how to write the university of richmond essay

How to Write the University of Richmond Supplemental Essays: Examples + Guide 2023/2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What are the university of richmond supplemental essay prompts.

• How to write each supplemental essay prompt for University of Richmond
• Prompt #1: Multiple options

Impact. If you’re looking for one word to describe what drives the University of Richmond, that’s it: impact.

As the only university in the country with a spider mascot, Richmond isn’t afraid to stand out and embrace its uniqueness. And school officials want to attract students who aren’t hesitant to do the same.

Among the school’s core beliefs is that the “things we bring on day one—our talents, our passions, our viewpoints—are what equip us to make that impact.” So it’s no surprise that Richmond’s supplemental essay prompts are specifically designed to elicit from you both the things that make you unique and the qualities that will help you make a splash—on campus and in the world beyond Richmond.

If you want an even better sense of what the University of Richmond is looking for, you’ll find an extensive, by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information, on its Common Data Set . And for insights into how the university envisions itself and its role, and how it wants to grow and evolve, read its strategic plan , which will give you a strong idea of what the University of Richmond values.

U Richmond Supplemental Essay Prompt #1

Please respond to one of the prompts in 350-650 words below. You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale? Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next? Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application?

How to write each Supplemental Essay Prompt for University of Richmond

How to write u richmond supplemental essay prompt #1.

• You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale?
• Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next?
• Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application?

You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale? (350-650 words)

While racial and social injustices have existed for  likely all of human history, racial injustice in the United States hit a tipping point in 2020—in large part due to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among others. At the same time, the COVID pandemic highlighted social injustices and inequities, ranging from the technological (significant gaps in access to computers and the internet) to medical (access to affordable, quality effective health care).

If these or other related issues keep you up at night, and you spend your waking hours pursuing actions or drafting potential policies to bring the world back in balance, this could be the right prompt for you to answer.

Through your responses, Richmond hopes to learn the answers to two critical questions:

Does this student’s values align with ours?

Is this the kind of student who cares about their community and is ready to take action to improve it?

While we don’t have a Richmond-specific essay to share, this essay nicely answers a similar prompt.

Growing up, I was fascinated by Robin Hood. Imagine being able to redistribute income? Yeah, I guess he did the wrong thing for the right reason, but what if we could apply that framework to eradicate poverty, specifically by guaranteeing food security to millions of people around the world? During a discussion on GMOs, I was introduced to the relationship between food security and poverty. The connection between the two fascinated me. And, after witnessing the plight of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, I found my calling as an advocate: laborers left at sunrise in date farms, forced to sow earth that can’t provide them with basic necessities. I soon realized the effects of seed privatization on farmers worldwide.    Capitalism and its allies are exploiting the Global South, undermining its development and hurting vulnerable bread and butter workers. These tenets, which are heavily rooted in slavery, colonization, and forced labor, have equipped multinational corporations like Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta to stand as new colonizers as they dominate more than half of the seed market. Monsanto, alone, controls nearly 95 percent of cotton seeds through its GMOs, devastating thousands of Indian farmers. Prior to the industrialization of agriculture, farmers would simply set aside a portion of seeds after harvest for the following year. As a result, seeds would return to their rightful owners without the cycle being interrupted. However, after the monopolization of the seed market, the number of available plants to farmers narrowed significantly, limiting their sources of income and food supplies while further perpetuating poverty.   I believe giving farmers seed freedom and rolling back the corporate monopolization of biodiversity is key to eradicating poverty in developing countries. In order to combat the global food crisis, it is essential that governments intervene to minimize the privatization of seeds. By regulating overhead costs like seed transportation and promoting locally based companies, seeds can be channeled more effectively and securely. This can result in the diversification of seed supply systems and the development of a new seed pipeline. By creating government policies that balance the relationship between the seed market and corporations, as well as equipping individuals with resources to farm independently, we can take from rich corporations to generate local sources of income, feed millions of families, and take one step forward towards a more equitable world, Robin Hood style. And some day, in addition to being a helping hand to others, I hope to become the first hijabi U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a journey I embarked on at Georgetown University. (423 words) — — —

Tips + Analysis

Have a plan. If you’ve ever thought, “Why couldn’t we help by …,” in response to an injustice, this a great place to lay out your plan and outline the steps to address and resolve the issue. But if your plan isn’t more well-thought-out than, “We should just be nicer to each other,” this might not be the right prompt for you to respond to. This student shows she’s given thoughtful consideration to both the problem and the solution and offers clear action steps and government policies that will move the world toward a more equitable future.

Offer a personal anecdote. If you had a first- or second-hand experience with domestic abuse that resulted in your involvement at a local women’s shelter and lobbying for changes to laws in your community, consider sharing it. Your personal stories—whether they’re something you’ve experienced,  something you’ve witnessed, or just something that resonates with you—add a layer of depth to your essay and show the reader that, yes, this is something I’ve thought about and that’s important to me. While this student isn’t a farmer personally impacted by seed freedom, the research she’s done and the solutions she’s outlined demonstrate just how important the topic is to her and how we are all affected by it in some way.

Stay middle-of-the-road. When you don’t know the political, social, philosophical, or other leanings of your reader, it’s best to stick to a topic that’s neither too conservative nor too liberal. Some students would say that a school isn’t right for them if it doesn’t respect or support their strong opinions, and that’s a fair declaration. But we know you’ve done your research, learned that Richmond is a well-respected liberal arts school in a liberal city, and decided to apply. Even with these understandings, a topic that falls too far right or left could alienate readers instead of convincing them to be your champion. This student chooses a meaningful topic—encompassing farming, seeds, and food security—that’s important but not especially controversial.

KISS (or, in this case, Keep It Serious, Students). While many prompts offer the opportunity for students to showcase their personality, this isn’t the one for showing off your humor or sarcasm. Instead, put your critical thinking, social awareness, and problem-solving abilities on display while taking a thoughtful, serious approach to the prompt. This student does just that—offering a staid response that matches the tone of the prompt.

Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next? (350-650 words)

We love how clear this prompt is with what information you’re being asked to provide. The first part is all about the facts (what’s the cool, new thing you learned?) and the second part is where you get to reflect (what did you do with this cool, new knowledge?). The steps are laid out for you, which is pretty rare when it comes to supplemental essays!

Here are a few more tips for you:

Look closely at the language here. They want to know about something “unexpected” you learned. Is there something you’ve learned that surprised you? That changed your perspective on something? That came from an unlikely teacher? Awesome! These are the things to talk about.

Remember that sometimes the best places to learn are ones outside of the classroom, so be open-minded and think creatively about what you’ve learned and where that learning took place. Maybe it was on the soccer field or at the community center where you volunteer. Maybe it was in your kitchen or visiting your grandparents. Or maybe it WAS in a classroom. All we’re saying is that you can gain knowledge in the unlikeliest of places, so don’t shy away from writing about that.

If you’re writing supplemental essays for other schools about extracurricular activities or your involvement in a community , you might be able to reuse, reframe, and revise those essays to answer this prompt. For example, when writing about the things you do outside of school, those prompts almost always ask for you to explain what you learned from those experiences, and that’s exactly what the Richmond prompt asks as well. You’ve gained the knowledge, and now Richmond wants to know how you can or already have applied it to other places in your life (for more about how to take advantage of essay overlap, check this out ). There is no need to reinvent the wheel!

My love for Spanish came by accident. Trying to avoid an eight-grade computer class, I enrolled in Spanish 1, simply because it fit my schedule. I ended up staying because I fell in love with how the language came together. I felt as if the words came naturally, whether it was differentiating between the verbs saber and conocer, or how different letter combinations produce different sounds, like how two l's make a y sound. The more I learned Spanish, the more I realized why it was fun: It was much like Arabic, taking what I knew and putting a new spin on it. Like how camisa means shirt but is pronounced differently in both languages. Soon, I was listening to some of my favorite Spanish songs, “Tusa” and “Taki Taki,” without needing a translation. In addition to Spanish and Arabic, I also speak Turkish, the language of my father’s family, and English, which I learned in school. It wasn’t enough to just learn. My love of linguistics prompted me to inspire that same love in others, so I volunteered to teach English to Arabic-speaking elementary students. I started recognizing a familiar spark in the eyes of my students, and I found joy even in little things, like when Maram learned to conjugate know to knew or run to ran. My journey in Spanish started unintentionally, but it has given my life new purpose. (233 words) — — —

Serendipity is great. If you’ve intentionally delved into some complex area of study, great. But we love that this student just owns up to the fact that they sort of fell into the study of Spanish. It feels honest and genuine, which makes us want to read more. It also addresses the “unexpected “ part of the prompt immediately, so application readers can take a breath knowing this student understands what they’re being asked and can just enjoy reading the rest of the essay.

Name the thing. Meaning “be direct.” You don’t have a lot of word space to answer this prompt, and sometimes just jumping right in is the best strategy. We learn in the first sentence, in no uncertain terms, that this essay will be about learning Spanish. This is the knowledge this student has gained. They don’t create complex metaphors or include any superfluous language (we’re huge fans of metaphors, by the way, but sometimes you just need to say what you’re going to say), so there is no wasted space in this essay.

Now what? Remember, the prompt asks you to share what happened AFTER you learned the unexpected thing, and this student’s response is spot-on. As their understanding of the language developed, they discovered a wish to share that experience with others. By tracing the trajectory from learning Spanish to tutoring other students, the writer shows us HOW they used their newfound knowledge (and as a bonus, there is a pretty clear statement of this student’s values in here as a result). Just make sure to address each part of this prompt so you don’t miss any opportunity to engage in some self-reflection.

