GIP Entrance Essay

My interactions with GIP and other scholarly groups at Poly have been overwhelmingly positive throughout my years at Poly, and the experiences they have provided have been incredibly unique. During many class or school-wide meetings I would hear about ambitious events being led by the GIP scholars, and they always seemed to concern fascinating global topics. Each topic was discussed from multiple unique perspectives, and the majority of them were not discussed in everyday curriculum, which made them that much more alluring. My personal favorite was the Manara Center presentation where Elias Matar invited several of his students to participate in the GIP conversation because you could see firsthand the impact that his organization had on its students. 

The events were all well organized and available to the entire student body. They promoted discussion and often made me think about the topic for days afterwards (Which was definitely the case with the Manara event). However, without the group's student leaders/representatives, I do not believe I would have been as inclined to participate and eventually join.  The connection between fellow students is a powerful one, and many members of GIP have promoted the organization as such an accepting and encouraging community. I hope to be able to contribute as much as I can to ensuring that future Poly students have a similarly positive experience with the organization. 

Through GIP, I hope to learn more about the world from the global perspective through all of the opportunities that are commonplace in the program. Whether this means hosting a foreign exchange student, or partaking in a unique experience, I think it would be simply ridiculous to pass up this opportunity.