essay about winning a race

My Worst Best Marathon

Published on 10/12/2021 at 10:55 AM

When I arrived in Chicago for the 2021 marathon last week, I had every reason to believe I would beat my previous marathon time: a 3:29 at the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon that put me minutes under the Boston Marathon qualifying threshold. Qualifying for Boston is a big achievement for most runners, one I was proud of, and one I wanted to surpass. But it wasn't to be.

Eighteen months ago, I probably would have been too ashamed or embarrassed to write this story. But today, I'm surprised to find that not only do I want to, I feel proud to write it. The truth is, I've changed. I still want to chase big goals and push myself. But what happened Sunday during the 26.2 miles of the race made me better — even if it was my worst marathon time yet.

Running was not just a thing I did, it was a place I went. Somewhere I could be alone and let my thoughts unspool, or barely think at all.

When I started running more seriously five years ago, I instantly applied my Type A ambition to the endeavor. Running meant getting faster with every race. And for years, I did just that. Then, just a few short days after my running pinnacle at the LA Marathon, the city shut down. The pandemic took hold. I kept running, pulling up my mask whenever I came within 12 feet of my neighbors, but I was adrift. Like so many of us, I was full of grief for all we had lost, and a wave of depression left me feeling physically sick. It was hard to wake up in the mornings. My stomach always hurt. I cried when I listened to the news, then felt guilty for the crashing waves of my emotions, knowing how privileged I was and how much worse so many other people had it. But I still ran. I needed to. Running was not just a thing I did, it was a place I went. Somewhere I could be alone and let my thoughts unspool, or barely think at all. On my early-pandemic runs, I would ruminate on the beauty of the jacaranda trees in my neighborhood, leaving behind the stress that awaited me when I returned home to my computer and my phone, taking deep breaths and feeling how precarious and wonderful it was to be able to do just that. Then, in the summer of 2020, I sprained my ankle. Badly. Being injured is always hard. This time it was harder.

It was a long road back to recovery from me, both physically and when it came to mental wellness. But I dedicated myself to focusing on both. Not to, I felt, would be to disrespect everyone who wasn't able to do just that. I had to get better, I thought, simply because I had the opportunity to do it. I started back slow. In June of this year, when Nike asked me if I wanted to train for another marathon , I knew I was ready. I started working with running coach Rebeka Stowe to get race-ready for Chicago. It was a joyful training cycle. The world was cautiously reopening, and people were gathering together again. I ran with Koreatown Run Club and alongside my good friend Sheena as she prepared for the LA Marathon. I felt my speed returning, my belief in my running ability and my athletic determination trickling back into my body and brain.

Then it was race day. It wasn't long after I crossed the start line in Chicago that I realized I didn't feel right. I pride myself on my steel will, my ability to push through discomfort, and my dedication. I mean, marathons are supposed to be hard. But it also became clear that not only would reaching my goal time be nearly impossible after my rocky start, but to do it would require sacrificing something I didn't want to give: the joy of the run, the first of the American major marathons to take place since the pandemic began.

By mile eight, I knew that strange, elusive alchemy that creates the ideal race had not come together for me that day. And I changed my goal. As I looked around me at the tens of thousands of people running, I decided to let awe wash over me. All of us had survived, and here we were, back together, trying to do this impossible-seeming thing. Wow. How lucky was I to be sharing the asphalt with other runners again? To be able to be in my body, to smile, to laugh at the corny marathon signs people hoisted at us from the sidewalks? So lucky. My new focus was to lean into that feeling of elation, of gratitude, and turn my race into a fun run. To be honest, most of the miles were still not that fun. I've lucked out in my running career; even in my previous marathons, I didn't really struggle. Of course, those races were extremely hard, but I felt good — if challenged — throughout. This was different. My guts were twisted. My mouth felt made of cotton. It simply was not in me. Did I make some rookie mistakes that contributed to that? Yes. Did some things completely out of my control impact my performance? Yes. But do I feel the need to go into detail, make excuses, or offer to anyone an explanation? No.

The last year and a half has changed me. I'm still driven to push myself and accomplish more as an athlete, a writer, a person in the world. But as I gave myself the grace and understanding I needed during those long 26.2 miles in Chicago, I realized I'd grown. I'd come to learn that being kind to yourself doesn't always mean giving up on yourself. Being gentle with yourself doesn't always equal letting yourself off the hook. Sometimes it just means allowing yourself the grace you'd give anyone else in that moment. And that's hard. But I did it. And for that, I'm proud.

Don't doubt it: I'm still going to get that personal record. I know my Boston qualifying time was no fluke and I absolutely believe I can do it again. But I don't feel like I have to do it in order to prove something to myself or anyone else this time, to post my finish time on Strava and Instagram and impress some people, to feel like I've earned the label "fast." So, while my time in the Chicago Marathon wasn't an achievement for me, the race no doubt was. I've become a better athlete, a better person, and a better friend to myself. How could that not be a win?

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Dr. Craig Manning

What does “winning” mean.

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” —Vince Lombardi

Winning is engrained in our society. We want to win. Whether it’s in athletics, business, or life, winning has become a measurement of success or achievement. In this short post I want to address the illusive question: What does it really mean to win?

Classic definition of winning

Most people think that winning means coming out in front of someone else. They think winning is synonymous with “beating” others.

Winning has been associated with being egocentric and ego-oriented because of the idea that winning not only depends on you or I, but also the person we are competing with.

The truth is that winning is not about performing better than others, rather it is performing to our highest abilities.

The real definition of winning

Kilian Jornet, one of the most dominating (and competitive) endurance athletes in the world, said this about winning:

“Winning isn’t about finishing in first place. It isn’t about beating the others. It is about overcoming yourself. Overcoming your body, your limitations, and your fears. Winning means surpassing yourself and turning your dreams into reality.”

-From the book Run or Die , by Kilian Jornet

This definition most accurately describes what winning really means. Winning is not ego-oriented, it is task-oriented. You can finish a race far ahead of anyone else and still not win according to this definition. A business can be more profitable than a competitor, but if it did not reach its full potential, did that business really win?

Winning depends on us, and us alone. One of the reasons Kilian Jornet is so dominate in the Ultra Running community is that he understands that the real competition is not with the other runners—it is with his body, his limitations, his fears, and the trail.

