Instead, I saw them as realities that had to be acknowledged, but that could ultimately be remedied.

I also realized the benefits of the Bangladeshi culture I had been so ashamed of. My Bangla language skills were an asset to the office, and my understanding of Bangladeshi etiquette allowed for smooth communication between office staff and the office’s constituents. As I helped my neighbors navigate city services, I saw my heritage with pride—a perspective I never expected to have.

I can now appreciate the value of my unique culture and background, and the value of living with less. This perspective offers room for progress, community integration, and a future worth fighting for. My time with Assemblyman Sepulveda’s office taught me that I can be an agent of change who can enable this progression. Far from being ashamed of my community, I want to someday return to local politics in the Bronx to continue helping others access the American Dream. I hope to help my community appreciate the opportunity to make progress together. By embracing reality, I learned to live it. Along the way, I discovered one thing: life is good, but we can make it better.

This student’s passion for social justice and civic duty shines through in this essay because of how honest it is. Sharing their personal experience with immigrating, moving around, being an outsider, and finding a community allows us to see the hardships this student has faced and builds empathy towards their situation.

However, what really makes it strong is that the student goes beyond describing the difficulties they faced and explains the mental impact it had on them as a child: “Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day.” The rejection of their culture presented at the beginning of the essay creates a nice juxtaposition with the student’s view in the latter half of the essay, and helps demonstrate how they have matured.

They then use their experience interning as a way to delve into a change in their thought process about their culture. This experience also serves as a way to show how their passion for social justice began. Using this experience as a mechanism to explore their thoughts and feelings is an excellent example of how items that are included elsewhere on your application should be incorporated into your essay.

This essay prioritizes emotions and personal views over specific anecdotes. Although there are details and certain moments incorporated throughout to emphasize the author’s points, the main focus remains on the student and how they grapple with their culture and identity.

One area for improvement is the conclusion. Although the forward-looking approach is a nice way to end an essay focused on social justice, it would be nice to include more details and imagery in the conclusion. How does the student want to help their community? What government position do they see themselves holding one day?

A more impactful ending might describe the student walking into their office at the New York City Housing Authority in 15 years. This future student might be looking at the plans to build a new development in the Bronx just blocks away from where they grew up that would provide quality housing to people in their Bangladeshi community. They would smile while thinking about how far they have come from that young kid who used to be ashamed of their culture.

Superhero cinema is an oligopoly consisting of two prominent, towering brands: Marvel and DC. I’m a religious supporter of Marvel, but last year, I discovered that my friend, Tom, was a DC fan. After a vociferous 20-minute quarrel about which was better, we decided to allocate one day to have a professional debate, using carefully assembled and coherent arguments.

One week later, we both brought pages of notes and evidence cards (I also had my Iron-Man bobblehead for moral support). Our impartial moderator—a Disney fan—sat in the middle with a stopwatch, open-policy style. I began the debate by discussing how Marvel accentuated the humanity of the storyline—such as in Tony Stark’s transformation from an egotistical billionaire to a compassionate father—which drew in a broader audience, because more people resonated with certain aspects of the characters. Tom rebutted this by capitalizing on how Deadpool was a duplicate of Deathstroke, how Vision copied Red Tornado, and how DC sold more comics than Marvel.

40 minutes later, we reached an impasse. We were out of cards, and we both made excellent points, so our moderator was unable to declare a winner. Difficult conversations aren’t necessarily always the ones that make political headlines. Instead, a difficult discussion involves any topic with which people share an emotional connection.

Over the years, I became so emotionally invested in Marvel that my mind erected an impenetrable shield, blocking out all other possibilities. Even today, we haven’t decided which franchise was better, but I realized that I was undermining DC for no reason other than my own ignorance.

The inevitability of diversity suggests that it is our responsibility to understand the other person and what they believe in. We may not always experience a change in opinion, but we can grant ourselves the opportunity to expand our global perspective. I strive to continue this adventure to increase my awareness as a superhero aficionado, activist, and student, by engaging in conversations that require me to think beyond what I believe and to view the world from others’ perspectives.

And yes, Tom is still my friend.

Diversity doesn’t always have to be about culture or heritage; diversity exists all around us, even in our comic book preferences. The cleverness of this essay lies in the way the student flipped the traditional diversity prompt on its head and instead discussed his diverse perspective on a topic he is passionate about. If you don’t have a cultural connection you are compelled to write about, this is a nifty approach to a diversity prompt—if it’s handled appropriately.

While this student has a non-traditional topic, he still presents it in a way that pays respect to the key aspects of a diversity essay: depicting his perspective and recognizing the importance of diverse views. Just as someone who is writing about a culture that is possibly unfamiliar to the reader, the student describes what makes Marvel and DC unique and important to him and his friend, respectively. He also expands on how a lack of diversity in superhero consumption led to his feeling of ignorance, and how it now makes him appreciate the need for diversity in all aspects of his life.

This student is unapologetically himself in this essay, which is ultimately why this unorthodox topic is able to work. He committed to his passion for Marvel by sharing analytical takes on characters and demonstrating how the franchise was so important to his identity that it momentarily threatened a friendship. The inclusion of humor through his personal voice—e.g., referring to the argument as a professional debate and telling us that the friendship lived on—contributes to the essay feeling deeply personal.

Choosing an unconventional topic for a diversity essay requires extra care and attention to ensure that you are still addressing the core of the prompt. That being said, if you accomplish it successfully, it makes for an incredibly memorable essay that could easily set you apart!

While this is a great essay as is, the idea of diversity could have been addressed a little bit earlier in the piece to make it absolutely clear the student is writing about his diverse perspective. He positions Marvel and DC as two behemoths in the superhero movie industry, but in the event that his reader is unfamiliar with these two brands, there is little context about the cultural impact each has on its fans.

To this student, Marvel is more than just a movie franchise; it’s a crucial part of his identity, just as someone’s race or religion might be. In order for the reader to fully understand the weight of his perspective, there should be further elaboration—towards the beginning—on how important Marvel is to this student.

Leadership was thrust upon me at a young age. When I was six years old, my abusive father abandoned my family, leaving me to step up as the “man” of the house. From having to watch over my little sister to cooking dinner three nights a week, I never lived an ideal suburban life. I didn’t enjoy the luxuries of joining after-school activities, getting driven to school or friends’ houses, or taking weekend trips to the movies or bowling alley. Instead, I spent my childhood navigating legal hurdles, shouldering family responsibilities, and begrudgingly attending court-mandated therapy sessions.

At the same time, I tried to get decent grades and maintain my Colombian roots and Spanish fluency enough to at least partially communicate with my grandparents, both of whom speak little English. Although my childhood had its bright and joyful moments, much of it was weighty and would have been exhausting for any child to bear. In short, I grew up fast. However, the responsibilities I took on at home prepared me to be a leader and to work diligently, setting me up to use these skills later in life.

I didn’t have much time to explore my interests until high school, where I developed my knack for government and for serving others. Being cast in a lead role in my school’s fall production as a freshman was the first thing to give me the confidence I needed to pursue other activities: namely, student government. Shortly after being cast, I was elected Freshman Vice-President, a role that put me in charge of promoting events, delegating daily office tasks, collaborating with the administration on new school initiatives, and planning trips and fundraisers.

While my new position demanded a significant amount of responsibility, my childhood of helping my mom manage our household prepared me to be successful in the role. When I saw the happy faces of my classmates after a big event, I felt proud to know that I had made even a small difference to them. Seeing projects through to a successful outcome was thrilling. I enjoyed my time and responsibilities so much that I served all four years of high school, going on to become Executive Vice-President.

As I found success in high school, my mother and grandparents began speaking more about the life they faced prior to emigrating from Colombia. To better connect with them, I took a series of Spanish language classes to regain my fluency. After a practice run through my presentation on Bendíceme, Ultima ( Bless me, Ultima ) by Rudolofo Anaya, with my grandmother, she squeezed my hand and told me the story of how my family was forced from their home in order to live free of religious persecution. Though my grandparents have often expressed how much better their lives and their children’s lives have been in America, I have often struggled with my identity. I felt that much of it was erased with my loss of our native language.

In elementary school, I learned English best because in class I was surrounded by it. Spanish was more difficult to grasp without a formal education, and my family urged me to become fluent in English so I could be of better help to them in places as disparate as government agencies and grocery stores. When I was old enough to recognize the large part of my identity still rooted in being Colombian, it was challenging to connect these two sides of who I was.

Over time I have been able to reconcile the two in the context of my aspirations. I found purpose and fulfillment through student council, and I knew that I could help other families like my own if I worked in local government. By working through city offices that address housing, education, and support for survivors of childhood abuse, I could give others the same liberties and opportunities my family has enjoyed in this country. Doing so would also help me honor my roots as a first-generation American.

I have been a leader my entire life. Both at Harvard and after graduation, I want to continue that trend. I hope to volunteer with organizations that share my goals. I want to advise policy-making politicians on ways to make children and new immigrants safer and more secure. When my family was at their worst, my community gave back. I hope to give that gift to future generations. A career in local, city-based public service is not a rashly made decision; it is a reflection of where I’ve already been in life, and where I want to be in the future.

Although this essay begins on a somber note, it goes on to show this student’s determination and the joy he found. Importantly, it also ends with a positive, forward-looking perspective. This is a great example of how including your hardship can bolster an essay as long as it is not the essay’s main focus.

Explaining the challenges this student faced from a young age—becoming the man of the house, dealing with legal matters, maintaining good grades, etc.—builds sympathy for his situation. However, the first paragraph is even more impactful because he explains the emotional toll these actions had on him. We understand how he lost the innocence of his childhood and how he struggled to remain connected to his Colombian heritage with all his other responsibilities. Including these details truly allows the reader to see this student’s struggle, making us all the more joyful when he comes out stronger in the end.

Pivoting to discuss positive experiences with student government and Spanish classes for the rest of the essay demonstrates that this student has a positive approach to life and is willing to push through challenges. The tone of the essay shifts from heavy to uplifting. He explains the joy he got out of helping his classmates and connecting with his grandparents, once again providing emotional reflection to make the reader care more.

Overall, this essay does a nice job of demonstrating how this student approaches challenges and negative experiences. Admitting that the responsibilities of his childhood had a silver lining shows his maturity and how he will be able to succeed in government one day. The essay strikes a healthy balance between challenge and hope, leaving us with a positive view of a student with such emotional maturity.

Although the content of this essay is very strong, it struggles with redundancy and disorganized information. He mentions his passion for government at the beginning of the student government paragraph, then again addresses government in the paragraph focused on his Colombian heritage, and concludes by talking about how he wants to get into government once more. Similarly, in the first paragraph, he discusses the struggle of maintaining his Colombian identity and then fully delves into that topic in the third paragraph.

The repetition of ideas and lack of a streamlined organization of this student’s thoughts diminishes some of the emotional impact of the story. The reader is left trying to piece together a swirling mass of information on their own, rather than having a focused, sequential order to follow.

