Personal Statement
After living in Europe and in Asia for my entire life, I know that I want to continue the phenomenal international experiences that I encounter every day. From trading scarves and soccer jerseys with Palestinians at the Youth World Cup in Sweden, to engaging in debate with students from Cameroon and Turkey at Model United Nations in Prague, I acknowledge the wonderful diversity that accompanies me throughout my life. The attractive quality of living and learning with driven international students is appealing to an international citizen like me. That being said, attending a college and being part of a team with diversity is a given for me.
For the past three years I have been a coach for the American Soccer Club of Napoli and just this past year I began coaching a team of seven and eight-year olds. The saying “If you do what you love, then you will never work a day in your life,” describes perfectly my love of working with young players. When I was assigned to coach the U-9 squad, I was not sure how everything would turn out. However, training these young players is one of the things I look forward to the most each week, with our mutual energies coinciding perfectly to create a fun but productive atmosphere of play. This is something that I also intend to continue wherever I go to school, because I love being a mentor to developing players and sharing my love for the game of soccer.
While some people see language as a barrier, I prefer to think of it as a bridge to greater understanding. Last year, my Italian soccer team traveled to Sicily on an overnight ferry to play against another “Serie A2” team. I was completely immersed in the Italian culture for three days. In the various places that I have lived over the course of my life, I learned the language to some extent. Languages fascinate me, and regardless of that fact that I am only fluent in English, I have learned that linguistic connections are the first steps to achieving a more complete picture of a culture or a nation. In middle and high school I studied Spanish and Italian in school, and I would like to continue learning languages throughout my higher-level education and life.
