JIA XIN WAN

In terms of achievement, I'm an ordinary college student: in addition to completing many assignments at school, once I set aside some time for joining a nationwide translation competition out of my own interest, however, I didn't get any prize. What I have done can be called as "achievement" should be my volunteer experiences: I taught 5th-grade students in Thailand's countryside, tutored a kid at a volunteer center, and became a museum guide after training.

Except my volunteer experiences, what I want to emphasize is my observation and thinking of education. As a Chinese student, once I was struggling with different subjects at high school. That was a desperate period, when most of the students, including me, didn't get any chance to be seen by teachers. Only the top students who done well in every subject could attend special courses exclusively designed for them because the school wanted them to achieve great success in national college entrance examination, so that the school could prove and advertise itself. However, rest of the students were ignored, though they were working hard as well. As for us, the score of each subject was average, and we weren't really interested in even one of the discipline; besides, each weekend was filled with extra courses outside the school so we spared no time exploring our own interests.

And these education experiences elicited my thinking: what's wrong with the education? Students have made every effort to study, but they are still unclear about their future—job and dreams, and unclear about themselves—what I like, what kind of person I want to be.

All the experiences, feelings and thinking become my reason that I choose this program. I hope I can deconstruct the whole education system to find out the core problems and reconstruct an ideal one, which can help every student to enjoy learning, know themselves and achieve their dreams.