What does winning mean to you?

What do you think about winning? In your business, sport, or life, what are you really competing with?

The greatest businessmen and athletes in the world, to one extent or another, know that they are competing with their industry or sport to be the best they can be. Coming out in front of others is a by-product of fulfilling their potential.

The truth is that you can win without being first, and you can still lose coming out on top.

The Fearless Mind resource center is a critical mental tool for any individual wanting to improve their performance in athletics, business, or personal achievement. Each subscriber gets over 32 individual mental training videos, access to the Mental Strength Journal, the statistics page, and The Zone, a special area with exclusive video content uploaded weekly all for only $20 a month. Click here to sign up The Fearless Mind also offers personal mental strength coaching. To inquire about getting a Fearless Mind coach to work with you personally click here: http://thefearlessmind.com/personal-coaching/

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Look Inside

Winning the Race

Beyond the Crisis in Black America

By John McWhorter

Category: history.

Dec 28, 2006 | ISBN 9781592402700 | 5-5/16 x 8 --> | ISBN 9781592402700 --> Buy

Dec 29, 2005 | ISBN 9781101216774 | ISBN 9781101216774 --> Buy

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Dec 28, 2006 | ISBN 9781592402700

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About Winning the Race

McWhorter traces the effects of this disempowering conception of black identity, from the validation of living permanently on welfare to gansta rap’s glorification of irresponsibility and violence as a means of “protest.” He discusses particularly specious claims of racism, attacks the destructive posturing of black leaders and the “hip-hop academics,” and laments that a successful black person must be faced with charges of “acting white.” While acknowledging that racism still exists in America today, McWhorter argues that both blacks and whites must move past blaming racism for every challenge blacks face, and outlines the steps necessary for improving the future of black America.

Also by John McWhorter

About John McWhorter

John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American Studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is a contributing editor at the Atlantic and host of Slate’s Lexicon Valley podcast. McWhorter is the author of twenty books, including The Power of Babel:… More about John McWhorter

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Splendid. . . . McWhorter’s answers are anything but orthodox. . . . [He] has a keen eye for the foibles of social scientists. ( The Wall Street Journal ) Provocative . . . both grounded in history and forward-looking. ( Publishers Weekly ) A provocative challenge to conventional wisdom. ( USA Today )

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Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century

Doing Race focuses on race and ethnicity in everyday life: what they are, how they work, and why they matter. Going to school and work, renting an apartment or buying a house, watching television, voting, listening to music, reading books and newspapers, attending religious services, and going to the doctor are all everyday activities that are influenced by assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include, and why. Race and ethnicity are powerful precisely because they organize modern society and play a large role in fueling violence around the globe. Doing Race is targeted to undergraduates; it begins with an introductory essay and includes original essays by well-known scholars. Drawing on the latest science and scholarship, the collected essays emphasize that race and ethnicity are not things that people or groups have or are , but rather sets of actions that people do . Doing Race provides compelling evidence that we are not yet in a “post-race” world and that race and ethnicity matter for everyone. Since race and ethnicity are the products of human actions, we can do them differently. Like studying the human genome or the laws of economics, understanding race and ethnicity is a necessary part of a twenty first century education.

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“Life is not a race but a pace we need to maintain with reality.” ~Amit Abraham

Almost all of my adult life I’ve competed in the extreme sport of white-water kayaking.

My life revolved around adrenalin and competition.

Recently, I had a dream I will never forget:

I was running in a race and I was out in front, winning.

I got to a point in the course where there were no signposts showing the next turn. So I asked the race officials, “Where is the course?”

They replied, “We don’t know.”

The race officials couldn’t tell me where the course went from there because there was no course.

All of a sudden I stopped running and thought to myself, “There is no race if the officials don’t even know the course.”

The feelings that followed were first confusion and then a deep sense of relief.

I thought, “I don’t have to try so hard. I don’t have to win anything. There is no competition. Just stop. You are enough exactly as you are.”

And then I woke up.

This dream has stuck with me for weeks, as it feels like the exact message I need.

Just stop. You are enough. There is no race.

What if you already had everything you were asking for? What if this was it, and everything you thought you wanted was just an illusion?

Two weeks ago I got invited to go scuba diving.

I did my scuba diving certification course fifteen years ago and thought it was kind of boring. There wasn’t enough adrenalin and no competition involved, so I never went again.

Upon receiving this recent scuba invitation, I took it as sign and said yes.

Being a beginner at something is humbling. Not knowing what you’re doing. Not being good. Feeling awkward with the equipment.

It gives the ego a big check to say, “I don’t know. I’m a beginner. Please show me. Please help me.”

Listening intently as my instructor reviewed all the details I learned fifteen years ago but had forgotten, I felt vulnerable.

Most of my life I’ve been at the top of my game as an international white-water kayak competitor, and have been the guide for others.

What’s it like putting the shoe on the other foot?

Somehow it was great!

The realization came that I am an absolute beginner not only in scuba diving but in life.

This new way of living I’ve embraced requires stopping, being authentic, and learning vulnerability.

How does this feel?

Actually, liberating!

I did my scuba review and absolutely loved it. I was buzzing. The thrill of a new experience and the learning curve of being a beginner was exponential.

After two real dives in the ocean I was hooked.

This is what my there is no race dream was showing me!

The point of scuba diving is to go slowly, see as much as possible, remain calm, breathe, and relax. There is no winner except who has the best time in his or her own experience.

Under water, it feels like a meditation , no chatting or ego involved. Taking in the beautiful colors, swimming with amazing fish, and experiencing a whole new world was intoxicating.

Two weeks later I got invited to go again. We did four amazing dives in a world-class dive site in Bali. It was so unbelievably amazing. I asked myself, “How did I get here?”

I got there by letting everything else go. Embracing an entirely new way of interacting with the world, and with myself. Questioning everything I ever viewed as worthy.

Three years ago I packed up my life in New Zealand and sold or gave away everything, even my kayaks.

I decided to say yes to the unknown, landing me in a whole new life in Bali.

No extreme sports, no adrenalin, no competition; my new life here is about saying yes to everything I never thought I was.

Going slowly, practicing mindfulness through yoga, meditation, and dance, learning how to speak Indonesian, and now scuba diving, my life looks like something I never in a million years would have guessed it would be.

