The Perfect Role Model Jeanette Low

Open-Ended This question seeks to give students the opportunity to share important aspects of their schooling or their lives - such as their personal circumstances, family experiences and opportunities that were or were not available at their school or college - that may not have been sufficiently addressed elsewhere in the application.

Role models walk in and out of our lives, granting us opportunities to better ourselves. My role model is no actor or actress, no athlete or genius, but a bipolar (manic-depressive) brother who has been arrested eleven times for gang-related activities and family abuse but who, despite his character flaws, has managed to teach me a lesson I never could have learned from anyone else. My first two years of high school were the shakiest of my life. My brother went though his mood swings almost daily, and I would leave home in the middle of the evening just to finish up my homework else, sometimes going days hiding at a relative’s house just to ensure my safety from him. His constant violent threats towards my mom and me were a bit repetitive, and we chose to over look them, figuring hew as just in a bad mood. He would yell for hours about how my parents were unloving, thoughtless, self-centered...