Internship Application - Essay Example

Internship Application What is your definition of success Give an example of a past success and describe the steps you took to achieve it. Whenever people ask for my name, I always give them both my English as well as my Chinese name. My Chinese name is unique because my surname is "Yam" and my father had intentionally christened me "Wai". Put together they form part of an ancient and powerful Chinese idiom which was first coined by Confucius "Si joi yam wai." The significance of this idiom is really simple but yet very powerful; for it means "With determination, anyone can fulfill their dreams".

And that to me is my definition of success - "fulfilling all my dreams and making them reality". In the past, one of my dreams was to master the English language. I was eleven when I left Beijing - my hometown and together with my parents moved to Singapore. Leaving behind all childhood memories and my beloved motherland, I was forced to live in a country that had a different culture, climate, and language. Although I was upset about leaving home, I soon realized that if I wanted to be a leader in this fast paced globalize era, I would have to master the English language.

It wasn't easy! For the first three months, I could not understand anything in school and the only English words I knew were "hello" and "goodbye." So it wasn't very surprising when I quickly earned the reputation of being a deaf-mute among a group of particularly cruel eleven-year-olds. I was constantly swamped by condescending looks and scornful laughter. Just like anyone else, I got upset and frustrated, however I did not surrender nor quit! I started with the alphabets and the ACB song, and then slowly moved on to constructing simple sentences, and eventually built up my vocabulary.

Then in the Singapore national end-of-the-year examination, I received the highest score in my class, much to the surprise of my teachers and was admitted to the talent program the following year! From then on, I became even more ambitious and my dreams got bigger. I graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, took a year off to study at the University of Paris IV-La Sorbonne. I soon became proficient in French, and later enrolled at Georgetown. People often credit my intelligence and hard work to be the reasons for my accompaniments, but if you ask me, I would tell you the biggest reason behind my success has been my courage to dream big.

If you dare to dream the impossible, pour your heart out and are willing to work hard and make personal sacrifices, then one day, your dreams will also come true, and that to me is real success!