Sample Essay

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Please provide us with a summary of your personal and family background. Include information about your parents and siblings, where you grew up, and perhaps a highlight or special memory of your youth. (Limit 2 pages)

I grew up on a small cattle farm in Donegal, just ten miles from the border separating the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. My father has retired due to health problems, and my now mother runs our farm. Every year, without fail, she produces 30 cows for the local market. Although my ancestors have lived on the same piece of farmland since 1642, while I was growing up my family was very poor.

I have three younger brothers, currently aged 25, 19, and 14, each of whom has a unique character. Alan is a sensitive soul—the poet amongst us. Brian, is a natural fighter, a feisty Irishman. James, the baby of the family, is now a teenage wheeler-dealer, and the most likely to inherit the farm. As for myself, I was the archetypal "big brother": bossy, no doubt, but always eager to lend advice, jump into a game of soccer, or wipe someone's tears away. Because of our scarce resources, my brothers and I shared almost everything, from toys to farm chores.

Apart from helping my brothers, I had other duties that resulted from being the eldest. When I was a teenager, my father was periodically ill with a heart ailment. Because my mother had to care for my younger siblings and monitor my father's care, I took on the responsibility of managing our farm during his absence. I often had to balance my schoolwork with such tasks as milking the cows and repairing the tractor. These experiences had an enduring impact on me. In fact, my desire to be an entrepreneur and to someday manage my own business stems from this period. I also learned some lasting, if elementary, business skills. For example, starting at age 16, I often attended cattle sales in our rural Irish community, where I would haggle with much older and extremely shrewd farmers over the price of cows. Just ten years later, I found myself using those very same negotiating skills in the conference rooms of the U.S. Senate.

My mother came from a poor family, but, notwithstanding her excellent grades, her parents pulled her out of school at age 13 to work. Despite her own lack of schooling, she encouraged us to pursue higher learning. One of my most vivid memories of the way she looked out for our interests concerns an episode during which my elementary school teacher labeled me a slow learner. At age eight, I was made to repeat a grade and channeled me into a "special needs" program. Unsatisfied with this "official" diagnosis, my mother began tutoring me herself after school. She soon discovered that, rather than failing to understand the material presented in class, I had already absorbed it, and was thus merely bored. Moreover, the teacher has mistaken my intellectual curiosity and natural inquisitiveness for a failure to understand the concepts that she was teaching. Sticking to her guns, my mother insisted that the administrators return me to the regular class. Having achieved this, she always saw to it that I had access to stimulating material.

My father, who left school at age 14, is a hard-working man. He is easy going and has a dry sense of humor and a gift for imaginative storytelling. Although his peers frowned upon education and couldn't understand why he was working the farm alone while we went off to school, he held a different view. He lavished us with support, and he is still the first to offer encouragement for any venture we pursue.

Although I grew up in a wonderful family, I was also born into a society that was divided along ethnic lines. The fact that I was a Presbyterian in the Republic of Ireland had a major impact on my life. In 1971, the year prior to my birth and just before my country's political troubles exploded, the Republic of Ireland's census recorded a population of just 125,685 Protestants. Within this Protestant community there were a only 16,052 Presbyterians, a mere 0.54 percent of the total population.

Unlike most Protestants in the Republic of Ireland, who are usually from the professional classes and live far from Northern Ireland, my family had neither the shield of social class nor distance from the border to protect us from Ireland's ancient quarrels. As a result, we were sometimes the victims of harassment from the local Catholic majority. To walk the streets of the nearest town in the uniform of my Protestant high school was to invite taunts and occasionally physical violence. Sporadically, even terrorism affected our lives. In 1978, my mother's cousin was killed in a bomb explosion, and earlier that decade my uncle barely survived an assassination attempt.

In 1990, I left Donegal to attend university in Dublin. Although Dublin is far removed from the Northern Ireland conflict, my ethnic background continued to influence my life. A direct challenge to my values came during my third year in college, when I met my future fiancée. Our socio-economic backgrounds were nearly identical (we were among the few Trinity students from poor, rural families) except for one thing: she was Catholic and I was Presbyterian. As we grew closer, I was faced with the task of confronting my own deeply held prejudices as well as those of my tightly knit family. I faced this challenge directly but sensitively, helping my family to accept and cherish our relationship.

Looking back at my upbringing today, I appreciate just how fortunate I am. My family created a loving home in which I was able to develop the self-confidence that I need in order to overcome many of the challenges that I face in my career. In addition, growing up in a family of very modest means, and being conscious of my parents' sacrifices, has given me a powerful sense of drive. From my own experience, I realize that many people have not had the chances to succeed that I have been given; I am therefore determined not to squander the opportunities that I receive.

Note: This essay appears unedited for instructional purposes. Essays edited by EssayEdge are dramatically improved. For samples of EssayEdge editing, please click here.

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