Transfer Admission Letter: Elements of Progression
Even though the transfer application did not specifically require any type of personal letter by the applicant my devotion to being accepted into Howard leads me to put my application in context. Throughout a significant portion of my life I have been led by my passions and morals, which has consistently pushed me into situations where I attempt to make a substantial difference. I specifically remember my years at The Chinquapin School, which is the high school I attended, where at the age of sixteen I was already labeled as an inspiring reformer mostly because of my assistance with exposing the often times damaging affect systematic homophobia had on the academic and social success of sexual minorities. Witnessing how Chinquapin evolved to become more accepting, supportive, and adapting to the current cultures of younger generations ignited the fiery drive that encourages me to define my existence as an element of social change.
My mission in life quickly revolved around the idea of helping and being involved in the progression of my communities regardless of where I am located geographically. Therefore, when I moved from Houston to attend Reed College in Portland Oregon I maintained these same values. Except at Reed the situations were quite different than Chinquapin’s. Apparently in the socially liberal northwest there was no need for raising awareness of sexual minority challenges, especially within the Reed community, which is often advertised as a community of tolerance and acceptance of diverse lifestyles. However, at Reed there were a new set of challenges that were not exactly being addressed in any public fashion. It is no real secret that Reed can be a host of anti-Christian and anti-multicultural values, which is clearly shown by Reed’s slogan “Atheism, Communism, Free-love” that is suppose to play on the stereotypes of Reed culture but instead operates as an exact reflection from my experience. Despite entering this environment as a somewhat sheltered Missionary Baptist and instead of reacting with shock and making inappropriate judgments affect my relationships, my drive to uplift whatever community I am apart of initiated my passion to help Reed fulfill its goal of truly becoming an institution devoid of intolerance.
Whenever any form of social movement aimed at some form of social progress is initiated there is usually a fair amount of resistance in the beginning until the social movement becomes relatively popular. Therefore, it was not a surprise when elected to student government as a senator at Reed along with creating the Black & African Student Union that my passion and devotion towards issues of multiculturalism was faced with an unfortunate level of resistance from many aspects of the Reed community. The majority White population did not understand, at the time, the many challenges of minority students and many of their reactions to my proposals and various leadership positions were based off of this lack of understanding. Even though, several members of the Reed community proclaim that I have managed to positively influence the often times oppressive culture that has the tendency to smother real multiculturalism, at the time I only recognized the failures. The failure to achieve an appropriate anti-discrimination policy passed by the administration, the failure to create a general understanding of multicultural challenges, the failure to eliminate what was interpreted as a pervasive racist atmosphere that had the tendency to place students of color in exceptionally difficult situations, and the failure to create a minority community organized enough to respond to these unfortunate challenges. By the end of my sophomore year these failures became so disheartening that that passion, drive, and devotion that kept me encouraged and persistent every since high school became faint and in consequence what I have begun to define as my life's purpose started to dismantle and in someways gave the impression my life was not a beneficial element to society as I so strongly wish it to be.
When it became clear that I needed to be re-inspired and essentially take a break from Reed it was highly recommended that I participate in an exchange program to Howard University for the Fall of 2007. During my first week at Howard I immediately started to recognize this transition and experience as necessary in order for me to fully develop into an appropriate element of social-political progress. I also recognized that simply participating in one semester at Howard or even two is not enough to gain a sufficient level of academic and cultural knowledge that is undeniably prevalent throughout the Howard community.
Historically, social-political progression is typically inspired and a transformation from the accomplishments and failures of past social movements. Therefore, it is safe to assume that in order to be a productive element of social progression one has to have background knowledge and understanding of their society's past social movements. Howard University is a host for this background knowledge and is composed of an extraordinary amount of exceptionally skilled individuals who have an understanding of our society's culture, history, and social-political movements. Finishing my academic career at Howard would not only be a blessing to my development as an element of social-political progress but will give me the tools needed to be an effective leader of our many communities. If I was to have a theme for my mission in life it would revolve around the idea of “being a blessing to the world” however I have learned that in order to be a blessing you have to be blessed, by accepting me as a transfer student for Spring 2009 you will essentially be that blessing I need to help change the world. Thank you for reading this letter, I appreciate your time and effort put into reviewing this application. May God bless you.
sincerely,
Michael C. Webb Jr.
1 comment:
Micheal, why didn't you vote?
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