And here are a couple more example essays:

Whenever I received birthday money from family or friends as a small child, my father, being a frugal man, would hastily deposit it into my bank account. This became a running joke in the family, with my mom’s step-dad affectionately calling him “Jingles.” Despite my complaints, I always assumed my father was ultimately right, doing something that would benefit me financially in the long run. Then I read John Maynard Keynes’ “Paradox of Thrift.” According to Keynes, we might have been wrong. Keynes asserts individual savings is bad for the overall health of the economy, negatively affecting the individual. For instance, say my grandmother gives me $20. If I save it, aggregate consumption decreases by $20, reducing firms’ planned investment, expecting $20 less to be spent on their goods. As a result, they need less labor, either causing layoffs or wage cuts which could adversely affect my grandmother, preventing her from giving me money on my next birthday and causing me to save less. Keynes’ theory demonstrates that saving can actually reduce savings, hence the “paradox.” We often forget to consider the aggregate impacts of our actions. Learning about Keynes’ theory changed this mindset for me, illustrating how one seemingly insignificant choice can have a large cumulative effect. Now, from spending my birthday money to taking shorter showers to bringing a reusable water bottle to school, I’ve learned to think less about myself and more about the whole… all thanks to Keynes!  — — —

One spring evening, I bolted down the stairs to eat dinner with my family. As I approached our dining table, I saw a man on television discussing the ability of the human brain to rewire itself to adapt for missing limbs through neuroplasticity. Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran’s findings on phantom limbs were exhilarating, and I sat there fascinated as he helped a man learn to cope with cramps in a hand that wasn’t there.  I began looking into the work of Ramachandran, and learned about neuroplasticity and the discovery that he made regarding the rewiring of the synapses of the human body. I learned about mirror neurons and their ability to interpret and learn from the actions of others. These neurons comprise about 20% of the human nervous system and are responsible for the ability to contemplate others’ physical actions. Through research on mirror neurons, we can expand our understanding of the human ability to empathize. Learning about this subject changed how I experience empathy. The research that is being conducted on neuroplasticity opens a whole new understanding of the healing process of brain injury and of how to help the human body stabilize the brain after trauma. I’m excited to continue exploring my interest in neuroscience. — — —

Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application? (350-650 words)

This is a pretty standard “How will you contribute” prompt. For “ How will you contribute ” essays, there’s a guide + examples with analysis at that link, but here’s the short version. 

Essentially, a way to think of this kind of prompt is that it’s a combo of “community/identity/background” and “why us” prompts: use some of your response to show how you’ve become who you are, and then show how those experiences shape what you will bring to the college through linking to specific opportunities/groups/details. Connect your unique upbringing, in a very broad sense of the word, with what the school offers and how you will make a great team.

STEP 1: BRAINSTORM (ALL ABOUT YOU).

Do the “ If You Really, Really Knew Me ” Exercise.

STEP 2: RESEARCH THE COLLEGE (LEARN ALL ABOUT THEM).

Make a copy of the “Why us” Essay Chart 2.0 , research the school you’re writing your essay for, and fill in the first two columns. (This is the same chart mentioned above.)

Once you’ve done these exercises, you’ll have a better sense of: 

YOU: A bunch of different talents/skills/identities/qualities that you’ll bring to a college campus, and

THEM: A variety of programs/courses/clubs/affinity groups that your college offers.

STEP 3: CONNECT YOU… TO THEM (I.E., THE COLLEGE YOU’RE APPLYING TO).  

Make connections between what the school offers and what you’re interested in.

This is a new prompt for Richmond, so we don’t have an essay written specifically for it, but here’s a great sample essay written for Colgate that would work well for this prompt (though you’d have far more word count space with which to expand): 

Aside from my inherent love for bagels, my Jewish background has led me to become more embedded in my community, joining Jewish activists and building a website on Holocaust education. In the 1930s, 36 members of my family were lost to the Holocaust, and that fact has led me to carry on the memory of my ancestors through tradition—with my Bar Mitzvah—as well as with an educational lens—teaching others about the Holocaust and about specific stories of survivors. Feeling disconnected from Jewish activism, I decided to become an educator on the Student Leadership Board of the Seattle-based Holocaust Center for Humanity last year. Each week, we met to discuss present-day instances of oppression and discrimination across the world, and finished the year by building a website to share the story of a Holocaust survivor.  Being on the board connected me to a network of other passionate Jewish activists, and helped me to channel the pride for my culture and ancestors into visual media that reaches many viewers. At Colgate, I hope to find myself surrounded not only by like-minded Jewish students, but by a diverse group of people with whom I can learn and make connections. (196 words) — — —

Highlight a core identity. In the example essay, the applicant highlights their Jewish heritage and the profound impact it has had on their life choices and commitments. This is a great way to approach this prompt—think of communities/identities that you claim, pick one that Michigan isn’t seeing elsewhere, and show how that aspect of you + your experiences will allow you to contribute to the college’s community. Also, ensure you shed light on the aspects of your background that have shaped your identity. This could be cultural, familial, or personal attributes that have molded you into the individual you are today.

Provide concrete examples of impact. Just as the sample essay vividly narrates the applicant's journey in Jewish activism, so you’ll want to offer specific instances that exemplify the impact your background has had on your decisions and pursuits. Whether through personal experiences, engagements, or projects, share specific moments where your background has led you to initiate meaningful actions. In short, show us .

Connect to the school’s community. Show how your background, values, and commitments align with the college’s vision and how you intend to extend these connections on campus to foster learning and shared growth. For example, perhaps you plan on joining (or creating?) relevant student clubs, volunteering at a local museum, or finding innovative ways to connect with students who share a similar background.

And here’s an essay written for Columbia that could have worked well for this prompt, though again for Richmond, you have far more word count space to use:

At family dinners over gnocchi and arancini, my grandpa would always ask my two older brothers how their education and sports were going. I’d wait for my turn, but the question was never directed my way. In contrast, my grandma always tells me how thankful she is that I’m able to get an education of my own. She frequently mentions how she regrets never getting an education. I pursue my education with a fire within me to do what she wasn’t allowed to. During the summer of 2021, I realized that I could impact other girls in a similar way by writing a children’s book about influential women in STEM in order to inspire the next generation of female scientists.  At Columbia University, I hope to contribute to the empowerment of women by creating a Society of Women in Science, hosting Alumni Panels, Graduate Student Q&A’s, and creating a safe space for women in similar majors to discuss their successes and setbacks. In addition, joining the Student Wellness Project will provide another community that prioritizes mental health. This empowering environment is the ideal place to help me develop as both a feminist and a scientist. (196 words) — — —

View the prompt broadly. While this prompt offers you the perfect opportunity to explore the impact race, socioeconomic status, and other societal factors have had on you, don’t feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the prompt. As in the example above, where the student recounts her experiences with a cultural and generational divide, there are many experiences we’ve had that have shaped who we are. Some are deep, like being the only person of color at your high school, while others are more light-hearted, like having to learn to make your own grilled cheese at age 8 as a latchkey kid. Both are admirable in their own ways. Both may be really important to you. And both can make really effective responses.

Make campus connections. Your readers want to hear about your past experiences, they’re just as curious about how they’ll shape your time on campus, leaving the school better than as you found it. But remember, they probably want at least some (if not all) focus on outside-the-classroom experiences here, so dive into their list of student organizations and find a few that truly resonate with you and that you feel you could make a meaningful contribution to. The student above does just that with their reference to the Student Wellness project and how they expect to contribute.

Be a changemaker. Can’t find an organization at Richmond you'd like to join? Create your own! The student in the example above plans to start their own organization and even outlines some of the specific events she plans to hold. It's clear she's done her research to see where the college might be lacking in female-centered organizations—and she's going to take the charge to correct that.

Tie the two together. Make sure your past connects with your future. That means tying the lessons from your childhood, preteen, and adolescent years with the contributions you're going to make on campus. The response above does a great job in doing that. As a young female who has, from a young age, been committed to empowering young women, it’s clear how this student is going to make a specific impact on the college’s campus community.

Special thanks to Jessica B. for writing this blog post.

Jessica has a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern California and teaches English at a Los Angeles-area independent school, where she has also been English department chair and a class dean.  Sandra Cisneros is her hero, and she loves books, her awesomely-sarcastic family, the beach, cozy sweaters, and more books. Oh, and her sweet pitbull/lab mix named Ruby. 

Top values: Curiosity, equity, wonder

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How to Write the University of Richmond Essays 2020-2021

The University of Richmond is a private liberal arts university located in Virginia. It has over 60 undergraduate majors and averages 16 students per class. All students who submit a complete application by December 1st are automatically considered the Richmond Scholars Program, a full-ride scholarship granted to 25 incoming freshmen.

Richmond also has a guarantee that states that every undergraduate student is eligible to receive a fellowship of up to $4,000 for a summer internship or faculty-mentored research project. In addition to research, Richmond is also a proponent of continuing higher education, with 20% of students enrolled in graduate school within a year of graduating. 

Richmond ranks number 23 in the U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of best liberal arts colleges. This past application cycle, it had an acceptance rate of 30%.

Hoping to become a Richmond spider? Writing a standout supplemental essay can certainly give you a boost. Read on for our best advice. Want to know your chances at the University of Richmond? Calculate your chances for free right now.

How to Write the University of Richmond Essays

The University of Richmond has one required supplemental essay that should be 650 words or fewer in length. You can choose one of these three prompts:

Option 1: What is an urgent global challenge, social justice topic, or racial injustice issue  about which you are passionate? What solutions or outcomes do you hope to see?

Option 2: By the time you graduate from college, there will be jobs that don’t exist today. Describe one of them and how Richmond might prepare you for it.

Option 3: You are required to spend the next year in either the past or the future. To what year would you travel and why?

