how to write it change the world essay

Tips and Eight Examples for New Short Answer "Please share how you believe your experience at UT-Austin will prepare you to “Change the World” after you graduate."

Sailing in the outer Great Barrier Reef on The Condor

Not an admissions cycle goes by that UT doesn’t kick the ball into its own net. The application hasn’t even opened as of writing July 10, and they’re already off to a poor start. Let me tell you how I really feel because somebodies got to do it, and I know thousands of people and educators will share my frustrations.

In 2021 alone, they canceled many international applications without explanation, they were late releasing applications for transfers , and they always fail to adequately communicate to the public when decisions will be released. Starting in 2013, the Office of Admissions has shifted their priorities from informing the public to persuading students to apply and enroll. It’s a glorified sales position masquerading as “access” and “inclusion.”

Their appeals process is a black box that amounts to a lottery than anything specific to individual students. They randomly admitted previously rejected students over the summer of 2020 without explanation. In 2019, they added a fourth short answer in early August and then removed it after a week without explanation, and after hundreds of students had already applied.

When I worked for UT-Austin, they released PACE decisions without informing counselors like me that it was a new program. Much of my job as a counselor was answering for screw-ups and haphazard policy changes orchestrated by senior staff and enrollment managers who seem to love kicking own goals.

If this is your first time dealing with UT-Austin admissions, buckle up. It’s never a smooth ride.

One of the many ways that college admissions is rife with uncertainty, doubt, and anxiety is a direct result of inconsistent admissions policies and arbitrary changes. UT-Austin is unreliable, and elite universities everywhere are not interested in being transparent or accountable to the tax-paying public. It saddens me that my alma mater is so out of touch with society. They can get away with their excesses because they know the public is too timid to push back. There are no alternatives in the way that UC Berkeley competes with UC Los Angeles or the other research campuses.

UT without explanation and past their July 1 promise to release the topics has unveiled four new required short answers without emailing either high school counselors or prospective applicants on their mailing list. These late changes are typical for UT Admissions’s long tradition of breaking what doesn’t need to be fixed.

I share my initial frustrations in this video.

I have no doubt many thousands of students had already started and perhaps completed their essays. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the previous essay topics, and I see no upside in changing them. Changing topics is like when a restaurant changes their menus. New topics require retraining staff on a new topic where they won’t have any examples.

Each time a university changes their policies, hundreds of high school college advisors and counselors must adjust themselves. Inevitably, the lowest-income or most poorly resourced schools suffer the most during policy changes. Changing essay requirements directly harms diversity recruitment and creating a more inclusive campus. If UT and other elite universities were sincere about diversity recruitment, they would simplify their essay requirements.

Admissions reviewers were already behind with reading and scoring applications last year, and it’s almost certain that this new change will disrupt their bureaucracy and add even more inconsistency to the review process. UT-Austin admissions outcomes are bound to be even more unfair and inexplicable than usual.

In my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness , I argue that elite universities do not care about you. And UT-Austin is no exception.

In this post, I share some initial thoughts on the new topics, I provide tips for the Change the World essay, and I offer eight examples that could work for this new prompt.

Check out my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness and Youtube Channel

Fall 2022 UT-Austin Required Short Answer Questions

Major: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major? Leadership/Diversity: Describe how your experiences, perspectives, talents, and/or your involvement in leadership activities (at your school, job, community, or within your family) will help you to make an impact both in and out of the classroom while enrolled at UT. Change the World: The core purpose of The University of Texas at Austin is, "To Transform Lives for the Benefit of Society." Please share how you believe your experience at UT-Austin will prepare you to “Change the World” after you graduate. Special Circumstances: Please share background on events or special circumstances that you feel may have impacted your high school academic performance, including the possible effects of COVID-19.

Initial Thoughts and Criticisms of the Fall 2022 UT-Austin Short Answer Question

Two of them are essentially the same. One asks why you’re choosing your Major ( examples ), and the other is a hybrid essay on the previous Leadership ( examples ) and Diversity ( examples ) Short Answers. I like the Leadership/Diversity essay because some students in previous years struggled to discuss both. Now, you only have to share about either one.

If it were up to me, UT-Austin would have simplified requirements - an Essay A Tell Us Your Story, and the Major short answer only.

Will reviewers learn anything of critical importance from most of the other essays? I’m skeptical.

The COVID/Special Circumstances essay is perhaps the most bizarre inclusion, but for different reasons than Change the World. I have never, ever seen a university require students to discuss special circumstances. It is ALWAYS an option and NEVER a requirement, as was the case for UT-Austin last year. Three or four of my clients wrote the optional special circumstances essay last year, and none of my clients this year were intending to write it. So far and fortunately, none of my clients have written about COVID traumas or tragedies.

Many students will feel compelled to make mountains out of molehills, and those who experienced significant trauma or hardship may either be reluctant to share their experiences or lack the language and writing ability to do so. The special circumstances topic is similar to an old “academics” short answer question that they replaced because it was a bad topic. I’m hoping that them requiring a special circumstances essay was a mistake and they are not requiring students to discuss COVID or other disruptions.

The Change the World Short Answer Question is easily the most absurd and poorly worded prompt I’ve seen in my decade working in and around college admissions, and that includes the Essay B topic I wrote in 2007 discussing a hypothetical roommate (relevant This American Life episode). They’ve taken the most common student essay cliche of “what starts here changes the world” and made an entire topic out of it. The only situation where this prompt may be appropriate is as a Forty Acres Scholarship question.

The essay also presents a challenge to forecast far into the future but in vague ways that are non-specific to your career or academic goals. They could have asked any number of related, more direct questions like why are you applying to UT, discuss a time you’ve made a difference in your home or community, or reflect on how you hope to grow in college. I’m not entirely sure what UT wants from this prompt, and I don’t think they do either.

At age 18, I never imagined that I might be “changing the world” by criticizing a stupid essay question asking students how they will change the world, but here we are. I didn’t know what an Office of Admissions was until I interviewed for the position.

Who cooked up this non-sense? We’ll never know. I’m 100% certain nobody working in UT admissions imagined in high school that they’d be “transforming lives” by becoming a middling bureaucrat. What Starts Here Changes The World seems not to apply to the entity responsible for admitting and enrolling their future students.

Tens of thousands of students will be forced to eat this half-baked essay pie. Implied in the prompt is a special kind of arrogance and exceptionalism that out-of-state or international students will give a damn about UT’s motto. To them, UT is just one university among many, and they may rightly wonder - “Who cares? Every university on my list probably hopes their graduates will change the world and transform lives.”

An insidious, speculative interpretation of the “change the world” prompt is that UT’s marketing and recruitment team are planting subtle seeds for students to imagine themselves on campus. Like a car dealer who wants you to imagine yourself taking home a new Mercedes and surprising the husband and kids - just come on in for a test drive - this new prompt is a subtle way for students to envision themselves as UT. That softens them up for aggressive recruitment and marketing techniques that UT and universities everywhere utilize. After all, who wouldn’t want to buy a service that offers the tantalizing possibility of changing the world and cementing your legacy?

I have no doubt that UT will directly tie their admissions sales pitch into this new “change the world” prompt. UT’s Office of Enrollment Management and Student Success has an incentive to increase their yield rate, or the number of admitted students who enroll. Like almost everything else in our highly consumerist society, marketing seeps deeply and almost undetectably into the fabric of our collective consciousness.

I also have no doubt the average essay will be even more poorly written than usual , and I pity the admissions counselors that are going to have to sift through what will be mostly terrible essays. What that means for you as an applicant is that if you do even a little bit better than mediocre, your essay may stand out from the pack.

The painful reality implicit in the prompt is that most people go on to live normal, unremarkable lives. And that’s okay. Not everyone needs to sit at the front of the bus or stand in front of a tank. Especially with Gen Z graduating in a pandemic, many young people are simply trying to stay afloat, pay the bills, and maintain their wellbeing and sanity. Finding a job that pays a living wage rather than your “dream job” is the most realistic possibility for many.

Implicit in the prompt is a tone-deaf assumption that everyone has the privilege to realize their dreams. Having the courage to change the world often requires the privilege of wealth and/or graduating debt-free. One reason I could take so many big risks in my life, despite growing up in a non-college-going community with parents who are not professionals nor college-educated, is that I had the utter good fortune that my grandma paid for the education of the grandkids and me. I also could live at home for the two and a half years I worked for UT admissions and save money.

I hope that somebody writes an honest answer: “I can change the world if you don’t saddle me with a lifetime of crippling student loan debt. Could I have a full ride, please?”

I will likely have more ideas as students begin engaging with the prompt and produce drafts. Consider these tips to help answer this absurd, awful, terrible, and vague prompt.

Reframe or expand the question

One key phrase in the prompt reads: “To transform lives for the benefit of society.” This is a kind of “vision or value statement” that is problematic in its own way, which I discuss in this Admissions Madness blog post.

UT’s “core purpose” has a subset of “ core values .” You can answer the prompt by referencing or reflecting on one of these values:

Learning — A caring community, all of us students, helping one another grow. Discovery — Expanding knowledge and human understanding. Freedom — To seek the truth and express it. Leadership — The will to excel with integrity and the spirit that nothing is impossible. Individual Opportunity — Many options, diverse people and ideas, one university. Responsibility — To serve as a catalyst for positive change in Texas and beyond.

Other ways to reframe the question are to consider similar kinds of essay prompts. consider Carnegie Mellon’s college experience prompt: “As you think ahead to the process of learning during your college years, how will you define a successful college experience?”

You could answer it in a straightforward “Why UT?” or “what is a meaningful volunteering or extracurricular experience you hope to continue in college?”

The takeaway is not to get too caught up on the clunky, vague, awkward wording of the prompt. College essay questions are merely an invitation to write and not a box meant to constrain you.

Do not repeat content written in the other essays

Another reason why this prompt is tricky is that it will be a challenge to not overlap too much with your other essays. A common mistake students make is writing about, for example, robotics in Essay A, and then writing about the same aspect of robotics in your Major short answer. Essay topics and your words are like finite, scarce resources that you need to deploy strategically. You don’t want to waste space with redundant content.

Relate previous experiences to future goals

The most straightforward way I see to answer this prompt is to reference concrete experiences from your recent past or continuing into the present that you hope to continue at UT. Reframe the vague prompt by making it concrete.

Generally speaking, effective college essays reference specific experiences in your life. Share about a time you solved a problem, collaborated with a group on a project, or created something that helped simplify the lives of you or others.

You can argue through simile that “this experience in the past is like this problem I hope to solve in the future.” Showing how you are already solving problems now can help you connect why UT could help you solve problems in the future.

Answer the prompt directly

UT trademarked the “ what starts here changes the world” brand in 2005. You can read more about their branding scheme here. Investigating the origins and usage of this mantra could help.

But I’m already cringing at the thought of myriad essay responses leading with “What Starts Here Changes the World! I was inspired by William McRaven/Brene Brown/a UT football game, and I’ve been a lifelong Longhorn fan!” Or something banal and cliche. So my first piece of advice - don’t do this. With my clients, I will strike it from their submission.

If you still want to go down this road, it will help to actually read and comment on McRaven’s commencement speech ( video and text ) rather than referencing empty platitudes.

Narrow the scope of “changing the world” to changing your community, neighborhood, or family and discuss an issue of importance

This tip is a variation of the “ think global, act local ” mantra. Narrowing the scope of the prompt might help make it feel less overwhelming about solving world hunger or climate change. It will also help avoid vagueness or generalities about helping the planet.

When you can point to specific issues or problems in your community, you can make your essay concrete by suggesting how you have already helped solve those problems or how you might want to address them in the future. A UT or college education can help you understand broader structural or global contexts, which is often essential for addressing issues in your community or neighborhood.

It can also help to identify an issue of importance related to your major like social inequality, mental health, energy extraction and storage, medical ethics, civil conflict, women in STEM, etc.

Highlight how UT courses, certificates, study abroad, research opportunities, etc. can help you address local or global problems

One benefit of a UT education is that it provides a world-class education regardless of your major or department. Taking advantage of interdisciplinary certificates or courses outside of your major will help equip you with a variety of perspectives and tools necessary for addressing complex issues. Most essays should try and find some way that UT can specifically help them in the future. This topic most clearly to me seems like a “Why UT” essay even if that overlaps with the second prompt on diversity/leadership.

I share in-depth thoughts in this post about incorporating Why UT statements in your essays.

Visualize your dream life

I have used the language “dream life” rather than “dream job” here. For many, a dream job is a luxury and something that will never be attainable for economic or family reasons. Instead, consider sharing about what your dream life might look like. For example, what changes would need to happen at a societal level to ensure fairness or access to basic necessities? What might a world look like where everyone can receive a high-quality education, and what steps might be needed to get there?

Imagining your dream life can help situate your place in solving those problems. Visualizing carbon sequestration, efficient water desalination processes, advances in hydrogen power or fusion, distributing funds through a Universal Basic Income scheme, solving autonomous driving problems, eliminating infant mortality, curing tropical diseases, ensuring justice in the legal system, protecting online privacy, or your role in addressing any other ambitious social or technological problem. That may or may not be a job. You could frame it as finding your calling, which opens the possibility of service, art or music, or becoming a social entrepreneur.

In a way, this prompt could elicit responses similar to the old Apply Texas Essay C “you have a ticket in your hand. Where will you go?”

Write another essay about Major, Leadership, or Diversity

If all else fails and you’re feeling stumped, just write another essay about your area of study, a leadership experience, or a unique perspective or talent you will bring to campus. I think a lot of applicants will worry whether they are “answering the prompt,” but again, essay questions are invitations to write and not constraints on what you can share. This essay could be your opportunity to share content you feel is essential about you but that doesn’t fit well into the other prompts. Basically, write whatever you want, and don’t worry about the actual topic.

It isn’t your fault UT is making you write a stupid prompt. If you’re feeling ballsy, maybe write about how you hope to change the world by speaking truth to power for unresponsive bureaucracies who submit you to their whims and inconsistent policies.

Eight Change the World Short Answer Question Example Essays

I’ve provided eight examples that could work for the new Change The World prompt. I’ve adapted them from other essay topics. You can see a wide variety of approaches, and not all students are certain of their future career. One reason I despise this prompt is it reinforces the unfair expectation that teenagers need to have their lives figured out and somehow envision how they will change the world.

Another problem is the social desirability bias that lingers in almost every topic whereby students feel compelled to share how their academic or professional interests will somehow benefit society. Prompts like this pressure students feel to link everything they’re writing into their major or connect their major into pro-social values such as service or philanthropy. These pressures produce a sea of Computer Science or Finance majors writing difficult-to-believe essays about how search engine optimization or credit default swaps will save the world.

Still, most of the examples speak broadly about underlying characteristics, assumptions to challenge, or possible issues to confront. Some, but not all, reference specific UT opportunities or resources that will help them “change the world.” I haven’t provided commentary under each one because I have already provided general tips above.