I am finding joy in the little things , learning how to be in the moment, and realizing all that I thought was important isn’t.

There is no race.

The Western collective consciousness teaches us that when we get to the end of something, then we will be happy, whole, complete, and successful.

When we graduate from high school or college, when we get married, when we have kids, when we get the dream job, then life will really be rolling.

We’re constantly chasing a carrot on a stick that’s always just out of reach.

When we reach the milestone that we thought was our golden key to happiness, the feeling of satisfaction is fleeting.

So we think, “Okay, well I did that, and it didn’t quite bring me the happiness I was thinking it would, so maybe it was just a stepping stone. Maybe when xyz happens, that will make me happy. That will be the real win.”

This elusive state of contentment is always around the next corner. We’re racing toward something that will never give us what we’re hoping for.

The only way to truly win this race of life is to realize there is no race.

Winning is stopping. Going within. Finding happiness within yourself .

True satisfaction can only be found inside.

When we can be alone with ourselves, be at peace, and feel a deeper connection, this is what we have really been racing to find.

Running toward the next accomplishment will never be able to provide this.

It will only take us further away from what we’re hoping to feel.

So what happens when we stop?

It involves going deeper within, which can be a scary prospect for many.

Choosing to constantly be on the go is easier. It dulls the pain.

It means not having to really take a look at yourself. A superficial sense of satisfaction comes from feeling you have accomplished a lot.

Adrenaline can be a drug, providing a temporary rush.

Why do you have to accomplish things to be worthy? Are you reliant on completing tasks so that your life can feel some sense of purpose? What if by just being present and showing up consciously you were living your purpose?

What if instead of feeling constant pressure and anxiety, you could just be with what you were doing in the moment you were doing it?

Our thoughts are rarely focused on where we are.

They’re in the past, wishing we could change it, or in the future, creating false outcomes that will never usually come to fruition.

Both of these thought patterns are actually a form of insanity, and not based in reality.

The past is over. There is nothing we can do to change it.

The future will never come. Reality is always the moment we are in right now.

We can only truly live by stopping the race of the mind to the imagined future—by living in presence. By waking up from the dream that there is something out there that will bring satisfaction, turning inward, and taking responsibility for our lives.

Realizing there is no race means finding contentment right here and now.

Quit running and find that what you have been searching for has been right here all along.

Start by creating small gaps in your schedule. Start small at first. Get places a few minutes early.

Before getting out of the car or leaving the house, consciously pause.

Try fitting fewer things into your day. Less is more!

Do one thing at a time.

When you eat, be present with your food. Enjoy it, really taste it, see it, smell it, savor it.

Turn off the TV.

Take a meditation course.

Notice and be grateful for the small things.

Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, focus on the many things you do have.

Life’s finish line will come one day for us all. Learning how to truly live means we will get to that finish line with a smile in our heart and contentment in our being.

This is the ultimate win. It requires nothing from outside and everything from inside. There is nowhere to go, nothing to achieve, nothing to prove, and nothing to do.

All it requires is stopping and refocusing priorities; cultivating awareness by slowing down the race of the mind.

Creating space to be, and valuing ourselves as enough right here and now, requires an inner commitment and unplugging.

Contentment is currently available in abundance; we just need to stop long enough to feel it.

About Polly Green

Polly Green is the founder of Other Side Channelling Academy, a signature spiritual coaching program that supports driven, adventurous mid-life women as they move from self-sabotage into sobriety, unconditional self-love, and radical self-acceptance so that they can feel worthy and whole within themselves, and confident in speaking their truth. Grab her free guide: 10 Steps to Radical Self-Acceptance . Join her free training on YouTube , Instagram , Facebook , and her website .

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I knew this was a race I had to win (short essay)

I knew this was a race I had to win....

I knew this was a race I had to win or this could end up in utter calamity. This abrupt situation has made me more determined to be victorious. I had come this far and I am certainly not giving up. Sorry, I did not mention what I was doing did I? Well, I have been taking part in sprinting races the whole week so I could receive the grand total of £10,000. Today is the finals and I am certainly accepting defeat. No way. The ultimate reason to my commitment to the competition is due to the fact that my father is seriously ill. He has a few days of his existence left. I need to provide the fee needed for the fee. I will not allow my father to just exit this world when he still has so much to experience. The rest of my family and friends are relying on me to countenance this competition in order to save my father! I will not give up at any rate for my precious fathers life is on the line.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Oh no. It’s time to commence the final race. Several chivalrous racers are aiming for the top prize for many reasons too. A friend I met in the competition named Jim told me that he had the intention to make his disabled little brothers wishes come true. Deep inside, the racers have reasons to win this grand prize. As the tension builds up within my soul, I begin to sweat before the whistle to begin the race has been blown. My nerves were getting the better of myself but that isn’t going to stop me. I am in the race track assuming my racing position. With my family rooting for me in the side lines, I will surely not loose.

“Peeeeeep.” The whistle is blown and I am off. It seemed like my reactions were just perfect enough to get in front of my opposition for the moment. I began to increase my speed as the seconds passed. The rowdy crowd was cheering me on and that extra edge increased my speed. As I went over the halfway line, my body began to decrease its speed. I was slowing down rapidly however I began remembering the good times I had with my dad. With my valued memories, I utilised every ounce of my strength to carry on. I began taking the lead of the race until Jim began catching up to me. The finish line was within my grasp. I just had a couple of meters in order to draw to a close the 500m race but abruptly Jim raced in front of me. We both crossed the finish line together. It was impossible to tell the winner. The replay of the race showed that...that.........I had lost. I was inches of getting first place.

I was extremely disappointed with myself. I stood motionless on the bench once I had finished but I also felt a sense of gratitude. The runner up apparently wins £5,000. I have still work to do in order for my dad’s operation to be a success however I won’t stop. I will never stop.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay.

sydneyhopcroft

Quality of writing.

