Pedro Augusto Bernardo Lima Ferreira December 16, 2011

10 questions that could pop out at a Harvard admission interview

Why do you want to go to [your] Harvard? I think I answered that question at the Why Harvard? page, and, as the book requests, I cited specific classes, professors and researches Im actually interested. What is your favorite academic subject and why? My favorite academic subject is Functional Behavior Analysis, which uses as study objects the individual responses, I mean, everything one does, and also how the environment changes after a response. This way, the theory gets far from other mentalists approaches that uses behavior categories as explanation for how one acts, creating a circular reference. Some might say that a boy has high grades because he is intelligent. Why, then, you say that hes intelligent? Because he gets high grades. The Functional Behavior Analysis believes that high grades are a consequence, for example, of long hours studying, method, family and friends support and a lifetime in which study was followed by appetitive events for that boy. The theory above descripted is influenced by The Origin of Species, a Charles Darwin book from 1850, for me the most valuable work on human history. Everything, in species evolution, is a function of environment. That means that everything anyone does depends on the context. This pattern often guarantees survival, or, at least, a better chance than the animals that repeat the same behaviors their whole lives. Resuming, the man is king of adaptation. What do you want to study in college? It's rather difficult to answer it, because in my life I had a deep connection to a lot of Psychology studies' objects, like mental disorders, because of my family, human sexuality, because I'm gay, homoparenting, because I'm a married father, psychoactive drugs, because of my brother's psychiatric treatment, and a lot of other topics. But I think studying Methods of Behavioral Research could help me understand all those aspects, and propose techniques to help making people's life better. What extracurricular activities do you plan on continuing and why? I really liked working on an orphanage at the first semester of 2011. Kids learn fast, and when they are deprived from attention, they put all their hope on any savior from outside. They often show approval more than adults, which creates the perfect conditions for a psychologist to work on. Sincerity and spontaneous behaviors help leading the professional to the core of the relational problems, proposing interventions. I think, although, I didn't do my best job, because homophobic problems with my group and a lot of other problems at the University got my results diminished. If I could have the chance to work on an orphanage with full respect, I'd take it with all my heart. I keep thinking that my son, who was adopted, could have been one of those kids, and would deserve, as he does in my house, the best care and love in the world. Besides that, I also love to work on my blog, mywaytoharvard.com, a one step by day journal on my way to this College. I love the idea of giving conditions to other

compatriot passionate students to at least understand how to apply to a great University. Plus, I write a lot of reviews and inform about latest news on Psychology, gay rights, homo-parenting, drug and mental care governmental policies and a lot of other concerning subjects that I understand that adds to my public auto-critic. I feel my blog empowers youth and minorities to look for a better life, and I plan on continuing it on my path through Harvard, so Brazilian students will see it's worth it all the discipline and hard work I show them. In the last six months, what was the last book you read outside of school? What did you like about it and why? I read Crime and Punishment, from Fiodor Dostoievski. I adored the understanding that the author's show about the several kinds of punishment, specializing himself on grief and regret. It shows how the institutions and the elite, just like Michel Foucault several years later emphasized, control what population has to say, to think, how are they supposed to act or to judge themselves. We often see on the book that the protagonist is afraid of being caught by police, judged by religion, excluded by family and society, and so he has a mental breakdown and confess. At the same time, he pleads society guilty for his poverty, because he thinks himself as a genius and his talent must be rewarded with money, and with power. Those controvert aspects make the book perfect to reflect the boundaries between the freedom of doing what one's want, regardless others' interests, and the freedom, sometimes much more valuable, of being accepted by people and have nothing to hide. If you could change anything about your high school, what would it be and why? My school worried way too much about high rates of approval for UFBA, the federal public university of my state. There wasnt any training for other application processes; there wasnt any preoccupation with extracurricular courses nor support for individuality. If I could change one more thing, I certainly would do a work about inclusion with the professors that, even in class, made homophobic jokes and comments, which incited my classmates to do the same. What specifically will you contribute to the campus of [your harvard]? I'll contribute to campus' heterogeneity, as to cultural plurality. I'll add a great fight to individual rights, homosexual respect and youth empowerment. I'll share with my colleagues a rare relationship with knowledge, one committed to inclusion and pragmatism, and not to only make money. I want, also, to contribute to the Born this Way Foundation, a Lady Gaga & Harvard University initiative to help youth develop their careers and find respect wherever they go. If you could be anything in life, what would you be and why? It is a hard question, and so much things reflect me that anything I say would neglect a great part of my wishes, although, Psychology is a special profession. Everything you learn applies at your daily life, you can reach peoples troubles easier than other people, you can help solving their conflicts, you can understand how and which life event changed a person to act abnormal, and you can show he or her the way to well-being. Any position can allow, so, a psychologist to achieve his permanent goal: help people relate. You just need the know-how and the resources. The first, I intend to take from the best University of the world. The second answers the question: if I had to choose anything to be, I'd be the most powerful, influential, and well paid man on earth, so I could spread Psychology's special knowledge and change a huge number of

relationships for better. Which world event in the past six months made you pause and think? And, why? I think the United Nations Global Comission on Drug Policy report is a great advance on the field, because it proposes that Medicine and Psychology get closer to the control policies for drug use. I witnessed all the police violence against drug users, supported by a population that believes its fair to arrest, humiliate, expose and even murder someone because that person used an illegal drug. Brazil is a terrible example of what happens all over the world. On 2011, everyone got surprised when a student riot exploded on the biggest college of the country, the Sao Paulo University. The reason: two students were arrested and exposed in every regional and national newspaper because they had smoked a marijuana cigarette inside their car at the campus where they studied. I remembered what happened to my brother, a crack user, coldly executed on the street by a police car that drove away without a word. I was on school when he was shot, but I was changed by this fact forever. So, I think its prior to think more about what leads someone to give everything up only to buy more drugs than extinguish the users. If the cause remains, the effects also remains, well never be able to kill everyone that ever used an illegal drug and this procedure, by the way, shouldnt even be an option, because its not even human.

Which personal event in the past six months made you pause and think? And, why? I think I could choose a lot of moments, I had a great change in life these six months. But what I desired the most was to be publically married and father. Having my parents and whole family knowing about it, having my friends supporting it and, the most important, having my son accepting me as his full time lover, made me real happy. I kept thinking what I never imagined: it is possible to express what I feel, and it's possible to conquest respect for it. It's a new world, and I wanna make it newer. References:
http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/Report

Veritas Tutors (2008). How to Get into Your Harvard. Cambridge: LLC.