This could be fixed if the student rearranged details to make each paragraph focused on a singular idea. For example, the first paragraph could be about his childhood. The second could be about how student government sparked his interest in government and what he hopes to do one day. The third could be about how he reconnected with his Colombian roots through his Spanish classes, after years of struggling with his identity. And the final paragraph could tie everything together by explaining how everything led to him wanting to pursue a future serving others, particularly immigrants like his family.

Alternatively, the essay could follow a sequential order that would start with his childhood, then explain his struggle with his identity, then show how student government and Spanish classes helped him find himself, and finally, conclude with what he hopes to accomplish by pursuing government.

I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Although we flew in from distant corners of the U.S., we shared a common purpose: immersing ourselves in our passion for protecting the natural world.

Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns. My classmates debated the feasibility of Trump’s wall, not the deteriorating state of our planet. Contrastingly, these seven strangers delighted in bird-watching, brightened at the mention of medicinal tree sap, and understood why I once ran across a four-lane highway to retrieve discarded beer cans.

Their histories barely resembled mine, yet our values aligned intimately. We did not hesitate to joke about bullet ants, gush about the versatility of tree bark, or discuss the destructive consequences of materialism. Together, we let our inner tree-huggers run free.

In the short life of our little community, we did what we thought was impossible. By feeding on each other’s infectious tenacity, we cultivated an atmosphere that deepened our commitment to our values and empowered us to speak out on behalf of the environment. After a week of stimulating conversations and introspective revelations about engaging people from our hometowns in environmental advocacy, we developed a shared determination to devote our lives to this cause.

As we shared a goodbye hug, my new friend whispered, “The world needs saving. Someone’s gotta do it.” For the first time, I believed that that someone could be me.

This student is expressing their diversity through their involvement in a particular community—another nice approach if you don’t want to write about culture or ethnicity. We all have unique things that we geek out over. This student expresses the joy that they derived from finding a community where they could express their love for the environment. Passion is fundamental to university life and generally finds its way into any successful application.

The essay finds strength in the fact that readers feel for the student. We get a little bit of backstory about where they come from and how they felt silenced— “Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns” —so it’s easy to feel joy for them when they get set free and finally find their community.

This student displays clear values: community, ecoconsciousness, dedication, and compassion. An admissions officer who reads a diversity essay is looking for students with strong values who will enrich the university community with their unique perspective—that sounds just like this student!

One area of weakness in this essay is the introduction. The opening line— “I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest” —is a bit clichéd. Introductions should be captivating and build excitement and suspense for what is to come. Simply telling the reader about how your experience made you understand the power of community reveals the main takeaway of your essay without the reader needing to go any further.

Instead of starting this essay with a summary of what the essay is about, the student should have made their hook part of the story. Whether that looks like them being exasperated with comments their classmates made about politics, or them looking around apprehensively at the seven strangers in their program as they all boarded their flight, the student should start off in the action.

India holds a permanent place in my heart and ears. Whenever I returned on a trip or vacation, I would show my grandmother how to play Monopoly and she would let me tie her sari. I would teach my grandfather English idioms—which he would repeat to random people and fishmongers on the streets—and he would teach me Telugu phrases.

It was a curious exchange of worlds that I am reminded of every time I listen to Indian music. It was these tunes that helped me reconnect with my heritage and ground my meandering identity. Indian music, unlike the stereotype I’d long been imbued with, was not just a one-and-done Bollywood dance number! Each region and language was like an island with its own unique sonic identity. I’m grateful for my discovery of Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil tunes, for these discoveries have opened me up to the incredible smorgasbord of diversity, depth, and complexity within the subcontinent I was born in.

Here’s an entirely-different sonic identity for you: Texan slang. “Couldya pass the Mango seltzer, please, hon?” asked my Houstonian neighbor, Rae Ann—her syllables melding together like the sticky cake batter we were making.

Rae Ann and her twang were real curiosities to me. Once, she invited my family to a traditional Texan barbecue with the rest of our neighbors. As Hindus, we didn’t eat beef, so we showed up with chicken kebabs, instead. Rather than looking at us bizarrely, she gladly accepted the dish, lining it up beside grilled loins and hamburger patties.

Her gesture was a small but very well-accepted one and I quickly became convinced she was the human manifestation of “Southern hospitality”—something reflected in each of her viscous, honey-dripping phrases. “Watch out for the skeeters!” was an excellent example. It was always funny at first, but conveyed a simple message: We’ve got each other’s backs and together, we can overcome the blood-sucking mosquitoes of the Houstonian summer! I began to see how her words built bridges, not boundaries.

I believe that sounds—whether it’s music or accents—can make a difference in the ways we perceive and accept individuals from other backgrounds. But sound is about listening too. In Rice’s residential college, I would be the type of person to strike up a conversation with an international student and ask for one of their Airpods (you’d be surprised how many different genres and languages of music I’ve picked up in this way!).

As both an international student and Houstonian at heart, I hope to bridge the gap between Rice’s domestic and international populations. Whether it’s organizing cultural events or simply taking the time to get to know a student whose first language isn’t English, I look forward to listening to the stories that only a fellow wanderer can tell.

This essay does an excellent job of addressing two aspects of this student’s identity. Looking at diversity through sound is a very creative way to descriptively depict their Indian and Texan cultures. Essays are always more successful when they stimulate the senses, so framing the entire response around sound automatically opens the door for vivid imagery.

The quotes from this student’s quirky neighbor bring a sense of realism to the essay. We can feel ourselves at the barbecue and hear her thick Texan accent coming through. The way people communicate is a huge part of their culture and identity, so the way that this student perfectly captures the essence of their Texan identity with accented phrases is skillfully done.

This essay does such a great job of making the sounds of Texas jump off the page, so it is a bit disappointing that it wasn’t able to accomplish the same for India. The student describes the different Indian languages and music styles, but doesn’t bring them to life with quotes or onomatopoeia in the manner that they did for the sounds of Texas.

They could have described the buzz of the sitar or the lyrical pattern of the Telugu phrases their grandfather taught them. Telling us about the diversity of sounds in Indian music is fine, but if the reader can’t appreciate what those sounds resemble, it makes it harder to understand the Indian half of the author’s identity. Especially since this student emulated the sounds and essence of Texas so well, it’s important that India is given the same treatment so we can fully appreciate both sides of this essay.

More Supplemental Essay Tips

How to Write a Stellar “Why This College?” Essay + Examples

How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity College Essay

Do you want feedback on your diversity essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

• Perspective
• Immigration
• Movie Review
• The Pivot Point
• Spirituality
• What’s Cooking?
• College App

In this village led by New York-returned…

Keyurah life: divya anand’s mission to empower…, rape- not my culture, deepika chalke: my journey to 50 races, one man’s mission to break the cycle…, what new data says about indian americans:…, polls show decline in indian american support…, indian americans: small community, outsized contributions, meet the usa cricket squad, indian students in the us are increasingly….

Winning Essays: Growing Up Indian In America

Atlanta, GA, July 14: Last month, we asked Indian-American teens to submit an essay on the topic, ‘Growing up Indian in America’. We had a total of 15 submissions; seven in the senior age group (16-18 years) and eight in the junior group (13-15 years).

“It was good to see the perspectives of these youngsters,” said Ajay Vishwanathan, one of the judges. “From being embarrassed by their Indian lunches to becoming aware (and eventually respectful) of the space they occupy between the two cultures, the experiences were intriguing to read.” The other judges echoed his sentiments.

We are pleased to feature the two winning essays, one from each category. Congratulations to the winners! Later this month, we will feature other notable essays.

Diversity Within Diversity (Winner, Senior Category)

Imperialism. It’s a word that the entire world was familiar with when Great Britain was a force to be reckoned with. Snatching up territory to expand its sphere of influence, the unassuming island claimed lands from the bottom tip of Africa to the northern regions of the Americas.India was also caught in its wide cast net, tangled in fishing line, but jumped to turn back to water.

In the traditional sense of the word, imperialism is now obsolete. Countries don’t stake claim to territories; they influence others by diplomacy, military, and most importantly, culture.America’s cultural imperialism is very subtle, taking the form of a boosted denim industry in Korea and a greater likelihood of spotting a Kentucky Fried Chicken in India. If my India-dwelling counterpart is swaying from her traditional Indian culture, then how am I, a first generation America-dwelling desi, supposed to stick to mine? This imperialism is not only the root of an internal struggle, but also led to the birth of the American-born Confused Desi (ABCD).

This person will be ready to eat a Domino’s pizza, while secretly craving some biryani, butter chicken, and saag paneer. This person loves to go to football games, but also gets up at 5 to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match. This person perfects the art of the Indian mono-braid at a young age, and later perfects the art of the messy bun.

But sometimes, this dual-culture can be confusing. Do we go to the new Hollywood blockbuster with trendy actors, or do we go to the run-down theater on the other side of town to see the Bollywood box office hit? Do we press a single button on our car sound system to get English music, or do we shuffle through our Hindi music playlists on our phones while simultaneously rushing to find the aux cord at a red light? How many times can we make a conscious decision to immerse ourselves in American culture before we can no longer make a list of the Top 10 Shah Rukh and Kajol moments from film, or forget the words to our favorite Hindi song? How much time does it take for us before keeping up with Bollywood movies, Hindi songs, Indian sports and current events becomes too taxing?

Being an American-born Confused Desi is difficult. We dwell on the dichotomy between American and Indian culture, with a cultivated respect for both. We go through phases where being Indian is easier, but usually the American phase predominates. Maybe some can sit on the bridge between the two, but such cases are regarded as rare.

However, even the most ‘white-washed’ Indian treasures and possesses the remnants of his Indian heritage. He might wear Polos and Sperry’s to school, but he still remembers how to play the tabla from the lessons he took as an elementary school kid. She might refuse to speak Hindi at home, but she will always oil up her rusty vocabulary before speaking on the phone with her thamma. And even the most ‘fresh off the boat’ Indian still captures part of the essence of American culture growing up, despite his boycott on Hollister tees and McDonald’s fries.

ABCDs lie on a spectrum of Indian-American culture, but can never reach one side completely. This diversity within diversity is what makes the Indian community inAmericaremarkable. Instead of consisting of two primary colors blue and yellow, an American-born Confused Desis is one of thousands of shades of green. We might have struggled growing up in two worlds, but as young adults, we appreciate our unique cultural perspectives, our atypical social experiences, and our great fortune of having been born into a culture with such a storied past and present.

We are criticized for being too Indian by Americans, and too American by Indians. But by our own standards, we are all sitting on a bridge together.