The Quality of Written Communication, as outlined above, is not acceptable for GCSE and needs quite an overhaul. From simple grammatical errors such as omitting words to completely mistaking which tense is required, the candidate needs to re-read their work and pay extremely close attention in order to fix all the errors in their QWC.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis here is not marked, but the Description is. With regards to the description, and in addition to the above, the candidate doesn't do a great job of really encapsulate the vibe of being in race - the cheering before the race, the deadly silence in the few seconds before the whistle is blown - all could be incorporated but simply aren't. Elsewhere, the frequent grammatical errors, particularly the switching of tenses throughout the answer. It is not always clear which tense this is in, although I'm guessing the present tense. The past and future tenses are also used erroneously and this is not acceptable at GCSE and must be rectified.

Response to question

This essay lacks the linguistic techniques required of a top grades answer, and for the most part runs like a commentary narrative, hopping between tenses. The candidate could do so much more with the material they have and this is the reason for the low grade. In a descriptive task to do with running, especially sprinting, it would be better to see this encapsulated in the way the candidate writes. Writing long elaborate sentences looks good if you're taking in the scenery, but if you're sprinting with your head to the ground, your thought processes change and therefore the narrative should change - short words/sentences to emulate the breaths and steps you take would suit this style of description much better than trying to squeeze in awkwardly long words like "utilised" and "decrease" into overly-long sentences that draw out the description, rather than create the speed intended.

Document Details

• Author Type Student
• Word Count 536
• Page Count 1
• Subject English
• Type of work Homework assignment

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SCOTUS Says You Can Discuss Race in Your College Essay. Should You?

The us supreme court banned colleges’ affirmative action admission practices, raising a question about students writing about race in their college essay.

Although the Supreme Court says college application essays may discuss race and disadvantage, BU experts say inauthentic or traumatic recollections won’t cut it. Photo by Delmaine Donson/iStock

Should You Discuss Race in Your College Essay?

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” — Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

“The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. …Universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”—Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Confused? So are many in higher education. When the United States Supreme Court sacked affirmative action racial preferences in June, Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion, while spotlighting applicants’ personal essays, also put vague guardrails around their use. And anyway, not every young person who has suffered racial discrimination wants to revisit it in their essay, that critical part of applying to college where students tell their story in their voice. 

After the SCOTUS decision, the advice from Boston University admissions and college guidance experts is this: your story must always be authentic. It can be about discrimination or other challenges met and dealt with, but it need not be. And it shouldn’t be , if writing about it means revisiting traumatic experiences.

“The essay for us is just going to continue to be as important as it always was,” notwithstanding the new legal landscape, says Kelly Walter (Wheelock’81), BU dean of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment. She has discussed the ruling with the University’s legal office, she says, and her office has tweaked BU’s two essay question options applicants must choose from. (The University also asks potential future Terriers to complete the Common Application for college, which has its own essay requirement.) The tweaks were partly in response to the court ruling, Walter says, but also to ensure that the questions conveyed to students “what BU stood for, and that we value diversity. We thought it was very important to put that out there front and center, and for them to be able to specifically respond to our commitment, our values, as it relates to one of these two essay questions.” 

Those questions are:

Reflect on a social or community issue that deeply resonates with you. Why is it important to you, and how have you been involved in addressing or raising awareness about it? What about being a student at BU most excites you? How do you hope to contribute to our campus community?

While the chief justice exhorted students to share discrimination episodes in answering such questions, recent alum and current student Erika Decklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24) says that may not be comfortable for some. She is an advisor with BU Admissions College Advising Corps (CAC-BU) , which gives college application counseling to low-income and other marginalized high schoolers.

“In my experience,” Decklar says, “students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. We have always advised and encouraged students to write about a topic that highlights their strengths, personalities, and passions—whether it is a ‘resiliency’ essay or an essay about their culture, values, or a unique passion.”

After the SCOTUS ruling, Decklar says, her advice to students has not changed. “We should continue motivating students to write about a passion, something that makes them unique, but not coach them to write about their traumatic experiences.” 

Katie Hill, who directs CAC-BU, says applicants sharing in their essays what makes them special “does not require them revisiting their pain. If students so choose, we can help them write about their families and cultures, what is beautiful and makes them proud to be” of that culture.

Students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. Erika Deklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24)

But what BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) students do not need, Hill says, is to hear from their advisors that in order to get into college, they need to open themselves up beyond their comfortable boundaries.

Walter agrees that an applicant’s story need not be an unrelenting nightmare. It’s true that some of them “are sharing things about their personal lives that I’m not sure I would have seen 20 years ago,” she says. “Students are certainly talking about their sexual identity in their essays. And some will say to us, ‘I’m telling you this [about my identity], and my parents don’t know yet.’” 

But she can reel off the opening lines from three of her favorite essays over the years that were hardly gloomy. One began, Geeks come in many varieties. “We laughed. It makes you want to keep reading,” she says. Then there was the woman who started, Life is short, and so am I.  

The third: By day, Louis is my trusty companion; by night, my partner in crime. “Doesn’t that make you want to read more and find out who or what Louis is?” Walter asks. (He was the applicant’s first car, a metaphor for this woman’s passion for the independence it conveyed, preparing her for the next step of going to BU, where she indeed matriculated.)

The essay is so important because it’s a given that applicants to BU can manage the academics here. “We have 80,000 students applying for admission to Boston University [annually],” Walter says, “and I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of them can do the work academically. We’re also shaping and building a class.

“For some, it may be leadership. For some, it may be their cultural background. For others, it might be writing for the Daily Free Press. We really want to think about a wide variety of students in our first-year class.” The essay fills in blanks about applicants for admission, along with teacher and counselor recommendations, their high school activities, and their internships or jobs. 

That’s not to say there aren’t lethal don’ts to avoid, most of them emphasizing the necessity of having a proofreader.

“We often get references to ‘Boston College,’” says Patrice Oppliger , a College of Communication assistant professor of communication, who solicits faculty reviews of applicants to COM’s mass communication, advertising, and public relations master’s program before making a decision.

And need we say, do your own work? Walter recalls an essay from a couple of years back where the applicant discussed life in Warren Towers. “And I was like, wait, you couldn’t have lived in Warren Towers, you’re not here yet. And it became very clear that the parent, who was an alum—I think in an effort to help—was telling her story. And somehow no one [in that family] caught that.”

