Blogs

Hi everyone!

I'm Pan Hu from Beijing, China. I studied at a private international high school which teaches IB program. It's kind of unique in China because all the Chinese local schools teach students in order to help them get through a BIG exam which named GAOKAO. It is extremely tough because it's not a pass/not pass exam, it's a ranking exam, and it can only be taken once. Just a small percentage of students who did well on that exam can go to the those great Universities, otherwise they will fail.

My name is Michaela, and I am from Maryland, about a stone's throw away from our nation's capital, DC. I have one sister, Abby, who graduated from BMC in 2010, and who, along with the rest of my immediate family, I am very close with. I have lived in the same house my whole life, and gone to both a few so-so private schools to my better years of education in the public school district, regarded nationally as very competitive and advanced. I have always been studious, and so my education at my high school was very satisfying and rewarding. However, even as I received (or claimed, as we are now tasked to do) my education there, I noticed the discrepancies in the underlying realities of how well diverse groups of students were expected to, and thus did, perform in their schoolwork. Low expectations all too often led to low grades,scores, etc. in a sort of vicious cycle.
This is one of the many reasons that I am so excited to come to Bryn Mawr. Despite our socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and other classifications that we discussed in class yesterday, we are all here to claim a terrific liberal arts education. Though we may at times define ourselves by these classifications, I believe that within the classroom, our devotion to learning will outwit these pre-set boundaries, and give us the opportunity to express our unique perspectives in the form of discussion, writing, etc.

Hello!

My name is Sam Saludades. My family is from the Philippines; however, I am part of the first generation to be born here in the US. I lived in Moorestown, a small town in Southern Jersey which is a short Patco train ride away from Philadelphia. For 12 years, I spent the majority of my education at a small private Quaker school. Up until middle school, the student population was predominantly white; however, in middle school, the school established a new initiative to promote and encourage diversity, recruiting more people of color and of different socioeconomic backgrounds which interestingly and positively changed the dynamic of the classroom and community. In any case, as a result of my educational experience, I developed an interest in how people's backgrounds affect who they interact with, how they interact with others, their approach to obtaining knowledge and education, and in turn, their outlook on the world which is why I was very excited to take this class.

Hello everyone,

My name is Tanya Hamid and I am from Broomall, Pennsylvania, about twenty minutes from Bryn Mawr College. I am an only child. You can all imagine what it was like for my parents to drop me off at my dorm last week.

Hi everyone, I'm Ellen Li from Jinan, China. This is my first time in America, excited!!

The high school I attended is one of the best public schools in china, which has the most 5400 outstanding students from different junior high schools in the city. We don’t have much diversity there, everyone has the same skin color, comes from the same city, and has the same goal: get great grades in Gaokao, the college entrance examination (like SAT in America) for high school students. We always studied hard, and never played hard. But I knew it's not what I want. I want to learn more about myself by joining different clubs and organizations; I want to learn more about the world by talking to people from different backgrounds. I want to experience more before I get too old to move, rather than spending most of my day doing math practising books. Therefore, I came to America for my college education.

I still don't know I want to major in right now.  I like math and biology very much, but I also have strong interests in social sciences such as political science and economics.  But I think I will figure out some day in the future. 

Hi everybody! My name is Jordan Schwartz and I'm from Atlanta, GA. I plan to study a combination of sciences that will include a little biology to continue on to law school for bioethics. Also as a huge theatre dork I plan to be in the Shakespeare troupe and having swam competatively all of middle school and high school, I hope to join the BMC swim team. Can't wait to get to know all of you better through the esem :)

Hello one in all, following the stream of fellow classmates I will keep this brief. I was born in Boston and raised in a suburb outside of Boston, Somerville. I live with my mom who is originally from England, my two brothers one who is a registered nurse and the other about to start 2nd grade.

I spent my earlier days at catholic school, where at the end of fifth grade the school shut down due to lack of student enrollment. From there, I went to Prospect Hill Academy Charter School. About a train stop away from Harvard University, I spent the rest of my middle school and high school years there. PHA is unique tha t on paper its an urban school with over 70% is black, specifically Haitian, the other percentages are made up of Hispanic and then white. But in reality, PHA is a college-prepatory school dedicated to getting us all to college. And every year about 99% go to college. The 1% going to either the army or community college. 

Education has always been a big thing in my family seeing as my older brother went to medical school and that my mother has been an educator for more than 20 years. 

I hope this was a good introduction!

Rae Hamilton

My name is Jillian Harmon and I'm from a few different places I call home. My primary home is in Ithaca, NY, where I live with a friend outside of Cornell's campus. I've come to love Ithaca for its quirky hippies who walk their pigs down the street and beautiful gorges that integrate well with the city and connect me to nature. I also live in Spencer, NY, a rural one-stoplight town 30 minutes from Ithaca. This is my home town, although I feel little connection to it. Lastly, my birth mother is from the Philippines, but today she lives in Chicago. Growing up in three distinct environments (small city, rural town, giant metropolis) gave me a lot to reflect upon as I was growing up. I've always been curious about the way people see themselves within their environment and the cultures and attitudes of each of the places I've lived. Listening to viewpoints ranging from democrat and liberal (Ithaca) to republican and conservative (Spencer) have really led me to challenge what I believe in and why I believe it.

My name is Sophia and I have a somewhat unique experience in that I came from one of New York City's "Specialized High Schools." For those who are less familiar, the "Specialized High Schools" are a group of nine New York City public schools which restrict admission based on the sores of a single exam (the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT). My school was larger than Bryn Mawr – with about 730 students in my class alone, and over three thousand students total. Of these, most students were focused on Math, Science, or Technology – as that's what the school itself emphasizes. In this, I was a bit of a black sheep. Instead, I focused on my interests in the humanities and my love of reading, writing, and history grew.