Guide to Public Service College Admissions Essays Sarah O'Neill Chester County Teacher PA Supreme Editing

 By Sarah O’Neill Chester County Supreme Editing Coatesville

What have you done to make your school or community a better place?

This is your opportunity to tell schools about how you contribute to your local communities, even if it’s not in an official capacity.

Example Prompts

Princeton has a longstanding commitment to service and civic engagement. Tell us how your story intersects (or will intersect) with these ideals. — Princeton University

At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. — MIT

What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
— UC Schools

What They’re Actually Asking
● Do you contribute to the communities you’re a part of?
● How do you demonstrate leadership and initiative?
● What are your values?

Example Essay

I am a problem-solver in my school community. In my high school, students need to register at a desk to indicate their presence at the study hall. The system was so inefficient that, every time I walked into the study hall, I saw people waiting in a long line just to get their name on the sheet.
It was easy to complain about the situation, but was it possible to change it? I noticed that everyone’s ID card had a barcode that was unique to each student, so I got to work on developing a web application that worked with a barcode scanner. The application would automatically accept students’ ID cards and sign them in, then submit the data to the school’s attendance system. My teachers loved the concept: it was projected to reduce people’s waiting time by 65%–75%, and greatly reduce teachers’ work time. They were interested in putting my app into practice, even giving me suggestions for extensions, like a student portal with a study time tracker and hall pass request system. I even learned how to deploy the app in a cloud engine and maintain active servers.

However, because of COVID-19, students started to learn virtually, so I never got to see my app in action. But my passion remained: I didn’t want to be the kind of student who checked coding projects off of a list, but the kind of student who was excited to find solutions for the problems he saw in his community.

What Should I Write About?

Obviously, this is a great place to discuss any volunteering experience you have. However, public service doesn’t need to come with a formal title. This doesn’t need to be a big story about the sweeping changes you made to your school as student council president (though if you did do that, by all means write about it!) Maybe you go out of your way to welcome new international students to your school, or you walk your elderly neighbor to the grocery store once a week.

Finally, if you want to keep doing your “public service” in the future, feel free to talk about that — for example, if you spend three hours a week cleaning litter from your local creek, that might be a club you join (or a club you create!) in college.

Just one thing, though…

Avoid the short-term “public service.”

I once spent an entire four hours volunteering at my local community garden. If you once spent a day putting food in backpacks for a food drive, and that was the full extent of your participation in that organization, that’s not an appropriate topic for your essay. Essay readers want to see long-term dedication and participation in your community — and if you write about something you only spent a few hours or days doing, it gives off the impression that that thing is the only thing you’ve ever contributed to your
community.

Here’s an improved version of the above essay:

I’m a dedicated gardener: I firmly believe in the power that community gardening has to improve our health, our communities, and our ecosystems. Not only do I have a plot at my local community garden, I also frequently volunteer with their Young Gardeners program, helping new gardeners and answering their questions. I’m also a member of my school’s Ecology Club, where I educate people on the importance of native plants and healthy ecosystems…

Brainstorming

1. List 3 or more ways in which you’ve made your school or community a better place.

- volunteered for our school’s recycling program and helped install
recycling bins in all classrooms
- regularly stays after school to help members of my drama club learn their
lines
- tutors middle schoolers in English on the weekends

2. What are all the actions you took as part of your public service?

tutors middle schoolers in English on the weekends
- meets with students for 3 hours a week (I’ve had 4 students in total)
- comes up with exercises and lesson plans for our tutoring sessions
- researches English teaching techniques
- communicates with students’ parents and updates them on the learning
process
- suggested and implemented improvements to the organization’s tutoring
system

3. How have your actions improved your community?

- created opportunities for kids from non-English speaking families
- students have thanked me for helping them improve their communication skills
- improved our organization’s efficiency with scheduling by 50%

Example Outline

Part 1: Introduce us to the issue that you wanted to help out with. What problem did you see in the world that needed solving? As a child, the community I inhabited appeared equitable and prosperous. Yet,
this buoyant view was shattered on an unexpected visit to my housekeeper’s home. Just two kilometers from where I lived, I saw her family of five crammed together on a queen-sized bed. Though only a sixth grader at the time, I wanted to help. Through my conversation with my housekeeper’s son, I recognized their severe lack of English education, and had an idea. Teaching them English would not only support them academically but also expose them to a world beyond their circumstances, helping them realize that they were not destined to live in poverty. The international community I was raised in placed me, and my peers, in a position to help.

Part 2: What steps did you take to solve that problem, or to provide assistance? Thus, I founded a non-profit institution, Weekend Enrichment. Originally we provided weekly English reading and speaking lessons, engaging students in activities such as singing carols, painting, and writing cards during holidays. As the program accumulated over 20 students in the first year, conversations with the kids led me to discover greater service opportunities. In the summer of the first year, I initiated a summer program to provide companionship and extracurricular enrichment through activities such as drama productions, baking, and calligraphy. As the program expanded, so did our aspirations.

Upon realizing how migrant children lived in Beijing but lacked the means to truly experience its culture, I started another project: Beijing Impression, a long-term program that takes migrant children to local aquariums, museums, and cultural sites to bolster their cultural understanding.

Part 3: How have your actions improved your community?
Also, if this information is relevant: are you still participating in this public service? Will you continue to do this or similar things in the future? Most recently, I have been developing WeTalk, my most ambitious community
service project yet. WeTalk serves as a platform for different volunteer groups to share their stories, and recruit those interested in service. Furthermore, it spreads the Weekend Enrichment service model, inspiring and guiding those interested in creating their own service projects under coaching from our team. Since 2016, Weekend Enrichment’s 50+ volunteers have supported over 250 families, organized five annual summer camps, and set up various fundraising events and cultural trips. Even after I graduate, I am proud that my organization will continue to grow, minimizing the wealth and knowledge disparity in my
community.

Thank you for reading!

Sarah O’Neill Chester County Teacher Supreme Editing Coatesville