So writing about dealing with discrimination, race-based or otherwise, is fine if it’s not traumatic for you to revisit— and if it’s authentic. Authenticity also includes avoiding over-reliance on artificial intelligence in crafting your essay. According to Admissions’ AI statement ,

If you opt to use these tools at any point while writing your essays, they should only be used to support your original ideas rather than to write your essays in their entirety. As potential future Terriers, we expect all applicants to adhere to the same standards of academic honesty and integrity as our current students. When representing the words or ideas of another in their original work, students should properly credit the source.

“We want to think about not just who will thrive academically at BU,” Walter says, “but also who will enrich the University community and make diverse contributions.”

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How to Talk About Race on College Applications, According to Admissions Experts

R afael Figueroa, dean of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy, was in the middle of tutoring Native American and Native Hawaiian students on how to write college application essays when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious college admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional .

Earlier in the week, he told the students that they shouldn’t feel like they need to talk about their ethnicity in their essays. But after the June 29 Supreme Court ruling , he backtracked. “If I told you that you didn’t have to write about your native or cultural identity, you need to get ready to do another supplemental essay” on it or prepare a story that can fit into short answer questions, he says he told them.

For high school seniors of color applying to colleges in the coming years, the essay and short answer sections will take on newfound importance. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested as much when he wrote in his majority opinion, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” That “discussion” is usually in an essay, and many colleges have additional short-answer questions that allow students to expand more on their background and where they grew up.

“The essay is going to take up a lot more space than maybe it has in the past because people are going to be really trying to understand who this person is that is going to come into our community,” says Timothy Fields, senior associate dean of undergraduate admission at Emory University.

Now, college admissions officers are trying to figure out how to advise high schoolers on their application materials to give them the best chance to showcase their background under the new rules, which will no longer allow colleges or universities to use race as an explicit factor in admissions decisions .

Shereem Herndon-Brown, who co-wrote The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions with Fields, says students of color can convey their racial and ethnic backgrounds by writing about their families and their upbringing. “I’ve worked with students for years who have written amazing essays about how they spend Yom Kippur with their family, which clearly signals to a college that they are Jewish—how they listened to the conversations from their grandfather about escaping parts of Europe… Their international or immigrant story comes through whether it’s from the Holocaust or Croatia or the Ukraine. These are stories that kind of smack colleges in the face about culture.”

“Right now, we’re asking Black and brown kids to smack colleges in the face about being Black and brown,” he continues. “And, admittedly, I am mixed about the necessity to do it. But I think the only way to do it is through writing.”

Read More: The ‘Infamous 96’ Know Firsthand What Happens When Affirmative Action Is Banned

Students of color who are involved in extracurriculars that are related to diversity efforts should talk about those prominently in their college essays, other experts say. Maude Bond, director of college counseling at Cate School in Santa Barbara County, California, cites one recent applicant she counseled who wrote her college essay about an internship with an anti-racism group and how it helped her highlight the experiences of Asian American Pacific Islanders in the area.

Bond also says there are plenty of ways for people of color to emphasize their resilience and describe the character traits they learned from overcoming adversity: “Living in a society where you’re navigating racism every day makes you very compassionate.” she says. “It gives you a different sense of empathy and understanding. Not having the same resources as people that you grow up with makes you more creative and innovative.” These, she argues, are characteristics students should highlight in their personal essays.

Adam Nguyen, a former Columbia University admissions officer who now counsels college applicants via his firm Ivy Link, will also encourage students of color to ask their teachers and college guidance counselors to hint at their race or ethnicity in their recommendation letters. “That’s where they could talk about your racial background,” Nguyen says. “Just because you can’t see what’s written doesn’t mean you can’t influence how or what is said about you.”

Yet as the essay portions of college applications gain more importance, the process of reading applications will take a lot longer, raising the question of whether college admissions offices have enough staffers to get through the applications. “There are not enough admission officers in the industry to read that way,” says Michael Pina, director of admission at the University of Richmond.

That could make it even more difficult for students to get the individual attention required to gain acceptance to the most elite colleges. Multiple college admissions experts say college-bound students will need to apply to a broader range of schools. “You should still apply to those 1% of colleges…but you should think about the places that are producing high-quality graduates that are less selective,” says Pina.

One thing more Black students should consider, Fields argues, is applying to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). (In fact, Fields, a graduate of Morehouse College, claims that may now be “necessary” for some students.) “There’s something to be said, for a Black person to be in a majority environment someplace that they are celebrated, not tolerated,” Fields says. “There’s something to be said about being in an environment where you don’t have to justify why you’re here.”

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Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century

A collection of new essays by an interdisciplinary team of authors that gives a comprehensive introduction to race and ethnicity. Doing Race focuses on race and ethnicity in everyday life: what they are, how they work, and why they matter. Going to school and work, renting an apartment or buying a house, watching television, voting, listening to music, reading books and newspapers, attending religious services, and going to the doctor are all everyday activities that are influenced by assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include, and why. Race and ethnicity are powerful precisely because they organize modern society and play a large role in fueling violence around the globe. Doing Race is targeted to undergraduates; it begins with an introductory essay and includes original essays by well-known scholars. Drawing on the latest science and scholarship, the collected essays emphasize that race and ethnicity are not things that people or groups have or are , but rather sets of actions that people do . Doing Race provides compelling evidence that we are not yet in a “post-race” world and that race and ethnicity matter for everyone. Since race and ethnicity are the products of human actions, we can do them differently. Like studying the human genome or the laws of economics, understanding race and ethnicity is a necessary part of a twenty first century education.

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Race and Ethnicity, Essay Example

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Race refers to a person’s physical appearance.In the past, race used to be identified by the use of skin color, eye color, hair color and bone or jaw structure (Karen and Nkomo324).Conversely,ethnicity, is based on shared cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, food, languages and beliefs (Karen and Nkomo325). Currently, race identification is done by use of DNA molecules thus, physical appearances cannot give one the right race.Ethnic identification can be accepted or rejected by the person in a particular group.They are social characteristics that can either make a person to be accepted or rejected in the society (Greene and Owen 27).

Race according to sociologist are social concepts and is a way in which people are treated, for example, people treat black people different from the white.Race and ethnicity affects day-to-day life.For example, in the video, Sociologist Key Coder, when she was five years old, she was being asked what she is.Others saw Coder as Caucasian American, Spanish, others as Japanese although she was taller, darker and with some spots, this bring out clearly the aspects of racism in the society (Exploring Society Telecourse – video).