-Ananya Ghose Age: 16 School: ChattahoocheeHigh School

 A World Split Between Two Cultures (Winner, Junior Category)

Culture has a significant role to play on one’s life and defines the character of a person, so being Indian-American, our world is split between two cultures, forcing us to play a dual role. For instance, we spend half-day at school living as an American, and at home experience a true Indian lifestyle. As an Indian in America, we face the world with self-identification issues, are open to a wider selection of opportunities, and have an impact on society from the moment we are born.

We grew up in a society where media has taken over the way children see the world. Wherever they look, they see an ideal American lifestyle which their family differs from. In the United States, Miss America is considered to be the beauty image of the nation. Our Indian community was recognized as a whole when Nina Davuluri was crowned Miss America in the year 2014. In an interview with Fox News, Davuluri stated, “Growing up as a girl, I imagined Miss America to always be the girl next door,” with the intent to emphasize the cultural preferences seen within the United States and its impact on the younger generation.

The differences in skin, eye, and hair color influences insecurities in an average Indian American. Furthermore, Nina Davuluri conveys a negative connotation to her perspective as a young girl to emphasize the idea that young Americans are brainwashed in a way to believe blond hair, white skin, and blue eyes are ideal for beauty and social acceptance.  I have seen many peers at school that conceal their lunch boxes, forgetting the hard work and time their moms spent in preparing their lunch. Children at times feel obligated to conceal what makes them unique because everywhere they look, they see the stereotypical American family. This self-identification problem poses a question whether their lifestyle is “correct”.

Although experiencing life inAmerica as an Indian can be difficult, the positives outweigh the negatives. Young Indian-Americans have already proved by now that we are a ‘cut-above’ in studies than any other ethnicity, several schools’ rating have inclined, where we have predominant Indian population; being bilingual gives Indian-Americans a better comprehensive ability over other peers.

I faced many hardships growing up due to my cultural differences in the  country. I have realized that this culture is worth embracing. I am proud to be in a culture that has expanded so much and by the year 2020, one out of every three Americans will be of Indian descent.  We are given the ability to experience a whole new culture without having to leave the house. This expands our knowledge of the world around us making us more aware of the circumstances we face. The bond of sharing a culture and language makes our Indian society stronger as a whole, allowing us to create stable friendships among one another. In our culture we are fond of putting together events to educate not only the younger generation but non-Indians too. These events open the eyes of many who aren’t aware of the cultures practiced in their own country. As actress Rani Mukerji said, “Once you understand and appreciate other people’s cultural backgrounds, then you can also connect with them more.”

Schools in America contain a diverse group of students, and when we are all put together, we are bound to experience new cultures. During lunch, we see food from all over the world come together in one room, and in social media we see special events held from different cultures. We play a big role in this cycle as we practice our Indian culture because we open the eyes of others that we socialize with. Studies have shown kids who are open to various cultures around the world have an “independent view of themselves”, meaning that they define themselves based on personal traits and characteristics. This is an opportunity for kids to stand out and express themselves in a unique way.

In conclusion, the Indian culture we practice has an everlasting impact on the society we live in. Identity and culture is what builds ethnicity, causing us to face the hardships in life, making us stronger as a person and makes us realize the impact we have on the peers around us.

I am proud to be a part of Indian culture that is full of life, color and various diverse festivities. Our culture believes in unity in diversity, religious tolerance and universal acceptance. The determination and effectiveness of our community to pass on this rich and radiant culture to younger generations puts us in the forefront. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”

-Pranathi Goli Age: 14 School: Finished 8th grade from Piney Grove Middle School

 ——————————————————

The essays were graded blind by this panel of five judges- all with great writing credentials. Thank you for your time and effort, judges!

• Ajay Vishwanathan has work published or forthcoming in over ninety literary journals, including The Minnesota Review, Sou’wester, Southern Humanities Review, The Potomac, and The Baltimore Review. He’s currently working on a new novel as his completed manuscript, Little Hands of Silk, is being readied by his literary agent to be sent  to potential publishers. One of the editors of Foundling Review, Ajay is the author of  From a Tilted Pail , a short story collection from Queen’s Ferry Press (2014).
• Navami Naik works as Lead, Global Partnerships with the American Cancer Society. Navami has been working in non-profit management for the past 10 years. Prior to this, she worked as a journalist with The Times of India, where she primarily covered issues related to health and education. Navami holds a Master’s degree in Social Service from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania,USA and has trained as a journalist in the United Kingdom.
• Jyothsna Hegde grew up in a house full of ardent readers, and has always enjoyed writing. Being a software engineer and an adjunct faculty at a university in Baltimore hardly left any time to read, let alone write. But after moving to Atlanta, she found an opportunity to write for NRI Pulse and has been part of the newspaper’s editorial team for several years. She hopes to write about real or fictional people and events in way that makes the reader feel part of the experience, and encourages thinking that goes deeper than the surface.​
• Aditya Rao is a 2015 graduate of New York University. While his papers have been published in academic journals, he is fond of creative and essay writing. He also maintains a blog: Bureaumania.wordpress.com .
• Reena Joshi is the owner of WriteRight . WriteRight’s goal is to help all its students from grades 2-12 understand the English concepts tested on all assessments culminating with the SAT and the ACT.  Students are taught to master reading comprehension techniques, conquer confusing vocabulary, and of course, score well on assessments. From constructing basic sentences to constructing SAT and college application essays, WriteRight students learn to consistently write well. The long term goals are high SAT/ACT test scores and acceptance into choice colleges, and so the earlier students start preparation, the better the chances for a higher score, acceptance into choice colleges and scholarships.

  WriteRight has a special offer for NRI Pulse essay contestants and readers:

• All essay contestants – free registration ($100 regular registration) + $50 discount on tuition upon registration for a semester. 
• All readers – free registration upto September 1, 2016 ($100 savings) *must bring the page from NRI Pulse Newspaper that has the essay results on it

New Emory-led model promises diabetics low-cost control on the disease

U.s. wins first place at international math olympiad in hong kong.

Related posts

Paramhansa yogananda: the man who laid yoga’s foundation in the west, arranged marriage film 'arranges' shows for indian americans, cricket in the us: indian-american entrepreneur has a new dream, leave a comment cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Forgotten password

Please enter the email address that you use to login to TeenInk.com, and we'll email you instructions to reset your password.

• Poetry All Poetry Free Verse Song Lyrics Sonnet Haiku Limerick Ballad
• Fiction All Fiction Action-Adventure Fan Fiction Historical Fiction Realistic Fiction Romance Sci-fi/Fantasy Scripts & Plays Thriller/Mystery All Novels Action-Adventure Fan Fiction Historical Fiction Realistic Fiction Romance Sci-fi/Fantasy Thriller/Mystery Other
• Nonfiction All Nonfiction Bullying Books Academic Author Interviews Celebrity interviews College Articles College Essays Educator of the Year Heroes Interviews Memoir Personal Experience Sports Travel & Culture All Opinions Bullying Current Events / Politics Discrimination Drugs / Alcohol / Smoking Entertainment / Celebrities Environment Love / Relationships Movies / Music / TV Pop Culture / Trends School / College Social Issues / Civics Spirituality / Religion Sports / Hobbies All Hot Topics Bullying Community Service Environment Health Letters to the Editor Pride & Prejudice What Matters
• Reviews All Reviews Hot New Books Book Reviews Music Reviews Movie Reviews TV Show Reviews Video Game Reviews Summer Program Reviews College Reviews
• Art/Photo Art Photo Videos
• Summer Guide Program Links Program Reviews
• College Guide College Links College Reviews College Essays College Articles

Summer Guide

College guide.

• Song Lyrics

All Fiction

• Action-Adventure
• Fan Fiction
• Historical Fiction
• Realistic Fiction
• Sci-fi/Fantasy
• Scripts & Plays
• Thriller/Mystery

All Nonfiction

• Author Interviews
• Celebrity interviews
• College Articles
• College Essays
• Educator of the Year
• Personal Experience
• Travel & Culture

All Opinions

• Current Events / Politics
• Discrimination
• Drugs / Alcohol / Smoking
• Entertainment / Celebrities
• Environment
• Love / Relationships
• Movies / Music / TV
• Pop Culture / Trends
• School / College
• Social Issues / Civics
• Spirituality / Religion
• Sports / Hobbies

All Hot Topics

• Community Service
• Letters to the Editor
• Pride & Prejudice
• What Matters

All Reviews

• Hot New Books
• Book Reviews
• Music Reviews
• Movie Reviews
• TV Show Reviews
• Video Game Reviews

Summer Program Reviews

• College Reviews
• Writers Workshop
• Regular Forums
• Program Links
• Program Reviews
• College Links

College Essay on Indian Cultural Heritage

“Pray to God before your test!” is one of the most repeated phrases that my mother would say to me before I went to school. I would always wonder, “Why do we have to pray to an idol?” It never transpired to me that having a spiritual connection with a God or a higher power would help me get through struggles and even help me develop as a person. It is important to have this connection, and is something that reflects who I am today.            The values I believe in are primarily from my culture, which is Indian. Being born in India made my parents adopt these values and pass them on to me. In India, religion is a huge part of everyday life. My grandparents would go to temple almost every day, and make sure to conduct religious ceremonies for the Gods and Goddesses. Of course, I would always pray because I knew it was the right thing to do. Mostly, I would pray for a good day or if I wanted something materialistic or for my test score to be high. I never understood the mental reason that people pray. When we learn about Hinduism in school, it always seems like people pray just for the sake of praying. We learn that if we are good, we will have good karma and hopefully have a good afterlife. It almost seems selfish that people pray just because they want a good life. Shouldn’t we pray for others, or just pray because it makes us feel good? The gods in our culture did so; they were altruistic, and forgiving. But when someone did wrong, there were harsh consequences.            After I lived in India for about a year, I moved to various places. It was from Barbados to Delaware, to Virginia, to New York. Wherever I would go, my culture would follow. I remember starting Classical Indian dance from when I was five, and Classical Indian music. At first I thought it was strenuous and not easy to follow, I wanted to do ballet, or any other American dance. After a while I realized that you could learn much from these arts because they not only helped me learn how to dance, but it also helped me learn about my culture and values. The number one rule was that your teacher or guru is God. You must respect them at all times. Growing up in a strict environment was challenging but it helped me become a good person. There were many differences between my friends in school, and me. My parents certainly taught me good habits and helped me develop good thoughts.            Religion was a necessity but I grew to get very bored of it and was not seeing any positive gains from it. I would always pray to God, asking him for a good grade on a test. The next day I would end up with a grade that made me cry. I realized that maybe there is no point in praying and doing so much. I gave up and stopped praying for a while. After a while of no religion, my father gave me a talk one day, and he told me that having a spiritual connection with someone, no matter what religion follow, is very important for you. It helps you to grow and always know that there is a higher power above you that is always watching and will be there for you. Soon I came to see that we do not pray because we want things, or we want to achieve good karma. That is certainly part of it, but the other part is that we have a connection to a God that makes us feel like we are loved, and that someone is constantly watching over you. It is important to have this feeling in you. I started praying more after that, and not just for myself. I casually would talk to this “superior power” in the evenings and thank him for all the good he has done in my life. I saw that there are people that are less fortunate than we are today, and I thanked him for that. If I ever felt down, I would talk to him. Religion and culture has become part of my life. Without it, I would not know who I am today. It has helped me become a person that sees life in a bigger view, not just about myself. I still do not go to the temple regularly, or pray to God everyday, yet I know that someone is there to talk to and believe in.

