1. We are looking for passionate students to join our diverse community of scholars, researchers, and artists. Answer this question, which corresponds to the school/program you selected above, in a half page or roughly 250 words.

College of Arts and Sciences ­ What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?

writing a children’s story

The task was simple: write a children’s story. How hard could writing a piece of literature for

someone that is less than a third of my age really be? Kids will laugh at anything read in a funny voice,

right? Wrong. I expected this assignment tasked by my creative writing teacher to be an easy A or

meaningless busy work. When my teacher added the twist of having to read our stories to actual five and six

year olds, I thought nothing of it.

I didn’t give this assignment a second thought until the night before I was required to present it. That

night I sat down at my desk, expecting to write my children’s story in less than an hour; It ended up taking

me an hour to come up with the idea itself. From there, I struggled with my word choice and dialogue for

another hour. After combating this surprising challenge of writing a children’s story for over three hours, I

decided that my first draft was finished.

The next day I presented in front of numerous kids, including my teacher’s son. I prepared my silly

voices, thinking that this would be enough to get me a standing ovation. After I told my fable of Buddy the

Turtle, the crowd was silent. Then, out of nowhere, one child stood up and said, “That was really bad.” This

assignment turned out to be one of the most challenging experiences of my high school career. After that

day, I promised myself that I would never take any assignment lightly again and now, I’ve been more

passionate in every subject, refusing to give less than 100% on any piece of work.

2. Required of ALL applicants, regardless of school or program. Answer one of the following questions in a half page or roughly 250 words (Please select the prompt you are responding to)

1. What's your favorite word and why? 2. We are a community with quirks, both in language (we’ll welcome you to Grounds, not

campus) and in traditions. Describe one of your quirks and why it is part of who you are.

3. Student self­governance, which encourages student investment and initiative, is a hallmark of the U.Va. culture. In her fourth year at U.Va., Laura Nelson was inspired to create Flash Seminars, one­time classes which facilitate high­energy discussion about thought­provoking topics outside of traditional coursework. If you created a Flash Seminar, what idea would you explore and why?

4. While a student at U.Va., Fulbright Scholar Rowan Sprague conducted groundbreaking research aimed at protecting the complex structure of honeybee hives. We know that colonies include bees acting in a diverse range of roles, all equally important to the success of the hive. What role will you play in the U.Va. hive?

5. To tweet or not to tweet? 2,461,442,256. The amount of seconds in the average U.S. citizen’s life. There is only a finite amount of time that we are lucky enough to live on this planet. We should make every second count; we shouldn’t be allowed to squander a single second of our 2,461,442,256 seconds from birth. Every moment spent scanning your timeline, scrolling through facebook, or adding a filter to a picture is wasted…

After reaching the top of my timeline, I quickly looked up to find all of my friends doing the same. Out of the 20 people sitting in the senior lounge for the 45 minute lunch, only I was looking up. Everyone else was staring down at their iPhone, oblivious to their surroundings. I wasn’t even surprised; this is a regular occurrence. After a couple of seconds ticked by, I couldn’t handle the silence anymore. I stood up, hoping that at least one person would react to this motion. No change. Everyone was still staring down at their smartphone, a slave to technology.

This lunch was unusually silent. Normally, after five minutes, everyone continues to have their lively conversations. I guess the latest high school gossip was too juicy that day; everyone’s twitter feed must have been cluttered with Sally’s latest crush or by Steve’s lunch.

I believe that twitter is a nuisance that wastes people’s time without them knowing. While one is staring at his or hers’ phone it seems like time has stopped, but the harsh reality is that it hasn’t. I’m still guilty of checking my timeline occasionally, but the key word is occasionally. I have no conflict with twitter as long as it is used in moderation. Of course twitter can also be used in constructive ways such as in Egypt. Social media helped spread news around to everyone faster and helped organize protests and rallies. The average human is limited to 2,461,442,256 seconds in this world; we should make sure to not waste too many of them on twitter.