Architecture and Advocacy

I was always that student who tried a little bit of this and that to explore and be adventurous. After completing dozens of 3D models, one architecture-related honors thesis, two summer programs, and work experience, I realized that architecture brings me unparalleled fulfillment. I love architecture for its creativity and intrinsic relationship with other fields of my interests. It is a subject that minges together science, art, humanity, and history to create a shelter for the world. I might forget the solution to a calculus question, but I will always remember the visualizations of my Columbia summer program's professor. He conveyed theories by showing a picture of a ramp and stairs and asking us which we would choose to enter the building. One critical interpretation he offered is that ramps symbolize slaughterhouses and that stairs distinguish humans from domesticated animals. My most transformative experience was visiting the Libeskind's modern Jewish Museum Berlin. It consists of a tower with a single light source that captures the helplessness of Holocaust victims, a tilted foundation with concrete pillars that show oppression, and a pathway paved with metallic crying faces that create distorted sounds. The deconstructivist style conveys an aspect of Jewish-Berlin history: humanity reduced to ashes. Libeskind’s tactile representations reminded me of my childhood habit of always touching the walls and floors of old buildings, seeing it as a way to resonate with past inhabitants. I learned that architecture is not merely about design, but also sensation, culture, history, and narrative. Especially during our current chaotic times, architecture and imagery stimulate social awareness and difficult discussions. They inspire my qualitative research on the visualization of depression through architectural spaces, and I hope to continue to address complex global, societal, and ecological problems through an architectural perspective.

Multidisciplinary Perspectives

With a final swipe, I lathered electric blue paint on the last blank spot on the MDF. Beaming, my Eagle Project crew and I exchanged high-fives. It took two years, but we’d finally completed the Story Steps. Freshman year, Jackson Ridge Elementary requested me to build a structure to hold class assemblies. The problem statement dictated that it must fit within 200 square feet and seat thirty students. Having recently learned CAD-modeling in my Engineering elective, I designed a mini-amphitheater dubbed “Story Steps”. Collaborating heavily with my scoutmaster and the Walnut Creek librarian, I created nineteen different Story Step iterations, adding guardrails to improve safety and swapping treated lumber for MDF panel to boost durability and curb cost. We considered seven colors before opting for a cheerful blue that matched Walnut Creek’s mascot, a diving eagle. Many former Eagle Scouts warned me of project bureaucracy. I dispatched hundreds of emails and navigated a morass of troop, council, and district approvals, diligently tracking all of my expenses from numerous trips to Home Depot, and organizing a mail fundraiser to cover them. The profuse paper-pushing paid off. Thanks to a scaled prototype I pre-built alongside a meticulous assembly line, two years of planning culminated in five hours of work, leaving us enough time to chow down on Domino’s pepperoni pizza afterward. Occupying a generalist role in my Eagle Scout project -- designer, builder, accountant, project-manager -- fits my jack-of-all-trades abilities. I eagerly absorb information in my AP Physics and Calculus classes, but I also relish learning about ancient government systems in AP World History. I’m the team-utility tool who’s willing to work behind-the-scenes and crank out the coding gruntwork like at my NASA SEES Internship, but I’m also comfortable public speaking, like presenting our group’s hypothetical Mars mission proposal to my Engineering class. Chatting about fantasy football over lunch comes as naturally as deconstructing a fantasy novel in AP English. I can recite 66 digits of pi from memory, but I also love fencing and competing in a game of H-O-R-S-E with my friends. I’ll bump Travis Scott and Young Thug, but I can also play Chopin’s Mazurka on the piano. At times I feel like a “master-of-none”, but I’m excited about enrolling at UT to expand my curiosities and explore deeply. Unlike most of my already highly-specialized peers, I invite pivoting into the unknown. Generalists can develop specialties but not all specialists can spread out into generalists. The COVID-19 pandemic teaches me that changing the world requires a flexible mindset and an openness to new ideas and unfamiliar disciplines.

Sustainable Development

My journey accompanying my family in developing large planned communities, emphasizing responsible construction, and promoting sustainable living associated with forestry agriculture in Brazil, reached its climax when I finally could influence the company's directors that it's our social responsibility to build affordable housing with the same amenities allotted to high-income clients living in gated communities. On a continent with complicated relationships between money, corruption, and the environment, I'm proud that we have just received approval for twenty-three thousand apartments intended for low-income families on a beautiful property. It's challenging to escape crime and poverty when there aren't affordable housing alternatives, let alone options with bike lanes, public transport access, and a low carbon footprint. I have participated as an intern, together with junior architects and engineers, to develop LEED-certified buildings that will provide affordable housing integrated with nature to families at risk of violence living in favelas. The new first-time property owners will benefit from open park spaces, biking trails, sports fields, shopping centers, locally-owned restaurants, schools, churches, lakes, and orchards planted within the remaining Atlantic Forest surrounding it. It gives me meaning to assist with the agricultural forestry projects to create orchards within the remaining and recently restored Atlantic Forest surrounding the new community. Following the forest's recovery project's implementation and observing the birds' return, like colorful toucans, to this newly restored and abundant paradise fills my heart with joy. I hope that my small contribution to developing the new residential complex will help families live safely and with dignity. What starts locally can change the world globally.

Combating Prejudice, Anti-Semitism, and Discrimination

In seventh grade, the night before Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, a few friends and I received a text message from an unknown number saying that Jewish people should die. It spread like wildfire throughout the school, and within hours, local police confiscated our cell phones and identified the sender of the anti-Semitic text message. It shocked me to learn it came from Joseph, a Catholic boy I rode the school bus with since kindergarten. As a proud and active member in my Jewish community where I spent years in Hebrew school learning about anti-Semitism, it boggled my mind to experience such bigotry first hand. After family discussions with the prosecutor’s office and the Anti-Defamation League, we concluded that, rather than prosecuting Joseph’s behavior as a hate crime, we needed to treat his offense as ignorance stemming from a lack of awareness. I was also shocked to learn that his parents denied his actions and I even saw Joseph on the school bus the next day after he was suspended by the district. It was clear that education would be the only way to create change. As a consequence, Joseph was required to participate in monthly anti-bias classes at my local synagogue and have conversations with Holocaust survivors. A key reason I’m applying to UT Austin is because of the vibrant and charitable Jewish Longhorn community. I intend to take an active role with Rabbi Zev of the Chabad Jewish Student Center to educate others about ongoing anti-Semitism. Belonging to the UT White Rose Society, which raises awareness of the Holocaust and genocide prevention, would also further my commitment to learning from history to teach others. I want to do my part alongside like-minded advocates to achieve racial and religious equality while contributing to an inclusive atmosphere that welcomes diverse communities, especially those who have historically been marginalized. I understand what it is like to be targeted because of my religion, and I want to do my part in proclaiming “never again.”

Religion at Home and Abroad

Like many San Antonians, I was raised Catholic, but I thankfully come from a very religiously open-minded family, unlike many in my school and community. My mom encouraged me to read the Torah and Quran in between Bible verses. We made a “Stopplebeen” pilgrimage in the summer of 2019 to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. Our colorful Israeli guide Dror introduced himself. “I am a tank commander in the Israeli Defense Force. My tank is inside a mountain. If the secret word is messaged to me or put on the radio, my crew and I will report to the cave in the mountain.” With our tour guide, I volunteered to read verses from his Bible when we visited the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus reportedly fed 5,000 people with five bread loaves and two fish. I read verses from the English Quran detailing Muhammad’s epic Night Journey before visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s hotly-contested Temple Mount. I assume visiting Al-Aqsa with a Palestinian guide contrasted touring Jewish sites with Dror. In Jerash, Jordan, traveling to Roman ruins offered opportunities to buy “real” Roman coins just like the “authentic” Native American arrowheads in Missouri. Seeing the Middle East in person obfuscates the conflict lines. Approaching the Wailing Wall requires passing through Muslim-owned shops alongside a Zionist museum. Our Israeli guide assured our safety from “heathenous” Muslims by pointing out armed guards. The only thing the three religions seem to agree on is falafel. Israel’s recent peace agreement with long-time rival the UAE further complicates the landscape, but my visit to the Middle East helps bring to life current events. Going overseas reinforced my curiosity for foreign languages and their necessity for digging deeper into different cultures. I’m currently in AP Spanish Literature and my third year of high school French. I dabble in German and Arabic in my spare time and test new language waters on Duolingo. What excites me most about college is studying abroad. UT’s Hautes Etudes Commerciales international business program in Jouy-en-Josas, France, will allow me to build my BHP core while having my first experiences practicing street French. Exploring my Catholic roots in a Plan II Rome Maymester will provide further context to my religion and culture. Finally, I plan to join the Global Business Bridge (GBB) to contribute my foreign language and cross-cultural skills and address global challenges in African and Latin American countries.

Rejecting Religious Dogma

It seemed like the next logical step in my commitment to Christian ethics would involve enrolling at Liberty University. It all made sense in my head: join my senior girlfriend, learn an integrated Christian and secular curriculum, and collaborate with the next generation of Christian leaders. I attended their “One Weekend” in late February 2020, a three-day two-night immersion into hypocritical propaganda masquerading as a sincere commitment to the Gospel. Liberty feels like the imitation of a legitimate college campus. At first glance, everything appears orderly and spotless, a confident image of elegance. It’s neoclassical architecture seems nice enough, but if you look beyond the finely mowed grass, you see bricks-missing potholed pathways and dirty, neglected common rooms. Unnaturally separating buildings feels cold and empty. It reflects President Jerry Falwell Jr’s hollowed faith, sacrificing Christian values at the altar of Donald Trump and the alt-right. I questioned my decision to apply and enroll with the five or so other [private Christian school] classmates who attend each year. A recent graduate notorious for her toxic personality has unsurprisingly emerged as a leader on Liberty’s campus. Their student body presents a distorted reflection of human decency. It isn’t accidental that nearly every student I saw at the near-daily 8,000 student Convocation gathering at the Vine Center is white. Students stride with an air of dogma-enabled superiority. Newsflash Jerry: Jesus wasn’t white, and he definitely wouldn’t vote Republican. If God’s Kingdom is reserved solely for fake hetereosexual white people, I’d rather burn at a heathen “liberal” university where I can think critically and engage my doubts and beliefs, just like Jesus. More alarming than the lack of cultural diversity is the utter scarcity of diversity in thought. Everyone walks in lock step: same page, same opinion, same agenda, indoctrinated clockwork. I expressed interest in joining the “elite” worship team who treated me with insincerity and condescension because I didn’t pass some arbitrary purity test. How can Liberty claim to be a city on a hill broadcasting light across a dark world? I reject Liberty’s lukewarm Christianity in favor of thoughtful dialog and finding common ground with people from diverse cultural, religious, political, racial, and sex/gender backgrounds. Without thoughtful dialog, how can we ever hope to change the world for the better?

Arts and Sciences, Future Career Uncertain

I used to believe that absorbing lectures and memorizing information correlated directly with genuine learning. Early on, math stumped me because lectures droned on while I struggled to apply what we learned. However, in high school my algebra teacher shifted my mindset because she reinforced mastery of the material subsequently applied to increasingly complex problems. Understanding the underlying mechanics of advanced math allowed me to teach myself more advanced topics. Likewise, studying the sciences requires internalizing large amounts of content, elements, and formulas. Applying scientific concepts across domains comes more naturally to me than math. Although I eventually want to pursue a healthcare profession, what I love doing the most in my free time is writing. When I was a child, I wrote fantasy stories, and once, a full-length novel. Rereading my old works now, their premises and writing were quite simplistic, but I’ve stuck with it. My writing has matured through the experiences of growing older like newfound academic stress, social anxieties, and discovering my identity. I started submitting my writing to local events like PTA contests and later, to national ones such as the Lake Effect Poetry Contest. It takes courage for other people to read your writing, so competitions encourage me to be more creative and mindful of communicating life’s complexities to people who don’t know me. I’m excited for an interdisciplinary education at UT since it has renowned professors in essentially every subject. I look forward to taking Professor Davis’s course on social thought and the history of feminism and political philosophy with Professor Deigh. COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of medical ethics, so social work and Plan II Professor Sonnenberg’s humanities approach to medicine appeals to me. My creative background will contribute to science courses, and I can bring scientific approaches to liberal arts discussions. Breaking down departmental boundaries is essential for addressing complex global problems like public health and climate change. I’m unsure of my future career, but I hope to tackle humanity’s Biggest Questions.

Issue of Importance

We live in a modern Gilded Age. Amazon can deliver motion detecting toilet seat lights in a couple of hours, but it depends on a legion of overworked warehouse workers. They may earn $15 an hour or higher, but with fewer protections to cover long-term disability. Turnover in fulfillment centers remains high, and Amazon is notoriously opaque about sharing injury or COVID rates. Journalists and documentarians brought awareness to sweatshop factories that supply our global fashion and electronics supply change. Rising inequality and a shrunken middle class follow from the logic of global capitalism. Uber’s refusal to classify drivers as employees symbolizes prioritizing shareholder profits over basic human decency. Protecting workers in the gig and technology economy are society’s most pressing issues. Former Facebook Exec. Chamath Palihapatiya says “150 people run the world… almost all are men and white.” Shoshana Zuboff calls technologists like Bezos and Zuckerberg the “high priests of surveillance capitalism.” Digital ethicists like Tristan Harris push back against the “move fast and break things” ethos, but at the top of corporate boards and senior engineering teams, there appears to be little diversity of thought. Although consumers like you and I become the raw materials for data gathering, “essential workers” form the backbone of our digital feudalism. Understanding the human psyche and the history of capitalism requires Plan II’s courses in Anthropology and Economics. History teaches us that the pace of change may be a matter of degree rather than kind, and learning from other countries in non-US history courses helps explore “Where did society go wrong?” and “What can we do to fix it?” together. Education and awareness is a prerequisite for resisting technology’s tug and advocating for the least fortunate locally and globally.

Interested in working together?

If I Could Change the World Essay: Examples & Writing Guide

To write an engaging “If I Could Change the World” essay, you have to get a few crucial elements:

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What? How? Whom? When? Where?
The essay structure that determines where each answer should be;
Some tips that can make your writing unique and original.

Let us help you a bit and give recommendations for “If I Could Change the World” essays with examples. And bookmark our writing company website for excellent academic assistance and study advice.

🗯 What Would You Change?
💁‍♂️ How Would You Do It?

👉 Whom Would Your Changes Affect?

⏱️ when would you change the world, 🌎 where would you make changes, 📦 out-of-the-box thinking, 🤔 deep understanding, 🧠 an intelligible structure, 🗣️ excellent language.

📝 Essay Example

✏️ Change the World Essay FAQ

🔗 references, 💡 if i could change the world essay: essential questions.

What do you think about the world we are all living in? The vast majority of people love their lives, being human, and living on the Earth. They may have no time to think about the world around them or notice that this world requires changes.

And do you have time to notice this? Do you believe that our world is no longer the best and safest place to live in? If you do and have some suggestions on how our world can be changed, you can write a good “If I Could Change the World” essay.

Start crafting your paper by considering these questions:

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If I could change the world essay questions.

Answering them will boost your imagination and help with outlining your essay. Besides, you may find something new about yourself and your mind.

🗯 If You Could Change the World, What Would You Change?

What do I want to change in the world? Start this essay with those particular things that you believe require fixing. We are sure you will not have difficulties with this point because the problems we face these days seem endless.

We’ve gotten used to having such problems, and many people are sure that nothing can ever change. But what if millions of people became more conscious and decided to make even a minor effort to solve just one problem? In that case, we would already live in a better place.

For example:

Why not mention global warming or air pollution? There are plenty of problems common to humanity that require our intervention, so essay writing about global issues is also a great opportunity to narrow down your topic.