Similar Articles

Favorite Quote: "Don't cry that it's over, smile because it has happened."

Favorite Quote: Difficult is not impossible - Relient K, "Hope for Every Fallen Man" If all I had was love, would I still be lovely? If all I gave was love, would you give up on me? -House of Heroes, "Love is for the Middle Class"

Favorite Quote: FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, STING LIKE A BEE- MUHAMMID ALI

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.

• Subscribe to Teen Ink magazine
• Submit to Teen Ink
• Find A College
• Find a Summer Program

Share this on

Send to a friend.

Thank you for sharing this page with a friend!

Tell my friends

Choose what to email.

Which of your works would you like to tell your friends about? (These links will automatically appear in your email.)

Send your email

Delete my account, we hate to see you go please note as per our terms and conditions, you agreed that all materials submitted become the property of teen ink. going forward, your work will remain on teenink.com submitted “by anonymous.”, delete this, change anonymous status, send us site feedback.

If you have a suggestion about this website or are experiencing a problem with it, or if you need to report abuse on the site, please let us know. We try to make TeenInk.com the best site it can be, and we take your feedback very seriously. Please note that while we value your input, we cannot respond to every message. Also, if you have a comment about a particular piece of work on this website, please go to the page where that work is displayed and post a comment on it. Thank you!

Pardon Our Dust

Teen Ink is currently undergoing repairs to our image server. In addition to being unable to display images, we cannot currently accept image submissions. All other parts of the website are functioning normally. Please check back to submit your art and photography and to enjoy work from teen artists around the world!

College Admissions

Common application essay example – personal story.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

This is a college essay for the personal statement component of the Common App. Hopefully from reading this essay, you will be able to gain a better idea of what to write about for your Common Application essay.

Indian culture dictates that the bond between siblings remains weak in the web of other familial ties and obligations that an individual must uphold. My sister and I, geographically separated from our motherland, break this tradition.

The conception of my sister was a random occurrence, completely unplanned; she’s what you might call a “mistake.” My mother was devastated to give birth to a second child, nine years after her first. 19 inches, 6.8 pounds: [Redacted] entered the world as an insignificant weakling. This teeny child, appearing suddenly in my life, became my only hero.

The word “hero” immediately strikes images of soldiers, of philanthropists, of mothers and of fathers, anyone who has experienced life with all of its ups and downs. I have honored many of these traditional “heroes” myself, from Warren Buffet to my beloved grandfather, yet none of them quite capture the qualities that I believe to be most significant. My sister, still the smallest person in her third grade class at 46 inches, 41 pounds, exemplifies these characteristics.

Every day when I come home, [Redacted] is bounding with energy. She greets me with a cheery smile and proceeds to explain her day at school. First comes Science, then Math, English, and lastly, a small complaint about Social Studies. By then, she’s leading me to her backpack and telling me about her homework. Wasting no time, she sits down at her desk, looking insignificant in the large chair, slowly working through the assignments for the night. This dedication is transferred to everything she does, from gymnastics to the piano. Somehow, even with her frail physique, my sister finds the energy to remain enthusiastic about everything.These qualities are the very ones I attempt to emulate throughout my life: passion, dedication and a pursuit of knowledge.

Occasionally, [Redacted] tries to convince me that I am both her role model and her mentor. I disagree.All that I can do is take care of her as I would my own child. I bathe her, I cook for her, I tutor her, I play with her, and I discipline her. Even when my mother returns home, my sister comes to me. She calls me “Ma” (mother) and I call her “Beta” (daughter). At night, when lightning strikes, [Redacted] always comes crying into my room. Pulling her into bed with me, I hold her tightly and tell her stories until she falls asleep. Even in these moments, I learn from her; I learn responsibility. I cannot say that I have fulfilled the role of a parent, but in my heart, my sister is my first child.

Sometimes I look back at our relationship and I smile at my luck. My hero, my sister and my “daughter” all come in one little package named [Redacted].As our bond continues to strengthen each day, we become more of an anomaly from Indian custom. Residing in America has allowed us to forge a relationship that will persist even through life’s most rigorous trials.

Are you ready for your exams?

Looking for practice questions?

You can find thousands of practice questions on Albert.io. Albert.io lets you customize your learning experience to target practice where you need the most help. We’ll give you challenging practice questions to help you achieve mastery of the AP, SAT®, ACT®, and other major exams.

Start practicing here .

Are you a teacher or administrator interested in boosting student outcomes?

Learn more about our school licenses here .

Interested in a school license?​

Popular posts.

AP® Score Calculators

Simulate how different MCQ and FRQ scores translate into AP® scores

AP® Review Guides

The ultimate review guides for AP® subjects to help you plan and structure your prep.

Core Subject Review Guides

Review the most important topics in Physics and Algebra 1 .

SAT® Score Calculator

See how scores on each section impacts your overall SAT® score

ACT® Score Calculator

See how scores on each section impacts your overall ACT® score

Grammar Review Hub

Comprehensive review of grammar skills

AP® Posters

Download updated posters summarizing the main topics and structure for each AP® exam.

How do I incorporate Indian heritage into essay?

I’m thinking the essay about identity is the best for this topic. I tried to include how reconciling the differences between Indian and American cultures is a challenge for me and how being christian, there’s a certain degree of alienation in Indian culture. Am I on the right track? Should I include how I, as an introvert, have trouble fitting in to my loud, garrulous family? Thanks.

I think if you talk about specific anecdotes that made you notice the divide, it could be interesting. I definitely think you can also include the fact that you are an introvert. Goes with the minority theme, even though technically being a Christian is normally the majority but in your case it is clearly different, making it unique to you.

I think it’s nice that you’re getting some outside feedback and assistance, and wish I had done that when I was in your shoes.

Imo, discussion of politics or religion in an essay to an outside audience is like walking on a tight rope. You can get through the performance with ease, but one inadvertent, innocent wind gust, and it’s likely you may have lost your reader for good.

In your case, I think it’s best if you frame your ideas in a different context.

For instance, instead of your ethnicity (Indian) and religion (Christian) serving as a dead end, roadblock challenge, it’s rather this unique background that helped you to better appreciate (even more) the diversity that exists outside of your native diaspora community.

It has helped you to better accept and to be even more sensitive to the differing viewpoints of people with different backgrounds, upbringing and circumstances. Mentioning this developing, holistic lens as a marketable skill and attribute that will help serve the student body and in your future endeavors should pique the interest of the reader.

I think your introversion should not be viewed as a weakness. The realization of it is a testament to you, namely that you are aware that there are other personalities (extroversion) that exist (obvious, I know), but that even though it’s your family, you still learned how to get along with these differing traits.

Seems a bit odd? Not when you bring this scenario into a real-life workforce.

Did you know there are studies that show introvert CEO’s as being more productive in their company than their extrovert counterparts?

POPULAR STATES

Search sat scores, search act scores, search gpa’s, subscribe to our newsletter.

Stay informed with the latest from the CC community, delivered to you, for free.

CONNECT WITH US

© 2023 College Confidential, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Cultural Diversity in India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Introduction to cultural diversity.

India is famously known for its rich cultural diversity. It is a land where people of different religions, castes, and ethnic groups live together, each contributing to the country’s unique cultural fabric.

Religious Diversity

India is home to many religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Each religion has its own set of rituals, festivals, and traditions, which adds to the cultural richness.

Language Diversity

India is a linguistically diverse country with over 1600 spoken languages. Every state has its own language, and people take pride in their linguistic heritage.

Art and Cuisine

Indian art and cuisine vary greatly from region to region. The music, dance, and food of each area are influenced by its history, geography, and local traditions. This diversity in art and cuisine is a testament to India’s cultural richness.

In conclusion, cultural diversity is one of India’s greatest strengths. It fosters a sense of unity in diversity, making India a vibrant and inclusive nation.

250 Words Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Introduction.

India, often referred to as a ‘melting pot’ of cultures, stands as a testament to the confluence of diverse traditions, religions, and languages. Its cultural diversity is a rich tapestry woven with threads of myriad hues, each representing a unique cultural facet.

India is the birthplace of religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, which coexist with Islam, Christianity, Zoroastism, Judaism, and others. Each religion has contributed to the cultural mosaic of India, leaving indelible imprints on its art, architecture, literature, music, and dance.

Linguistic Diversity

The linguistic diversity in India is astonishing, with the constitution officially recognizing 22 languages. Each language has its literature, folklore, and scripts, contributing to the cultural richness of the nation.

Social and Cultural Practices

The social and cultural practices in India vary significantly across its length and breadth. Festivals like Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Pongal, Baisakhi, and many others are celebrated with great fervor, each having its unique customs and traditions.

Indian art, ranging from classical dance forms to folk arts like Madhubani and Warli, showcases the cultural diversity. Indian cuisine, with its wide range of regional dishes, reflects the diversity in its culinary practices.

The cultural diversity of India is a testament to its pluralistic society, which embraces differences and promotes unity in diversity. It is this cultural diversity that makes India a vibrant and dynamic nation, offering a rich cultural experience.

500 Words Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Introduction to cultural diversity in india.

India, often hailed as the epitome of cultural diversity, is a country where myriad cultures, religions, languages, and traditions coexist in harmony. This cultural diversity is the cornerstone of India’s pluralistic society and has shaped its history, politics, and social fabric.

Cultural Mosaic: Languages and Religions

India is home to over 2,000 distinct ethnic groups and more than 1,600 spoken languages. This linguistic diversity is a testament to the country’s cultural richness. Each language carries its unique folklore, literature, and art forms, contributing to the cultural mosaic of the nation.

Similarly, India’s religious diversity is unparalleled. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism originated here, and the country also houses substantial populations of Muslims, Christians, and other religious communities. These religions, with their unique rituals, festivals, and philosophies, add to the cultural kaleidoscope of India.

Art, Music, and Dance

Indian art, music, and dance forms are as diverse as its languages and religions. Each region boasts its distinct classical and folk music and dance styles. For instance, Kathakali from Kerala, Bharatanatyam from Tamil Nadu, and Kathak from North India are renowned dance forms, each with its unique storytelling method.

Similarly, Indian music ranges from the classical Carnatic and Hindustani styles to various folk traditions. Indian art, too, displays a wide range from Madhubani paintings of Bihar to Warli art of Maharashtra, each narrating a tale of its people and history.

