My stats

English is not my first language and it is not a strong course in the Brazilian curriculum; therefore, the English that I know has been learned on my own. I used to watch YouTube videos and play a video game called “Overwatch” to learn the language. I also read and wrote a lot until after 6 years I slowly became fluent in English. I took the TOEFL and scored 106 and also the Duolingo English Test in which I scored 150, so it was the second one I submitted. Moreover, I took the ACT and got a 31 yet I didn’t send it because Haverford is test-optional and I didn’t find my score super outstanding.

Extracurricular activities

The moment has arrived! I will present to you my top 3 extracurricular activities from what I feel pretty proud about.

My first activity is called “Pastoral Juvenil Marista”, part of the Marist group, a group of education schools around the world. I started this volunteering in 2021 with other six people, and after rebuilding the whole project, we achieved over 100 volunteers by April 2022. I was one of the lead coordinators who rebuilt the group and also helped the volunteers to do many projects. For instance, we did fundraising and ecological projects for a local community called Villa Torres, an underprivileged favela in my city. Also, we researched a very polluted river that goes through the community.

Secondly, I played varsity handball and varsity volleyball in my school, which got my team and me in a national competition where we did pretty well at handball.

Finally, another of my extracurriculars was tutoring. I taught history and current affairs to some public school students and did some current affairs lectures in my school in 2022. I also prepared some students for the entrance Brazilian exam, in that way showing my strong academic profile.

My essays

I spent a great amount of time trying to find the perfect topic to write a narrative essay; however, at the end of the day, I couldn’t feel convinced by any of my ideas, so I decided to write a montage essay.

I wrote about everything I learned while being raised just by my mother. For each paragraph, I narrated a different short story that illustrated how her values and actions shaped who I am today and created many of my passions. I pictured how she inspired my compassion, curiosity, political interests, and resilience against hardships. It wasn’t an easy or comfortable thing to write; however, I think that’s what makes a good personal statement: Showing vulnerability and persistence.

Regarding supplemental essays, there were two I had to write for Haverford. The first one asked about one intellectual curiosity and how I wanted to explore that in college. So I started this essay by introducing a facade of my city, Curitiba, also known as the green and equal city in Brazil. I showed how growing up in an underprivileged Afro-Brazilian neighborhood destroyed that facade entirely since I always had to struggle and go to white neighborhoods to access an education of quality. I focused on Curitiba’s present inequality as a result of centuries of decisions that could be changed, that I desired to change; therefore, I linked my city’s main issues with particular classes and programs that Haverford offers and focused on Latin American studies and how they were going to help me to improve my city.

On the other hand, the second supplemental essay asked me to connect my values with the college’s values. For this, I connected my humanitarian work and political action demonstrated in my volunteering, fundraising campaign, and activism with Haverford’s strong self-reliance, which means that students are responsible for their actions and honor code. I highlighted how I wanted to keep this self-governance and ability to impact in college.