Causes of Race and ethnicity

There are four outcomes of race and ethnicity. These are stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, and racism. Stereotypes arebehavioror a tendency of a particular group of people. When it is extreme it will be viewed as stereotypes. For example, all young people like music (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).Prejudice is based on the stereotypes and attitudes or ideas determine how a person is treated. This is treating a person differently because of his/her race, for example, you stupid woman driver, just because she is a woman, she is treated differently. This judgment can either be positive or negative.

Discrimination, on the other hand, is when prejudice is acted upon. Discrimination is the acting on the attitude one has on the other.For example, having different hotels and washrooms, which are meant for white and black people (David174).Racism is discriminating people using their inherited traits. This is mostly used for the rationale of control and power. For example, during slavery the blacks were inferior and less privileged to the whites who became their masters. In racism, there is institutional racism, which is a large form of discrimination to a larger group.For example,the giving of health care services to the whites in a certain hospital and not the blacks (David, P.174).

Sociological perspective of race and ethnicity

Sociological perspective is the understanding of race and ethnicity in depth. There are three sociological perspectives; these are functionalism, conflicts, and interactionism.  Functionalism indicates that race and ethnicity exist because they serve a certain purpose in the community. Leaders can use it during the war to establish a sense of belonging in a country allowing them to act as one, for example, Hitler in Germany (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).

In conflicts perspective, race and ethnicity is used for economical and political powers. This is used for the advantage of the dominant group against the inferior group.  For example, slavery was a conflict perspective because the slave acquired would work for their master, improving his wealth and political position in society. This is taking advantage of the less fortunate group (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).Interactionism perspective is mostly in small scale and normally comes out when a certain group of people are around others. When there is a group of employees, a few will start viewing themselves differently.For example, Asians, this is because there are American and African in the same group; this is commonly known as Labeling (Exploring Society Telecourse – Video).

In conclusion, race and ethnicity impacts on the society by having people of a different race influencing the actions of the other race. This can be negative or positives,but mostly people choice to copy the positive traits or what they view as fit to them. For example, the rock and roll musicians in America, most of them being white or black acted the same way and people enjoyed their music.

Works Cited

Exploring Society Telecourse – Streaming Videos, Retrieved on 7 December 2012 From http://irt.austincc.edu/streaming/telecourses/si.html. Web.

Greene, Patricia and Margaret, Owen. “Race and ethnicity.” Handbook of entrepreneurial dynamics: The process of business creation (2004): 26-38. Print

Proudford, Karen L., and Stella Nkomo. “Race and ethnicity in organizations.” Handbook of workplace diversity. (2006): 323-344. Print.

Williams, David R. “Race, socioeconomic status, and health the added effects of racism and discrimination.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 896.1 (2006): 173-188. Print.

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Should college essays touch on race? Some feel the affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

When the supreme court ended affirmative action, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions.

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

Amanda Loman / AP

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” wrote Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action . The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds.

FILE - Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

Writing about feeling more comfortable with being Black

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, his first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child. Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “I wrestled with that a lot.”

Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

Related: Oregon colleges, universities weigh potential outcomes of US Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

Essay about how to embrace natural hair

When Hillary Amofa started writing her college essay, she told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

Hillary Amofa, laughs as she participates in a team building game with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. "I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping," said the 18 year-old senior, "And I'm just like, this doesn't really say anything about me as a person."

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

Related: Some Oregon universities, politicians disappointed in Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

The first drafts of her essay didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay describes how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“Criticism will persist,” she wrote “but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Ma reported from Portland, Oregon.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

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Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century

Doing Race focuses on race and ethnicity in everyday life: what they are, how they work, and why they matter. Going to school and work, renting an apartment or buying a house, watching television, voting, listening to music, reading books and newspapers, attending religious services, and going to the doctor are all everyday activities that are influenced by assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include, and why. Race and ethnicity are powerful precisely because they organize modern society and play a large role in fueling violence around the globe. Doing Race is targeted to undergraduates; it begins with an introductory essay and includes original essays by well-known scholars. Drawing on the latest science and scholarship, the collected essays emphasize that race and ethnicity are not things that people or groups have or are, but rather sets of actions that people do. Doing Race provides compelling evidence that we are not yet in a “post-race” world and that race and ethnicity matter for everyone. Since race and ethnicity are the products of human actions, we can do them differently. Like studying the human genome or the laws of economics, understanding race and ethnicity is a necessary part of a twenty first century education.

About the Author

PAULA M. L. MOYA, is the Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at Stanford University. She is the Burton J. and Deedee McMurtry University Fellow in Undergraduate Education and a 2019-20 Fellow at the Center for the Study of Behavioral Sciences.

Moya’s teaching and research focus on twentieth-century and early twenty-first century literary studies, feminist theory, critical theory, narrative theory, American cultural studies, interdisciplinary approaches to race and ethnicity, and Chicanx and U.S. Latinx studies.

She is the author of  The Social Imperative: Race, Close Reading, and Contemporary Literary Criticism  (Stanford UP 2016) and  Learning From Experience: Minority Identities, Multicultural Struggles  (UC Press 2002) and has co-edited three collections of original essays,  Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century  (W.W. Norton, Inc. 2010),  Identity Politics Reconsidered  (Palgrave 2006) and  Reclaiming Identity: Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism  (UC Press 2000). 

Previously Moya served as the Director of the Program of Modern Thought and Literature, Vice Chair of the Department of English, Director of the Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and also the Director of the Undergraduate Program of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. 

She is a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, the Outstanding Chicana/o Faculty Member award. She has been a Brown Faculty Fellow, a Clayman Institute Fellow, a CCSRE Faculty Research Fellow, and a Clayman Beyond Bias Fellow. 

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Leaders of many companies are convinced that a famous name and relatively big starting salaries are everything that talented people are looking for in the organizations. In reality, that is not right. Surely, there are still many people who do not need more.

However, growing talents of developing countries would never agree to those conditions. Such kind of people want to prove to the world that their country is able to make a difference and innovate, even at the global level, so instead of striving for high salaries they want to find opportunities for self-development and doing something special.

The Reasons for Growing Talents to Choose Emerging Markets

Why talented people tend to prefer emerging markets to well-developed? The answer is evident – emerging markets offer the opportunities that people are searching for, while others do not. However, it seems to be a paradox since developed markets are supposed to have many advantages over the developing ones; this idea lies in the terms themselves.