Cuisine and Clothing

Indian cuisine, known for its flavors and spices, also mirrors the country’s cultural diversity. Each region has its culinary specialities, influenced by local produce, climate, and historical interactions. For example, coastal regions like Kerala and Goa have seafood-based cuisine, while Rajasthan’s arid climate has led to the development of a cuisine rich in dairy products and grains.

Clothing in India also varies regionally, reflecting local climatic conditions, traditions, and influences. From the ‘sarees’ and ‘dhotis’ of the south to the ‘pherans’ and ‘pathanis’ of the north, Indian attire is a vibrant display of its cultural diversity.

Challenges and Opportunities

While cultural diversity is India’s strength, it also poses challenges. Communal tensions, regional disparities, and language conflicts are some issues that stem from this diversity. However, these challenges also provide opportunities for dialogue, mutual understanding, and unity in diversity.

Cultural diversity in India is an enriching and complex tapestry of traditions, beliefs, and practices. It is a testament to the country’s historical openness to different cultures, its adaptability, and its inherent pluralism. This diversity, while posing challenges, also provides a framework for mutual respect and coexistence, making India a fascinating study in cultural diversity.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Cashless India
• Essay on National Flag of India
• Essay on Fit India

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

wow u helped me to finish my holiday homework

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• CBSE Class 10th
• CBSE Class 12th
• UP Board 10th
• UP Board 12th
• Bihar Board 10th
• Bihar Board 12th

Top Schools

• Top Schools in India
• Top Schools in Delhi
• Top Schools in Mumbai
• Top Schools in Chennai
• Top Schools in Hyderabad
• Top Schools in Kolkata
• Top Schools in Pune
• Top Schools in Bangalore

Products & Resources

• JEE Main Knockout April
• Free Sample Papers
• Free Ebooks
• RD Sharma Solutions
• Navodaya Vidyalaya Admission 2024-25

NCERT Study Material

• NCERT Notes
• NCERT Books
• NCERT Syllabus
• NCERT Solutions
• NCERT Solutions for Class 12
• NCERT Solutions for Class 11
• NCERT solutions for Class 10
• JEE Main Exam
• JEE Advanced Exam
• BITSAT Exam
• View All Engineering Exams
• Colleges Accepting B.Tech Applications
• Top Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Engineering Colleges Accepting JEE Main
• Top IITs in India
• Top NITs in India
• Top IIITs in India
• JEE Main College Predictor
• JEE Main Rank Predictor
• MHT CET College Predictor
• AP EAMCET College Predictor
• GATE College Predictor
• KCET College Predictor
• JEE Advanced College Predictor
• View All College Predictors
• JEE Advanced Cutoff
• JEE Main Cutoff
• GATE Registration 2025
• JEE Main Syllabus 2025
• Download E-Books and Sample Papers
• Compare Colleges
• B.Tech College Applications
• JEE Main Question Papers
• View All Management Exams

Colleges & Courses

• Top MBA Colleges in India
• MBA College Admissions
• MBA Colleges in India
• Top IIMs Colleges in India
• Top Online MBA Colleges in India
• MBA Colleges Accepting XAT Score
• BBA Colleges in India
• XAT College Predictor 2025
• SNAP College Predictor
• NMAT College Predictor
• MAT College Predictor 2024
• CMAT College Predictor 2025
• CAT Percentile Predictor 2024
• CAT 2024 College Predictor
• Top MBA Entrance Exams 2024
• NMAT Registration
• GD Topics for MBA
• CAT 2024 Admit Card
• Download Helpful Ebooks
• List of Popular Branches
• QnA - Get answers to your doubts
• IIM Fees Structure
• AIIMS Nursing
• Top Medical Colleges in India
• Top Medical Colleges in India accepting NEET Score
• Medical Colleges accepting NEET
• List of Medical Colleges in India
• List of AIIMS Colleges In India
• Medical Colleges in Maharashtra
• Medical Colleges in India Accepting NEET PG
• NEET College Predictor
• NEET PG College Predictor
• NEET MDS College Predictor
• NEET Rank Predictor
• DNB PDCET College Predictor
• NEET Syllabus 2025
• NEET Study Material 2024
• NEET Cut off
• NEET Exam Date 2025
• Download Helpful E-books
• Colleges Accepting Admissions
• Top Law Colleges in India
• Law College Accepting CLAT Score
• List of Law Colleges in India
• Top Law Colleges in Delhi
• Top NLUs Colleges in India
• Top Law Colleges in Chandigarh
• Top Law Collages in Lucknow

Predictors & E-Books

• CLAT College Predictor
• MHCET Law ( 5 Year L.L.B) College Predictor
• AILET College Predictor
• Sample Papers
• Compare Law Collages
• Careers360 Youtube Channel
• CLAT Syllabus 2025
• Free CLAT Practice Test
• NID DAT Exam
• Pearl Academy Exam

Predictors & Articles

• NIFT College Predictor
• UCEED College Predictor
• NID DAT College Predictor
• NID DAT 2025
• NID DAT Syllabus 2025
• Design Colleges in India
• Top NIFT Colleges in India
• Fashion Design Colleges in India
• Top Interior Design Colleges in India
• Top Graphic Designing Colleges in India
• Fashion Design Colleges in Delhi
• Fashion Design Colleges in Mumbai
• Top Interior Design Colleges in Bangalore
• NIFT Cutoff
• NIFT Fees Structure
• NIFT Syllabus 2025
• Free Design E-books
• List of Branches
• Careers360 Youtube channel
• IPU CET BJMC 2024
• JMI Mass Communication Entrance Exam 2024
• IIMC Entrance Exam 2024
• MICAT Exam 2025
• Media & Journalism colleges in Delhi
• Media & Journalism colleges in Bangalore
• Media & Journalism colleges in Mumbai
• List of Media & Journalism Colleges in India
• CA Intermediate
• CA Foundation
• CS Executive
• CS Professional
• Difference between CA and CS
• Difference between CA and CMA
• CA Full form
• CMA Full form
• CS Full form
• CA Salary In India

Top Courses & Careers

• Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com)
• Master of Commerce (M.Com)
• Company Secretary
• Cost Accountant
• Charted Accountant
• Credit Manager
• Financial Advisor
• Top Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Government Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Private Commerce Colleges in India
• Top M.Com Colleges in Mumbai
• Top B.Com Colleges in India
• IT Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• IT Colleges in Uttar Pradesh
• MCA Colleges in India
• BCA Colleges in India

Quick Links

• Information Technology Courses
• Programming Courses
• Web Development Courses
• Data Analytics Courses
• Big Data Analytics Courses
• RUHS Pharmacy Admission Test
• Top Pharmacy Colleges in India
• Pharmacy Colleges in Pune
• Pharmacy Colleges in Mumbai
• Colleges Accepting GPAT Score
• Pharmacy Colleges in Lucknow
• List of Pharmacy Colleges in Nagpur
• GPAT Result
• GPAT 2024 Admit Card
• GPAT Question Papers
• NCHMCT JEE 2025
• Mah BHMCT CET
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Delhi
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Hyderabad
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Mumbai
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Maharashtra
• B.Sc Hotel Management
• Hotel Management
• Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology

Diploma Colleges

• Top Diploma Colleges in Maharashtra
• UPSC IAS 2024
• SSC CGL 2024
• IBPS RRB 2024
• Previous Year Sample Papers
• Free Competition E-books
• Sarkari Result
• QnA- Get your doubts answered
• UPSC Previous Year Sample Papers
• CTET Previous Year Sample Papers
• SBI Clerk Previous Year Sample Papers
• NDA Previous Year Sample Papers

Upcoming Events

• NDA 2 Admit card 2024
• SSC CGL Admit card 2024
• CDS 2 Admit card 2024
• UGC NET Admit card 2024
• HP TET Result 2024
• SSC CHSL Result 2024
• UPTET Notification 2024
• SBI PO Notification 2024

Other Exams

• SSC CHSL 2024
• UP PCS 2024
• UGC NET 2024
• RRB NTPC 2024
• IBPS PO 2024
• IBPS Clerk 2024
• IBPS SO 2024
• Top University in USA
• Top University in Canada
• Top University in Ireland
• Top Universities in UK
• Top Universities in Australia
• Best MBA Colleges in Abroad
• Business Management Studies Colleges

Top Countries

• Study in USA
• Study in UK
• Study in Canada
• Study in Australia
• Study in Ireland
• Study in Germany
• Study in China
• Study in Europe

Student Visas

• Student Visa Canada
• Student Visa UK
• Student Visa USA
• Student Visa Australia
• Student Visa Germany
• Student Visa New Zealand
• Student Visa Ireland
• CUET PG 2025
• UP B.Ed JEE 2024
• TS EDCET Exam
• IIT JAM 2025
• AP PGCET Exam
• Universities in India
• Top Universities in India 2024
• Top Colleges in India
• Top Universities in Uttar Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Bihar
• Top Universities in Madhya Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Tamil Nadu 2024
• Central Universities in India
• CUET DU Cut off 2024
• IGNOU Date Sheet 2024
• CUET DU CSAS Portal 2024
• CUET 2025 Syllabus
• CUET PG Syllabus 2025
• CUET Participating Universities 2025
• CUET Previous Year Question Paper
• IGNOU Result 2024
• E-Books and Sample Papers
• CUET College Predictor 2024
• CUET Exam Date 2025
• CUET Cut Off 2024
• NIRF Ranking 2024
• IGNOU Exam Form 2024
• CUET Syllabus
• CUET Counselling 2025

Engineering Preparation

• Knockout JEE Main 2024
• Test Series JEE Main 2024
• JEE Main 2024 Rank Booster

Medical Preparation

• Knockout NEET 2024
• Test Series NEET 2024
• Rank Booster NEET 2024

Online Courses

• JEE Main One Month Course
• NEET One Month Course
• IBSAT Free Mock Tests
• IIT JEE Foundation Course
• Knockout BITSAT 2024
• Career Guidance Tool

Top Streams

• IT & Software Certification Courses
• Engineering and Architecture Certification Courses
• Programming And Development Certification Courses
• Business and Management Certification Courses
• Marketing Certification Courses
• Health and Fitness Certification Courses
• Design Certification Courses

Specializations

• Digital Marketing Certification Courses
• Cyber Security Certification Courses
• Artificial Intelligence Certification Courses
• Business Analytics Certification Courses
• Data Science Certification Courses
• Cloud Computing Certification Courses
• Machine Learning Certification Courses
• View All Certification Courses
• UG Degree Courses
• PG Degree Courses
• Short Term Courses
• Free Courses
• Online Degrees and Diplomas
• Compare Courses

Top Providers

• Coursera Courses
• Udemy Courses
• Edx Courses
• Swayam Courses
• upGrad Courses
• Simplilearn Courses
• Great Learning Courses

Indian Culture Essay

India is renowned throughout the world for its tradition and culture. It is a country with many different cultures and traditions. The world's ancient civilisations can be found in this country. Good manners, etiquette, civilised dialogue, customs, beliefs, values, etc., are essential elements of Indian culture . India is a special country because of the ability of its citizens from many cultures and traditions to live together in harmony. Here are a few sample essays on ‘Indian culture’.