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Use your imagination and describe your great ideas in your essay about changing the world for better. You could build up a fantastic paper—or maybe even change the world.

💁‍♂️ How Would You Change the World?

What ways do you think would be the most effective to make necessary changes? Whose help might you need? You have to speculate, “How can I change the world?” for the essay.

You’ll have to use your imagination here again:

Delve deeper into the topic. List the ways, methods, or strategies you’d utilize to help the world we live in.
Make a list of these people or organizations.
Explain how they could contribute to achieving your aim.

For instance, you could consider involving global charities or celebrities to assist you on your path to a better world.

Would your changes influence society in the world? Or some particular groups of people would need them more than all the others?

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

This is another exciting idea that you could develop in your essay. Give insight into whose lives your actions would change. For example, you could think of improving the lives of poor, hungry children in Africa or helping animals suffering from global warming.

Do you think that the problems you are talking about require immediate solutions? There are issues worldwide that can’t wait any longer and need to be changed urgently.

Why not discuss them?

Here’s an idea: Bring up a topic related to a pressing global health issue. For example, focus your main point on incurable diseases or infectious diseases that annually kill more than 17 million people .

In what part of the world would you change something?

It’s essential to touch on the location of your global changes. Are you audacious enough to implement your great ideas worldwide? Or would you be better off starting in a small area and eventually growing it into something on a larger scale?

Consider these ideas as well, and don’t forget to mention the location in your paper.

You can also read our article on world peace to learn more about current problems and issues that require changes.

✒️ If I Could Change the World Essay: Writing Guide

What are the criteria that guide your professor when evaluating your “If I Could Change the World” essay? Are there any one-size-fits-all characteristics you can safely incorporate to end up with a breathtaking paper?

There are! And knowing them will help you write more convincing essays that earn better grades.

Representing your original thinking as an author doesn’t mean that you have to invent something new or discover some unknown theory. Not to discourage you, but chances of doing that are pretty small.

Try writing a “changing the world” essay different from other students’ papers because of its original approach . You could look at things from an unusual angle or come up with a new hypothesis. Even the purpose of your writing can differ if you add creativity.

Your “If I Could Change the World” essay topic is a platform for unlimited imagination and original thinking. Go ahead and make the most of it!

A perfect essay about the world’s problems—just like any other essay—shows in-depth knowledge. Demonstrate the comprehension of all the facts, concepts, and issues you’re talking about. You also need to clearly understand why these ideas matter, both to you and your reader.

To end up with a fantastic “changing the world” essay, you should do the following:

Craft and polish a persuasive thesis, stating your position clearly.
Find credible sources to add quotes and value to your writing.
Use engaging, relevant facts for your arguments and central hypothesis.
Consider and analyze different viewpoints.
Summarize and synthesize data from various sources.
Double-check information that you’re uncertain about.
Write a reference list at the bottom of your essay.

Don’t forget to analyze and consider all points of view and include quotations from reputable sources.

The first and foremost thing to bear in mind when outlining your essay is that it should answer the following three questions:

Also, a high-quality essay contains all of the necessary parts of an academic paper:

Introduction : Starts with a hook that grabs the reader’s attention. Directs the reader, identifies the focus, and provides the context of the issue. Most importantly, it includes a thesis statement. If you struggle with this part, try to make use of a thesis statement generator .
Main body : Provides the argumentation for your thesis and supporting details. Includes quotes and other data that you’ve gathered. Every paragraph starts with a topic sentence and ends with a concluding one, tying the text together.
Conclusion : Restates and develops the thesis and summarizes the arguments. Gives the last impression on the reader, leaving the final thoughts in the concluding sentences. May include a call for action.

Your “If I Could Change the World” essay should have a consistent discussion and a balanced argument. Relevant facts and data should support all the points. The conclusion weighs your evidence and provides your final opinion about the paper’s central idea.

Your discussion should be smooth and effortless so that your readers feel like they are in safe hands. The sentences should be flowing naturally and logically from one to the other. The reader should understand everything from the first read. Do not deviate from your topic, or else the focus of your essay will be lost.

You should strive for flawless grammar, spelling, and punctuation, without mistakes or typos. To ensure its flawlessness, proofread your paper or ask someone to do it for you.

If I Could Change the World: Essay Topics

Can one person change the world?
What can we do to eliminate the global violence ?
How I would change animal rights and welfare laws .
Helping homeless people is a critical task for humanity.
Becoming a social service assistant is the best way to change the world.
Creativity can change the world and make it a better place to live in.
If I could change the world, I would destroy nuclear weapons .
Can courage change the world when the cost is so great?
We need to stop climate change to save the world.
What I can do to save the world from global warming .
The things I would do to eliminate gaming addiction from the world.
I would save the Earth from destruction by making changes in an energy crisis .
Why we should pay more attention to the overpopulation problem .
Fighting inflation and unemployment is a way to change the world.
What I can do today to help integration of children with special needs .
Elimination of smoking will change the population’s health for the better.
If we want to save the Earth, we should reduce air polution .
The best career choice to change the world.
If I could change the world, I would improve the humanity and nature relationship .
The most important thing I would change about this world is the disease prevention level .
Combat the growing trend of obesity to improve health in the community.
Should we ban consumable plastics to save oceans wildlife?
Using electric vehicles instead of gas cars will improve people’s life quality.
Removing domestic violence and abuse is the thing I would do to change the world.
What I would change to create an ideal society .
Becoming a teacher is my way of improving schooling for young learners .
How I would change the economic situation in modern Latin America .
My plans on banning experiments on animals .
Preparing effective tools to change the children’s world .
We need to change the system to remove health disparities .
What I would do to change the situation with alcohol abuse in the world.
Racism is the global issue that requires an immediate change.
The things that can be done to change the level of substance abuse among adolescents .
If I could change the world, I would remove gender inequality from it.
The solution to social problems within educational institutions is the change we should make in this world.
What changes can we make to overcome the world poverty ?
Why it’s important to resolve the global water crisis .
The solution of immigrant problems is a step towards a better society.
How eliminating corruption will make this world better.
What can I do to help resolve the problems of older adults ?
Lowering crime rates will change the world.
How I would change the situation with indigenous Australians .
Preventing and curing breast cancer is one of the greatest concerns in modern society.
What can we do to prevent disease outbreaks ?
Why the problem of school violence requires our immediate attention.
How I would change the food distribution to combat the issue of world hunger .
Why we should promote renewable energy sources.
Terrorism is the most urgent problem in modern society.
What would I do to change the situation with school bullying?
What should we change in the world to resolve the problems of LGBT people ?

📝 If I Could Change the World: Essay Example

In this section, you’ll find an essay example on the topic. The downloadable PDF version is under the preview. Hope it will inspire you to write your own If I Could Change the World essay!

If I Could Change the World: Pros and Cons (Essay Example)

The idea of having a tremendous influence on the course of the world history is rather tempting since it implies huge power and the availability of any resource possible. Thus, the possibility of changing the world might be perceived solely as a positive concept at first. However, without the ability to encompass and understand the global implications of the changes that I would make, I would take the actions that would most likely result in the suffering of multiple people, which is why the described scenario is highly undesirable.

Now that you know a little more, it’s easy to come up with even more “If I Could Change the World” essay topics. Just think about them carefully or surf the web for some inspiration.

Thank you for reading till the end! Leave your comment in the section below. Share the article with friends who also have to write an “If I Could Change the World” essay.

Essays About Change: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

If you are writing essays about change, see below our best essay examples and writing prompts to help expand your horizon on this topic.

The only thing constant is change. It could be good or bad. It could be short-term or have a lasting impact. The best we can do is to ride on this inevitable and never-ending cycle of change and try coming out of it still standing, thriving, and smiling. This ability to cope with change is called resilience.

However, some changes – such as the loss of a loved one or a livelihood — are too overwhelming to deal with that some fall into trauma and depression, in which case psychological support is highly encouraged. Read on to see our round-up of rich, well-written essays about change, and a list of helpful prompts follows to help you start your essay.

1. “The Psychology Of Dealing With Change: How To Become Resilient” by Kathleen Smith

2. how prison changes people by christian jarrett, 3. six ways the workplace will change in the next 10 years by jordan turner, 4. “social movements for good: what they are and how to lead them” by derrick feldman, 5. “the right way to make a big career transition” by utkarsh amitabh, 1. changing your lifestyle for the better, 2. be the change the world needs, 3. adapting to life-changing events, 4. addressing climate change, 5. how did technology change our daily lives, 6. people who changed the world, 7. if you could change the world, 8. dealing with resistance to change, 9. coming-of-age novels, 10. changing your eating habits.

“If you can learn to cope with change, you’ll lower your risk for anxiety and depression. Your relationships will flourish, and your body will feel healthier. But if you can’t cope with change, only a minor amount of stress can make you feel overwhelmed by life. You might also struggle to set and meet the goals you have for yourself.”

Instead of fixating on events and people over which we do not have the power to control, we should focus on ourselves and how we can embrace change without fear. Some tips in this essay include practicing self-care, being in the present, and focusing on your priorities, such as health and well-being.

Check out these essays about being grateful and essays about heroes .

“Ultimately, society may be confronted with a choice. We can punish offenders more severely and risk changing them for the worse, or we can design sentencing rules and prisons in a way that helps offenders rehabilitate and change for the better.”

In an environment where you are forced to follow the rules to the letter and worry about your safety and privacy daily, prisoners could develop a kind of “perpetual paranoia” or “emotional numbing” and deteriorate cognitive abilities. The essay suggests a rethink in how we deal with law-breakers to encourage reform rather than punish and risk repeat offenses.

Check out these essays about police brutality and essays about assessment .

“As technology closes the divide between geographically separate people, it introduces cracks in relationships and cultures. The remote distribution of work means that many employees will not build the same social relationships in the workplace, leading to issues of disengagement and loneliness.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted our way of work in our new normal, but more changes are yet to unfold. This essay looks into the future of work where responsibilities and demands will see a sea change; machines will be co-workers; and the best employee is defined by digital skills, not years of experience.

You might also like these essays about cinema and essays about jealousy .

“Social movements for good establish a mass platform of action for a population, which helps inform and cultivate the awareness necessary to help prevent an issue from affecting more people. True social movements for good have the power to generate awareness that produces tangible results, helping the general population live longer, more productive, happier lives.”

A social movement for good aims to bring social justice to an aggrieved community by calling for tangible support and resources. To accelerate a movement’s momentum, an effective leader must possess certain qualities in this essay.

“There were so many questions running through my head during this time. Why should I quit to make this my full-time job? Is this what I really want? When should I quit? Poet Mary Oliver’s words kept ringing in my head: ‘What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’”

Deciding on a career change is more complex than deciding whether you want to do something different. A career shift entails lifestyle, mindset, and motivation changes, each of which has to be carefully reassessed and prepared for. This essay guides you in deciding when or why it is right to leave your job.

10 Interesting Writing Prompts on Essays About Change

Below are thought-stimulating prompts to help with your essay:

Committing to regular exercise or getting to bed earlier may be easier said than done. Moreover, the determination that was burning at the start of your lifestyle change journey may wane in the latter part when things get tough. So, for your essay, provide practical tips from wellness experts and your own experience on how to sustain a routine toward a better lifestyle. You can split your essay into sections for each health and wellness tip you recommend.

This is the gist of the famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “be the change you wish to see in the world.” Unfortunately, many of us get frustrated over people refusing to change but fail to see how this change should start with our perception and action. In this essay, write about what an individual can do to focus more on self-improvement and development.

Have you ever faced a situation where you had to adapt to a drastic change? It could be moving to a different city or school or dealing with losing a loved one. Share your experience and list the traits and practices that helped you through this challenging phase. You may also research what psychologists recommend people to do to keep from falling into depression or developing anxiety.

To offer a unique highlight in your essay, tackle what your school or community is doing to fight global warming. Interview city councilors and mayors and learn about ongoing initiatives to keep the city clean and green. So this essay could help entice others in your community to work together and volunteer in initiatives to slow climate change.

List down the advantages and disadvantages technology has presented in your life. For example, seeking clarification from teachers about an assignment has been made easier with the many communication channels available. However, technology has also enabled a work-at-home or distance learning arrangement that is causing burnout in many households.

Feature a person who has revolutionized the world. It could be a scientist, artist, activist, writer, economist, athlete, etc. Preferably, it is someone you idolize, so you do not have to start from scratch in your research. So first, provide a short profile of this person to show his life and career background. Then, write about their ultimate contribution to society and how this continues to benefit or inspire many.

If there’s one thing you could change in this world, what would it be? This sounds like a question you’d hear in pageants, but it could be a creative way to lay down your life advocacy. So, explain why this is where you want to see change and how this change can improve others’ lives.

Resistance to change is most common when companies modernize, and the dinosaurs in the office refuse to learn new digital platforms or systems. Write about what you think leaders and human resource units should do to help employees cope with changes in the new normal.

A coming-of-age novel tells stories of protagonists who grow up and undergo character transformation. From being eaten up by their fears, the main heroes become braver and better at confronting a world that once intimidated them. For this prompt, share your favorite coming-of-age novel and narrate the changes in the hero’s qualities and beliefs.

Delivering fast food has become so easy that, for many, it has become a way of life, making it an enormous challenge to replace this practice with healthy eating habits. So, research and write about nutritionists’ tips on creating a lifestyle and environment conducive to healthy eating habits.

If you’re still stuck picking an essay topic, check out our guide on how to write essays about depression . For more ideas, you can check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

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If I Could Change the World: Essay Outline & Guideline

There are a few crucial elements involved in this essay writing. The How? What? When? Whom? and Where? These are the questions that define this essay. The structure of the paper determines the perfect place for the answers to each of the above. If you have good tips provided by IBuyEssay professionals, you can write an original and unique essay.

Argumentative essay outline: important questions

What are your thoughts on the world we live in? Many people cherish their lives, earthly living things, and being human. A good number of the world population may lack time to think and focus on the world surrounding them. They may not notice that the world needs changes.

Does time allow you to realize this? Do you have a feeling or a belief that the world around you aren’t safe as before? When you have a couple of suggestions on how to change the earth, then you can write the essay “If I could change the world.”

If I Could Change the World: essay ideas

Begin writing your essay by addressing specific things that you believe require changes. You won’t encounter problems on these points since they are the problems that we face every day.

These problems have been here with us for a long until some people assume they can’t change anymore. What if all the people in the world gained consciousness and agreed to address one problem? In such a case, the world will be an excellent place to live.

An excellent of a problem to address is air pollution or global warming. Many issues exist that affect humanity and need your intervention. Writing an essay on change the world is an excellent chance to narrow down your essay topic. Imagine and describe the significant points in the paper on making the world a better place. You will build a perfect essay on change the world.

What will you do to change the world?

What is the most appropriate way to bring the changes? Whom will you seek for help? In this section, imagination is vital. Go deep into your topic and list the methods, ways, and strategies you will use to assist the world. To change the world, you need good resources. Think of the perfect person that will be of importance. Have a list of organizations and people and explain how they will boost your goal. You can involve some global celebrities and charities that will offer support.

Who will feel the impact of the changes?

Will your changes influence the whole society? Will some people need the changes more than others? It’s a good idea to include in your essay. Give clear indications of who will enjoy your actions. You can think of improving the lives of hungry African children. You can aim at helping animals facing global warming or improving the conditions of the poor.

