Please describe any extracurricular activities you are involved with and what they mean to you.

Examples of
extracurricular activities are: school clubs, sports teams, youth organizations, and community service activities.
Please also include how you have been involved and for how long.

I'm in a Swimming Team since November 2017, it's a really good team and we are close each
other, it's also a competitive team but that doesn't mean we're unsupportive or only self-
interested, we're a family. I've participated in 6 competition this year, and I'm actually classifying
to go to "Juegos de la Araucanía 2018", a competition between Chile and Argentina. Before this
team I was on another for 2 years, which I had to leave because of a lesion on my shoulder that
impossibility to me to swim for approximately 8 months, after recover me I decided to go into this
new Club with Trainer Diana.

I'm in a Mathematic Academy for students with good abilities, it help us in mathematics
tournaments. We are 5 in class, with our teacher Felipe Retamal. I have been learning how to solve
very hard problems or challenges, it's also helping me to have a quick think. It's a good
environment, of concentration and learning, and we're all interested in be better.

I’m part of CocochiConsciente since March of this year. Cocochi Consciente is an independent
group formed by students of my school that search for a reflexive and critical look about the
problems on the country and our school. In this group we talk about social problems like: gender
discrimination, racism, homelessness, poverty, poor education, etc. We participate in
manifestation to make changes, and we also try to make other students conscious by talks and
pamphlets.

On March of this year I entered on a Pre-university class, to increase my language abilities and be
prepared for “PSU” of the next year. They give us guides that the teacher explains and after that
we work by our own count on the activities at the final of the guide. It's more like an individual
work.

In 400 words or less, please write an essay addressing the following questions. Write your response in clear
English and in your own words. Plagiarism will result in the removal of your application from consideration. This
means that if your answers are exactly the same as those of another applicant, both people will be disqualified.

 Why do you want to participate in the exchange program, and what will you contribute if you are
chosen?
 What makes you a good leader? Using two examples, describe how you are a leader in your school,
community and/or home.
 You will be required to do a community service project when you return home. Do you have an idea
for a possible project that would positively impact your community?

I want to participate in this program because know a different country and its culture will help me
to have a most open-mind, to take its best ideas and bring them to my country. In this kind of
experience I hope to understand how big the world is, how many values are out there, and take
them and making them part of my person. I want to participate in this program because I know
that it will help me to be a more complete person, an integrity person for my community, a person
that will help the community to be better and better, helping others by transmitting the
experiences I’ll learn.
A good leader is the one who knows to listen and to act, each action in the right moment. A good
leader is the one who knows that every member of the team is important and indispensable, every
member makes the team better. A good leader knows the abilities of the members, and make
them participate of the process, and is the one who guide the team, not by giving orders. That’s
what makes me a good leader. At school I know how to work with every classmate, and they know
how to work with me, we work as a team, as a great team. They know they can count with me,
and I know I can count with them. At home I’m the oldest of four children, in the summer my mom
was working and my brothers and I stayed at home, I divided the tasks on home; for example:
Felipe (15) has to wash the dishes, Marco (15) has to help me cooking and Esteban (11) has to set
and clear the table; I also helped my little brothers if they needed, that summer our relationship
became stronger, everybody makes a good job and all of us help mom with the house.

I have two projects on my mind. The first one is about civic education courses, focused on city
care, because, for example: on public events the people don’t take care of their own trash, they
leave it anywhere, on a table, on the street or even on the grass. The second one, it’s about public
Spanish classes for immigrants that for employment or prosperity purposes come to Chile,
because not everybody has the resources to learn for their own count.
How does the Youth Ambassadors Program, as you know it, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning,
community, and future? Please include some of your own wishes for the future and how they relate to the Youth
Ambassadors Program.