However, this paradox now is a reality. The statistics of emerging markets is steadily growing. That growth began in 2000, and now the tendency preserves. The analytics predict that developing markets are going to grow nearly three times faster than developed once in the nearest future (“The growing role of emerging markets” par. 2).

Indeed, such countries as China, Russia or other representatives of BRIC have better economic performance than the Euro Union members or the United States. Therefore, that is the first reason why talents are so attracted to emerging markets – they offer an opportunity to grow with the company and a unique chance to be one of the first.

The second reason would be obvious to anyone who has ever chosen between a startup and a large corporation. That is like a standard problem of different generations. Grown-ups usually forget what it is to be children or teens, forget what they have wanted and needed in that age.

The same happens between emerging and developed markets. While developed ones already have enough employees as well as a regular influx of new ones, emerging markets do their best to win them. And these efforts do not go unnoticed. However, it is better to know what exactly attracts people.

Identifying the Hypothesis: What Organizations Should Offer

One of the strategies is suggested in the article by Ready, Hill, and Conger called Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets . The strategy is built on two pillars: making attractive promises, from which it is hard to refuse (to win the battle for talents), and keeping those promises (to retain talents) (1). Seems to be simple, doesn’t it?

Each of these pillars, in its turn, is built on several more. To make attractive promises, an organization should focus on three points: the brand (the reputation based on excellence), opportunities (self-development, possibility to innovate, challenging projects, and so forth), and the purpose (really worthy and needed by people). The paragraph about keeping promises the authors start with the following words.

It’s tempting to overpromise just to get new hires in the door. But failure to deliver on those promises will sour current employees on the company and ultimately hurt its appeal for potential new hires. Keeping your promises is especially crucial in emerging markets where employees can easily move to global or local companies that seem to offer greater overall rewards. (Ready, Hill, and Conger 1)

So, the most important point here is the willingness to fulfill promises. And in this regard, the company’s organizational culture plays a crucial role.

The Need for Study in the Article

In this part of the paper, it is discussed why the study conducted by Ready, Hill, and Conger is useful, who needs it, how it can be applicable to the UAE/GCC environment, and why it is appropriate for the MBA program.

Who and Why Needs the Study?

Emerging markets are steadily growing. Consequently, organizations, which operate in developing markets, are growing as well. They need new people and especially those talented ones. That is why the battle for talents between emerging markets and their organizations is fierce.

Additionally, despite the fact that developing markets have some advantages over developed ones, they still have to compete for talents with each other. So, first of all, this study is essential for companies from emerging markets that are searching for talents since it provides them with a relevant strategy. However, it has the same value for companies operating in developed markets.

One of the best characteristics of this article is that it gives numerous examples in addition to the strategy. Therefore, companies can examine and even implement them if it is possible.

For example, on the very first page, the authors told about the Standard Chartered Bank that reduced its attrition rates to retain their employees (and attract new ones) while the majority of other companies increased those (Ready, Hill, and Conger 1). That is actually a good idea, which can be implemented by every company regardless of the sphere it operates in.

How is the Study applicable to UAE/GCC environment?

In 2015, Morningstar Indexes, considering a “significant improvements in UAE in recent years”, decided to classify this country as an emerging market (2).

This status means that since now the UAE has to compete for talents at this level. As for GCC environment, the study is applicable since “emerging-market countries provide significant opportunities” for it, particularly those can improve a connection with Asian countries (27). Additionally, many talented people in these territories want to find decent job opportunities, do something worthy and valuable.

Why is the Study Appropriate for the MBA Program?

This work is appropriate for the MBA program as far as it encompasses a significant and urgent topic, which has great practical value, and the results that can be used by numerous organizations. This study also cost the authors huge efforts and lots of time. The details in this regard can be found in the following paragraph (Ready, Hill, and Conger 2).

Methodology of the Study

As the authors of the article state, “All three of us have spent decades studying talent management and leadership development, but this war for talent is like nothing we’ve ever seen before” (Ready, Hill, and Conger 2). To examine the concept, they have spent eight months, involved “dozens of executives”, and collected information from twenty different global companies (Ready, Hill, and Conger 2).

The research method that the authors have chosen is qualitative. The primary method used for the data collection is an in-person interview. The authors interviewed dozens of CEO, managers, and supervisors. In this particular situation, the qualitative research is probably the best possible option since details are imperative.

Firstly, because the problem investigated in the article is subtle. Secondly, because the quantitative research would not provide many examples of an implementation of the theory, and those are essential as it has already been concluded above.

Choosing between various methods of data collection, which are observations, in-person interviews, focus groups, and action research, the authors have done a right chose (“Methods of collecting qualitative data” par. 4). An interview is the only possible way that lets people examine an issue from the inside and make conclusions about the practice, not theory. In comparison with observations or focus groups, interviews give much more information, including particular details, which are not available in any other way.

As a result, the authors’ analysis has revealed four factors that are crucial to the organization in the battle for talents. Those are the company’s brand, opportunities, purpose, and culture.

Critique of the Article

The work that the authors of the article have done is praiseworthy and priceless. However, particular drawbacks of their theory still can be found. They should not be considered as the deficiencies of the authors’ work since they are primarily caused by the disadvantages of emerging markets as such.

Unstable Environment

Several years ago, both emerging and developed markets survived a serious economic downturn. Even some well-developed markets were harmed. For emerging ones, such kind of crises is always destroying. As Michaelson ironically notices, “good business behavior is at risk in developing markets because, well, the markets… are developing” (238).

Indeed, such markets do have high economic performance, and they are weak in front of global crises and economic recessions. To minimize adverse effects of those, companies in emerging markets should try to maintain the demand for their products, retain valuable employees and find some kind of “sustainable competitive advantage”, which will benefit them during bad times (Liu 2824). Naturally, for each company, those advantages will be different.

Cultural Challenge

The second significant challenge is cultural. Hiring people of various nationalities and cultures is fraught with numerous problems. Among those are both minor, such as simple misunderstandings, and serious ones, based on ethnocentrism or prejudice. To avoid this, organizations should make every effort.