When will you bring the changes?

Do your problems need immediate action? Discuss the worldwide issues that need urgent changes and can’t wait any longer. You can build a topic that relates to pressing global health problems. Then focus on incurable diseases.

Where will you make the changes?

Which area of the world will you change anything? It’s essential to have a specific location for global change. Will you target the whole world? Or will you begin from a particular area and expand later? When considering these ideas, don’t fail to mention your location in the paper.

Things to remember in your essay writing

Think outside the box

Representing original content doesn’t mean inventing or discovering something new. Instead, you can use other students’ essays to get points to develop your hypothesis.

Deep understanding

Have an in-depth understanding of the world’s problems. Prove your ability in concepts, issues, and facts you are addressing. Understand why they matter to you and the reader.

Develop an intelligible structure

Your essay should address issues like What? How? And Why? Also, have an introduction, main body, and a conclusion in your work. Finally, your summary should have a balanced argument.

Excellent language

Develop an effortless and smooth discussion for your readers to feel safe in your hands. Use natural flowing sentences, and the reader should grasp everything discussed. Check grammar, punctuation, typos, and spelling.

These are the significant facts to consider when writing how can I change the world essay. Derive the world problems and use this guideline to develop a perfect paper.

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How to Write the MIT “World You Come From” Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Hale Jaeger in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered

Understanding the prompt, two methods for writing this essay, past, present, and future.

Strive for Authenticity

Example #1: Breathing Fresh Air

Example #2: The Children’s Hospital

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is consistently ranked as one of the top five universities in the nation according to US News and World Report. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT is known for its rigorous STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), business, and entrepreneurship programs. It uses its own application system called MyMIT instead of the Common Application, and applicants are required to submit five essays. The fourth essay prompt reads:

“ Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (225 words or fewer)”

In this article, we discuss how to approach the prompt as well as some tips for writing your essay. For an overview of the five essay prompts and guidance on how to approach them, check out our post on how to write the MIT application essays for 2022-2023 .

MIT wants to know about the world—however you choose to define it—from which you come and how this world has shaped your dreams and aspirations. This prompt is asking you to consider your community, the place you call home, and the people you consider to be your family and friends. Taking these pillars of your past and present, you are then asked to consider how these have shaped the future that you envision for yourself.

Method #1: One method for approaching this essay is to think about your short- and long-term dreams and aspirations. They do not necessarily need to be career-related, although that is a good place from which to start. Once you have identified these goals, you can work backward and select from your past and present what most relates to and has inspired these dreams and aspirations that you have for your future.

Here are a few questions to consider as you identify and work to articulate your dreams and aspirations:

The sky’s the limit. If you could do anything and be anyone, what would you do and who would you be?
What are specific problems in your local, state, regional, or national community that disturb and unsettle you? How might you learn more about these problems and develop the skills and knowledge to approach solving them?
If you could do anything for a person to improve their life in some meaningful way, what would you want to be able to do?
Who are people in your personal life or public figures whose work, achievements, skillsets, or expertise inspire you? In what ways would you like to be more like them?

After you have thought critically about your future, you should be able to draw direct lines between members of your family, clubs in which you are involved, people and classes at your school, or other elements of your community or city that relate to and inform these dreams and aspirations.

Method #2: Another method for approaching this essay is to work chronologically. Start by thinking about various communities that are important to you and that have been (and continue to be) formative in your life. Who belongs to these communities and how have they impacted your life? What have these communities taught you? What values do these communities hold and practice?

Remember that a community can be defined broadly and includes but is not limited to one or more of the following:

Your nuclear or extended family
Clubs and teams of which you are a member
The street or neighborhood in which you live
A place where you work
A religious community or house of worship
A racial or ethnic group

After you have identified a few communities that have been particularly meaningful and formative, you can then consider how your dreams and aspirations have been defined or shaped by your involvement in these communities.

Regardless of which method you use to approach writing this essay, you need to remember that you are taking your past and present relationships, commitments, and experiences and analyzing how these have shaped your conception of where you are heading in the future and what you want to do and accomplish with your life. Of course, writing this essay is not a commitment to a particular future or set of dreams and aspirations. Rather, this is an opportunity to tell an important story about how elements of your world have led you to realize certain dreams and aspirations that you have for your future.

The forward-facing direction and emphasis on personal growth are the heart of this essay, and the work that you need to do is to reflect on what your dreams are and where they came from.

Strive for Authenticity

It’s important to remember that specificity conveys authenticity. To avoid writing a generic essay, you need to locate specific moments, people, and places in your life that form your world and that you can directly relate to your dreams and aspirations. The more detail that you can provide, the more depth and dimension your personality will have, making it easier for admissions officers to understand who you are and what you will bring to MIT.

Take, for example, an applicant who has grown up in New Delhi, India, a city rife with smog. This applicant was born here and has spent every year since birth combating the poor air quality and seeing how their family and community have struggled to adapt as the air quality worsens. The applicant could discuss members of their family and community, the street where they live, and the city overall as the “world” from which they come. They could describe how their family and neighbors struggle to afford air purifiers and windows that make their homes airtight.

Then, they could talk about income inequality and how this impacts who has access to the resources needed to combat air pollution. Finally, they could write about how they want to work on transitioning their community and the country of India to a green energy economy and how this has fueled their passion for studying sustainable development, green technologies, and environmental policy.

Example #2: The Children’s Hospital

Consider another example of an applicant whose parents work as pediatric nurses at the local children’s hospital. The applicant spent a lot of their early life observing their parents at work. When the applicant started middle school, they began volunteering in the children’s hospital and got to know the nursing staff, doctors, administrative staff, and patients. The children’s hospital feels like a home away from home for the applicant.

In their essay, the applicant might describe the staff in the hospital, the various wards and rooms, the day-to-day routine, and the victories and disappointments that come with working in the children’s hospital. They might discuss a time when it was particularly painful to see the suffering of a patient with whom they grew close or an experience supporting their parents and the other nursing staff going on strike to protest for better working conditions.

Ultimately, they could write about how their experience working at the hospital taught them the importance of effective hospital administration and how they are inspired to obtain medical and business degrees and someday join the children’s hospital’s administrative leadership.

How Can I Make a Difference in The World

Categories: Making The World a Better Place

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 838 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Introduction, personal choices and actions, community involvement, global initiatives and advocacy.

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How ‘Urgent Optimism’ Can Save the World

I used to think optimists were naive and pessimists were smart. Pessimism seemed like an essential feature of being a scientist: the basis of science is to challenge every result, to pick theories apart to see which ones stand up. I thought cynicism was one of its founding principles. Maybe there is some truth to that. But science is inherently optimistic too. How else would we describe the willingness to try experiments over and over, often with slim odds of success?

Scientific progress can be frustratingly slow: the best minds can dedicate their entire lives to a single question and come away with nothing. They do so with the hope that a breakthrough might be round the corner. It’s unlikely they will be the person to discover it, but there’s a chance. Those odds drop to zero if they give up.

Nevertheless, pessimism still sounds intelligent and optimism dumb. I often feel embarrassed to admit that I’m an optimist. I imagine it knocks me down a peg or two in people’s estimations. But the world desperately needs more optimism. The problem is that people mistake optimism for “blind optimism,” the unfounded faith that things will just get better. Blind optimism really is dumb. And dangerous. If we sit back and do nothing, things will not turn out fine. That’s not the kind of optimism that I’m talking about.

Optimism is seeing challenges as opportunities to make progress; it’s having the confidence that there are things we can do to make a diﬀerence. We can shape the future, and we can build a great one if we want to. The economist Paul Romer makes this distinction nicely. He separates “complacent optimism” from “conditional optimism.” “Complacent optimism is the feeling of a child waiting for presents,” Romer wrote. “Conditional optimism is the feeling of a child who is thinking about building a treehouse. ‘If I get some wood and nails and persuade some other kids to help do the work, we can end up with something really cool.’”

I’ve heard various other terms for this “conditional” or eﬀective optimism: “urgent optimism,” “pragmatic optimism,” “realistic optimism,” “impatient optimism.” All these terms are grounded in inspiration and action.

Read More: 13 Ways the World Got Better in 2023

The reason pessimists often sound smart is that they can avoid being “wrong” by moving the goalposts. When a doomer predicts that the world will end in five years, and it doesn’t, they just move the date. The American biologist Paul R. Ehrlich—author of the 1968 book The Population Bomb —has been doing this for decades. In 1970 he said that “sometime in the next 15 years, the end will come. And by ‘the end” I mean an utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity.” Of course, that was woefully wrong. He had another go: he said that “England will not exist in the year 2000.” Wrong again. Ehrlich will keep pushing this deadline back. A pessimistic stance is a safe one.

Don’t mistake criticism for pessimism. Criticism is essential for an eﬀective optimist. We need to work through ideas to find the most promising ones. Most innovators that have changed the world have been optimists, even if they didn’t identify as one. But they were also fiercely critical: no one picks apart the ideas of Thomas Edison, Alexander Fleming, Marie Curie, or Norman Borlaug more than they did themselves.

In particular, if we want to get serious about tackling the world’s environmental problems, we need to be more optimistic. We need to believe that it is possible to tackle them. And if we do, we can be the first generation to achieve a sustainable world.

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The Last Generation is an activist group in Germany, the name implying that our unsustainability will push us to extinction. To force their government into action, some of the group went on a month-long hunger strike in August 2021. It wasn’t a half-hearted eﬀort: several ended up in hospital. They’re not the only ones who feel this way. The global environmental group Extinction Rebellion is also founded on this principle. And the studies show that the notion of us being the ‘last generation’ isn’t far from the minds of many young people.

But I’d like to take the opposite framing. I don’t think we’re going to be the last generation. The evidence points to the opposite. I think we could be the first generation. We have the opportunity to be the first generation that leaves the environment in a better state than we found it. The first generation in human history to achieve sustainability.

Read more: We Need Climate Action Everywhere, All at Once

Yes, that seems hard to believe. I’ll explain why. Here I’m using the term “generation” loosely. I am from a generation that will be defined by our environmental problems. I was a child when climate change really came on the radar. Most of my adulthood will be spent in the midst of the major energy transition. I will see countries move from being almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels to being free of them. I will be 57 when governments hit the “2050 deadline” of reaching net-zero carbon emissions that so many have promised.

But, of course, there will be several generations involved in this project. There are a couple above me—my parents and grandparents—and a couple below me, my future children (and perhaps grandchildren). Generations are often pitted against each other: older generations are blamed for ruining the planet; younger generations are framed as hysterical and indignant. When it comes down to it, though, most of us want to build a better world, where our children and grandchildren can thrive. And we all need to work together to achieve that. All of us will be involved in this transformation.

Urgent optimism isn’t about looking away from the climate crisis that faces us. It’s about facing up to it, not from a place of ‘damage limitation’ but with a clear vision of the future we can build. One that not only stops warming in its tracks but builds a better world for us – all of us – and the species that we share the planet with.

That’s not going to happen on its own. It’s something we need to fight for.

Excerpted from NOT THE END OF THE WORLD by Hannah Ritchie. Copyright © 2024 by Hannah Ritchie. Used with permission by Little, Brown Spark, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. All Rights Reserved.

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If I Could Change The World Essay Examples

If I could change the world, I would start by making sure that everyone had access to basic life necessities. This includes food, shelter, and clean water. I would also work to end abuse in all forms. No one deserves to be treated poorly, and no one should have to live in fear.

Lastly, I would want to give everyone the opportunity to reach their full potential. Everyone deserves a chance to succeed in life. These are just a few of the things I would change if I had the power to do so. We can all make a difference in the world, no matter how big or small our actions may be. Let’s strive to make it a better place for everyone.

There would be super heroes if this were a film. But this is reality, and it’s up to me to make a change. There are a lot of things going on throughout the world. But do you pay attention to what’s happening TO OUR WORLD? Our world is quickly falling apart as we destroy each other with violence and spread hatred toward others. THE EARTH IS HERE TO STAY, AND IT IS UNMOVING. The only thing that influences the world is us, the individuals. We are responsible for violence by murdering one another and generating hatred among ourselves.

If we could only figure out a way to love one another, life would be so much easier. We have to change the way we think in order to change the world. If I could change the world, I would start with me. I would try to be more understanding and less judgmental.

I would also spread love and peace everywhere I go. So it starts with me and then maybe, just maybe, it will spread like wildfire and change the world for good. Abuse is something that needs to stop as well. Too many people are getting hurt because of it. We need to stand up and say enough is enough! Let’s make a change and show everyone that we can do this!

Every day, our loved ones perish without reason. I can provide you with a list of circumstances. Children are presently dying of hunger all around the world. People throughout the globe are waking up to a day of misery. Innocent youngsters are being raped and murdered on a daily basis. Wives are unable to focus on their responsibilities since to the agony they feel from their husbands’ abuse. Last night at least one household was subjected to violence by an inebriated individual.

All of these atrocities can be stopped. If I could change the world, I would start with life. I would make it so that everyone had enough to eat. I would see to it that children were never again used as sex slaves or soldiers. I would put an end to abusive relationships by teaching people about respect and communication. And finally, I would get rid of all the guns and drugs that lead to death and destruction.

But alas, I cannot change the world. Only you can do that. So please, take my words to heart and make the changes that are so desperately needed in our world today. Together, we can make a difference.

Intoxicated individuals may cause car accidents, hurt people, and rip their bodies apart. Not only humans are affected by these circumstances, but also animals. Dogs are being murdered in gambled fights for money and pleasure all across the world. Animals are consuming one another all over the world. Male dogs are being murdered and robbed for their earnings because they work hard. Hardworking men and women are being killed and plundered for the money they generate.

It would be life-changing if we could put a stop to these activities. We could create more jobs and opportunities for people, so they wouldn’t have to resort to criminal activity to make a living. We could also invest in rehabilitation programs for those who are struggling with addiction, so they can get the help they need and turn their lives around. Finally, we could educate people on the importance of animal welfare, so that more people would be aware of the suffering that animals endure every day.

Teenagers are attempting suicide in record numbers due to the hatred and bullying they suffer. Lovers are splitting up, inflicting physical harm on themselves so that they may forget about their heartbreak. Children are sneaking out and fleeing as their parents laugh about the abuse they inflict on their children. People in other countries are involved in conflict, seeing loved ones perish from all the missiles and explosions.

If only I could change the world, life would be so perfect. No one would have to worry about being hurt or abused. Everyone would get along and life would be one big adventure. Just think, if I could change the world there would be no more suicide, split lovers, bullies, children running away & wars. So much hate in the world could be turned into so much love. life would be one big party that no one would ever want to leave.

So many people are hurting and they don’t deserve it. It’s not right that they have to go through all that pain. If I could change the world, I would make sure that everyone was happy and they never had to worry about being hurt again. Life is too short to spend it being unhappy. Everyone deserves to be loved and life should be a fun adventure. So let’s all make a change and start making the world a better place!

Everywhere there is someone who is experiencing some sort of suffering at the hands of another person. What are these people and creatures doing to deserve this? Is there anything, right? Nobody pays attention to all of the terrible things that are going on in our world. That no one should have to live life like this is unacceptable. People are supposed to learn to get along with each other and assist one another.