What is an urgent global challenge, social justice topic, or racial injustice issue about which you are passionate? What solutions or outcomes do you hope to see? (650 words)

While many challenges might spring to mind, such as world hunger, global literacy, or discrimination, keep in mind that many other applicants might be thinking along the same line. Speaking about these issues broadly or vaguely will read cliché and disingenuous. Make sure you choose a topic that genuinely speaks to you. Once you settle on a topic, you can take several approaches to this prompt to make it uniquely your own.

One approach entails thinking of a personal connection to the prompt and building off of your own experience to convey a passion for a global change. You can write about a social justice issue that has specifically affected you or someone you care about, and what you have done or will do to overcome that situation. Start with a personal anecdote, and then bridge out to how this topic is a global issue. Then, using your own experience as a jumping-off point, expand your solution to how you would like it to be implemented on a global scale. Your solution doesn’t have to be planned out step-by-step already, but you should keep it relatively practical and implementable. For instance, don’t say you want to solve world hunger by starting a massive food drive. A more realistic plan might be to first decrease food waste in grocery stores and restaurants, and divert the extra resources to food pantries or homeless populations. 

Let’s look at another example. If your topic was colorism, a bad idea would be delving into the history of colorism and speaking about the topic generically, without giving specific examples. Students tend to give platitudes like “Since the beginning of time, colorism has affected copious individuals, allowing for unfair systems and practices to develop that continue to this day.” or “The definition of colorism ‘is prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.’” Students use these time and time again, but they lack the pathos and authenticity of a response that stems from personal experience and passion.

A good example will encapsulate your personal experience with the topic while also bringing in logistics. You could start by mentioning a personal encounter with colorism, such as when someone treated you differently because of the color of your skin. You can delve into how you felt and how you dealt with instances like that. You could then explain what systemic changes you want to see to ensure that little children can grow up without having to face the same discrimination as you. Talk about actionable items such as increasing representation in the media, or how you want colorism to be addressed in nationwide elementary school curricula. 

Another approach you can take is building off of a community service project or similar projects you have already undertaken. For example, you could mention your Girl Scout Gold Award, in which you held workshops teaching young girls STEM concepts via creative means so that they could feel more confident in their skills. You could link this to the larger global issue of lack of women in STEM and talk about your personal connection to the issue, as well as how you would plan an actionable method of remedying this if you had unlimited resources. Talking about an existing initiative brings your voice into your response and can give it another dimension of credibility.

Another tactic is to bring in the University of Richmond and mention how, through your time there, you will solve the global challenge or social justice issue in question. The prompt doesn’t explicitly ask you to do this, so you might not want to center your response around it. However, since you have a 650 word limit, this portion can take up a couple of paragraphs, reaffirming both your authenticity in solving the challenge and your interest in Richmond. 

For example, you can mention a specific program or extracurricular that will help catapult this vision of yours to a global scale. A good example will connect your personal past experience or interests with Richmond’s existing programs, and then discuss specific actions you wish to take. This will show, rather than telling your interest, in the college. Here is an example of a good response:

“I have experienced firsthand the gender and racial disparity in STEM within the United States. Despite my ideas being discounted and my work receiving less credit than my male counterparts, my passion for STEM has not gone out. Rather, it continues to grow and has even ignited a second, equally strong passion within me – the desire to make STEM spaces more accessible to women and ethnic groups that are typically actively discouraged from participating in STEM. Through Richmond’s Integrated Inclusive Science Program, I can embark on a research project focused on the global gender and racial dynamics of STEM. As I research the cause and repercussions of the gender gap in several countries around the globe, I will have a more informed perspective that will allow me to effect change both in my hometown and on the global level. I plan to publish my findings and bring awareness to them via social media. I plan to help draft legislation combating discrimination, the wage gap, and sexism in STEM for as many countries as I possibly can. My goal is to create a world in which any child, anywhere, can pursue their interests without fear of judgement or discrimination.”

No matter what approach you take for this prompt, it is important to make a personal connection and provide examples of specific outcomes you hope to see and implement. Outline initiatives, community service projects, or future laws – actionable items with tangible repercussions. This will tinge your words with more authenticity and show admissions officers you are genuinely passionate about the cause you choose to discuss.

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Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details.

Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. We’ll let you know what your chances are at your dream schools — and how to improve your chances!

By the time you graduate from college, there will be jobs that don’t exist today. Describe one of them and how Richmond might prepare you for it. (650 words)

This prompt is a bit more creative and will require a response that is not cookie-cutter. There are two parts to this prompt – one being the job itself, and the second being how Richmond might prepare you for it. Since it is a very open-ended question, you should brainstorm a list of potential jobs and write out what you could say about each before honing in on one. Choose the one that comes most naturally to you, as this will sound the most genuine.

One way to start preparing for this prompt is to research futuristic careers and see which ones align with your interests. If a career comes to mind that piques your interest, try connecting it to existing aspects of your life that relate to it. For example, if you took AP Computer Science and worked in your dad’s auto shop in high school, you might be interested in a career in the self-driving car industry. You can show rather than tell admissions officers about yourself. Talk about that code you wrote for an AI project, or how you were able to fix many friends’ car troubles. Recounting specific instances like this will show, rather than tell, that you are creative and hardworking. 

Another example of a career you can choose is a mental wellness coach. With the uptick in mental health awareness, self-care is swiftly moving from social media threads to becoming an established industry with professionals. If you are an empathetic person good at relating to others, you might like a career as a mental health or total wellness coach. Are you the person your friends go when they need a shoulder to cry on or talk out a conflict? Did you teach yourself to meditate before a big test? You can discuss your own self care methods and relationship to mental wellness, as well as how you plan to pursue it as a career. This will allow admission officers insight into your character, especially how you deal with obstacles as a person.

This method tells admissions officers about your current passions while effectively answering the prompt. Tying your background into your future career plans gives your essay a foundation and adds authenticity. With this type of prompt, it can be easy to allow hypothetical language to dominate your essay, so be conscious of this and try to ground your topic to the present as well as focusing on the future. 

The second part of the essay, how Richmond might prepare you for the job, roughly translates to “Why Richmond?”. To research for this prompt, you should peruse Richmond’s website and look into programs and extracurriculars that align with your hypothetical job. You can also look into program-specific offerings, classes, professors, and research opportunities. This will reaffirm your interest in the school while showing an authentic passion for the career you have chosen to write about.

A bad response could entail lauding Richmond’s Computer Science department and making a generic statement such as the following: “I look forward to participating in cutting-edge course projects that will change the world.” Chances are many students will be expressing the same sentiments. Instead, make your response specific to UR and yourself, with a statement such as “I plan to take advantage of Richmond’s Cybersecurity Boot Camp, where I can obtain relevant skills for future projects, such as how to make self-driving cars safe from hackers.” 

By connecting the “Why Richmond?” aspect to your future’s job description, your essay will flow more smoothly and make more sense. Make sure your response is detail-oriented and does not contain vague language. The specific details you include will help your response sound authentic and unique. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your response – if your job seems extremely futuristic or even outlandish, that’s fine! This essay should set you apart from other prospective students; the prompt is meant for you to show creativity and there is no wrong answer – just be sure to follow the tips listed above to avoid a response that is too vague.

You are required to spend the next year in either the past or the future. To what year would you travel and why? (650 words)

This is a prompt that requires you to exercise your creativity and think critically about a topic you may have not considered before. There are many approaches you can take to effectively answer this prompt. After reading this post, you should brainstorm several options and then work with the one that comes most easily to you.

For the past, one approach you can take is historical; if there is an era or a historical event that speaks to you, you can reflect on what you would do if you spent the year in that time. Try to connect your current experiences with how they have been influenced by the past. 

For example, you can talk about how as a feminist, you participate in activism at your high school and in your community, and as such, you would want to go back in time to the women’s suffrage movement or the Seneca Falls Convention. You could talk about wanting to meet and engage with key figures such as Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Think critically about how you would connect your own activism to that of the past and how you feel it is both similar and different from the present. 

You can also nurture your creative side and make your response one that will make admissions officers smile or even laugh. You could talk about wanting to hang out with dinosaurs, studying them and stoking your passion for biology or evolution. Or, you could make your response more personal – maybe you want to go back in time to meet your great-grandparents, who perfected the empanada recipe that is now a tradition at every gathering. You could talk about going back in time to make empanadas with them, and how the recipe reflects the importance you and your family place on tradition. 

Discussing the past offers limitless possibilities, but so does the future. An alternate approach to take is allowing your imagination to run wild, trying to decipher, using the present, events that have not yet happened. 

If you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, try thinking about your long-term goals, aspirations, or potential future careers. For example, you could discuss space travel, and write about being the first person to set foot on a planet in another galaxy. You can discuss your love of space and your fascination with extraterrestrial life. Or, you could mention how, as an aspiring aerospace engineer, you want to invent a plane that is faster and more efficient than current models, to make seeing your cousins in Australia more accessible. If you’re environmentally conscious, you could talk about how you would travel to 2150 and observe/research sustainable inventions of the future, and try to implement them in the present. 

Another approach you can take is discussing events during your lifetime as well. One example is going back a couple years to handle a conflict differently to show your maturity and conflict resolution skills. You could also go forward to the birth of a sibling, or future cousin, if you’re excited to be a mentor. You can use your specific passions and life experience to discuss all the lessons you want to share with them. 

One thing we do not recommend is to travel forward in the future to you as a student at Richmond. Since this prompt is so creative and open-ended, this might feel like a cop-out to the admissions committee.