100 Words Essay on Indian Culture

India's culture is the oldest in the world and dates back over 5,000 years. The first and greatest cultures in the world are regarded as being those of India. The phrase "Unity in Diversity" refers to India as a diverse nation where people of many religions coexist while maintaining their distinct customs. People of different religions have different languages, culinary customs, ceremonies, etc and yet they all live in harmony.

Hindi is India's official language. However, there are 400 other languages regularly spoken in India's many states and territories, in addition to the country's nearly 22 recognised languages. History has established India as the country where religions like Buddhism and Hinduism first emerged.

200 Words Essay on Indian Culture

India is a land of diverse cultures, religions, languages, and traditions. The rich cultural heritage of India is a result of its long history and the various invasions and settlements that have occurred in the country. Indian culture is a melting pot of various customs and traditions, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Religion | Religion plays a significant role in Indian culture. The major religions practiced in India are Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. Each religion has its own set of beliefs, customs, and practices. Hinduism, the oldest religion in India, is the dominant religion and has a vast array of gods and goddesses. Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism are also widely practiced and have a significant number of followers in the country.

Food | Indian cuisine is known for its diverse range of flavors and spices. Each region in India has its own unique style of cooking and distinct dishes. Indian cuisine is known for its use of spices, herbs, and a variety of cooking techniques. Some of the most famous Indian dishes include biryani, curry, tandoori chicken, and dal makhani. Indian cuisine is also famous for its street food, which is a popular and affordable way to experience the diverse range of flavors that Indian food has to offer.

500 Words Essay on Indian Culture

Indian culture is known for its rich art and architecture. The ancient Indus Valley Civilization, which existed around 2500 BCE, had a sophisticated system of town planning and impressive architectural structures. Indian art is diverse and includes painting, sculpture, and architecture. The most famous form of Indian art is the cave paintings of Ajanta and Ellora, which date back to the 2nd century BCE. Indian architecture is also famous for its temples, palaces, and forts, which are a reflection of the rich cultural heritage of the country.

Music and dance are an integral part of Indian culture . Indian music is diverse and ranges from classical to folk to modern. The classical music of India is known for its use of ragas, which are a set of musical notes that are used to create a melody. The traditional Indian dance forms include Kathak, Bharatanatyam, and Kathakali. These dance forms are known for their elaborate costumes, expressive gestures, and intricate footwork.

My Experience

I had always been fascinated by the rich culture and history of India. So, when I finally got the opportunity to visit the country, I was beyond excited. I had heard so much about the diverse customs and traditions of India, and I couldn't wait to experience them firsthand. The moment I stepped off the plane and hit the streets, I was greeted by the overwhelming smell of spices and the hustle and bustle of the streets. I knew right away that I was in for an unforgettable journey.

My first stop was the ancient city of Varanasi, also known as Banaras. As I walked through the streets, I was struck by the vibrant colors and the sound of temple bells and chants. I visited the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple and was amazed by the intricate architecture and the devotion of the devotees.

From Varanasi, I traveled to Jaipur, also known as the Pink City . Here, I visited the famous Amber Fort, which was built in the 16th century. The fort was a perfect example of the rich architecture of India and the level of craftsmanship that existed in ancient India.

As I continued my journey, I also had the opportunity to experience the food of India. From the spicy curries of the south to the tandoori dishes of the north, I was blown away by the range of flavors and the use of spices.

I also had the chance to experience the music and dance of India. I attended a Kathak dance performance and was mesmerized by the intricate footwork and the expressiveness of the dancers. I also had the opportunity to attend a classical music concert and was struck by the beauty of the ragas and the skill of the musicians.

My journey through India was truly an unforgettable experience. I had the chance to experience the diverse customs and traditions of India and was struck by the richness of the culture. From the ancient temples to the vibrant street markets, India is a treasure trove of history and culture. I knew that this would not be my last trip to India, as there is so much more to explore and experience.

Applications for Admissions are open.

VMC VIQ Scholarship Test

Register for Vidyamandir Intellect Quest. Get Scholarship and Cash Rewards.

JEE Main Important Physics formulas

As per latest 2024 syllabus. Physics formulas, equations, & laws of class 11 & 12th chapters

JEE Main Important Chemistry formulas

As per latest 2024 syllabus. Chemistry formulas, equations, & laws of class 11 & 12th chapters

TOEFL ® Registrations 2024

Accepted by more than 11,000 universities in over 150 countries worldwide

Pearson | PTE

Register now for PTE & Unlock 20% OFF : Use promo code: 'C360SPL20'. Valid till 15th NOV'24! Trusted by 3,500+ universities globally

JEE Main high scoring chapters and topics

As per latest 2024 syllabus. Study 40% syllabus and score upto 100% marks in JEE

Download Careers360 App's

Regular exam updates, QnA, Predictors, College Applications & E-books now on your Mobile

Certifications

We Appeared in

Essay on Indian Culture for Students and Children

500+ words essay on indian culture.

India is a country that boasts of a rich culture. The culture of India refers to a collection of minor unique cultures. The culture of India comprises of clothing, festivals, languages, religions, music, dance, architecture, food, and art in India. Most noteworthy, Indian culture has been influenced by several foreign cultures throughout its history. Also, the history of India’s culture is several millennia old.

Components of Indian Culture

First of all, Indian origin religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism . All of these religions are based on karma and dharma. Furthermore, these four are called as Indian religions. Indian religions are a major category of world religions along with Abrahamic religions.

Also, many foreign religions are present in India as well. These foreign religions include Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic religions in India certainly are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Besides Abrahamic religions, Zoroastrianism and Bahá’í Faith are the other foreign religions which exist in India. Consequently, the presence of so many diverse religions has given rise to tolerance and secularism in Indian culture.

The Joint family system is the prevailing system of Indian culture . Most noteworthy, the family members consist of parents, children, children’s spouses, and offspring. All of these family members live together. Furthermore, the eldest male member is the head of the family.

Arranged marriages are the norm in Indian culture. Probably most Indians have their marriages planned by their parents. In almost all Indian marriages, the bride’s family gives dowry to bridegroom. Weddings are certainly festive occasions in Indian culture. There is involvement of striking decorations, clothing, music, dance, rituals in Indian weddings. Most noteworthy, the divorce rates in India are very low.

India celebrates a huge number of festivals. These festivals are very diverse due to multi-religious and multi-cultural Indian society. Indians greatly value festive occasions. Above all, the whole country joins in the celebrations irrespective of the differences.

Traditional Indian food, arts, music, sports, clothing, and architecture vary significantly across different regions. These components are influenced by various factors. Above all, these factors are geography, climate, culture, and rural/urban setting.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Perceptions of Indian Culture

Indian culture has been an inspiration to many writers. India is certainly a symbol of unity around the world. Indian culture is certainly very complex. Furthermore, the conception of Indian identity poses certain difficulties. However, despite this, a typical Indian culture does exist. The creation of this typical Indian culture results from some internal forces. Above all, these forces are a robust Constitution, universal adult franchise, secular policy , flexible federal structure, etc.

Indian culture is characterized by a strict social hierarchy. Furthermore, Indian children are taught their roles and place in society from an early age. Probably, many Indians believe that gods and spirits have a role in determining their life. Earlier, traditional Hindus were divided into polluting and non-polluting occupations. Now, this difference is declining.

Indian culture is certainly very diverse. Also, Indian children learn and assimilate in the differences. In recent decades, huge changes have taken place in Indian culture. Above all, these changes are female empowerment , westernization, a decline of superstition, higher literacy , improved education, etc.

To sum it up, the culture of India is one of the oldest cultures in the World. Above all, many Indians till stick to the traditional Indian culture in spite of rapid westernization. Indians have demonstrated strong unity irrespective of the diversity among them. Unity in Diversity is the ultimate mantra of Indian culture.

FAQs on Indian Culture

Q1 What are the Indian religions?

A1 Indian religions refer to a major category of religion. Most noteworthy, these religions have their origin in India. Furthermore, the major Indian religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

Q2 What are changes that have taken place in Indian culture in recent decades?

A2 Certainly, many changes have taken place in Indian culture in recent decades. Above all, these changes are female empowerment, westernization, a decline of superstition, higher literacy, improved education, etc.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Which program are you applying to?

Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

May 8, 2024

The Diversity Essay: How to Write an Excellent Diversity Essay

What is a diversity essay in a school application? And why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you go about writing such an essay?

Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to the diversity on their campus. A diversity essay gives applicants with disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds, an unusual education, a distinctive experience, or a unique family history an opportunity to write about how these elements of their background have prepared them to play a useful role in increasing and encouraging diversity among their target program’s student body and broader community.

The purpose of all application essays is to help the adcom better understand who an applicant is and what they care about. Your essays are your chance to share your voice and humanize your application. This is especially true for the diversity essay, which aims to reveal your unique perspectives and experiences, as well as the ways in which you might contribute to a college community.

In this post, we’ll discuss what exactly a diversity essay is, look at examples of actual prompts and a sample essay, and offer tips for writing a standout essay. 

In this post, you’ll find the following: 

What a diversity essay covers

How to show you can add to a school’s diversity, why diversity matters to schools.

• Seven examples that reveal diversity

Sample diversity essay prompts

How to write about your diversity.

• A diversity essay example

Upon hearing the word “diversity” in relation to an application essay, many people assume that they will have to write about gender, sexuality, class, or race. To many, this can feel overly personal or irrelevant, and some students might worry that their identity isn’t unique or interesting enough. In reality, the diversity essay is much broader than many people realize.

Identity means different things to different people. The important thing is that you demonstrate your uniqueness and what matters to you. In addition to writing about one of the traditional identity features we just mentioned (gender, sexuality, class, race), you could consider writing about a more unusual feature of yourself or your life – or even the intersection of two or more identities.

Consider these questions as you think about what to include in your diversity essay:

• Do you have a unique or unusual talent or skill?
• Do you have beliefs or values that are markedly different from those of the people around you? 
• Do you have a hobby or interest that sets you apart from your peers? 
• Have you done or experienced something that few people have? Note that if you choose to write about a single event as a diverse identity feature, that event needs to have had a pretty substantial impact on you and your life. For example, perhaps you’re part of the 0.2% of the world’s population that has run a marathon, or you’ve had the chance to watch wolves hunt in the wild.
• Do you have a role in life that gives you a special outlook on the world? For example, maybe one of your siblings has a rare disability, or you grew up in a town with fewer than 500 inhabitants.

If you are an immigrant to the United States, the child of immigrants, or someone whose ethnicity is underrepresented in the States, your response to “How will you add to the diversity of our class/community?” and similar questions might help your application efforts. Why? Because you have the opportunity to show the adcom how your background will contribute a distinctive perspective to the program you are applying to.