No one should have to go through life and feel like they’re not worth anything.If I could change the world, I would start by making sure that everyone is treated equally, no matter what their race, religion, or sexuality is. I would also work on stopping all the abuse that goes on in the world. Animals are being abused every day, and it’s something that needs to stop.

People are also being abused, whether it’s emotionally, mentally, or physically. Nobody deserves to be a victim of abuse. Lastly, I would work on getting rid of all the negativity in the world. There’s too much anger and hatred, and it needs to be replaced with love and positivity. If we all work together, I believe that we can make the world a better place for everyone.

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The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
Revision: Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

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Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

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Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
Do your research: Read primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
Come up with a thesis: The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

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The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

Returns to your thesis
Ties together your main points
Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

Including new arguments or evidence
Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

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Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

It gives your writing direction and focus.
It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Broadening My Worldview Through Writing

By Sophie T., a Writing Coach

This pandemic has no doubt made learning a huge challenge—but if anything positive has come out of my learning experience, it’s that I am constantly pushed to think critically about the world every time I put pen to paper.

In one of my classes last semester, our task was to develop a public health intervention targeting a health issue of our choosing. On the first day, my professor urged us to consider current societal contexts (like COVID, social justice movements, and politics) to ensure that our intervention would be relevant, appropriate, and impactful. For example, if we were interested in cancer survivors’ mental health, perhaps our intervention would be a peer support group. But how might COVID-19 affect that? Would an online support group work?

That class freshly reminded me of all the ways I could use writing assignments to broaden my worldview—not just during a pandemic, but anytime. In contemplating this further, I recognized that writing assignments have helped me grow in several major ways:

On the left is coffee in an orange mug on a table. On the right is a black laptop with an article pulled up on the screen.

They’ve shaped my opinions (and shown me that it’s ok to change my opinion based on what I learn): Lots of writing assignments require students to do research and develop an argument. Through doing those assignments, I’ve improved my skills in considering various viewpoints (including ones I disagree with), assessing the credibility of my sources, and gradually fleshing out my perspective on the issue at hand. For example, my current views on identities such as race, gender, and sexual orientation have certainly evolved after I’ve had to reckon with them across dozens of argumentative writing assignments. Those views in turn shape how I perceive my own identities and how I interact with other people.

The Abstract section in the American Journal of Human Biology titled “Changing body norms in the context of increasing body size: Samoa in 1995 and 2018."

Reflecting on my way-too-many years as a student, I have come to realize that many of the causes that I care most about started as writing assignments for class—like my research in body image, which began as a series of reflections I wrote about weight stigma in a class aptly called Stigma and Health. Or my interest in media representation of marginalized groups, which grew out of a final paper I wrote for a disability studies class, where I examined the function of ableist language in articles by The Onion .

I remember stepping into those classrooms not thinking they were all that related to my career path. But here I am, thousands of words and hundreds of coffees later, having opened my mind to knowledge and perspectives that ended up shaping my worldview profoundly. I can’t wait to see what new worlds my future classes will open!

A grey striped cat is curled up and sleeping on a beige couch between the author’s feet.

This blog showcases the perspectives of UNC Chapel Hill community members learning and writing online. If you want to talk to a Writing and Learning Center coach about implementing strategies described in the blog, make an appointment with a writing coach , a peer tutor , or an academic coach today. Have an idea for a blog post about how you are learning and writing remotely? Contact us here .

Essay on We Can Change the World

Students are often asked to write an essay on We Can Change the World in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on We Can Change the World

Belief in change.

Change begins with belief. We can change the world if we truly believe it’s possible. Our thoughts and actions can make a big difference.

Small Steps Matter

Every small step counts. Planting a tree, helping a friend, or recycling waste are simple actions that contribute to a better world.

Working together amplifies our impact. By uniting our efforts, we can achieve significant changes.

Think Future

We must think about our future generations. Our actions today will shape their world. Let’s make it a better place for them.

250 Words Essay on We Can Change the World

The power of individual action.

Change is a natural aspect of life, and it can be harnessed to transform the world. Each individual, regardless of their status, has the potential to contribute to this change. The belief that change is possible starts with the individual. A single action, like reducing personal waste or advocating for social justice, can create ripples that influence others to act.

Collective Effort and Its Impact

While individual actions are vital, collective effort is the driving force behind significant change. Movements like the Civil Rights Movement and the fight against climate change have shown how people coming together can create substantial impacts. This collective action, powered by shared beliefs and mutual support, can alter societal norms and create a more equitable world.

Technology as a Catalyst

In the digital age, technology serves as a catalyst for change. Social media platforms enable individuals to share ideas, mobilize support, and challenge oppressive systems. Technology has the potential to democratize information, providing everyone with the tools to understand and act on global issues.

The Journey Ahead

Changing the world is a continuous journey. It requires persistence, resilience, and a commitment to learning. It is about understanding that every action, no matter how small, contributes to a larger cause. By harnessing the power of individual actions, collective effort, and technology, we can shape the world into a place that reflects our shared values and aspirations.

In conclusion, the power to change the world lies within us. It starts with a belief in the possibility of change, followed by consistent action. Together, we can change the world.

500 Words Essay on We Can Change the World

Change is a fundamental part of human existence. It is the driving force behind evolution, progress, and the transformation of societies. While the idea of changing the world may seem daunting, it is not an impossible task. The notion of changing the world implies a collective effort, but it starts with the actions of individuals.

Small Actions, Big Impact

The first step towards changing the world is recognizing that small actions can have a significant impact. The butterfly effect, a concept from chaos theory, illustrates this point perfectly. It suggests that a butterfly flapping its wings can ultimately cause a tornado thousands of miles away. In the same vein, a single act of kindness, a novel idea, or a passionate endeavor can set off a chain reaction of events leading to substantial global change.

Education as a Catalyst for Change

One of the most powerful tools for change is education. Knowledge empowers individuals and societies to challenge the status quo and seek improvements. It fosters critical thinking, enabling individuals to question prevailing norms and ideologies. Furthermore, education equips us with the skills and competencies to bring about desired changes. By promoting education, we can create a more informed populace capable of making decisions that positively impact the world.

Technological Innovation and Change

Technological innovation is another significant agent of change. From the printing press to the internet, technology has always been a catalyst for societal transformation. Today, advancements in areas like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and renewable energy are not just changing the way we live but also the way we interact with our world. Embracing and promoting technological innovation can thus be a potent strategy for world change.

The Role of Policy and Governance

Policy and governance also play a crucial role in world change. Sound policies can promote social justice, economic development, and environmental sustainability. They can help address systemic issues and create an enabling environment for positive change. Therefore, active participation in governance and policy-making processes can significantly contribute to changing the world.

Conclusion: The Power of Collective Action

While individual actions are crucial, collective action is the key to changing the world. It is through the combined efforts of individuals, communities, and nations that we can address global challenges like climate change, poverty, and inequality. The power to change the world is not exclusive to a select few. It resides in each of us. As Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Ways to Save Water
Essay on Ways to Save The Environment
Essay on Ways to Save Money

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Climate Change Essay for Students and Children

500+ words climate change essay.

Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. This happens due to many internal and external factors. The climatic change has become a global concern over the last few decades. Besides, these climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways. These climatic changes are having various impacts on the ecosystem and ecology. Due to these changes, a number of species of plants and animals have gone extinct.

When Did it Start?

The climate started changing a long time ago due to human activities but we came to know about it in the last century. During the last century, we started noticing the climatic change and its effect on human life. We started researching on climate change and came to know that the earth temperature is rising due to a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. The warming up of earth surface causes many ozone depletion, affect our agriculture , water supply, transportation, and several other problems.

Reason Of Climate Change

Although there are hundreds of reason for the climatic change we are only going to discuss the natural and manmade (human) reasons.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Natural Reasons

These include volcanic eruption , solar radiation, tectonic plate movement, orbital variations. Due to these activities, the geographical condition of an area become quite harmful for life to survive. Also, these activities raise the temperature of the earth to a great extent causing an imbalance in nature.

Human Reasons

Man due to his need and greed has done many activities that not only harm the environment but himself too. Many plant and animal species go extinct due to human activity. Human activities that harm the climate include deforestation, using fossil fuel , industrial waste , a different type of pollution and many more. All these things damage the climate and ecosystem very badly. And many species of animals and birds got extinct or on a verge of extinction due to hunting.

Effects Of Climatic Change

These climatic changes have a negative impact on the environment. The ocean level is rising, glaciers are melting, CO2 in the air is increasing, forest and wildlife are declining, and water life is also getting disturbed due to climatic changes. Apart from that, it is calculated that if this change keeps on going then many species of plants and animals will get extinct. And there will be a heavy loss to the environment.

What will be Future?

If we do not do anything and things continue to go on like right now then a day in future will come when humans will become extinct from the surface of the earth. But instead of neglecting these problems we start acting on then we can save the earth and our future.

Although humans mistake has caused great damage to the climate and ecosystem. But, it is not late to start again and try to undo what we have done until now to damage the environment. And if every human start contributing to the environment then we can be sure of our existence in the future.

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HOW WOULD YOU

Change the world, tell us how you would change the world in 500 words or less for a chance to win cash prizes, 1st place $1,500, 2nd place $750, 3rd place $500.

8 pictures showing people involved in different humanitarian projects around the world

HOW TO ENTER

Write a short personal essay answering the question: “How would you change the world?” For more guidance on what to write, see below. Final submissions MUST be no more than 500 words.

Submit your essay right here by 11:59 PM on Wednesday 27 September . Be sure to fill out each section. (You must be a currently enrolled 18+ BYU student to enter).

Submissions will go through an initial review process and 6 finalists will be chosen. Judges will review the six finalists using the rubric below to determine the final scores. Tuesday 3 October the top three cash prize winners will be announced.

DATES TO KNOW

Submissions Open - Monday 28 August 2023

Writing Submissions Due - 11:59 pm on Wednesday 27 September 2023

Winners Announced - Tuesday 3 October 2023

WHAT TO WRITE

Here are some questions to help guide your personal essay: How do you want to help?

Who do you want to help?

Where do you want to help?

What is your personal connection to the issue?

Examples: You want to become a lawyer to advocate for mental healthcare for low-income families in the United States, because you experienced debilitating anorexia and had an expensive life-saving intervention that would not have been possible without your family’s extensive resources. (Read Sophie’s story here )

An early battle with clinical depression instilled within you a powerful sense of empathy that has propelled you to find solutions for others struggling. You want to find innovative solutions that use education to help youth struggling with mental illness in the United States. (Read Sarah’s story here )

You first studied nursing because your life was changed because of your parents’ access to quality health insurance. Now, you want to find ways to improve the healthcare system to help deserving individuals across the global community receive access to those same health services. (Read Harper’s story here )

JUDGE’S CRITERIA

Once the six finalists are chosen, the top three winners are selected based on: 1) a final score from a review board of judges.

The review board’s grade will be worth 100% of your final score, based on the following criteria:

Through Line - Include a central theme that permeates the entire story from beginning to end.

Succinct Messaging - Keep it short but cover what you need to. Final drafts MUST be less than 500 words.

Show Don’t Tell - Bring the reader into the experience by sharing stories, illustrative words, and examples.

Emotions, Enthusiasm, & Vulnerability - Use writing strategies that enhance a reader's connection to the story.

Impact - Help us understand the positive impact your idea will have on the world.

Who can participate? This contest is open to all currently enrolled BYU students who are 18 years or older. Where do I submit my idea? Submit via this link: https://byu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e4bQWTxYrOBBgKW When is the deadline to submit? The deadline to submit your short story is Wednesday 27 September at 11:59 PM. How is my story used? Finalists' stories will be published on this Changemaker website. Stories may also be used in the future for Ballard Center articles, social media posts, newsletters, student highlights, and more. Why should I submit a Changemaker story? By submitting just 500 words, each student has the opportunity to earn between $500 and $1500. Additionally, the Ballard Center is full of resources to help students make a big impact. By sharing your idea with us, we can help you make your dreams of becoming a Changemaker a reality. I’m not sure if my idea is big/innovative enough. Should I still submit it? Absolutely! Here at the Ballard Center, we know that ideas don’t have to be big and flashy to make a real impact. Your story is unique to you, and we want to hear whatever passion to make a difference has come from that. I have a vague idea but need help solidifying it. Can I receive any help or coaching? The Ballard Center offers free advisement to all students. Schedule an appointment at https://marriott.byu.edu/ballard/students/schedule-advisement/ or feel free to stop by TNRB 360 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. any weekday to talk with someone about your ideas to make a difference! Does my story have to be exactly 500 words long? No. Less than 500 words is acceptable, but stories with more than 500 words will not be accepted. Can I submit my essay late? No, the submission date is firm.

Terms and Conditions

• Participation is open only to currently enrolled BYU students (undergraduate and graduate)

• Each participant will be added to the Ballard Center Newsletter

• Submission cannot extend 500 words

• One entry allowed per student

• Participants must be 18 years and older

• Essay must be submitted by Wednesday 11 October 2023, at 11:59 pm

• Submission must be original work

By submitting your idea, if it is chosen to be published, you give the BYU Ballard Social Impact Center the rights to display your essay on the Ballard Center website and social media platforms. In addition, the Ballard Center may use the project title and the author’s name and personal image as part of the Ballard Center’s future promotional efforts.

You acknowledge that your submission must be your original work and must not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity, or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity. The Ballard Center may, in its sole discretion, disqualify submissions for privacy or intellectual property infringements. The Ballard Center reserves the right to use or not use submissions.

You assume all risk of participation and acknowledge and agree that neither BYU nor the Ballard Center shall be liable for any damages, injuries, claims, causes of actions, or losses of any kind or nature resulting from participation in this competition.

The Ballard Center reserves the right to interpret these official rules and administer the competition as appropriate and its decisions are final. This agreement will supersede any and all other agreements, oral or written, or any other understanding. scription

WRITING CHALLENGE

Congratulations to our 2022 winners.

Thank you to everyone that submitted to this year's Changemaker Writing Challenge! We had a total of 199 submissions . We have loved reading through all of your incredible ideas and wish that each one of you could be a winner, but unfortunately, we are not made of endless money so 3 winners will need to be chosen. Even if you were not selected as one of our finalists, we hope that you will continue to develop your ideas and work towards changing the world for the better, and that you come to the Ballard Social Impact Center to access all of the wonderful resources we have available to help make your idea a reality.

First Place: Monica Bertha, “Art Changes Hearts”

1st place winner from changemakers 2022, Monica Bertha, holding a check for $1,500

Second Place: Elisha Freitas, “Writing Myself Into the Narrative”

2nd place winner from changemakers 2022, Elisha Freitas, holding a check for $750

Third Place: Kate Lindsay, “A Voice for Refugees”

3rd place winner from changemakers 2022, Kate Lindsay, holding a check for $500

2022 Writing Challenge Finalist Stories

How to Write the George Washington University Supplemental Essays: Examples + Guide 2023/2024

What are the george washington university supplemental essay prompts.

Prompt #1: "Changing history" essay
Prompt #2: "Meaningful dialogue" essay
Prompt #3: Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute

This 200-year-old private research university is a forward- and outward- looking institution working to create a socially-conscious and civically-minded student body. Located in the heart of Washington, DC, The George Washington University also offers students a unique range of opportunities, from summer internships at the Smithsonian and Library of Congress to access to political leaders and government officials. If this one-of-a-kind college experience appeals to you, we’re here to help you ace The George Washington University’s supplemental essays.