With all of these prompts, it is important to show, rather than tell admissions officers what are writing about. One way to keep readers engaged is by implementing a lot of sensory imagery and specificity. You should also focus on active over passive voice, centering yourself and using strong verbs. Below are bad and good examples of sentences based on the hypothetical scenarios given above. 

Bad: “I want to go back in time to see the dinosaurs because I think it would be an interesting and fulfilling experience.”

Good: “I can see myself trekking through a humid jungle, my hand tracing imprints left in the moist dirt by the majestic creatures that have fascinated me since I was five.”

Bad: “I would go back in time to meet my great-grandparents and make our family’s classic empanadas with them.”

Good: “The smell of spiced beef wafts through the air as my great-grandmother presses the perfect amount of her empanada filling into the homemade dough. I carefully press the ends together and pinch like my great-grandparents taught me. Once I am satisfied with the shape, I hand them to my grandfather, who brushes them gently with egg wash.”

Bad: “I look forward to joining lots of extracurriculars in college and being able to pursue my passion for coding.”

Good: “As a freshman at UR, I plan to pursue my passion for software engineering by engaging in research opportunities. I look forward to working with professors such as Dr. Krehbiel to explore cutting-edge topics such as differential privacy.”

Specific details and imagery are the key to making your essay sound personal and genuine, no matter the topic. With these tips in mind, you are ready to apply to one of Virginia’s top-tier universities. 

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How to Respond to the 2023/2024 University of Richmond Supplemental Essay Prompts

Cait Williams is a Content Writer at Scholarships360. Cait recently graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Journalism and Strategic Communications. During her time at OU, was active in the outdoor recreation community.

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Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College.

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of Richmond supplemental essay options are anything but mainstream. They offer you several prompts and a diverse array of topics to choose to respond to. Check out our article below to learn how to choose the prompt that is right for you!

A quick look at Richmond

It’s always good to know a bit about the school you’re applying to before you answer their supplemental essay prompts . So, let’s take a quick look at the University of Richmond before we move on! 

A lot of schools put an emphasis on community, but few deliver like Richmond does! Let’s take a quick look at a few fast facts about Richmond!

 At Richmond , they are the…

• #1 ranked most beautiful campus in the United States
• #3 ranked best run college  
• #3 ranked for the best classroom experience

During your years at Richmond, the University is committed to helping you grow academically and as an individual. It’s no wonder that the University of Richmond is ranked #10 in the nation for having the happiest students !

Richmond knows that because every student is different, their path to a degree will be different too. At Richmond, you can expect to find a community ready to support you in every area you wish to explore! Now, let’s get started with the University of Richmond supplement essay!

Note: Although we have listed three prompts below, remember that students should only choose one from the list; you do not need to respond to all three!

You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale? (350-650 words)

Okay, how many college applications have asked you this question? Probably not many. Richmond wants to get to know you through something unique and personal. Colleges hear all kinds of responses about why students choose their major and their school, but that’s not the only way for them to get a sense of who you are. 

Through your answer to this prompt you can talk about an issue that you feel strongly about. You can give an admissions counselor a window into your world. What social issues in your community, family, or school make you want to take action?

When it comes to this prompt, don’t overthink it. College admissions counselors don’t expect you to propose a foolproof plan to solve the issue you choose to talk about. What they want to see is that you can think critically about these things and that you pay attention to the world around you, as both of those qualities will be necessary in your college journey.

Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next? (350-650 words)

This prompt also offers you an opportunity to talk about something unique and personal to you, essentially this is one of the best prompts you could ask for in terms of showing the admissions committee something more personal about yourself! 

This prompt is not only asking about things you learned academically, but rather anything you’ve learned. Maybe you want to talk about the time you learned more about your family tree and it led you to explore your family history, which led to a larger passion for studying history. Or perhaps you learned about the overflow of pets that your county has at its shelter and you decided to take action by volunteering to educate people about spaying and neutering their pets. You may have even learned a crazy fact, such as that wombats poop square poop, and that led you to want to study zoology!

Whatever it is you learned, make sure it conveys something about you that’s going to affect your college journey. After all, that’s what Richmond is looking for! Take some time to think about a few things you could talk about for this prompt. It never hurts to write about a few things to see where they go!

Check out: What are extracurricular activities and why do they matter?

Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application? (350-650 words)

The best way to choose how you’d like to answer is to think about what you want Richmond to know most about you, and what they may not already know through your application. Consider the questions below to help you start!

Questions to consider

• What is your background?
• What communities have been most impactful to you (school, where you live, communities related to your family heritage, etc.)
• Do you hold any unique perspectives related to social issues, religious beliefs, or your community?

Now that you’ve thought about your past and where you come from, it’s time to connect those things to how you will contribute to the Richmond community. So, let’s look at some more questions!

• What are ways that you contributed to your community at home?
• Are there specific clubs or organizations that you’d like to be a part of or found once you get to Richmond?
• What ways have you been poured into through your community that you would like to now give back?

This question may take a bit more work than the other two prompts, but if it can convey important information to the admissions committee, it may be well worth your time. You need to think about your past, but also something you hope to do in the future. Be honest with yourself and the admissions counselors. You may not have really thought about how you’d contribute to campus yet, but that’s okay. Take some time now to think about it. Do your research on Richmond’s website and social media accounts to see what their community is like and where you’d best fit in to be an engaged member of the community!

Key Takeaways

• The University of Richmond offers three prompts for you to choose from, of which you only need to respond to one
• Do your research about Richmond before you submit your application to demonstrate that you are serious about attending their school 
• If you have the time, you should attempt answering more than one prompt to figure out which of your essays best represents you
• Once you’re done with your college application , you can still work hard toward your college goals by applying to scholarships

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University of Richmond 2023-24 Supplemental Essay Guide

Regular Decision Deadline: Jan 1

You Have: 

University of Richmond 2023-24 Application Essay Question Explanations

Get ready, nerds! The University of Richmond supplement was made for the intellectually curious. All three prompts ask you to think on your feet and get creative in different ways. So be prepared to get a little messy, brainstorm , and give admissions a deeper look into the way your brain works.

The Requirements: 1 essay of 350-650 words

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Oddball

Please select one of the following prompts to address (350-650 words): 

You have a platform to create change. what is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale.

This prompt will likely stick out to the activists among you, and we encourage you to follow your instincts. What actions or policies would you like to see taken or implemented to address an issue of social injustice? Maybe after marching in protests in the wake of police violence, you’d like to see new anti-racist training programs roll out for law enforcement officers. Perhaps a rise in gas prices has made you more concerned about fossil fuels vs. renewable energy (and affordability for marginalized groups), and you want to petition for alternate energy sources in your town. Show admissions that you’re thinking about and committed to being part of positive change on a local, national, or global scale.

Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next?

This prompt is fabulous because a ton of ideas/stories yet to be included can be backed into it. Have you been itching to write an essay about one of your favorite activities? Or maybe you have an idea for a diversity and inclusion essay that speaks to your ability to connect and reflect. So long as you can write about the topic through the lens of learning something new and digesting and/or applying that knowledge, you’re on the right track. 

If you have already drafted an essay that you’d like to mold to meet the needs of this prompt, we recommend adapting it, reading it over, then sharing it with a trusted mentor or family member to make sure it successfully addresses the question posed. It would be silly to miss the mark on a prompt with so much potential!

Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application?

College applications are rampant with essay questions about community, so this essay is ripe for recycling (how eco-friendly of you!). If you haven’t already written a Community Essay that you plan to adapt and recycle here, we recommend considering the things that make you unique. What about your history, experiences, perspectives, or talents might be worth highlighting for an admissions officer? And how can the experience, perspective, or talent you choose enrich the learning environment at the University of Richmond for others? Maybe you have always been an organizer and the glue that holds your summer camp community together during the school year. How will you bring people together on campus? Maybe you were raised on a farm and developed a strong work ethic at a young age as you helped your parents tend to the fields. Will you be a natural leader in group projects and take initiative in the many clubs you’d like to join? Be sure to connect your personal story to a future vision of yourself at Richmond. The most important thing to remember for this prompt is that your experience, perspective, or talent is dynamic and makes you stand out from the crowd.

About Kat Stubing

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Writing the university of richmond supplement essay, school supplements.

If you’re applying to the University of Richmond, then in addition to your Common App personal statement, you’re required to write an essay responding to what the school calls “The Richmond Question.”

For this University of Richmond supplement essay, you’ll have to choose one of three prompts to answer. This is an excellent opportunity to share even more about who you are—your personality, passions, and dreams—and show sides of yourself not highlighted in other parts of your application.

At this point, you may have another question—let’s call it The Richmond-Question Question—and it might go something like: “How the heck do I decide which prompt to pick?”

Fortunately for you, we’re going to answer The Richmond-Question Question right here, right now, by digging into the prompts for this University of Richmond supplement essay.

Instructions: Choose one of the following essay prompts:

(650 words max)

What is an urgent global challenge or social justice topic about which you are passionate? What solutions or outcomes do you hope to see?

Pick this prompt if: you’ve done some kind of activism or in-depth research on a particular issue. If you’ve already explored this or a very similar topic in your Common App personal statement, you’ll probably want to pick a different prompt, in order to show other aspects of who you are. Be sure to tell a story that conveys not just what you care about, but why . How did your interest develop, and how might you be part of a solution?

By the time you graduate from college, there will be jobs that don’t exist today. Describe one of them and how Richmond might prepare you for it.

Pick this prompt if: you spend an inordinate amount of time pondering your post-college career—and actually have some semi-specific ideas! Do you often research the near future? Be creative, but not too unrealistic here; we probably won’t have teleportation-deck operators in just four years’ time.