Of course, if you’re not underrepresented in your field or part of a disadvantaged group, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to write about in a diversity essay.

For example, you might have an unusual or special experience to share, such as serving in the military, being a member of a dance troupe, or caring for a disabled relative. These and other distinctive experiences can convey how you will contribute to the diversity of the school’s campus.

Maybe you are the first member of your family to apply to college or the first person in your household to learn English. Perhaps you have worked your way through college or helped raise your siblings. You might also have been an ally to those who are underrepresented, disadvantaged, or marginalized in your community, at your school, or in a work setting. 

As you can see, diversity is not limited to one’s religion, ethnicity, culture, language, or sexual orientation. It refers to whatever element of your identity distinguishes you from others and shows that you, too, value diversity.

The diversity essay provides colleges the chance to build a student body that includes different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, backgrounds, interests, and so on. Applicants are asked to illuminate what sets them apart so that the adcoms can see what kind of diverse views and opinions they can bring to the campus.

Admissions officers believe that diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all the students involved. They also believe that having a diverse workforce better serves society as a whole.

The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer people’s discussions will be.

Plus, learning and growing in this kind of multicultural environment will prepare students for working in our increasingly multicultural and global world.

In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures. Businesses realize that they will market more effectively if they can speak to different audiences, which is possible when members of their workforce come from various backgrounds and cultures. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st century job market.

Seven examples that reveal diversity

Adcoms want to know about the diverse elements of your character and how these have helped you develop particular  personality traits , as well as about any unusual experiences that have shaped you.

Here are seven examples an applicant could write about:

1. They grew up in an environment with a strong emphasis on respecting their elders, attending family events, and/or learning their parents’ native language and culture.

2. They are close to their grandparents and extended family members who have taught them how teamwork can help everyone thrive.

3. They have had to face difficulties that stem from their parents’ values being in conflict with theirs or those of their peers.

4. Teachers have not always understood the elements of their culture or lifestyle and how those elements influence their performance.

5. They have suffered discrimination and succeeded despite it because of their grit, values, and character.

6. They learned skills from a lifestyle that is outside the norm (e.g., living in foreign countries as the child of a diplomat or contractor; performing professionally in theater, dance, music, or sports; having a deaf sibling).

7. They’ve encountered racism or other prejudice (either toward themselves or others) and responded by actively promoting diverse, tolerant values.

And remember, diversity is not about who your parents are.  It’s about who you are  – at the core.

Your background, influences, religious observances, native language, ideas, work environment, community experiences – all these factors come together to create a unique individual, one who will contribute to a varied class of distinct individuals taking their place in a diverse world.

The best-known diversity essay prompt is from the  Common App . It states:

“Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

Some schools have individual diversity essay prompts. For example, this one is from  Duke University :

“We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.” 

And the  Rice University application includes the following prompt:

“Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice?”

In all instances, colleges want you to demonstrate how and what you’ll contribute to their communities.

Your answer to a school’s diversity essay question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your embrace of differences, your resilience, your character, and your perspective.

The school might ask how you think of diversity or how you will bring or add to the diversity of the school, your chosen profession, or your community. Make sure you answer the specific question posed by highlighting distinctive elements of your profile that will add to the class mosaic every adcom is trying to create. You don’t want to blend in; you want to stand out in a positive way while also complementing the school’s canvas.

Here’s a simple, three-part framework that will help you think of diversity more broadly:

Who are you? What has contributed to your identity? How do you distinguish yourself? Your identity can include any of the following: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion, nontraditional work experience, nontraditional educational background, multicultural background, and family’s educational level.

What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include any of the following: achievements inside and/or outside your field of study, leadership opportunities, community service, internship or professional experience, research opportunities, hobbies, and travel. Any or all of these could be unique. Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome?

How do you think? How do you approach things? What drives you? What influences you? Are you the person who can break up a tense meeting with some well-timed humor? Are you the one who intuitively sees how to bring people together? 

Read more about this three-part framework in Episode 193 of Accepted’s Admissions Straight Talk podcast or listen wherever you get your favorite podcast s.

Think about each question within this framework and how you could apply your diversity elements to your target school’s classroom or community. Any of these elements can serve as the framework for your essay.

Don’t worry if you can’t think of something totally “out there.” You don’t need to be a tightrope walker living in the Andes or a Buddhist monk from Japan to be able to contribute to a school’s diversity!

And please remember, the examples we have offered here are not exhaustive. There are many other ways to show diversity!

All you need to do to be able to write successfully about how you will contribute to the diversity of your target school’s community is examine your identity, deeds, and ideas, with an eye toward your personal distinctiveness and individuality. There is only one  you .

Take a look at the sample diversity essay in the next section of this post, and pay attention to how the writer underscores their appreciation for, and experience with, diversity. 

A diversity essay sample

When I was starting 11th grade, my dad, an agricultural scientist, was assigned to a 3-month research project in a farm village in Niigata (northwest Honshu in Japan). Rather than stay behind with my mom and siblings, I begged to go with him. As a straight-A student, I convinced my parents and the principal that I could handle my schoolwork remotely (pre-COVID) for that stretch. It was time to leap beyond my comfortable suburban Wisconsin life—and my Western orientation, reinforced by travel to Europe the year before. 

We roomed in a sprawling farmhouse with a family participating in my dad’s study. I thought I’d experience an “English-free zone,” but the high school students all studied and wanted to practice English, so I did meet peers even though I didn’t attend their school. Of the many eye-opening, influential, cultural experiences, the one that resonates most powerfully to me is experiencing their community. It was a living, organic whole. Elementary school kids spent time helping with the rice harvest. People who foraged for seasonal wild edibles gave them to acquaintances throughout the town. In fact, there was a constant sharing of food among residents—garden veggies carried in straw baskets, fish or meat in coolers. The pharmacist would drive prescriptions to people who couldn’t easily get out—new mothers, the elderly—not as a business service but as a good neighbor. If rain suddenly threatened, neighbors would bring in each other’s drying laundry. When an empty-nest 50-year-old woman had to be hospitalized suddenly for a near-fatal snakebite, neighbors maintained her veggie patch until she returned. The community embodied constant awareness of others’ needs and circumstances. The community flowed!

Yet, people there lamented that this lifestyle was vanishing; more young people left than stayed or came. And it wasn’t idyllic: I heard about ubiquitous gossip, long-standing personal enmities, busybody-ness. But these very human foibles didn’t dam the flow. This dynamic community organism couldn’t have been more different from my suburban life back home, with its insular nuclear families. We nod hello to neighbors in passing. 

This wonderful experience contained a personal challenge. Blond and blue-eyed, I became “the other” for the first time. Except for my dad, I saw no Westerner there. Curious eyes followed me. Stepping into a market or walking down the street, I drew gazes. People swiftly looked away if they accidentally caught my eye. It was not at all hostile, I knew, but I felt like an object. I began making extra sure to appear “presentable” before going outside. The sense of being watched sometimes generated mild stress or resentment. Returning to my lovely tatami room, I would decompress, grateful to be alone. I realized this challenge was a minute fraction of what others experience in my own country. The toll that feeling—and being— “other” takes on non-white and visibly different people in the US can be extremely painful. Experiencing it firsthand, albeit briefly, benignly, and in relative comfort, I got it.

Unlike the organic Niigata community, work teams, and the workplace itself, have externally driven purposes. Within this different environment, I will strive to exemplify the ongoing mutual awareness that fueled the community life in Niigata. Does it benefit the bottom line, improve the results? I don’t know. But it helps me be the mature, engaged person I want to be, and to appreciate the individuals who are my colleagues and who comprise my professional community. I am now far more conscious of people feeling their “otherness”—even when it’s not in response to negative treatment, it can arise simply from awareness of being in some way different.

What did you think of this essay? Does this middle class Midwesterner have the unique experience of being different from the surrounding majority, something she had not experienced in the United States? Did she encounter diversity from the perspective of “the other”? 

Here a few things to note about why this diversity essay works so well:

1. The writer comes from “a comfortable, suburban, Wisconsin life,” suggesting that her background might not be ethnically, racially, or in any other way diverse.

2. The diversity “points” scored all come from her fascinating experience of having lived in a Japanese farm village, where she immersed herself in a totally different culture.

3. The lessons learned about the meaning of community are what broaden and deepen the writer’s perspective about life, about a purpose-driven life, and about the concept of “otherness.” 

By writing about a time when you experienced diversity in one of its many forms, you can write a memorable and meaningful diversity essay.

Working on your diversity essay?

Want to ensure that your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking?  Work with one of our admissions experts . This checklist includes more than 30 different ways to think about diversity to jump-start your creative engine.

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications, and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Sundas has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• Different Dimensions of Diversity , podcast Episode 193
• What Should You Do If You Belong to an Overrepresented MBA Applicant Group?
• Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions , a free guide

About Us Press Room Contact Us Podcast Accepted Blog Privacy Policy Website Terms of Use Disclaimer Client Terms of Service

Accepted 1171 S. Robertson Blvd. #140 Los Angeles CA 90035 +1 (310) 815-9553 © 2022 Accepted

• AISES People
• Featured Stories
• 2024 Issues
• 2023 Issues
• 2022 Issues
• 2021 Issues
• 2020 Issues
• 2019 Issues
• 2018 Issues
• 2017 Issues
• 2016 Issues
• 2015 Issues
• 2014 Issues
• About Winds of Change
• Winds of Change Staff
• Print Advertising
• Digital Advertising
• Newsletter Advertising

How to Tell Your Native Story on a College Application

If you’re like most students, you’re not exactly looking forward to the high stakes college application process. How do you write the perfect essay? How do you share with reviewers everything you want them to know about you? Will sharing your Native heritage help make your application stand out? Here are some tips for telling your Native story on a college application.

Utilize Every Part of the Application While many would argue that the personal essay is the most important part of the college application, it’s certainly not the only one. Many applications require or allow for short essays, lists of activities, resumes, and options for including creative work. These areas can be incredibly helpful in telling your Native story. While there is only so much you will be able to include in your personal essay, the other sections of the application provide areas to expand upon, or introduce, aspects of what your Native heritage means in your life. Use them to do just that, highlighting experiences, skills, and memories that are unique to you.

Don’t Be Afraid to Write about Yourself College applications are where you’re supposed to show who you are, and what you have accomplished. Don’t be afraid of sharing your Native story. Instead, highlight it — it’s something uniquely personal to you. Reviewers aren’t necessarily looking for flash; they’re looking for honesty and substance. Sharing with reviewers who you are, and what your Native experience looks like, will help them better understand you as an applicant and potential student at their school.

Focus on the Personal Essay The personal essay is the best place to tell your Native story. But how do you share everything in so few words? Don’t panic. Think about your story and what you want reviewers to come away knowing. Focus on one or two moments or experiences that tell your story, and offer insight into who you are as a person.