But before we dig in, you may want to get a better sense of what The George Washington University is looking for. If so, 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 . For deep insights into how this private university envisions student success (and how it wants to grow and evolve), read through its strategic plan .

The George Washington University Supplemental Essay Prompt #1

Every applicant can choose from one of the following two essay prompts to submit.

At The George Washington University, our students frequently interact with policymakers and world leaders. These experiences and those of our alumni can shape the future of global affairs. If you had the power to change the course of history in your community or the world, what would you do and why? (500 words)

The George Washington University encourages students to think critically and to challenge the status quo. Thus, civil discourse is a key characteristic of our community. Describe a time when you engaged others in meaningful dialogue around an issue that was important to you. Did this exchange create change, new perspectives, or deeper relationships? (500 words)

How to Write each Supplemental Essay Prompt for the George Washington University

How to write the george washington university supplemental essay prompt option #1.

Both GW supplemental essay prompts center around core values like community engagement, leadership, civil discourse, and social justice. Each asks you to think critically about your own values (check out our Values Exercise if you’re not sure what these are) and how they might guide you to take action on the political, social, or cultural scene.

It’s easy to get intimidated by such heady topics, but know going in that GW doesn’t expect you to save the world at 17, so don’t overthink this or convince yourself you don’t have a big enough “issue” to be a worthy applicant. You don’t have to find the formula to world peace for your reader to care. Something local can be just as powerful in an essay as something global here. Start with a topic you’re genuinely interested in, and go from there.

Still stuck? Here are two ways to brainstorm for this prompt ...

Issue → History:

Think about general issues you care about or challenges you feel you can improve through some kind of action. Past students, for example, have written about climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, gun restrictions, access to water, the criminal justice system, and the gender wage gap. Think of topics that inspire you to want to take action. Even better, think about why that issue means something to you. Does it connect to your identity in some way? Has it affected your life or your friends’ or family's? Was it something you were passionate about in high school?

Narrow the topic down to a specific aspect that seems extra important. If you were writing about climate change, that could be something like fast fashion or toxic rain runoff. Basically, get into the nitty gritty.

After you’ve identified a more specific issue you care about and you’ve connected it to yourself in some way, research its history. Think about what you’d want changed about the issue in the present moment and then go back in time to identify how you’d achieve that change retrospectively. In the case of fast fashion, maybe you’d make it so that a big clothing brand like H&M never burned its excess clothes, or make it an industry norm that clothes were upcycled through congressional regulation. The world is as wide as your imagination. Think big, but also don’t be afraid to think small and local.

History → Issue:

Think about a historical moment, figure, event, or choice that intrigues you. Perhaps it was the “dancing plague” of the 1300s, the Kent State Vietnam protests, the unregulated rise of social media platforms like Facebook, or the Chinese Exclusion Act. Nothing is too big or too small.

Start tying the history to values and issues. So, for instance, the Chinese Exclusion Act was deeply rooted in institutional racism and anti-Asian hate in the United States. It’s tied to issues of power, immigration, and equity over who qualifies to be a “worthy” American. At this point, you should start to see how the history you find interesting is connected to issues we still face today.

Last, connect the issue back to you. Keeping with the Chinese Exclusion Act example, it could be about how countering anti-Asian discrimination speaks to your values or life experiences. Perhaps you identify as Asian, or you're from a family of immigrants. Or perhaps you’re a community-oriented person who’s benefitted from your involvement in organizations with lots of different perspectives, teaching you to value diversity in problem-solving.

Notice, as you do your brainstorming, how the natural progression of each approach can provide a solid structural outline for your essay that you can follow when you start writing. Guiding yourself through the process will help you guide your reader as well.

Now, let’s take a look at a great example essay. Note that this was written for an older version of GWU’s prompt with a 250 word count, so this is far shorter than it can be, but the overall content and execution are great to emulate.

Growing up, I was fascinated by Robin Hood. Yeah, I guess he did the wrong thing for the right reason, but what if we could apply that framework to guarantee 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 Saudia 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. 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 to stand as new colonizers who exacerbate poverty globally. Rolling back the corporate monopolization of biodiversity and giving farmers seed freedom are key to eradicating poverty in developing countries. If I had the power to change the course of history, I would regulate the privatization of seeds. By returning native seeds to their rightful owners and equipping individuals with resources to farm independently, we can generate local sources of income, feed millions of families, and take one step forward towards a more equitable world. And some day, in addition to holding corporations accountable Robin Hood-style, I hope to become the first hijabi U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a journey I embarked on at George Washington. — — —

Tips + Analysis

Start with a great hook. Ideally, you’ll keep the reader engaged from your first line. In this piece, the writer uses the Robin Hood analogy to conceptualize how she wants to hold corporations accountable. Notice, too, that she briefly references Robin Hood in her final paragraph as well, coming full circle and connecting start to finish (we call that bookending). When you write, try to quickly hook your reader with something unexpected that allows them to visualize the complex ideas you may have baked into the rest of your response.

Explain the “why.” It’s critical that you elaborate on why an issue or part of history is important to you. Get your reader to care by showing why you care. In this essay, the author explains how discussions about GMOs and the plight of Saudi Arabian migrant laborers led her to her calling as an advocate. Even better would have been for her to have gotten a bit more personal by adding details about the context for this discussion and how/why it resonated with her. You don’t have a ton of room for long explanations, but including details that answer the why is super important.

Elaborate on impact. Remember, the prompt asks about how you’d change the world. Don’t assume people know how, why, or what it would change. Lay that out for the reader. This student, for example, chose regulating the privatization of seeds. She explains what this would do (give seeds back to their rightful owners rather than to corporations that may not have farmers’ interests in mind) and briefly touches, in a broad sense, on what impact this could have (feeding more people, providing local sources of income, making things more equitable). But the essay would have been even stronger had she elaborated on why the change would have had such sweeping impacts. That why connection can be key to showing your command of the topic while also demonstrating your critical thinking skills.

And here’s another nice example essay:

The movement to overthrow Iran’s Pahlavi Dynasty began as an attempt by the Iranian middle class to fight social injustice. But the exiled Grand Ayatollah Khomeini saw the Iranian Revolution as an opportunity to overthrow the government. He started spreading his sermons, encouraging the Iranian people to revolt while also creating alliances with secular anti-government movements. Upon his triumphant return to Iran on February 1, 1978, he declared an Islamic theocratic state, enforced Shia Islam and vowed to expand the revolution across the Midde East, changing the geopolitics of the region and destabilizing the world I grew up in. Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries responded to the threat by solidifying their Sunni identity, fueling political friction and sectarianism in the region. The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia intensified, sparking historical crises and proxy wars, from Iran’s support of Hezbollah to the emergence of Al-Qaeda. My home country, Bahrain, also suffered from Iran’s toxic influence when its regime encouraged a Shia uprising, threatening the stability of our economy and security. If I could turn back time, I would build a coalition of allies to persuade the Shah of Iran to invite Khomeini back as the Supreme Head of Religious Affairs, allowing him to reimplement some Islamic traditions. That way, the government would give Khomeini the power he craved, and the revolution for justice and peace had a better chance of continuing without being hijacked into a reign of terror, with limited influence from Khomeini. — — —

how to write the George Washington University Supplemental Essay Prompt option #2

In many ways, this question is very similar to Prompt 1, except it’s asking you to think about a more directly personal, rather than historical, experience. Again, at its core, the question is asking you to engage with the recurring themes—leadership, discourse, justice, and advocacy—that George Washington cares about and prioritizes. One way to approach this essay is to connect your values to a community you’ve been a part of and conversations you’ve had in/with that community. The key to that approach is good brainstorming.

Here are some steps you can take before you start writing:

Start with our Values Exercise . This will give you a sense of what motivates you and what you might want to highlight in your supplemental essays.

Spend a little time mapping out which communities you’re a part of and which are most important to you. Our guide on How to Write the Community Essay is a great place to start. Keep in mind that communities can be defined in a variety of ways, including place, culture, interests, political beliefs, hobbies, even your favorite sports team. Get creative.

Use the BEABIES exercise to generate your essay content for 2-3 of these communities, jotting down notes to these questions:

What kinds of problems did you solve or work to solve (personally, locally, or globally) in that community?

What specific impact did you have?

What did you learn (skills, qualities, values)?

How did you apply the lessons you learned inside and outside that community?

Strong essays will have three main components: community + actions/dialogue within community + guiding values/values instilled.

To offer some inspiration, let’s take a look at another great example. This one was written for a similar Princeton supplemental prompt, but would double nicely here.

A racist culture pervades my small town of Maryville, Tennessee. To outsiders, we seem complicit in this racism through our mascot: the Rebels. In August, my school voted me as Miss MHS: awarded to the student who contributes the most to the school and community through extracurriculars, academics, and community service and embodies the “Rebel spirit.” I was grateful for the award but appalled when the latter label was bestowed upon me. So, the girl who embodied the Rebel spirit rebelled. “Our mascot has foundations in racism. Changing the mascot is the bare minimum that we owe to the students that have been affected by the racism this mascot fuels,” began my (now infamous) social media post. My post was reposted, sent in groups, and met with intense hatred. “The snowflakes won’t let us have anything these days. It’s literally a mascot,” read the most popular comment, insinuating that I was being overly sensitive. The student who wrote this, leader of a group called “Save the Rebels,” ensured that I was alienated as one of the few local supporters. I messaged him and transformed an argumentative discourse into a healthy, multiple-day discussion about the roots and depiction of the mascot. We researched each other’s sources and began to understand the opposing side’s perspective. Yet, as we made progress, his friends pulled him away from breaking the barriers of polarization with me. In an effort to apply the lessons I learned from this experience to make future dialogues more constructive, I want to create a safe space where individuals can exchange differing perspectives and attempt to understand each other’s position without fear of social pressure. In my next discussion of the mascot (because the struggle is far from over), I believe it will be impactful for the defenders of the mascot to hear the testimonials of students of color to substantiate my claim that the mascot brought about pain. At Princeton, I hope to contribute to an environment free of judgment, where I can use the tools that I’ve gained to pave the way for a more effective, respectful dialogue. (349 words) — — —

Start with the issue at hand. This student wastes no time setting up the conflict that led to the discourse at the heart of the essay. This is helpful in orienting the reader because it quickly establishes the meaning behind the issue at hand, allowing room for her to elaborate on how the dialogue evolved and how it turned out.

Build a compelling narrative. The author here does a nice job of showing rather than just telling us how this dialogue impacted her. She could have easily summed up the online conversation in a sentence or two, but by establishing her role at the school and narrating the exchange she had with her classmate, she adds more life to her essay. We feel the experience in real time and get a clearer sense of the emotions she felt. We also have more appreciation for her interest in crossing polarizing political boundaries and striking up productive discourse. Quick anecdotes, distinctive sensory details, dialogue, and good pacing all help to engage your reader and make you relatable (and, thereby, more memorable).

Address the impact. A big aspect of this prompt is the last sentence, which asks about the impact the dialogue had. The author here does a great job of speaking to both the "civil discourse" and "issue that's important" angles of the prompt. But, if she had written her essay for this GW prompt, she likely would have elaborated on how the interaction influenced her own perspectives and relationships. Your answer doesn’t need to be neatly tied into a nice little bow as if everything were resolved or major changes resulted. Real life is often messier than that. But we still want to know—and this prompt specifically asks for—your takeaways. For this essay, for example, the author could have explained that, even though she didn’t change the other person’s mind, she may have planted a seed that led to more questioning down the line. Or she could have spoken to how it changed her approach to dialogue with more conservative classmates about another issue. This would have helped establish the impact of her actions in a more relevant way.

How to Write George Washington University Cisneros Scholars Essay Prompt

Note: This essay is only required if you select that you’d like to be considered for admission to the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute .

At the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute, community is central to our approach to leadership. Therefore, Cisneros Scholars are selected as a cohort that navigate their four years at GW together. How would you contribute to a sense of comunidad in your cohort if you were selected as a Cisneros Scholar? (500 words)

If you’re thinking of applying to the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute, chances are you might’ve already done some research into who they are and what being a Cisnero Scholar entails. However, if you haven’t, we highly recommend spending some time reading up on the program, their values, and what they offer. Broadly, Cisneros Scholars are chosen “based on academic achievement and a demonstrated commitment to service and leadership in the Latino community” where “cohorts are typically tight-knit groups who also participate as summer counselors and mentors for the Caminos al Futuro summer program for rising high school seniors.”

Conducting some extra research into the program will not only better inform your response and help shape which experiences you want to write about for this essay, but you may also find specific opportunities within the institute that you’re excited to include in your essay. You can find more information about the Cisneros Scholars on their website .

Back to the prompt, important things to note are…

That community is central to their approach to leadership

That scholars are selected as a cohor t to navigate the 4 years of college together

The question: How would you contribute to the sense of community in your cohort ?

There’s a lot to unpack here, but you’ll basically want to include some background or an experience about a community you’re a part of and how you have contributed to that community (even better if you’ve contributed in a leadership capacity). Once you do this, you can then talk about how you would contribute to the community of your Cisneros Scholars cohort at GWU.

Essentially, a way to think of this kind of “how will you contribute” 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.

While there are many things outside of “community” that might fit this prompt, if you’re looking for a way to brainstorm ideas, that’s a good place to start. (But keep in mind that you’ll want to include some “how will you contribute” details in your essay—this isn’t just a “tell us about a community” prompt.)

For a full guide to “community” essays , head there, but here’s the short version, plus how to add “how will you contribute” elements:

STEP 1: DECIDE WHAT COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO WRITE ABOUT

Create a “communities” chart by listing all the communities you’re a part of. Keep in mind that communities can be defined by...

Place: groups of people who live/work/play near one another

Action: groups of people who create change in the world by building, doing, or solving something together (Examples: Black Lives Matter, Girls Who Code, March for Our Lives)

Interest: groups of people coming together based on shared interest, experience, or expertise

Circumstance: groups of people brought together either by chance or external events/situations

STEP 2: USE THE BEABIES EXERCISE TO GENERATE YOUR ESSAY CONTENT

You’ll find detail on the BEABIES Exercise + a chart you can use at that link.

STEP 3: DO SOME “HOW WILL YOU CONTRIBUTE” RESEARCH

You’ll want to offer a few specific ways that show how the experience/s you’re discussing in your essay will allow you to contribute to the college. The easiest way to do this is to do some “Why Us”-like research and find ways you’ll engage with and contribute to the school’s community.

STEP 4: PICK A STRUCTURE (NARRATIVE OR MONTAGE)

Step 5: write a first draft.

One important component to remember is that this prompt specifically asks about contributing to a sense of community in your cohort. Consider that the website mentions that cohorts are tight-knit groups—this is a community of people you’ll get to know really closely, so you might want to think beyond values that are typically tied to community, like inclusivity or acceptance (though you can also include those). For more ideas on this, be sure to take a look at the Tips + Analysis below.

This example was written for a similar prompt from Rice. While it doesn’t fit the Cisneros Scholars question perfectly, it could be tweaked to work well, and should give you a good idea about how to go about crafting this essay.