Remember, you don’t necessarily have to come up with entire new industries or types of jobs. Your answer can and should hew pretty closely to actual career interests of yours. For example, if you’ve always wanted to be a teacher, you don’t have to talk about how Richmond might prepare you for some crazy tech-type job. Think about how the teaching profession might be different in some significant way in four years; perhaps a new subject could emerge that makes revolutionary connections between different disciplines. (It doesn’t have to be “tech-y” at all!) What might this new subject look like, and how might you, as a teacher, teach it?

Note: be sure to do your Richmond research so that you can mention specific aspects of the school (classes, clubs, faculty, educational philosophy, etc.) that would help you land this career.

You are required to spend the next year in either the past or the future. To what year would you travel and why?

Pick this prompt if: you can relate a passion of yours to some historical event, era, or figure; or if you have a passion that leads you to have burning questions about the future. Past or future, the most important part of your response will be going deep into the “why.” Relate what you’d do in the past or future to your life today. How does your present passion lead to your choice of time-traveling destination? Also, don’t forget that you have to spend a year there, so think of ways you could put your passions and interests to good use for a full 365 days, and what you might learn or otherwise be able to bring back that would impact your present-day life.

It’s important that in your Richmond essay, you cover different ground than your Common App personal statement. So if you’ve already written about a global problem, for example, then maybe it’s time to apply for that dream job as a space-station librarian (could happen, right?) or to dust off your time-traveling sneakers.

Overall, try to take admissions readers somewhere surprising with your University of Richmond supplement essay and show them a side of yourself that makes you uniquely you .

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Writing consultant of the year, 2021: annalise mangone.

2021 was not, however, a difficult year, as our recipient Annalise Mangone received nominations twice last year, from both a faculty member and a writer she assisted. This year, she received two more, from different faculty and student recommenders.

Annalise trained with me well before the pandemic and she was an anchor in my training class and frequently demonstrated her intellectual curiosity beyond the job of Writing Consultant. She participated in events sponsored by the Center, including fiction readings off-campus by writers of science fiction and fantasy who came to campus for my class, Reading SF & Fantasy.  During the early part of the pandemic, she often dropped in for my “wine and whine” evening Zoom office hours, an event aimed at bringing some coherence back to a scattered workforce anxious about ongoing events on and off-campus.

When working with students at the Center or in classes, she proved her mettle as an enthusiastic helper. I asked her to describe her time among us, and she noted, “In terms of what I recall most about UR, it has always been how kind and encouraging the faculty have been. In all of my classes, my faculty have been truly devoted to making sure that we are learning in interesting and effective ways, and especially this year have been supportive of all of my many research interests and endeavours.”

That British spelling works well and it stands as Annalise wrote it. She will be completing an MSc program at Oxford in Anthropology next year. I am both jealous and disappointed in one regard: when I finally walk the upper reaches of the Thames Path in a few years, ending it at Oxford, Annalise won’t be there to give us a tour.

In terms of her work with writers, she notes that “I always say that I love being a class Writing Consultant because it gives me the chance to ‘audit’ courses that I would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience, and I think that curiosity has guided my course of study in anthropology and leadership. I love exploring the many different theoretical frameworks of the field as well as carrying out my own research into topics like stress management in extracurricular clubs or chaplaincy and spirituality in Richmond area hospitals.”

That sort of passion for learning makes Annalise stand out even in a year with many other strong candidates for the award. We wish her every success in the wide (and finally, opening!) world beyond our campus gates.

Word of the Week! Recalcitrant

Hat tip to Robyn Bradshaw for nominating this fancy way of saying “obstinately disobedient; uncooperative, refractory; objecting to constraint or restriction.” That’s the OE D’s first definition for a word that comes to us from smack-dab in the Age of Reason, with a first recorded use of 1797.

In terms of our current campus debate, a refusal to listen to petitions, votes, and common 21st Century sense marks that recalcitrance of one side or both, depending upon your perspective.

I side with our Black students, so my bias should be clear as to who is not listening to reason. Yet the word proves a useful alternative to ones such as “stubborn,” “close-minded,” “pompous,” “megalomaniacal,” “arrogant,” “disdainful,” “disrespectful,” even “self-righteous.”

There are other rude synonyms I will skip, as I’m fond of the Age of Reason and fonder still of being politic about these matters. What I say aloud and in private are of little concern here.

As always, please send us words and metaphors useful in academic writing by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.

See all of our Metaphors of the Month  here  and Words of the Week  here .

Recalcitrant dude in suit courtesy of Pixabay .

Common Misconceptions of the Writing Center

This week I asked Griffin, who is overseeing a proofreading project for our Writers’ Web online handbook, to discuss what she’s seen among peers.

Only bad writers use the Writing Center:

Students of all experience levels can benefit from visiting the Writing Center. Sometimes even just a second set of eyes can pick up errors that the author’s mind may not notice. Writing consultants also have training and experience with a wide variety of paper types, so can help out with unfamiliar formats or with particular professor pet peeves. Even consultants go into the center, because we understand how helpful an educated peer editor can be!

English isn’t my first language and the consultants might judge me:

Actually, English-language learners make up a significant portion of the students who come through our center.  Writing consultants are trained in how to break down errors in to patterns and can therefore address foundational confusions instead of simply fixing problems on a case to case basis. This can be helpful for any writer but especially for those still grasping the syntax and contradicting rules of the English language. We can also help you get in touch with teachers with ESL specific training, as well as those writing Consultants who have more experience with teaching English to speakers of other languages.

The Consultants will proofread my paper:

The Writing Center does not do grammar checks. Rather, we will look at your paper holistically to suggest areas of improvement from everything from format to content to yes, grammar. Our goal is to help writers recognize and correct potential weaknesses in their own writing, rather than to simply have a Consultant check off spelling and send the writer on their way.     This isn’t to say that we will not help writers with grammar: Consultants will just work with the writer to develop a better understanding of grammar, instead of just fixing case by case mistakes.

I have to have a completed draft:

Writing Consultants can help with every step of the writing process, from developing and organizing an outline, to analyzing an old graded paper to shore up weak spots together. One caveat is that the more prepared the writer is when they come into the appointment, the more the Consultant can help the student.

The Consultants are only for FYS classes:

We have in class Consultants in classes at all levels! Additionally, our Writing Center is open to everyone, regardless of current class.

The Consultants are only for English classes:

Our Consultants have a wide knowledge base that can be applied to almost any subject to improve writing quality. Additionally, if you have a specific subject that you would like help on, check out our list of Consultant majors online: one of us is likely taking the same major!

I can only go to the Writing Center for class assignments:

While sometimes a specific teacher will send you to the Writing Center with an assignment, we exist to help you, the student! This means from theses to job applications, we are happy to lend a helping hand for all of your writing needs.

The Writing Center is only for undergrads:

Any Richmond student, including SPCS students, are welcome at the Writing Center. Can’t come by at all? Try reaching out to one of our Consultants and see if they can meet on campus at a later hour, or if they’re willing to provide assistance via email.

Writing Consultant of the Year, 2018: George Katsiotis

In this year’s nomination, Professor Craft noted of George:

He has been consistently proactive, making numerous good suggestions, pushing me toward using new technologies to edit papers. My students report the value of meeting with him. He is flexible enough to accept my timelines for turning around papers. He volunteers to come to class to be introduced to the students. Last year, he met more often with one student who particularly required assistance, in part because English was not her mother tongue.

George, a native of Greece, has a double major in Leadership Studies and Political Science. He’s minoring in Economics, which made him a perfect partner for the students in Dr. Craft’s First-Year Seminar, “Inequality and Ethics.” The course description notes that FYS students study “income inequality, but we will investigate inequality in lifespan and education as well.”

After graduation, George will be the Supervisor of a YMCA camp in Thessaloniki, Greece, with many employees and over 400 youngsters to manage!

George met Richmond students to review drafts of essays he received in advance, and as with all Consultants, he followed a somewhat nondirective pedagogy of not proofreading. Instead, he helped writers find their central arguments if those were not clear, identify systematic errors at the local and global scale; he made a representative correction of a repeated mistake in order to teach each writer to self-correct other instances.

In addition to his work for our program, George worked as a Peer Advisor and Mentor since his first year at Richmond. He also helped in the Office of Admissions with the International Admissions team.

We want to thank all our graduating Consultants for their hard work and we wish them the best in the big world beyond our campus gates.

Spinning the Plates in a Writing Center

Image credit: used under rights permitted by Jameson Gagnepain at Flickr

This post began as a reply to Jared Odd, the Writing Center Director at Lindsey Wilson College. Professor Odd wrote to the national e-list for Writing Across the Curriculum, asking for advice about managing a Fellows-based program at small colleges. At times, such as our current semester, I feel like one of the performers who keeps about 30 fragile plates spinning on the ends of skinny poles.

Richmond’s program for what we now call “Writing Consultants” now enters its 21st year.  How we have managed has become a little more daunting recently, with only 3,200 undergraduates and the need to staff 50+ sections with Writing Consultants while keeping a Writing Center open. My post covers a few bedrock principles and recent challenges.

