College Essay

Andrew Bejean
Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people
whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial
feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this
experience.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have grown up in Montgomery

County, Maryland. From an early age I was exposed to diversity in every
aspect of my life. My baseball teammates were a mix of races and
nationalities. At school I interacted with people of many religions and
customs. My exposure to diversity at such an early age greatly influenced
how I view people. I never felt that people should be treated differently just
because they look, speak, or worship differently from me and my family.
When I looked at my peers, there was no predominant color, race, or religion
that most people were categorized under - everyone had their own
background and that seemed perfectly natural. Throughout my entire life I
have been interacting with people whose experiences and beliefs differ from
mine. I have found that this exposure to varying cultures has been one of
the greatest advantages to my upbringing, enhancing my life with the
variety of my friendships.
From as far back as I remember, I have been around people whose
backgrounds are completely different from mine. Within several blocks of
my home, I had neighbors who were gay, straight, white, black, Asian,

immigrants, natural born citizens, atheist, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. My

elementary school alone represented five continents in the world, with
minority students representing a majority of the enrollment. Every day at
school and at home in my neighborhood, I saw so many people with different
beliefs from mine. Everyone to me was just a person who happened to live
in Rockville, Maryland, regardless of skin color, gender, race, sexual
orientation ethnicity or religion. Whether they moved from Africa two years
prior or they had family living in Maryland for five straight generations did
not matter to me. Constant exposure to and interaction with these varied
backgrounds offered me a chance to learn about people who were different
from me, and these variations have been woven into the fabric of my life.
Religion had no impact on how I perceived people because I believe
everyone can be spiritual in their own way. Whether someone went to
church on Sunday or attended Synagogue on Saturday did not change the
likelihood of their becoming my friend. I remember the first time I was
exposed to the Muslim faith. I saw my friend Ahmad alone and not eating
during lunch time in third grade. I walked up to him and asked "aren't you
hungry?" He softly replied "I can't eat. It's Ramadan which means I can't
eat". At that age, I did not fully appreciate the significance of Ramadan, but
as I grew up, I figured out that everyone has different practices they follow.
Growing up in a fairly non-religious household, I didn't have many religious
traditions of my own. However, our Jewish neighbors occasionally invited us
over for their special feasts and they spent Christmas Eve with our family.

Saturday night sleepovers with friends usually led to a visit to that family's
church on Sunday morning. Being a guest in someone else's religious culture
- be it a bar mitzvah, a Catholic mass, or a Chinese Christian Church service allowed me to develop an appreciation for different perspectives. An
important lesson I learned from seeing different religions in practice is that
people should be able to embrace their own beliefs. It is not necessary for
one religion to judge the others.
My feelings about interacting with others have not really changed
much over time. I still respect the beliefs and cultures of others but as I have
aged and matured, I have gained perspective by having become the outsider
and foreigner. I spent eleven months living in London, England when I was
sixteen. This experience deepened my understanding about different
people's backgrounds and upbringings because London is one of the most
diverse places in the world. Having grown up within miles of the hospital
where I was born, I always felt like I was "home" and that other people
moved into my sphere. While staying in the UK, I was the new person and I
wanted to be treated the way I had learned to treat new people - with
respect and without prejudice. Suddenly becoming the outsider gave me a
greater appreciation for people who were the newcomers who moved into
my neighborhood or school. I found it intimidating to enter a new culture
and society even though I had been exposed to diversity for the previous
sixteen years. One of my mothers friends who had lived in London warned
us of some of the local kids being tough on Americans, bullying her kids at

school. Luckily, I found that the welcoming people of London, including

locals and fellow emigrants, warmly embraced me and made me feel like a
natural citizen. Throughout the rest of my life, I will hold the values I
obtained during my childhood and adolescence. I hope that I will be able to
influence other people in my life to avoid making generalizations and to
emphasize the importance of respecting individuality and diversity. We all
need to respect each other's values and allow everyone to have the rights
they deserve.