“I'd like a veggie bowl please. And would you mind changing your gloves?” That got me several weird looks. Some from customers around me, others from Chipotle employees across the counter. But I was used to it. Over the years of asking for a change of gloves or to cut with a clean knife, the weird looks have become normal. My strict vegetarian diet follows the principles of Jainism that run in my family, a direct result of my Indian-American identity. From a young age, I’ve been questioned for wearing a sacred rakhi thread on my wrist, or bringing in homemade Indian vegetarian food for lunch. The Indian side of me is omnipresent. In explaining these differences, I’ve sometimes felt as though being different has made me less than those who were “normal.” This obviously isn’t true, but it’s taken me a while to realize that. Meeting friends who embrace and value my ethnicity has helped me understand that what makes me different actually makes me a more complete person. Like in language classes, where I’ve been able to use my struggles to communicate effectively in a second language while visiting family in India to bolster my ability to communicate in Spanish during class. As a result of my experiences as an Indian-American, I’ve been committed to advancing inclusion in society. In addition to taking small, personal actions, I’ve participated in numerous activities that seek to understand and help alleviate social injustices, like Junior Leadership Dayton (JLD). Through JLD, I witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of the opioid epidemic in a city with one of the highest rates of overdoses in the nation, and the struggles associated with rehabilitation. Talking to people in homeless shelters whose daily struggles exceeded what I had experienced in a lifetime, and helping underprivileged kids who grew up deprived of access to an education in the arts, I began to understand the magnitude of the issues that plague our society. I seek to include those around me regardless of their background, welcoming new freshmen in Science Olympiad, for example, or talking to the violist who might have otherwise sat by himself during rehearsal breaks. My experiences with those who have accepted me for who I am have led to my desire to promote an acceptance of others, something I’ll bring to Rice’s campus. — — —

Tips + Analysis:

Give us some background. You can say a lot with 500 words, especially if you focus on specificity and directness. Guide the reader into your world by dedicating a little bit of that word count to showing us how a community experience has shaped you to be who you are. This will then pay off later when you talk about how you can contribute to your cohort’s community in the future. This student’s experiences as a Jain and Indian-American have helped them embrace their differences and become a better communicator, which we later see shaped their values of inclusivity.

Pick a strong example. Since leadership is both a core part of the Cisneros Scholars program and is mentioned in the prompt, including an experience that combines leadership and community would make for a strong example. Though the essay was written for a different school and prompt, this student picked a strong example where they combined community and leadership. They wrote that “as a result of [their] experiences…[they’ve] been committed to advancing inclusion in society” and elaborated on this by talking about their leadership experience within a community they are a part of, in this case, Junior Leadership Dayton.

Feel free to write about a vulnerable moment. If there’s a moment like this for you in your journey, it’s a great detail to include—it’s what makes you more human and you can create a point of connection with the reader. Not only that, but we can see how you were able to grow and learn from a vulnerable moment. This student wrote: I’ve sometimes felt as though being different has made me less than those who were “normal.” This obviously isn’t true, but it’s taken me a while to realize that (vulnerable moment). Meeting friends who embrace and value my ethnicity has helped me understand that what makes me different actually makes me a more complete person (learning moment).

How can you contribute to a sense of community in your cohort? As mentioned before, this prompt specifically asks about how you can contribute a sense of community in your cohort —the people you will become very close with over your four years of college (as opposed to, for example, contributing to a community you volunteered at for a day and might not have close ties to). In addition to things like inclusivity, acceptance, and other values that are normally closely-tied with community, try thinking about unique aspects of yourself and your perspective that you could bring to a tightly-knit group that might already exhibit these values. For example, could it be your ability to motivate others and inspire positivity? Your ability to empathize and create strong connections? Your ability to be logical and consider all possibilities before making a decision? The possibilities are endless.

With all these tips and examples in mind, you’re ready to start writing!

Special thanks to Elica for writing this post.

Elica (she/her) is a college essay specialist who has a love of language in all forms; she has degrees in linguistics, has taught academic writing at the university level, and has been coaching students on their college and graduate school admissions essays for over 7 years. When she’s not working with students or writing, Elica can be found reading, printmaking, and exploring nature.

Top Values: Collaboration | Curiosity | Patience

Want advice on dozens of other supplemental essays? Click here

Sugar Changed the World

70 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Essay Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Essay summary: “how we researched and wrote this book”.

Aronson and Budhos talk about the process of writing the book and “the really large historical themes that came up in our research” (127). Unlike the book itself, this section is not intended for young readers. However, they also add that they believe that these questions about research might be of interest to middle and high school students.

Aronson and Budhos identify the key questions they raise in Sugar Changed the World as, “How were sugar and slavery related to the question of freedom?” (127) and “How does a clear look at sugar and slavery change how we see ideas of freedom and the invention of new kinds of work and machinery?” (128). Also, they write that a main goal of the book was to take a broader view of historical issues. They sought to link together the story of sugar, the history of slavery and abolitionism, the American, French, and Haiti revolutions, and industrialization. In addition, they wanted to bring together African, European, Indian, and American history. Further, they wanted to try to “understand the deepest, most basic drives of human behavior” (128).

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How to Write an Essay Comparing Poems

This is Revision World’s guide on how to write an essay or answer an exam question that asks you to compare poems within the poetry anthology you are studying.

Understanding the Task:

Identify the Key Components: Ensure you understand the task requirements, including the poems you're comparing, the themes, and the aspects you need to analyse (e.g., structure, language, tone).

Pre-Writing Stage:

Read and Annotate: Read the poems multiple times, annotating key themes, literary devices, and interesting observations.

Identify Similarities and Differences: Note down similarities and differences in themes, imagery, language, structure, and tone between the two poems.

Structuring Your Essay:

Introduction:

Introduce the poems and poets, providing context if necessary.

Present your thesis statement, outlining the main points of comparison.

Body Paragraphs:

Topic Sentences: Start each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that states the aspect of comparison.

Comparison: Analyse each poem separately, focusing on the chosen aspect (e.g., theme, structure). Then, compare and contrast the same aspect in both poems.

Use of Evidence: Provide evidence from the poems to support your analysis (quotations).

Analysis: Interpret the significance of the similarities and differences, considering their effects on the reader and the overall meaning of the poems.

Conclusion:

Summarise your main points of comparison.

Reflect on the significance of the comparisons and their implications for the reader.

Offer insights into the broader themes or messages conveyed by the poems.

Writing Tips:

Be Specific: Avoid vague statements and ensure your comparisons are specific and well-supported by evidence.

Consider Poetic Devices: Analyse the poets' use of poetic devices (e.g., imagery, symbolism, metaphor) and how they contribute to the overall effect of the poems.

Focus on Key Themes: Choose a few key themes or aspects to compare rather than attempting to cover everything in the poems.

Maintain Coherence: Ensure your essay flows logically, with clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

Proofread: Carefully proofread your essay for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Example Statement:

"In 'Poem A' and 'Poem B,' both poets utilise imagery and symbolism to explore the theme of loss, but while 'Poem A' uses natural imagery to convey a sense of grief and acceptance, 'Poem B' employs religious symbolism to depict a more existential struggle with loss and faith."

Example Topic Sentences:

"In 'Poem A,' the poet employs vivid natural imagery to convey the speaker's emotional response to loss."

"Conversely, 'Poem B' utilises religious symbolism to explore the theme of loss in a more abstract and existential manner."

By following these steps and incorporating these tips, you can effectively write a well-structured and insightful essay comparing two poems in your GCSE English Literature exam.

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Two tall, gray industrial structures, covered with louvers, stand at an angle to each other atop concrete pillars amid swirls of snow.

buying time

Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?

Mammoth, a giant machine in Iceland that will pull planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air. Credit... Francesca Jones for The New York Times

Supported by

By David Gelles

David Gelles reported from Reykjavik, Iceland, and Midland, Texas.

Published March 31, 2024 Updated April 1, 2024

On a windswept Icelandic plateau, an international team of engineers and executives is powering up an innovative machine designed to alter the very composition of Earth’s atmosphere.

If all goes as planned, the enormous vacuum will soon be sucking up vast quantities of air, stripping out carbon dioxide and then locking away those greenhouse gases deep underground in ancient stone — greenhouse gases that would otherwise continue heating up the globe.

Just a few years ago, technologies like these, that attempt to re-engineer the natural environment, were on the scientific fringe. They were too expensive, too impractical, too sci-fi. But with the dangers from climate change worsening, and the world failing to meet its goals of slashing greenhouse gas emissions, they are quickly moving to the mainstream among both scientists and investors, despite questions about their effectiveness and safety.

First in a series on the risky ways humans are starting to manipulate nature to fight climate change. Once science fiction, today these ideas are becoming reality.

Researchers are studying ways to block some of the sun’s radiation. They are testing whether adding iron to the ocean could carry carbon dioxide to the sea floor. They are hatching plans to build giant parasols in space . And with massive facilities like the one in Iceland, they are seeking to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air.

As the scale and urgency of the climate crisis has crystallized, “people have woken up and are looking to see if there’s any miraculous deus ex machina that can help,” said Al Gore, the former vice president.

Since the dawn of the industrial age, humans have pumped huge volumes of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere in pursuit of industry and advancement. It amounted to a remaking of the planet’s delicately balanced atmosphere that today has transformed the world, intensifying heat, worsening droughts and storms and threatening human progress.

Clouds of steam rise above a row of low industrial buildings in front of snow-covered hills.

As the risks became clearer, political and corporate leaders pledged to keep global average temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than before the Industrial Revolution . But for several months last year, the world briefly passed that symbolic threshold, sooner than many scientists expected.

Global temperatures are now expected to rise as much as 4 degrees Celsius, or more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century. That has given new weight to what some people call geoengineering, though that term has become so contentious its proponents now prefer the term “climate interventions.” The hope is that taking steps like these might buy some time at a moment when energy consumption is on the rise, and the world isn’t quitting fossil fuels fast enough.

Many of the projects are controversial. A plant similar to the one in Iceland, but far larger, is being built in Texas by Occidental Petroleum, the giant oil company. Occidental intends to use some of the carbon dioxide it captures to extract even more oil, the burning of which is one of the main causes of the climate crisis in the first place.

Some critics say that other types of interventions could open up a Pandora’s box of new problems by scrambling weather patterns or amplifying human suffering through unintended consequences. In effect they are asking: Should humans be experimenting with the environment in this way? Do we know enough to understand the risks?

“We need more information so we can make these decisions in the future,” said Alan Robock, a professor of atmospheric science at Rutgers University. “Which is riskier: to do it, or not to do it?”

Others argue that fanciful or costly technologies will simply waste resources and time, or lull people with the false idea that it will be possible to slow global warming without phasing out fossil fuels.

There is also the risk of rogue actors barreling ahead with their own efforts to change the climate. Already, Mexico has banned what’s known as solar radiation modification after a start-up from California released sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere without permission.

And then there is the fact that, because these technologies are so new, there is relatively little regulation governing them.

“There are these much bigger questions around who decides how is this is all coordinated over time,” said Marion Hourdequin, a professor of environmental philosophy at Colorado College. “We don’t have a great track record of sustained global cooperation.”

With a subzero wind whipping down from the fjords, Edda Aradottir trudged through fresh snow to inspect the direct air capture plant in Iceland.

Ms. Aradottir is the chief executive of Carbfix, an Icelandic company that is working with the Swiss start-up that built the plant, Climeworks. Known as Mammoth, the project is a technological accomplishment, powered by clean geothermal energy and capable of capturing up to 36,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and pumping it down into the bedrock.

That is just one one-millionth of annual global emissions. But unlike trees, which can be cut down or catch fire, Climeworks promises to store that carbon dioxide forever.

Inside a series of bunkerlike buildings, dozens of huge fans suck air into bins that contain chemical pellets that absorb carbon dioxide, then release the gas when they are heated up. The carbon dioxide is then mixed with water and pumped more than a mile below the surface, where extreme pressure turns it into a solid in a matter of years, a process known as “mineralization.” In effect, the gas becomes part of the rock.

“Over 99 percent of the carbon on Earth is already stored in rocks in the form of minerals,” Ms. Aradottir said. “Naturally, it happens over geologic time scales. We’re speeding it up.”

When Mammoth is turned on in the coming weeks, it will be the largest such facility in the world, even though the amount of carbon it can absorb is still just a drop in the bucket. Global carbon dioxide emissions hit an all-time high of 36 billion metric tons last year.

The Occidental plant, being built near Odessa, Texas, and known as Stratos, will be more than 10 times more powerful than Mammoth, powered by solar energy, and have the potential to capture and sequester 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

It uses a different process to extract carbon dioxide from the air, though the goal is the same: Most of it will be locked away deep underground. But at least some of the carbon dioxide, Occidental says, will also be used to extract more oil.

In that process, carbon dioxide is pumped into the ground to force out oil that might otherwise be too difficult to reach. Techniques like this have made Occidental a company worth more than $50 billion and helped send American crude production to a new high in recent years.

Of course, it is the world’s reliance on the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that has so dangerously sent carbon dioxide levels soaring. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide acts as a blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and warming the world.

Today, Occidental says it is trying to become a “carbon management” company as well as an oil producer. Last year, it paid $1.1 billion for a start-up called Carbon Engineering that had developed a way to soak up carbon dioxide from the air, and began building the Stratos project. Today, what was a barren plot of dirt less than 12 months ago is a bustling construction site.

“It’s like the Apollo missions at NASA,” said Richard Jackson, who oversees carbon management and domestic oil operations at Occidental. “We’re trying to move as quickly as we can.”

In coming years, Occidental said it planned to build 100 facilities, each capable of capturing 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. It has struck up a financial partnership with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and made a deal to develop direct air capture plants with Adnoc, the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company.

In South Texas, it is planning to build 30 of the plants on the King Ranch, funded in part by $1.2 billion the Biden administration last year awarded to direct air capture projects .

Climeworks also has aggressive expansion plans. It secured a portion of the White House funds for a direct air capture plant in Louisiana, is working with a group of Kenyan entrepreneurs to build a large facility outside Nairobi and has plans to construct plants in Canada and other countries in Europe.

Driving the construction boom is the desire of many corporations to reduce their effect on global warming. Over the past decade, hundreds of multinational corporations have pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040. Rather than phasing out fossil fuels to meet those goals, most companies are finding that they have to pay for carbon credits, which can be acquired by preserving forests, supporting renewable energy projects or paying for carbon sequestration.

Microsoft, JPMorgan and UBS are some of the big companies that have signed long term agreements to buy credits from Climeworks. Amazon, AT&T and the Houston Astros are among those signed up with Occidental.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, said last year that he was the largest individual customer of Climeworks, paying the company $10 million each year to offset his sizable carbon footprint.

Yet the grand plans envisioned by direct air capture companies, with hundreds of plants built in the years ahead, are predicated on a market that does not yet exist. Only a handful of big companies have so far proved willing to voluntarily spend millions of dollars on direct air capture credits, and there is no guarantee that the rest of the corporate world will follow suit anytime soon.

Even if more companies do decide to start offsetting their emissions, there are cheaper ways to do so, including by preserving forests and paying for renewable energy. For example, it currently costs between $500 and $1,000 to capture a metric ton of carbon dioxide with direct air capture, compared with just $10 to $30 per ton for most carbon credits today .

“ It’s very expensive,” said Mr. Robock. “And so it’s not going to be a solution in the short term or the long term.”