• The Training Class Must Be Strong: We don’t shortchange Consultant training at Richmond. All of them must complete a semester-long course, Eng. 383 , that is by invitation of our faculty.  I could rush through 100 new Consultants in a couple of weeks of basic training, but I fear they’d be unethical editors, fixing writers’ problems but not making them better writers. Faculty would consider the help intellectually lacking, and I’m not about to dumb-down our commitment to fundamental ideas of peer work, long established in the field and tested well in our program. I find that recruiting my 36 new Consultants each year, 18 trained each semester, can staff the program. This has worked well at the similar-sized program at Swarthmore, long a model for WAC at Richmond. Except…
• The Busy Student Body Must Notice Us: It is hip to be stressed out and over-committed on this campus. Strike one for staying on student radar, as a program or potential employer. Study abroad, a wonderful opportunity that I want every student to experience, has gradually become nigh universal for our first-semester juniors.  Strike Two. Then there are internships, independent study, summer research, the hum of non-academic but seemingly essential social obligations…Strike Three. For these reasons, over time, more and more students delayed taking Eng. 383 until their third or even fourth years. Having sown this wind for a few years, in May 2013 I reaped the whirlwind, finding about 20 of our trained Consultants walking across the stage in their caps and gowns. Then, this term, another 15 went abroad. Thus we are scrambling to staff 50+ sections and keep the Writing Center open with 37 Consultants. Usually, I employ 50.
• The Director Must Appeal to Potential Consultants Early and in the Right Way: My doubling-down on recruitment began early this semester. I notified faculty teaching first-year seminars that a crisis was at hand; I would depend upon them to bring me more first-and-second-year recruits. So far, a few are drifting in, but I will appeal as well to the students directly. Paying Consultants well helps, but students want more than a job today. Students at Richmond want a path to a post-collegiate career or graduate school. Working as a Consultant here means a better chance of landing a graduate assistantship or job with a communications focus. I count EBSCO, Penguin, and The National Archives among the employers of recently graduated Consultants.
• Faculty in all Fields Must Become Partners: I have never felt that putting a writing program in a “silo” works well. First of all, writing has historically been under-staffed and under-underfunded. Susan Miller’s “sad woman in the basement” was more than a brilliant metaphor in her book Textual Carnivals . It was the fact on the ground (and beneath the ground) for a long time. Now that the Humanities themselves are in national crisis, writing programs cannot necessarily count on English departments with diminishing institutional clout for support. Program directors will need to sit down with Mathematicians and Economists and Sociologists, too, to determine local needs, priorities, and resources. These faculty will also serve as recruiters for those new student employees to keep WAC efforts vital.

I remain convinced, after more than two decades doing this work (with some very pleasant side trips into educational technology, the design of simulations, and more) that writing programs will thrive because our colleagues and administrators share our concern, if not necessarily our values, about writing instruction. The Director’s job, as the public face of writing on campus, is to be certain that the “center remains in the Center,” or wherever else writing instruction is housed currently. My greatest fear is that other units of a college or university, hungry for influence and budget, could gobble up WAC and Writing Centers.

We should not let that happen, since with merger may come a pedagogy we have worked so hard to avoid in our teaching and tutoring.

Academic Demands & Student Stress

I’ve been thinking of Cornell University lately, the site of a first-year seminar program that heavily influenced my thinking about first-year education at Richmond.

Instead of having fond memories of my three visits to Ithaca, lately I’ve also been thinking about the three apparent suicides on the Cornell campus .

Bodies were discovered in the bottom of the gorges–huge canyons, really–that cross Cornell’s grounds. The image above shows the lowest of many foot bridges; on the bluffs above the bridges cross  gorges that are perilously deep.

There have already been six deaths on campus ruled as suicides, not including these three who presumably jumped into the gorges.

Later in life, it’s difficult to comprehend the stress that makes a young person do such a tragic and, finally, selfish thing.  Encountering suicide in person, however, is life-altering. In my second year as a UVA undergrad, I recall coming back to Monroe Hill’s dorms to find police on the scene. An electrical-engineering student had electrocuted himself by wiring his body to his room’s air-conditioner. For the first time in our self-centered lives, most of us came face to face with the reality of death.

Richmond does not have an engineering program, where students often take 6, even 7, classes per term. I roomed with an engineer in my third year, and the workload he faced was simply excessive.  The goal early in the program was to weed out many students, and luckily–I think now–I got weeded. But even at Richmond, faculty and students may not realize the demands we place upon each other. I grow concerned that we are only a year or two away from a tragedy on our campus as well.

Faculty at Richmond could do more by assigning less busy work, shorter readings, and shorter papers. At the same time, that reduction in workload needs to come with a clear message to students: “I will be asking more of you.” I’ve tried this in a limited way, and while I recapture some free time, and my students appear to be doing better projects at the end of the terms, they place enough emphasis on the grades they get to worry me.

Students need to understand–and this probably could be emphasized more effectively in orientation for first-years–that not everyone gets an A at Richmond, that a B or C will mean little, in isolation, to future employers, and that faculty are not understanding when a student places friends or social activities ahead of coursework.

This proposed attitude falls into a generation gap. Millennial-generation students have been studied extensively, and one apparent characteristic is their desire to do meaningful work on a schedule that pleases them. They crave constant assessment and demand both service from authorities and continual guidance. At Richmond, too often, they exhibit a strong sense of entitlement and treat the university like a product they have purchased. All of that grates on many faculty, especially those like me who believe that failure is a teacher and self-reliance the best guide in life. Yet “I’m confused; what do I need to do?” could be the mantra of Millennials, just as “Suck it up and do it yourself” was–well, is–the mantra of my fellow Gen-Xers. Circumstances from the early 70s onward taught many in my age cohort that life is, indeed, hard. We missed the late 1960s and its culture of bliss.

I’m not that callous, usually, but often I find myself telling a student who wants more from me “you cannot have that” or “that’s not A work.” Many, especially in the first year, have never been told this before.

Often, I worry about the consequences.  Yet the world is not made for us, whatever well intentioned but coddling parents claim when they, in effect, tell a child “you are wonderful, and always will be. You can be anything you wish.”  Xers had a different lesson; we older ones had distant and “tough love” parents. “You have no sense at all” and “life will teach you” were common messages among my friends’ and my parents. Younger Xers often had parents who had divorced; as children many led “latchkey” lives. That was rare among my friends, and all of us, after a time of rebellion, came back to love and honor our parents when they, in old age, most needed our help.

Yet Millennials now share something with Xers: graduating into a world with economic turmoil and no guarantee of lifetime employment, something only the oldest Boomers can recall.

If college should be a place to prepare students to think for themselves, to cope with adversity, and to broaden their intellectual horizons, are we Xer and Boomer faculty doing the best job? Or, perhaps, making the lessons too hard for young people who are not able to cope?

We all need to talk more about it, and change our expectations.

19th Century Clues Explored with 21st Century Writing Tools

Here, avatar Beeble Baxter muses upon the image of Immanuel Swedenborg in Richmond’s virtual House of Usher.

During our pedagogical collaborations in virtual reality, there have been surprising parallels with traditional composition, but finding these parallels is not difficult. More challenging is the invention of an engaging and useful composition in virtual reality for use in our courses to help us to create that balance of challenge and learning that Lev Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development, or ZPD .

Poe’s horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher” has always fascinated me in terms of its psychological prescience and its manifold intriguing but arcane details. Like many Poe characters, Roderick Usher is melancholic and has surrendered to “the grim phantasm, FEAR” that seems to  paralyze him. Sometimes a cursory reading of Poe moves us to dismiss his tales as merely formulaic, but his details are often doors to the dank dungeons of the human psyche. The narrator of this tale, responding to Roderick’s desperate letter, attempts to distract his friend’s obsessive and fevered mind as they “pored together over” the titles in Usher’s library. In so doing, the narrator gains some understanding of Usher’s disintegrating psyche, but we do not.

However, it only takes a look behind the mention of Immanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell (1758) to get a more detailed insight into Roderick’s madness. The full title of the text the narrator finds in Usher’s Library is Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from things Heard and Seen.   Swedenborg begins with an exegesis of Matthew 24:29–31 in which he makes the following claim after dismissing the literal reading of the passage:

 “However, people who believe such things are not aware of the hidden depths that lie within the details of the Word. There is in fact spiritual meaning in these details, for they intend not only the outward and earthly events that we find on the literal level but spiritual and heavenly events as well. This holds true not just for the meaning of phrases but even for each word.”

This passage almost seems to apply to Poe’s tale as well, and so in traditional text we have mirrors of meaning. Roderick’s belief in the consciousness or “sentience” (1st coined in this story) of his house and the influence of the masonry, most specifically the “collocation of the stones”or their particular arrangement, seems to suggest a tendency to find hidden meanings not unlike Swedenborg. The “House” of Usher certainly exhibits the layered meanings that Swedenborg sees in the Scriptures. In his mystified mental misery, it may be that Roderick overlooked or dismissed Swedenborg’s insight in entry 311 where he reminds us that “heaven and hell come from the human race” a concept that might have encouraged Usher to clean up his own haunted palace to end the personal hell he had endured for so long.

It is such detail that suggests virtual reality as a potentially powerful tool for motivating students to dig more deeply into the details of the text and reflect upon their narrative function. Why does Poe bother to list these specific titles? The image of Swedenborg on one of the walls of the Usher library can be “scripted” to provide clues for student research prompting them to ask: how can Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell can help us understand the intricacies of Roderick’s madness?

 And this is but one of the books named by the narrator of Poe’s story, each of which provides its own web of connections and opportunities for research. In “Fall of the House of Usher” the line of exploration can run from Poe to Swedenborg to William Blake whose astonishing hybrids of poetry and image composed via etching and engraving, continue to provide fertile intellectual and aesthetic delight even in the digital age. The William Blake Archive is one of the first collaborative hypermedia texts to receive academic acclaim and its design provides unprecedented access to the vast collection of Blake’s genius scattered across the globe. Here students can follow the thread from Swedenborg to Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell which includes images and text critical of Swedenborg’s views.

When the 19th Century meets the 21st Century in the dark digital hallways of our virtual House of Usher, the possibilities begin to unfold for the bold who playfully pioneer.