Be Honest Whether it’s the fact that you are a first-generation college student or have a passion for taxidermy, be honest on every part of your application. Reviewers want to know what makes you, you. Your honesty gives reviewers the best look at you, and helps them better understand your Native story. Reviewers gravitate toward authenticity and honesty, and they’ve read enough applications to know when those two aspects are absent. Honesty really is the best policy.

Be OK with Sharing Only Part of Your Story At the end of the day, there is only so much you can include in your college application. Even taking advantage of every section, you may feel like your Native story isn’t complete. That’s OK. As long as you’ve told the parts you find meaningful, you will have done your job. You’ve given reviewers a strong sense of who you are as an individual and a student, and that’s all they really need. So don’t obsess over trying to fit every single aspect of your Native story into your application. You don’t need to. 

Completing an application can seem like a monumental task. Try to think of it as an opportunity to show reviewers who you are and what you would bring to their campus. Your story is unique to you, and no one can take that away. Only you can choose how and what you share, but being open, honest, and clear can give your application the added boost it needs to stand out from the rest. Don’t be afraid to tell your Native story — embrace it!

Abigail Reigner, Comanche Nation, is a sophomore at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she studies mechanical engineering. She also serves as the AISES Region 6 Student Representative. 

With thousands of applications landing at admissions offices, why is it important to make yours personal? Every college’s admission process is different. It’s daunting to submit your application in a pool of thousands. Writing a personal, heartfelt story can be a breath of fresh air for the person reviewing your application.

Why should you tell your Native story on a college application?   Native American students are typically one of the least populous groups among college applicants. It is important not just to tell your story with the goal of getting into college, but also to bring a better awareness to Native struggles, lifestyles, and stories. College applications are a place where you don’t only represent yourself, but all your backgrounds and experiences. It’s your job to own your backgrounds! Providing insight to an otherwise overlooked experience can help admissions counselors get a better idea of who you are —your background, the way you were raised, and where you come from.

What’s the best way to tell your Native story on an application?  A lot of college essays have prompts, that are either assigned or “pick and choose.” If you’re not sure yet what you want to write about, try brainstorming a few different ideas for each essay topic. If you already have an essay topic in mind, try to find the question that best fits your story, and how you can reflect on it. There’s no wrong way to express yourself, so don’t worry so much about the story itself versus what you felt and learned.

How can a Native story be relayed without revealing too much information?  There are a lot of ways to do this, like changing or not using names or simply leaving out details that you deem too personal to share. However, you need to make sure that your story makes sense without these details, so that it is still a comprehensible, thoughtful essay through which you reveal parts of yourself that would be beneficial to the admissions process. It’s important to outline your essay before writing. You can do this by “story mapping” details that are important to include. By mapping the essay early in the process, you can identify information you don’t want to share, and can find an alternate approach to telling your story in a way that makes sense.

How can your Native experience translate to a campus involvement?  A lot of college campuses have Native student clubs, where Indigenous students can connect and work on a variety of things. Many schools also have umbrella-style diversity programs. Either type of club is a way to get involved. Because Indigenous cultures are so diverse, it’s a good idea to have your voice heard through a club. If there are no opportunities for Indigenous involvement on your campus, try reaching out to people within your college to find out how you can start a club or organization to support Native students. 

Pro Tip from Sally M. Douglas, senior associate director of the Undergraduate Admissions Office at the Rochester Institute of Technology The college essay gives an admission committee an opportunity to learn about a student’s passions and character, and how those have shaped personal development. Colleges read thousands of applications, but essays that express resilience to challenges that have contributed to personal growth are ones that stand out the most. The essay is an opportunity to share your journey and let colleges know who you are. The Native traditions and experiences you represent are a wonderful way to demonstrate how a campus can be culturally enriched by unique ideas and perspectives. 

If I Only Knew Then

Not Hearing Back from Prospective Employers? Here Is What To Do.

Article by: Alexa Panza

Latest articles.

How to Communicate with Teachers

How to Get the Most Out of the AISES National Conference

You may be interested

Improving Your Workplace Communication 

How to Pay for College

How to Be Proactive on Your Educational Journey

• Latest Articles

45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today

Meet top uk universities from the comfort of your home, here’s your new year gift, one app for all your, study abroad needs, start your journey, track your progress, grow with the community and so much more.

Verification Code

An OTP has been sent to your registered mobile no. Please verify

Thanks for your comment !

Our team will review it before it's shown to our readers.

• School Education /

Essay on Indian Heritage for Students 

• Updated on  
• Feb 3, 2024

Essay on Indian Heritage: Writing essays are important to develop effective communication skills and ideas to express our thoughts. This writing helps students develop writing skills, nurtures creativity, and prepares them for challenging tasks. 

India is a country with a rich cultural heritage. The richness of history dates back thousands of years, and its remains, such as ancient monuments, art, music, dance, and spiritual traditions, make the country unique. If you want to enhance your skills more comprehensively, let us start with today’s topic Essay on Indian Heritage for Students, which will help you analyze and interpret the gathered information. 

Master the art of essay writing with our blog on How to Write an Essay in English .

Table of Contents

• 1 Important features of Indian Heritage
• 2 Essay on Indian Heritage 150 words
• 3 Essay on Indian Heritage 300 words
• 4 10 Lines on Indian Heritage 

Important features of Indian Heritage

‘India is a land of diverse cultures, with multiple religions, languages, and social customs flourishing at the same time. The key aspects of Indian heritage include the beautiful architecture of the Taj Mahal and ancient Hindu temples. 

Furthermore, classical music, which is another form of art like Carnatic music and Bharatnatyam, yoga and meditation, practices of Ayurveda,  festivals like Holi and Diwali, which are celebrated across the country, and Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, and Sanskrit all include the key aspects of Indian culture. The vibrant Indian culture and diversity help protect as well as nourish these invaluable assets.’

Also Read: Career in Cultural Tourism

Essay on Indian Heritage 150 words

‘India has a rich cultural legacy. The graceful history spans thousands of years. Some important key aspects of Indian heritage include history, architecture, religion, and even the caste system. India´s ancient architectural heritage includes temples, forts, mosques, and palaces, which display the beautiful craftsmanship of the artisans. 

One of the examples of such remarkable engineering is the Iron Pillar of Delhi, which has been standing still with corrosion for centuries. It is important to know that India´s history also includes ancient empires and colonialism. Presently, we, the Indians, are the world´s largest democracy, with incredible diversity following major religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and more. 

Among the societies, the caste system played a vital role in influencing the social structure. India, the country that has 42 world heritage sites, including the Taj Mahal, which reflects community harmony and richness, makes the country´s heritage truly unique.

Also Read: World Heritage Day 2023: Theme, History, Significance

Essay on Indian Heritage 300 words

‘India´s heritage is a reflection of its amazing culture. that dates back more than 5000 years. A long span suggests a deep as well as persistent culture that evolves in various aspects, such as art, language, customs, and values.

Apart from the culture, some other important aspects of Indian heritage include ancient culture, engineering, present-day diversity in religion, and caste. The beautiful architecture of India demonstrates advanced as well as complex methods of technique and craftsmanship. Hindu temples with ornate stones, forts with Goconda and Amber, and grand and expensive palaces like Mysore are typical examples of splendid architecture. Further, the step-wells of Gujrat, the rock-cut caves of Ajanta and Ellora, Sanchi Stupa, and Victoria Memorial are excellent examples of both craftsmanship and traditional culture.

Apart from the beautiful monuments, the history of major empires also adds beauty to India´s heritage. The empires of the Mauryas, Mughals, and Ashokas witnessed remarkable progress. During the Mughal Empire, the most prominent emperor, Akbar, shared an era of tolerance in Indian history. But later, the colonisation of Britishers in India deteriorated many beautiful and historic sites like the Copper Temple in Arunachal Pradesh and Kos Minar in Haryana.

Beautiful concepts of architecture, impressive monuments, and faith in religion are the strengths of India´s heritage. The unity in diversity of religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Jainism has all contributed to shaping the culture of India.

In conclusion, we can say that India´s rich cultural heritage, which goes back thousands of years, consists of a beautiful mix of impressive buildings, different historical periods, and many religions. Though there were many difficulties along the way, the Indian heritage shows how values and traditions help in growing with positive change.

10 Lines on Indian Heritage 

India’s heritage is the oldest civilization and is unique in all its ways. Let us understand Indian heritage shortly and simply:

1. India has a rich cultural heritage that is thousands of years old.

2. It is believed that Indian culture is among the world’s oldest cultures.

3. The three important factors in Indian tradition and culture are geography, weather, and people.

4. India is known for its unique traditions, languages, religions, dance, music, and likewise.

5. Yoga, Ayurveda, and medicine are other key aspects that add beauty to its Indian heritage.

6. Indian dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, and Kuchipudi give colour to India.

7. India’s heritage is the source of inspiration for many other cultures.

8. The people of India have different castes, religions, and cultures.

9. Unity in the diversity of Indian culture makes the heritage proud as well as unique.

10. Indian heritage is a matter of pride and celebration for all Indians.

Also Read: UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Indian heritage consists of different traditions, art, architecture, religions and languages. It also includes ancient scriptures and classical arts.

The glorious past of Indian heritage and the present sense of identity and continuity are the two main importance of heritage in India. 

To write an essay on the heritage of a country tell about the glorious past of the culture, its impact on the country, and how other socially important things added to the heritage. 

Ajanta Caves are India´s first heritage designated by UNESCO. 

Related Blogs

This was all about an essay on Indian culture for school students. If you have any queries regarding school education or any academic programmes, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu.

Deepika Joshi

Deepika Joshi is an experienced content writer with educational and informative content expertise. She has hands-on experience in Education, Study Abroad and EdTech SaaS. Her strengths lie in conducting thorough research and analysis to provide accurate and up-to-date information to readers. She enjoys staying updated on new skills and knowledge, particularly in the education domain. In her free time, she loves to read articles, and blogs related to her field to expand her expertise further. In her personal life, she loves creative writing and aspires to connect with innovative people who have fresh ideas to offer.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Contact no. *

Connect With Us

45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. take the first step today..

Resend OTP in

Need help with?

Study abroad.

UK, Canada, US & More

IELTS, GRE, GMAT & More

Scholarship, Loans & Forex

Country Preference

New Zealand

Which English test are you planning to take?

Which academic test are you planning to take.

Not Sure yet

When are you planning to take the exam?

Already booked my exam slot

Within 2 Months

Want to learn about the test

Which Degree do you wish to pursue?

When do you want to start studying abroad.

January 2025

September 2025

What is your budget to study abroad?

How would you describe this article ?

Please rate this article

We would like to hear more.

Have something on your mind?

Make your study abroad dream a reality in January 2022 with

India's Biggest Virtual University Fair

Essex Direct Admission Day

Why attend .

Don't Miss Out