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Jenna Pawlak ENG 101 McNamara 9 September 2012

My Dads Scrapbook
As long as I can remember, my father has traveled all across the world for business. My earliest memories as a child are all of me sitting in my living room, playing with my toys, waiting for the moment when daddy would finally get home. I can still remember the feeling, the butterflies in my stomach and my high level of impatience, the constant question to my mom, is he almost here? Then when the doorbell finally rang, the rush of excitement surging through my body as I sprinted, as fast as my tiny legs could carry me towards my front door and into my dads outstretched arms. Then came my favorite part, my dad would pick me up, sit me on his lap and tell me all about his countless adventures in these foreign countries. Im sure he exaggerated some of it just to keep my attention because I did not understand most of the business aspects, however my dad still tried his hardest to explain it to me. I was intrigued by everything my dad told me, I sat on his lap staring up at him with my big green eyes wide with amazement at the stories he would tell me. There were the stories of the different cultures and the different people and the different foods and customs; every country had a different story. It was then in those moments that I knew I wanted to be just like my dad when I grew up.

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It wasnt until this past summer, however, that I realized the country that interested me the most was Australia. It happened one evening when my dad called me into his studio telling me that he wanted to show me something, Im kind of in a hurry dad, I said. It will only take a second, I promise! he said, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was not loosing this argument. I walked into the room, fully expecting this to be another unimportant conversation about what we were having for dinner tonight or him asking how my day at school went; and instead walked out of it with a new realization. As I walked into the room my dad was pointing to something laid out on the table, as I got closer I realized it was some type of book. It was a scrapbook that he made of all of his travels, every country he had ever been to. My dad was a Vice President at Intel for over 20 years, and was responsible for site selection, which is how he got the opportunity to travel to so many different countries. The scrapbook was filled with various pictures of scenery and people, and it also contained newspaper articles he had printed out that mentioned his name. There was a Costa Rican newspaper with him on the front cover with the president, Jose Maria Figueres. Jose was embracing him because they had just formally announced that Intel would be making the largest foreign direct investment in the history of Costa Rica. Following this was an article in the Wall Street Journal quoting him on the Costa Rican investment saying Costa Rica says they need our help to set up the curriculum to produce workers that could be used by any high-tech company. They were chomping at the bit. There was a picture of him walking into the Great Pyramids in Egypt, pictures of him in front of the Opera House in Sydney, a picture

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of him in Japan standing in front of the doorway to his hotel, that was four inches shorter than him, and much more. One of the countries in particular that caught my attention was Australia. When he turned to the page it immediately caught my eye; the pictures were breathtaking, from the elegant buildings, to the exquisite skyscrapers to the alluring beaches, Australia, and everything about it pulled me in. This beautiful foreign country enchanted me, and I knew in that moment that it would be a dream come true to travel to this place. So I set out to fulfill my dream, by applying to the Cis study abroad program in Sydney Australia. I believe that I am a very qualified participant for this program for several reasons. First, I have worked at a company called Airworx for over a year; and even though the companies in Australia have different cultures and hierarchy, they all have fundamental principals such as respecting the management, treating fellow employees and customers with respect, and being reliable and diligent. I have learned all of these traits and I believe that I can apply them to any new job, no matter what country it is in. For example, on one occasion while I was working, a college student was jumping on one of the trampolines in a spot that must have been more worn out then the rest of it. The student jumped with all his strength, as high as he could, and came crashing down completely through the trampoline. I remembered my training, and rushed to get everyone else off of the trampoline to avoid having more people fall into the hole. Then I blew my whistle three times to alert my managers that I needed help as I sprinted over to the student to make sure he was okay. The man ended up being just fine, and my co-

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workers and I spent the next four hours working together to replace the ripped trampoline with a brand new one. Through this experience I learned how to be a reliable and diligent worker and how to work together with my co-workers to accomplish a common goal. I have learned to work as a team through my job and also through volleyball, which I played all through high school. Understanding how to work as a team would be very rewarding in this fellowship because I will be able to handle being with a group of people that I dont know and being capable of working well with them. Also, I have participated in numerous charity activities, which gave me exposure to underprivileged and elderly people, which afforded me the opportunity to appreciate that most people regardless of who they are, where they are from, and their social standing, are all the same. I participated in a club during high school called NHS, which stands for National Junior Honor Society. This club focused mainly on getting its members to become involved with community service and required that every member acquire twenty-two hours by the end of the school year. Through this organization I became involved in numerous acts of community service, for example, six am street cleanups, painting houses for people who werent capable of doing it themselves, and cleaning and re organizing the toys in the childrens center at an apartment complex that was set aside for mothers and their children who were victims of domestic violence. Then, to become further involved, I decided to go around to all of the residents in my grandmothers apartment complex asking if any of them needed any assistance cleaning their homes. Because only elderly people live in her complex many of them accepted my

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offer with open arms. I helped them out with simple things, such as vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the windows, and bringing down boxes from shelves that were too high for them to reach. This experience truly touched me, the men and women whose homes I cleaned were always so thankful for me just completing the simplest tasks. Doing this service opened my eyes to how elderly people sometimes are not able to perform everyday tasks that young people can do with such ease. Overall, my experience with community service is important for the study abroad program because traveling to another country requires interacting with people who are different from the same, everyday people that I am used to coming into contact with. Lastly, I have traveled to many different places, and this has helped to teach me how to quickly adapt to different cultures and atmospheres. For example, when I traveled to Hawaii I had to get used to the Hawaiian cultures, the people, and the change in time zone. I have only been out of the country once and that was to Mexico. Seeing life in Mexico was a tremendous culture shock for me, being there was nothing like being in America. I am accustomed to living in a fairly nice area with little crime and in Mexico the buildings are all broken down, there are homeless people and stray dogs around every corner, and my family would constantly warn my sisters and me not to walk alone at night. I was able to adapt to this environment, which shows that I will be capable of quickly adjusting to Australia. Overall, I think I am qualified to study abroad in Australia because I have experience working in a team; I have background in working with different types of

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people, and I have traveled to different places and was able to adapt to them quickly. I trust that I would be an excellent candidate for the study abroad program. Most importantly, it would bring me one step closer to fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming just like my father when I grow up.