Wishes for 2010 in Writing

I’m hoping for the following on our campus this  year:

•   Steady growth in what Stanford calls “a culture of writing.” I love this phrase from their Hume Writing Center . This would involve, at Richmond, faculty engagement in the forthcoming seminars to prepare us to teach in the First-Year Seminar program, more writing in disciplines where it is not traditionally assigned, and, perhaps, a different way of thinking beyond “writing to get it done” by students.
• More work with technology in writing assignments . Eng. 103 faculty have done an admirable job, during their swansong years as the program winds down. But how many of my other colleagues have writers work online with blogs, wikis, or multimedia compositions?  These are the sorts of writing our students will do beyond the college gates, and I’m not seeing enough of this sort of work assigned.
•  Fewer “busy work” assignments. Many of our students take writing less seriously than they might because we pack in so much reading, short assignments that never get assessed, and so forth. Part of this, I feel, stems from faculty belief that students won’t do any work unless we push them. My policy of late has been to assign less but assess more carefully. Grades still motivate students; a short “write to learn” in each class that may be occasionally graded will keep students reading more than regular and lengthy assignments. Then writers will have more time for formal writing.

Those are three wishes from the Writing Center Director! We’ll see what 2010 brings.

Individual Conferences & Student Writing

Recently I had a conversation with Dr. Jim Kinney of VCU, a rhetorician who has taught writing for several decades. As he reflected on his teaching during this time, Kinney noticed the greatest improvement in student writing when he used “the Garrison method” of teaching composition. Using a list of specific areas for focus such as pre-writing or invention or organization, Kinney explained that after an initial introductory period, most of the semester involved short individual conferences with students, specifically focused on addressing these aspects of writing.

Intrigued, I googled the name of the method and found that JSTOR had a review of the Garrison method by Jo An McGuire Simmons published in the May 1984 issue of College Composition and Communication. In “The One-to-One Method of Teaching Composition” Simmons offers us a gestalt of the process: “Picture a classroom of students writing. The teacher and a student, sitting side by side, are conferring intensely on a draft of the student’s paper. Two or three tutors may be in the room holding similar conferences. While the other sutdents are waiting for their conferences, they are writing, re-writing and, revising works in progress. What you are seeing is the Garrison or One-to-One Method at work.”

According to Simmons the Los Angeles Community College Distriect tested and recommended the approach in 1974 leading Roger Garrison to publish  How a Writer Works in 1981 . Simmons notes that “the primary assumption behind the method is that the best way to write is by writing and rewriting. Roger Garrison thinks that the best use of class time, then, is not class discussions, nor lectures on writing, nor analysis of someone else’s writing, but writing.” Each conference is limited to one objective and situates the teacher in a less threatening coaching role, helping the student to recognize his own errors and find his own solutions in a series of personalized “mini-lessons.” Such individualized attention is a potent force in a student’s education and a strong draw for the schools or teachers that can provide it with some regularity.

While the method increases individual student attention and decreases time required for final grading, Simmons notes several challenges to this approach. To be practiced as Garrison recommends, each teacher would need two writing consultants assigned to assist with student conferences. This approach also slows production, potentially limiting the number of assignments possible in a semester. In spite of these potential drawbacks, the Garrison method is meant to be flexibly applied according to the requirements of the context. Teachers could apply the method for a specific assignment only or throughout the semester, or the series of objectives guiding each meeting could be abbreviated.

 Certainly there is no panacea for producing better writers, not classical rhetoric, not grammar, not reading the great books, not even individual conferences. Ultimately, the quality of a student’s writing depends on that student applying the writing strategies he has been taught.  Nevertheless, few pedagogical approaches are as effective, organic or cost-effective as increased interaction between teacher and student.

Two Readings, October 20th & 21st

University of Richmond is fortunate to have two really dynamic writers giving readings on campus this week.  Both readings are free and open to the public.

Pam Brown – Australian Poet – 20 October 2008, 8pm, Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room

Pam Brown has earned a living as a librarian, nurse, publisher's assistant, postal worker, artworker, and teacher of writing, multi-media studies and film-making. She has published fourteen books of poetry and prose, all with independent publishers. Her volume of new and selected poems, Dear Deliria , received the New South Wales Premiers Award and was cited for "its provocative and witty engagement with personal, social and political issues," ability to invite "reconsideration of mundane experiences and events," and "edginess of language and €¦ emotional honesty, daring, and intellectual curiosity." She has been Associate Editor of the online journal Jacket since 2004. Her most recent book is True Thoughts . She has lived in Sydney for the past 40 years.

Margaret Gibson – American Poet and Memoirist – 21 October 2008, 7pm, Keller Hall Memorial Room

Margaret Gibson is the author of nine books of poetry, including Long Walks in the Afternoon, winner of the 1982 Lamont Prize, and The Vigil: A Poem in Four Voices , a finalist for the National Book Award in 1993. Her most recent work is a memoir, The Prodigal Daughter: Reclaiming an Unfinished Childhood , in which she writes about her upbringing in Richmond, Virginia, and the process of making peace with the dichotomous forces of her past. As Shannon Ravenel confirms, "Margaret Gibson’s evocation of urban southern society in the 1950s is so on target it’s scary. This is a brilliant book." The recipient of an NEA grant, a Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship, and two Pushcart Prizes, Gibson is presently Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut and lives in Preston, Connecticut.

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The Right Approach to Writing Your College Essays

Recently, I’ve given several presentations to rising high school seniors on writing your college essays. Each time I do this, I always ask students what makes them most anxious about essays, and two answers invariably come up more than any others: (1) "I know essays are really important," and (2) "I don’t really know what colleges are looking for."

Let’s take those concerns one at a time. First, are your college essays really important? Short answer: absolutely. While not all universities require you to write an essay, virtually all selective colleges do (as do all colleges that utilize the Common Application). And I can tell you, from experience, that colleges requiring an essay see it as a critical piece of your application, one that can help distinguish your application from other strong applications in a competitive pool.

Your essay is unique because it’s the only place in your application where you have full control over what you tell us – and, thus, it’s the best place to share your unique voice and story with us. Everything else in your application comes to us through some sort of lens (grades assigned by teachers, test scores assessed by testing agencies, recommendations written by others, even extracurricular involvement constrained to traditional resume format). The essay, on the other hand, is all you: it’s a blank page that you can fill however you want, which also makes it the single best opportunity to tell us who you are. 

And this is, perhaps, why so many students are intimidated by the essay – which brings us to the second concern, namely not knowing what college admission officials are looking for. This concern is a bit broader, and there are several ways of addressing it, which I’ll try to do briefly.

First, and most straightforward, is a secret that’s hidden in plain sight: colleges usually tell you exactly what they’re looking for, right in the essay prompt. Take a look at the seven Common App prompts , for example, and you’ll notice immediately that they’re really open-ended – that is, you could write about virtually any topic – but they all push you toward introspection, self-analysis, and reflection. This suggests that Common App colleges don’t necessarily care what you write about, so long as you communicate something meaningful or thoughtful about yourself in doing so (and reflecting is more important than narrating). For colleges that have their own essay prompt or a supplemental Common App essay, it’s usually pretty clear what they’re seeking as well. If they ask a really out-of-the-box question, they’re probably looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinking. If they ask a straightforward question about your fit for their college, they probably want to get a sense of how you see yourself fitting in and contributing to their community. This isn’t rocket science or psychological trickery!

"But," you protest, "that’s obvious. Of course I need to answer the essay prompt. What are you really looking for in an essay? What style of writing is best? What stands out to you? What do you find unique?"

Those are all perfectly natural questions – and they are also the perfect recipe for a generic college essay, when you allow them to guide your writing. If you try to write what you think we want to read, I guarantee you it will come out sounding inauthentic and bland. If you approach your essays with the goal of writing the most memorable essay ever written, one of two things will happen – either your head will explode from the pressure, or you’ll come out with something that feels like it’s trying way too hard and isn’t actually that compelling. 

This is, I think, the biggest pitfall of college essay-writing. Don’t worry about what you think we might or might not want to read, and don’t worry about what your fellow applicants might or might not be writing. Instead, focus on finding your own unique, authentic voice. This isn’t as simple or trite as just “be yourself” – one of my least favorite pieces of essay-writing advice, because it implies that you can just do this naturally, automatically, without having to think about it. That’s not true; finding your voice takes work, and time, and focus, and lots of brainstorming, and introspection, and many, many drafts. Think about the perspectives you have, the things that matter to you and why they’re important; reflect on the experiences that have shaped you, and why they did so; consider what you’re hoping to gain in the next four years of your life, what you’re looking for in college; try freewriting or stream-of-consciousness typing to get your thoughts flowing; and do all of this before you start trying to answer a specific essay prompt. (Pro tip: this is a lot to try to do during the fall of your senior year, so invest some quality time this summer in figuring out and exploring your authentic voice.)

Again, don’t write what you think we want to read, and don’t try to be something you’re not or write in a way that isn’t natural to you, because that inauthenticity will be obvious to us. (Do you see the irony there? If you try to do what you think we want, you’re actually doing the opposite of what we want.) If you don’t comfortably use big words in your everyday language, don’t overuse them in your essay (and please, please don’t consult a thesaurus for every adjective and noun). If you’re not naturally funny, don’t try to be funny. If poetry isn’t your thing, don’t try to write a poem. In figuring out what to write and how to write about it, start with you and what makes sense to you, what works for you.

I’m frequently asked what sort of essays stand out to me, and what to avoid in them. The truth is, the best essays I read every year are the ones that come across as natural, authentic, and thoughtful – and there’s no one topic or way of writing that encompasses them all, since authenticity depends on the individual. So many of the essays I read are, frankly, trying too hard to impress or to get everything right or to stand out from the pack – and those are the essays that come across as generic and gimmicky and run-of-the-mill.