Still, the business world is bullish. Boston Consulting Group expects more companies to begin buying credits to pay for carbon dioxide removal, and more governments to encourage that buying. In the United States and Europe, governments have started subsidizing the construction of the plants. By 2040, BCG expects the market for carbon dioxide removal technologies could grow from less than $10 billion today to as much as $135 billion.

“Companies will face a rising price on carbon and regulatory pressures that will make them feel compelled to do this,” said Rich Lesser, the global chair of BCG.

Although the direct air capture market is still in its infancy, it already has vociferous detractors in academia, activist circles and beyond.

Some say it is little more than a ploy by oil and gas companies to prolong the very industries that are responsible for creating global warming. They point to the extensive evidence that fossil fuel interests for years worked to play down public awareness of climate change, and the fact that some of the captured carbon will be used for additional oil production.

Those concerns were magnified when Vicki Hollub, Occidental’s chief executive, last year said direct air capture could “preserve our industry.” She added, “This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”

Scientists say an urgent transition away from fossil fuels is necessary to avoid extreme global temperature increases. Last year, nearly 200 countries agreed to begin phasing out oil, coal and gas.

“This is a new wave of denial, deception and delay,” said Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil economy program at the Center for International Environmental Law. “You have the fossil fuel industry trying to say we can engineer our way out of this without any major changes to business as usual.”

A related line of reasoning holds that the enormous amounts of clean energy needed to power direct air capture plants would be better used powering homes and businesses, thereby displacing fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal that still provide much of the world’s electricity.

Ms. Fuhr added that the costs remained high in spite of a growing raft of government support, including a tax credit in the United States worth $180 for every metric ton of carbon dioxide that is captured and stored, a subsidy that is likely to significantly lower Occidental’s tax bill in the years ahead. “The industry has been successful in capturing subsidies, just not carbon,” she said.

And then there is the fact that even if Occidental and Climeworks make good on their ambitions to build hundreds of new plants in the coming years, they would still not come close to capturing even 1 percent of current annual global emissions.

Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said climate interventions in general, and carbon capture in particular, were dangerous distractions from the more urgent work of rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels.

“There are many solutions that are just not helpful at all, that do not help an iota for climate and don’t help an iota for air pollution,” he said. “Among these are direct air capture.”

Proponents of the technology say that with fossil fuel emissions continuing to rise, the world is fast approaching the moment when any and all solutions to abate global warming should be on the table.

At the least, direct air capture has a role to play, they say, because there might always be at least some greenhouse gases being produced in the future, even if the vast majority of emissions are successfully eliminated. Sucking that carbon dioxide out of the air will be valuable, the argument goes.

But in the longer term, many scientists believe it will be necessary to go further and actually try to remove some of the excess carbon dioxide that has dangerously accumulated over the centuries. Proponents of direct air capture say their technology is suited for such a herculean task.

“No one is arguing you could solve all our carbon emissions with this,” Mr. Lesser said. “But it could be a meaningful part of solving a huge problem.”

The past year’s record temperatures, warming oceans and megafires are all evidence of a deeply uncomfortable reality: We’ve already been manipulating the planet for the past couple hundred years. In less time than it takes a redwood tree to reach its full height, humans have added enough carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to scramble weather patterns, melt glaciers and wipe out coral reefs.

Viewed this way, today’s attempts to slow down or even reverse the warming can be seen as efforts to undo the changes that have already taken place. Whether or not humans can succeed in this most ambitious feat is unclear. It is among the most consequential problems our species has faced.

Yet as people begin to deliberately tinker with the climate in new ways, there are profound questions that are only beginning to be contemplated. If the current extreme weather and temperature rise came about inadvertently, as the unintentional consequence of human development, what might happen when we begin actively trying to control the planet’s atmosphere?

“It’s true that we have been altering the climate through greenhouse gas emissions for centuries now,” said Ms. Hourdequin of Colorado College. “But trying to intentionally manage the climate through geoengineering would be a distinctive endeavor, quite different than the kind of haphazard interference that we’ve engaged in thus far.”

David Gelles reports on climate change and leads The Times’s Climate Forward newsletter and events series . More about David Gelles

Learn More About Climate Change

Have questions about climate change? Our F.A.Q. will tackle your climate questions, big and small .

Decades of buried trash in landfills is releasing methane , a powerful greenhouse gas, at higher rates than previously estimated, a study says.

Ocean Conservation Namibia is disentangling a record number of seals, while broadcasting the perils of marine debris in a largely feel-good way. Here’s how .

To decarbonize the electrical grid, companies are finding creative ways to store energy during periods of low demand in carbon dioxide storage balloons .

New satellite-based research reveals how land along the East Coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise . A major culprit: overpumping of groundwater.

Did you know the ♻ symbol doesn’t mean something is actually recyclable ? Read on about how we got here, and what can be done.

Satellite photo showing a container ship entangled with the wreckage of a bridge.

Baltimore bridge collapse: a bridge engineer explains what happened, and what needs to change

Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, Monash University

Disclosure statement

Colin Caprani receives funding from the Department of Transport (Victoria) and the Level Crossing Removal Project. He is also Chair of the Confidential Reporting Scheme for Safer Structures - Australasia, Chair of the Australian Regional Group of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and Australian National Delegate for the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.

Monash University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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When the container ship MV Dali, 300 metres long and massing around 100,000 tonnes, lost power and slammed into one of the support piers of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the bridge collapsed in moments . Six people are presumed dead, several others injured, and the city and region are expecting a months-long logistical nightmare in the absence of a crucial transport link.

It was a shocking event, not only for the public but for bridge engineers like me. We work very hard to ensure bridges are safe, and overall the probability of being injured or worse in a bridge collapse remains even lower than the chance of being struck by lightning.

However, the images from Baltimore are a reminder that safety can’t be taken for granted. We need to remain vigilant.

So why did this bridge collapse? And, just as importantly, how might we make other bridges more safe against such collapse?

A 20th century bridge meets a 21st century ship

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was built through the mid 1970s and opened in 1977. The main structure over the navigation channel is a “continuous truss bridge” in three sections or spans.

The bridge rests on four supports, two of which sit each side of the navigable waterway. It is these two piers that are critical to protect against ship impacts.

And indeed, there were two layers of protection: a so-called “dolphin” structure made from concrete, and a fender. The dolphins are in the water about 100 metres upstream and downstream of the piers. They are intended to be sacrificed in the event of a wayward ship, absorbing its energy and being deformed in the process but keeping the ship from hitting the bridge itself.

The fender is the last layer of protection. It is a structure made of timber and reinforced concrete placed around the main piers. Again, it is intended to absorb the energy of any impact.

Fenders are not intended to absorb impacts from very large vessels . And so when the MV Dali, weighing more than 100,000 tonnes, made it past the protective dolphins, it was simply far too massive for the fender to withstand.

Read more: I've captained ships into tight ports like Baltimore, and this is how captains like me work with harbor pilots to avoid deadly collisions

Video recordings show a cloud of dust appearing just before the bridge collapsed, which may well have been the fender disintegrating as it was crushed by the ship.

Once the massive ship had made it past both the dolphin and the fender, the pier – one of the bridge’s four main supports – was simply incapable of resisting the impact. Given the size of the vessel and its likely speed of around 8 knots (15 kilometres per hour), the impact force would have been around 20,000 tonnes .

Bridges are getting safer

This was not the first time a ship hit the Francis Scott Bridge. There was another collision in 1980 , damaging a fender badly enough that it had to be replaced.

Around the world, 35 major bridge collapses resulting in fatalities were caused by collisions between 1960 and 2015, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. Collisions between ships and bridges in the 1970s and early 1980s led to a significant improvement in the design rules for protecting bridges from impact.

A greenish book cover with the title Ship Collision With Bridges.

Further impacts in the 1970s and early 1980s instigated significant improvements in the design rules for impact.

The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering’s Ship Collision with Bridges guide, published in 1993, and the American Association of State Highway and Transporation Officials’ Guide Specification and Commentary for Vessel Collision Design of Highway Bridges (1991) changed how bridges were designed.

In Australia, the Australian Standard for Bridge Design (published in 2017) requires designers to think about the biggest vessel likely to come along in the next 100 years, and what would happen if it were heading for any bridge pier at full speed. Designers need to consider the result of both head-on collisions and side-on, glancing blows. As a result, many newer bridges protect their piers with entire human-made islands.

Of course, these improvements came too late to influence the design of the Francis Scott Key Bridge itself.

Lessons from disaster

So what are the lessons apparent at this early stage?

First, it’s clear the protection measures in place for this bridge were not enough to handle this ship impact. Today’s cargo ships are much bigger than those of the 1970s, and it seems likely the Francis Scott Key Bridge was not designed with a collision like this in mind.

So one lesson is that we need to consider how the vessels near our bridges are changing. This means we cannot just accept the structure as it was built, but ensure the protection measures around our bridges are evolving alongside the ships around them.

Photo shows US Coast Guard boat sailing towards a container ship entangled in the wreckage of a large bridge.

Second, and more generally, we must remain vigilant in managing our bridges. I’ve written previously about the current level of safety of Australian bridges, but also about how we can do better.

This tragic event only emphasises the need to spend more on maintaining our ageing infrastructure. This is the only way to ensure it remains safe and functional for the demands we put on it today.

Engineering
Infrastructure
Urban infrastructure
container ships
Baltimore bridge collapse

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How Can I Make a Difference in The World
Many individuals underestimate the power of personal choices and actions in making a difference in the world. These choices, no matter how small they may seem, have the potential to create a significant impact. One of the most impactful decisions anyone can make is to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. By reducing energy consumption, minimizing ...
Hannah Ritchie: How 'Urgent Optimism' Can Save the World
But I'd like to take the opposite framing. I don't think we're going to be the last generation. The evidence points to the opposite. I think we could be the first generation.
If I Could Change The World Essay Examples
If I could change the world, I would start by making sure that everyone had access to basic life necessities. This includes food, shelter, and clean water. I would also work to end abuse in all forms. No one deserves to be treated poorly, and no one should have to live in fear. Lastly, I would want to give everyone the opportunity to reach ...
The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay
The essay writing process consists of three main stages: Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline. Writing: Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion. Revision: Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling ...
Broadening My Worldview Through Writing
Coffee and reading/writing, a match made in heaven! The journal article pulled up there was one of my favorites as I started learning more about drug policy. They've shaped my opinions (and shown me that it's ok to change my opinion based on what I learn): Lots of writing assignments require students to do research and develop an argument ...
How Can I Change the World: Essay
Pages: 2. This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples. Cite This Essay. Download. Our objective is to change the world into a united, color-blind society. Instead, we intend for, as my father advocated, people, to be "judged by the content of ...
Essay on We Can Change the World
Changing the world is a continuous journey. It requires persistence, resilience, and a commitment to learning. It is about understanding that every action, no matter how small, contributes to a larger cause. By harnessing the power of individual actions, collective effort, and technology, we can shape the world into a place that reflects our ...
Climate Change Essay for Students and Children
Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. This happens due to many internal and external factors. The climatic change has become a global concern over the last few decades. Besides, these climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways. These climatic changes are having various impacts on the ...
PDF How to Change the World (UGS)
Paper 2: Essay Reflections on LBJ Museum - imagining social change Paper 3: Note-taking matrix Social ethical dimensions of professional practice Paper 4: Speech Techniques to argue for social change: the power of language An essential aspect of improving writing is revising. For papers with a grade less than an 85, I
Stories
By submitting just 500 words, each student has the opportunity to earn between $500 and $1500. Additionally, the Ballard Center is full of resources to help students make a big impact. By sharing your idea with us, we can help you make your dreams of becoming a Changemaker a reality. I'm not sure if my idea is big/innovative enough.
How to Write the University of Texas-Austin (UT) Supplemental Essays
How to write each supplemental essay prompt for UT Austin. Prompt #1: Topic A. Prompt #2: Short answer #1 + examples. Prompt #3: Short answer #2 + examples. Prompt #4: Short answer #3 + examples. Prompt #5: Short answer #4 + examples. UT Expanded Resume tips, sample, + template. Proud home of the Longhorns (and Professor Matthew McConaughey ...
How to Write the George Washington University Supplemental Essays
Prompt #1: "Changing history" essay. Prompt #2: "Meaningful dialogue" essay. Prompt #3: Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute. This 200-year-old private research university is a forward- and outward- looking institution working to create a socially-conscious and civically-minded student body. Located in the heart of Washington, DC, The George ...
Sugar Changed the World Essay Summary & Analysis
Essay Summary: "How We Researched and Wrote This Book". Aronson and Budhos talk about the process of writing the book and "the really large historical themes that came up in our research" (127). Unlike the book itself, this section is not intended for young readers. However, they also add that they believe that these questions about ...
As climate change and pollution imperil coral reefs, scientists are
Just as the world's zoos breed critically endangered animals in ... Climate change driven by human activities is ... Write an article and join a growing community of more than 181,000 academics ...
Scientists Just Gave Humanity an Overdue Reality Check. The World Will
For my part, I'm partial to "post-Holocene," an admission that the world is vastly different than it was 10,000 years ago, but that we can't possibly predict — or name — what it might ...
Opinion
Ms. Taylor and Ms. Hunt-Hendrix are political organizers and the authors of the book "Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea." These days, we often hear that ...
How to Write an Essay Comparing Poems
Pre-Writing Stage: Read and Annotate: Read the poems multiple times, annotating key themes, literary devices, and interesting observations. Identify Similarities and Differences: Note down similarities and differences in themes, imagery, language, structure, and tone between the two poems. Structuring Your Essay: Introduction:
Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?
Blocking solar rays. Sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Ideas that sound like science fiction are now starting to become reality, raising concerns about safety.
Baltimore bridge collapse: a bridge engineer explains what happened
Around the world, 35 major bridge collapses resulting in fatalities were caused by collisions between 1960 and 2015, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport ...
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Tips and Eight Examples for New Short Answer "Please share how you believe your experience at UT-Austin will prepare you to “Change the World” after you graduate."

Fall 2022 UT-Austin Required Short Answer Questions

Initial Thoughts and Criticisms of the Fall 2022 UT-Austin Short Answer Question

Reframe or expand the question

Do not repeat content written in the other essays

Relate previous experiences to future goals

Answer the prompt directly

Narrow the scope of “changing the world” to changing your community, neighborhood, or family and discuss an issue of importance

Highlight how UT courses, certificates, study abroad, research opportunities, etc. can help you address local or global problems

Visualize your dream life

Write another essay about Major, Leadership, or Diversity

Eight Change the World Short Answer Question Example Essays

Architecture and Advocacy

Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Sustainable Development

Combating Prejudice, Anti-Semitism, and Discrimination

Religion at Home and Abroad

Rejecting Religious Dogma

Arts and Sciences, Future Career Uncertain

Issue of Importance

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If I Could Change the World Essay: Examples & Writing Guide

👉 Whom Would Your Changes Affect?

✏️ Change the World Essay FAQ

🗯 If You Could Change the World, What Would You Change?

💁‍♂️ How Would You Change the World?

✒️ If I Could Change the World Essay: Writing Guide

If I Could Change the World: Essay Topics

📝 If I Could Change the World: Essay Example

If I Could Change the World: Pros and Cons (Essay Example)

Essays About Change: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

1. “The Psychology Of Dealing With Change: How To Become Resilient” by Kathleen Smith

10 Interesting Writing Prompts on Essays About Change

How I Can Change The World and Make It a Better Place

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