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As an undergraduate involved myself in a wide array of community service activities, and even now I work 40 hours a week with abused and neglected children. This impulse to serve others and put myself in situations in which I feel I am making a difference likely stems from the very difficult circumstances of my childhood, which so influenced the woman I have become.

My mother and father separated when I was six, and I was subsequently raised in a single-parent home with a mother who was an alcoholic. My father sent her $300 a month in child support (for two children), so our financial picture was also grim. (I always say my mother is a ''master of ground beef'' because she had to be so resourceful in stretching our food budget.) Although, fortunately, my mother was a loving parent, her drinking problem necessitated that I learn to take care of myself from a very early age. In addition to becoming independent, I immersed myself in my studies to escape the depressing realities of our family life. It was important to me that I survive and that I learn from circumstances rather than being crushed by them. My older sister did not fare so well. She dropped out of high school and, briefly, became addicted to cocaine.

By the time I began college, I was more eager than most freshmen to begin a whole new life because there was so much I wanted to put behind me. In high school I had had a full schedule of academic activities but never had an active social life. During my first semester as an undergraduate, not surprisingly, I made up for lost time. In the process, I earned the poorest grades in my academic history. Afterwards I quickly got back on track scholastically, also involving myself in the first of numerous community activities, serving the homeless twice a week in a soup kitchen. Later, as service chairperson, I organized a highly successful food drive for four homeless shelters and a fundraiser for a center helping children with cancer. I also became active in a group that provides big brothers and big sisters for disadvantaged children.

I spent my junior year abroad, studying in Paris. In addition to becoming fluent in French, I eventually wrote a 30-page thesis in that language as well.

In the summer following my return, I worked as a volunteer for the National Center for Immigrants' Rights, which gave me my first experience with legal research, as well as some perspective on what lawyers do. Later I was fortunate to participate in an internship that provided me with truly extraordinary exposure to the legal system. Working 23 hours a week in a district attorney's office (in the economic crimes unit that dealt with fraud, embezzlement, and other white-collar crimes) gave me the opportunity to do extensive legal research, sit in on negotiations with defense counsel, examine and evaluate raw evidence, go to court, develop questions, and analyze the answers we would obtain. Working in the public sector offered me a large dose of reality. I was in an excellent position to observe all of the paperwork, postponements, and other frustrations that are part and parcel of practicing law. The long hours, the need for hard work and painstaking attention to detail, and the total absence of glamour were just a few aspects of the legal profession that came into sharp focus for me during my time with the DA. But rather than becoming disillusioned, I found myself becoming more interested than ever in preparing myself to become an attorney.

Since graduating I have been quite busy. I spent five weeks with my fiancé in his homeland abroad, and also worked for my father, helping put together a newsletter for his property management business. For the past two months I have been a child care worker, serving as a surrogate parent and role model for seven 12- to 14-year-old boys living in a residential treatment center for abused and neglected children. The tragic and unbelievable stories to which I have been exposed in this job make me feel that my own childhood was privileged by comparison.

I am the only person in my immediate family lucky enough to have received a higher education. Now, as I look to the future, I recognize my continuing need for independence and my desire to establish myself. My life to date has prepared me for dealing with many obstacles and also shown me the resilience, strength, determination, and optimism that are so much a part of my character.

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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