Personal Statement - US and British LIterature

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Honors British Literature It is an interesting thing how God can use the most seemingly insignificant moment, just one overheard conversation, to start the biggest change of your life. I still can picture the chair I was sitting in on September 13th of my sophomore year, I remember the shabby blue and brown fabric that covered that chair. I think I will always remember that this is where I was when I realized I didn't belong in my life.

I grew up in a very secular, crowded environment. I wasn't even encouraged to be curious about the philosophy of God until my sixth grade year. I was always encouraged to be one of the crowd, in fact, the teachers for many of my classes instructed us to write our student number on our papers instead of our names. Everything that we knew was given to us in bulk, including our theology; 'Evolution was truth; God was implausible'. But praise God, by the time I reached high school I had begun to build an involved friendship with Jesus. As my relationship with God grew during my freshman year, activities that always had seemed normal to me began to register as disturbing. Then I began to grow bolder in my objections to the dealings in both my and my friends' lives.

Around that time, my English teacher for my sophomore year gave me the one comment that I received from her all year. It was in response to my mentioning that the Christian theology has and most likely will have an intense influence on our society; her response to my paper was instruction for me to refocus my scientific groundings and refrain from using fiction in factual essays in the future.

It was later that week that I found myself sitting in the office waiting to take a yearbook picture of our four Assistant Principals, when I heard it, the conversation that influenced me to take on a proactive status in my life. I overheard our student counselors discussing that day's dropouts; they were casually discussing that one third of the students that walk through their doors "never have a chance at graduating" while another third will get their diplomas or GED's and finally the last third will go into the military, community college, or an actual university. The icy truth of what they were so casually discussing froze me in my seat, I didn't want to be one of their numbers anymore.

This change of setting for me has completely altered my perception of what I want for my life. I had been planning on going to UC Davis so I could be a Veterinarian. (I had even rigged my results on a career test that I took my freshman year to prove that was what I was supposed to be). Now I see that people and debates are my main interests and that I learn better when I am in a tighter group of people because I am one who learns through discussion and relating.

This is not an option in a lecture hall of 500 students. This is why I started looking at small conservative liberal arts universities and what eventually led me to visiting your school.

I see that I can really make some strong changes in our society once I have been grounded with sound facts and a sound faith. After visiting your school and speaking with your students and faculty I believe that George Fox is the place for me to sculpt these necessary building blocks.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

The first thing that I noticed at charter was the size; when I enrolled there were maybe 150 students enrolled at Charter. When I walked into my Computer Skills II class, there were only five of us there and it wasn't a mistake! The next thing that surprised me happened about two minutes later; the teacher talked to us on a personal level, he wanted to know who we were, not just whether or not we would need to have the security guard nearby for this period. My class sizes went from the mid-forties to no more than twelve. My homework load went from one assignment a week total, to at least one assignment per day, per class. I haven't been watching Adam Sandler movies in math class; the German books didn't even show Germany as two countries. The teachers at Charter actually noticed if something was bothering you, and they work to learn how to teach each student the best way for the student. After my first day, I was almost in tears when relaying to my mom that I actually wanted to go to school in the morning for the first time since I was in second grade.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

I also saw a huge difference in the people I met, this was a place where I could make political jokes, and people would laugh. Everyone I met has a goal for their life. I wasn't the only person to raise my hand with an answer to a question; I also wasn't the first hand up anymore. I also had a lot more fun at charter; you always have the option to just be yourself without having to worry of social repercussion. Here, people can spend their lunch hour quoting performances of our math-based superheroes, and some people give German speeches, and then of course we always 'recreational argue' on every topic imaginable, and then if we still run out, we have farcical arguments that never fail to turn into running jokes.

The people I most respected were people I met in my youth group, who attended Charter. My honorary big brother, Steven, made the most intense influence. Steven was the most competent teenager I had ever met. When he would get bored during a drive to the beach, or other retreat he doodled molecules; he even used a higher vocabulary than most of my teachers. So then, in the January of my sophomore year, I decided to put my name on the waiting list. That August I was able to enroll.

This is why I started looking at small conservative liberal arts universities and what eventually led me to visiting your school.

After visiting your school and speaking with your students and faculty, I believe that George Fox is the place for me to sculpt the necessary building blocks to make strong changes in our society once I have been grounded with sound facts and a sound faith.

Universities applied to:

• George Fox University
• UC Davis

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

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