I recently heard an admission colleague from another university summarize all of this really well, and I’ll do my best to paraphrase what he said. You can approach the writing of your essay (and, indeed, the college process at large) as a series of checkboxes, a list of items to get right and hoops to jump through, in order to get to the end goal (namely, acceptance). Or you can approach the writing of your essay, and the college application process, as an opportunity to think really critically (and deeply) about who you are, what makes you tick, what matters to you, and what you want out of this next phase of your life. Essays written by students with the latter approach are, inevitably, far more compelling and interesting than essays written by students just trying to do the correct thing and check all the boxes. 

It’s my hope that you’ll take the second approach, not just to writing your essays, but to your college search and application process as a whole. You’ll come out the better for it – and it’ll probably make your essays more interesting, too.

Canon U.S.A. Supports Japan Center Essay Competition at Stony Brook University

The competition challenges students to write about aspects of japanese culture, with a personal connection.

April 23, 2024 09:53 ET | Source: Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Melville, NY, April 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highlighting its commitment to empowering students and supporting education, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, proudly sponsored the 19th Annual Japan Center Essay Competition Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 20 th , at Stony Brook University. 

The essay competition, organized by the Japan Center at Stony Brook, honors students for work that demonstrates their awareness and understanding of the Japanese culture. The competition aims to inspire the students to think creatively and critically about their lives in relating experiences to aspects of Japanese culture, to broaden their horizons and promote global citizenship through the writing of thought-provoking essays. 

"We are proud to partner with Canon U.S.A. on the essay competition, providing students with the opportunity to develop a better understanding of cultural activities related to Japan," said Dr. Iwao Ojima, the President of Japan Center at Stony Brook University.  “We congratulate the winners and every participant for their great work."

233 high school and college students submitted essays for the competition.  Contestants were asked to discuss one or more aspects of Japan including art, culture, tradition, values, philosophy, history,

society, politics, business, and technology in relation to their personal experiences, views, and/or future goals.  A panel of qualified judges selected the winners, who received awards including a Canon product.

High School Division Best Essay Award

1 st Place Best Essay Award and Consul General of Japan Special Award

“Reflections” written by Talia Beck (Hunter College High School)

2 nd Place Best Essay Award

“The Sound of Drums Behind a Stage” written by Anderson Maziero (Bethpage High School)

3 rd Place Best Essay Award

“Embracing the Harmony of Silence” written by Arihunt Garg (The Brooklyn Latin School)

Uchida Memorial Award

“Sparks of Identity” written by Marisa Yamamoto (Syosset High School)

Canon U.S.A., Inc. and the Japan Center at Stony Brook University have a longstanding partnership, which began in 2005 with former president and chief executive officer of Canon U.S.A., Inc., the late Mr. Kinya Uchida. Attendees included the award-winning students, and representatives from the Japan Center at Stony Brook, Canon U.S.A., Inc., and Consulate General of Japan in New York. Each winner took to the stage and read their essay to the audience.  Isao “Sammy” Kobayashi, president and CEO of Canon U.S.A., Inc., was an honorary judge of the competition. 

“We are very proud of all the students who wrote so passionately about their experience and understanding of Japanese culture, connecting it to their personal lives in these captivating essays,” Kobayashi said. "The Japan Center does great work for the community, and Canon is honored to be a partner for this program.”

For a list of winners, finalists, and semifinalists, you can visit the  Japan Center’s website .  Award-winning essays will be posted in early May. About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $29.4 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc., as of 2023, has ranked in the top-five overall in U.S. patents granted for 38 consecutive years†. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. To learn more about Canon, visit us at www.usa.canon.com and connect with us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/canonusa .

† Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

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How to Write the University of Richmond Supplement 2023-2024

The University of Richmond is a smedium-ish (that’s small and medium combined, btw) private liberal arts college located in Richmond, VA. Fans of schools like UVA, UNC, Tulane, Wake Forest, SMU, Emory, Rice, and other elite southern institutions often find themselves adding Richmond to their list as well. With one of the most famously generous financial aid departments in the country (60% of students receive aid), the University of Richmond has increased their accessibility to students around the world. Speaking of, they’re also test optional this year. For the Class of 2027, Richmond had a 23% acceptance rate, with a large majority (66%) of those students coming from the ED and EA pools.

Richmond has a pretty straightforward supplement this year. You choose one prompt out of three and write an essay about it. However, they have these insanely annoying word count limits, 350-650, which we feel like they could have narrowed. We don’t necessarily think you should write a whole other Common App, so for once, you don’t have to hit the word limit. Don’t lowball it either though. Let’s discuss:

Prompt 1: You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale? (350-650 words)

Okay first of all, you’re 17, so we know you have a lot of really grand ideas about how to save the world (we love that for you), but maybe chill for a sec. To us, “on a national or global scale,” is kind of an afterthought here, and we think you should stick to the school/local community part. We also want you to tread a little carefully here, because if this just turns into a 500-word rant about your school, that also doesn’t suuuper look good. We recommend using this essay to talk about something actionable you’re already doing but then expand to talk about what more you want to do with the thing you’ve already done.

Tell us a tale, spin us a yarn! Write a story about how you started a GSA at your school, but want to implement fundraising for homeless LGBTQ+ youth in the neighborhood. If you work with homeless youth in your free time, maybe you have an idea on how to increase housing access in your town. Maybe you founded a nonprofit that’s interested in the nexus between climate and racial justice, and you want to start a vegan food festival to attract more people to the cause. We want to point out the ‘social injustice’ part, which means they’re not really looking for stories about animal shelters or bake sales for running a 5k for breast cancer research, as much as we love all of those.

Prompt 2: Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next? (350-650 words)

“What did you learn, and what happened next?” Bro, just give ‘em a story, they’re literally begging you to write a story here. This might be our favorite one, because it just gives you so much more space and freedom to explore a side of yourself they’re not seeing in your application.

Unexpected here can be a lot of different things, like maybe you learned about some cool science-y thing you could do in your kitchen so you immediately unleashed your Bill Nye. Or maybe you stumbled upon a Wikipedia page that led you down a rabbit hole you’re still stuck in (for us, it was the dazzle camoflauge to anti-facial recognition makeup pipeline). Did you have a super niche obsession as a kid? Talk about it! We’ve all seen the TikToks, so were you an Egypt kid, a Titanic kid, or a Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire kid? It can be something less whimsical, it could be a sobering factoid or news of a sudden cross-country move, but whatever it is, tell them a story. Bring them into the ‘Eureka!’ moment with you and take them along as you dive into action.

Prompt 3: Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application? (350-650 words)

As we foretold in our Affirmative Action post, a lot of colleges have either been adding or changing their basic ‘community’ essay to allow students to reflect on their backgrounds. We advise approaching this like your standard community essay – which again, will be a story. Are you sensing a theme here? We love stories!

Community can be a lot of things. It can be an organized community, like a club, online space, or your place of worship. It can also be a peer group, like your friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors. This essay asks how you will contribute to Richmond, so we recommend thinking of a community that you’re a part of that you could continue to be a part of (or start) at Richmond. It can be small or large. Perhaps there is a family tradition rooted in your culture that you do before dinner, and you want to share that with your roommates. Maybe you started a glass recycling plant in your hometown with your friends and you want to start a student-led recycling plant at Richmond. For some of you, the same thing you would write for Prompt 1 could work here, especially if you follow our advice of Writng Local (it’s like Shop Local but for college essay prompts).

The University of Richmond prompts are fairly simple, and they let you really tell a story, which we love. Once you finish your first draft, just go sicko mode on edits. Really edit it to shreds. Then, after you’ve done that a few times, double-check your grammar, punctuation, and flow to make sure it’s polished and ready to go.

Need help with your Richmond app? We got you, reach out today.

Richmond County Orchestra to present a farewell and thank you to St John's Grymes Hill campus

A pr. 22—STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Richmond County Orchestra presents Concerto di Primavera, a farewell and thank you to St John's University, Grymes Hill Campus on Sunday, April 28 at 3 p.m.

The concert features America's Got Talent performer Jia-Yi He, a virtuoso harmonica soloist and Marguerite Maria Rivas, Staten Island's first poet laureate, who will share her poem "Bement Ave Nocturne."

The orchestra will accompany Jia-Yi He in the "Flight of the Bumblebee" presentation and perform the symphonic tone poem "Romeo and Juliet," as well as excerpts from "Swan Lake" by Tchaikovsky and "Spring Song" by Mendelssohn.

Guests may also enjoy narratives by Tania Eicoff. Raffle prizes will be awarded after the concert.

Since it's spring, dubbed the season of love, the concert contains tunes and poetry associated with endearing relationships.

It's the Richmond County Orchestra's way of keeping with the theme and thanking St John's University for its presence throughout the years on Grymes Hill.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Marguerite María Rivas

A native New Yorker and Poet Laureate of Staten Island, Rivas teaches women's literature and writing in Manhattan. Her work is based on the history, culture, and environment of Staten Island. Her essays and poetry have been published nationally and internationally, and she the author of two volumes of poetry.

Jia-Yi He, a world-class harmonica virtuoso, has received numerous awards at international festivals and competitions in England, Germany, Israel, Japan, and the United States. He has appeared as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, China National Ballet Symphonic Orchestra and the Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra.. The New York Mets chose him to perform a pre-game show at Shea Stadium. He is a harmonica teacher at the Brooklyn Music School.

As a continuation of RCO's Keeping it Free for Kids programs, the program is free for students and children.

The program is made possible in part with public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Tickets are $20 at the door and $15 in advance. Free on site parking is available. Visit: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6286821

(c)2024 Staten Island Advance, N.Y. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.