One of my desires is to learn and to teach, the knowledge I acquire share it with the rest of the
world, from that desires is where my wish of being Physicist come. I want to be a scientist, to
discover, to innovate, to give talks and conferences, and to make classes, on that objectives is
where I found the relation with the Youth Ambassador Program. With the program I will have the
opportunity to relate with people completely different from me, with a different culture and
nationality that will make me to develop a total and integral ability to adjust at any environment, a
skill totally important if I want to get a complete communication with any person, o future
student. I want to be a citizen of the world to eliminate any barrier on the communication with the
rest and that the learned by me could be understood for the people that I teach. I want to help
people to satisfice them wishes of learning and curiosity, help them throw information and
contact, I want something more close to people because the human relation is essential for
communication. Also, for my own experience I know that the leader, teacher or speaker attitude is
a very important agent on the way that a message is received, that the speaker is close and open
makes you welcoming to the theme, and makes you feel more interested for learning and
investigation. The program looks to encourage leadership skills, and in the future as a scientist I
will have investigation and projects on charge, so the skills that I will to perfect will be
fundamental for and efficient work with my future team, and it will be essential to get great
advances on science that I hope everybody will use. So, the program will make me close to the
world, to the community and its development because its central idea is to foment leadership and
communication skills, vital abilities for the activities that I’m doing and that I want to do.
Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What encouraged you to act? Would you make the same
decision again?

La más frecuente defensa de mis creencias es cada vez que me reúno con familia o amigos a
discutir temas como migración, diversidad sexual o feminismo. Usualmente, tras cada almuerzo en
el que se reúne toda la familia, incluyendo abuelos, el espacio de sobremesa llegamos a tocar
temas de la actualidad: la llegada de haitianos a Chillán, la inclusión de mi colegio al tener un baño
mixto, las diferencias que la sociedad ha creado entre hombre y mujer, etc. Los mayores de Chile
en general tienen una mentalidad mucho más cerrada que las generaciones cercanas a la mía, y es
por eso que en estas oportunidades se dan largos debates entre mis mayores y yo, por ejemplo,
mucha población adulta en Chile tiene la creencia de que los haitianos “vienen a robar trabajo”,
creencia totalmente errónea para mi puesto que buscar mejores oportunidades en ningún
momento es robar, además, esto solo se dice porque es de un país distinto pero si esa persona
que critica al inmigrante se va a otro país también espera encontrar un trabajo ¿no? Muchos
inmigrantes llegan con estudios, a diferencia de lo que cree la mayoría, entonces critican sin
informarse realmente, eso lo debato e intento mejorar, les muestro otras miradas, otra
información y otro contexto. También el tema de la desigualdad sexual es un tema de mucho
debate, puesto que mis generaciones anteriores aun ven esa brecha (inexistente en mi
generación) entre hombre y mujer, con mis compañeros hemos llegado a la conclusión de que
somos iguales y diferentes, biológicamente es imposible ser iguales, pero tenemos las mismas
capacidades intelectuales y eso nos pone al mismo “nivel”, con mis padre es distinto, se crió con
una madre machista, pero con nuestras conversaciones e intercambios de ideas su mentalidad y
creencias va cambiando, la mujer puede llegar igual de lejos que el hombre, ninguno es superior.
Lograr una igualdad entre seres humanos es uno de mis objetivos y motivaciones, hemos
cometido errores en el pasado por creencias erróneas como la de que “hay razas superiores”,
errores que no se deben repetir por ningún motivo, es por eso que defiendo mis ideas de igualdad
entre hombre y mujer, o entre chileno y haitiano, al fin y al cabo todos somos personas, parte de
una comunidad que es la del planeta Tierra. Seguiré defendiendo mis creencias a través del
diálogo cada vez que tenga oportunidad, pero siempre respetando la de los demás. Cada día tomo
la decisión de seguir defendiendo estas creencias de igualdad entre todos los seres humanos, y la
seguiré tomando hasta lograr el objetivo o que me demuestren estoy equivocada.

An exciting aspect of this program is the home stay component in the USA. Participants will stay with a host family
who will share their home and time with participants without compensation. What attributes do you have that would
make you a good guest for a host family? What would you like to share with an US family about your life and
country?