Personal Narrative: My Trip To NYU

I was ten years old when I first heard about NYU. I needed braces, and my medicaid insurance required my mother take me to NYU’s College of Dentistry to determine if I was eligible for them. I remember the first appointment vividly, for until that appointment my mother, as a single parent, rarely had the time to take me anywhere outside of our poor working class neighborhood of Corona, Queens, let alone into Manhattan. Stepping out of the train at 23rd St, had felt like stepping out onto a whole new planet. I remember at school, my teachers had always talked about about how lucky we were to live in a great city like NYC, but it wasn’t until that moment that I understood what they meant.

As I grew up, and began exploring the city more, I started to wonder to myself, how is it, that a city as great as NYC, can be so drastically different in a span of less than ten miles. The bustling streets of midtown, were nothing like the gang infested streets I had grown up in a short train ride away. If it hadn’t been for that trip to NYU, at the right time, just when I was most impressionable, the street gangs in my neighborhood are probably where I would have aspired to be.

I hope that journey begins at NYU’s school of Arts and Sciences. Particularly with learning from Professors like Maureen Craig, who’s research about diversity and how it influences political and social thought, resonates strongly with my vision for future youth outreach. As the number one school for international students, I also hope to learn and experience more about the importance of diversity in our modern