Otherwise, all advantages of a diverse workforce will be wiped out. At this point, strong ethical leaders are imperative. They can address the cultural issue in the best way, implementing various interventions, conducting workshops, giving particular social tasks to their followers, and so on.

Besides, to be sure that both employees and managers are aware of all nuances of working with a variety of cultures, organizations should establish formal written policies in this regard. That is how people will know that any discrimination or ethnocentrism in the workplace will not go unpunished.

Other Barriers

Two issues mentioned above are probably the most significant ones and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. Nevertheless, there are also many others, and linguistic one goes first on the list. A variety of languages is not only an advantage on a global scale but also a barrier. Hiring people, whose first language differs from English and who do not speak English well enough, organizations face difficulties associated with the communication within the group.

To overcome this challenge, they should hire more bilingual employees and provide training courses to improve employees’ language skills. Another problem is a territorial one. When some of the employees work remotely, and face-to-face communication is impossible, people’s relations and trust can worsen.

Another significant barrier is caused by different time zones, and it makes communication even more complicated. The advancement of technologies can also become a problem since some countries are developing better than others in this regard. Besides, cities usually have more opportunities and connections than villages.

This list can be greatly expanded. Considering problems and limitations of emerging markets as such, we can make conclusions about the direction of future studies in this field. Since every issue mentioned above is important, all of them should be sooner or later addresses in research.

Summary and Conclusion

For many decades, the relationships between emerging and developed markets have been mainly the same. The West was the strongest, and the members of the Euro Union and the United States literally set the direction for everybody. Presently, the situation is changing. Economic indicators of emerging markets are steadily growing. In 2000, they could account for 37 percent of global GDP, in 2005, this number reached the point of 50 percent, and the growing tendency preserves (“The growing role of emerging markets” par. 1).

This rapid and relatively stable growth attracts talented people from developing countries since it provides them with an opportunity to grow as well. They are able to be one of the first, innovate, realize their ambitions, and prove to the world that their country can make a difference.

These people want something more than just a big salary and a famous brand, and an awareness of their interests can help to win the race for talent in emerging markets. Ready, Hill, and Conger give their hypothesis of what such people need.

To prove their point of view, they have spent eight months for the qualitative research, which is described in the article, and “decades studying talent management and leadership development” (Ready, Hill, and Conger 2). The information was gathered mainly through interviews with CEOs, managers, and supervisors. Twenty different global companies took part in the research.

According to Ready, Hill, and Conger, there are two pillars, on which winning the race for talents depends on (2). Those are making attractive promises and actually fulfilling them (Ready, Hill, and Conger 2). The first one is imperative to find new talents and make them choose your company, and the second is needed to retain those talents after all. Three points characterize attractive promises. The first one is a brand of a company, which should be famous for the excellence and advancement.

The second is built on the opportunities – the opportunities for growth, self-development, working on challenging and interesting tasks, and so on. Finally, the third one is the purpose. An organization should have a worthy purpose, which people would need. Since it is always “tempting to overpromise just to get new hires in the door”, to be sure that the promises will be fulfilled, a company should have an adequate culture (Ready, Hill, and Conger 1).

This theory is really useful because, in addition to theoretical knowledge, it provides examples of strategies of particular organizations and explains how those have worked. Since personal interviews have been chosen as a data collection method, the article contains many priceless details, which would be impossible to gather through any other research methods or tools.

Admittedly, the strategy suggested in the article has its particular drawbacks but those exist in view of the concept of emerging markets as such, there is no fault of the authors in that. Among such drawbacks, the most significant are the cultural challenge and an unstable environment, in which developing markets operate. Additionally, there are also such barriers as linguistic, territorial, technological, and others. All of them should be considered as challenges and addressed in future studies.

Works Cited

Liu, Yang. “Sustainable competitive advantage in turbulent business environments.” International Journal of Production Research 51.10 (2013): 2821–2841. Print.

Methods of collecting qualitative data n.d. Web.

Michaelson, Christopher. “Revisiting the global business ethics question.” Business Ethics Quarterly 20.2 (2010): 237-251. Print.

Morningstar Indexes 2014, Morningstar Indexes Market Classification Results: UAE to be Classified as an Emerging Market . Web.

Ready, Douglas, Linda A. Hill, and Jay A. Conger. “Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets.” Harvard Business Review 11 (2008): 1-10. Web.

The growing role of emerging markets in shaping global demand 2014. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2024, March 1). Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets: UAE & GCC Environment. https://ivypanda.com/essays/winning-the-race-for-talent-in-emerging-markets-2/

"Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets: UAE & GCC Environment." IvyPanda , 1 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/winning-the-race-for-talent-in-emerging-markets-2/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets: UAE & GCC Environment'. 1 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets: UAE & GCC Environment." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/winning-the-race-for-talent-in-emerging-markets-2/.

1. IvyPanda . "Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets: UAE & GCC Environment." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/winning-the-race-for-talent-in-emerging-markets-2/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets: UAE & GCC Environment." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/winning-the-race-for-talent-in-emerging-markets-2/.

• High commitment practices in UAE/ GCC /Middle East/ Arab Countries and in the world (COMM)
• Third-Party Logistics, Trends and Designs
• Conger’s Stress and Family With Children
• Talents and Competition in Emerging Markets
• The Challenges of Leadership Practice in the 21st Century
• The GCC Dream is Still Alive
• Performance of GCC Stock Markets in the Past Ten Years
• UAE and GCC Economic Analysis: Inflation and Unemployment
• Power Relations: Coffee in the GCC
• Impact of Volatility in Oil Price in GCC Economy
• Privatization of Education
• Balanced Scorecard Concept Evolution
• Economic Deflation in the Euro Zone
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Should college essays touch on race? Some say affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

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When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education , it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Supreme Court strikes down race-based affirmative action in college admissions

In another major reversal, the Supreme Court forbids the use of race as an admissions factor at colleges and universities.

June 29, 2023

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action. The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds.

Post-affirmative action, Asian American families are more stressed than ever about college admissions

Parents who didn’t grow up in the American system, and who may have moved to the U.S. in large part for their children’s education, feel desperate and in-the-dark. Some shell out tens of thousands of dollars for consultants as early as junior high.

Nov. 26, 2023

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, his first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child. Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “I wrestled with that a lot.”

Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and being made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Ore., had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

‘We’re really worried’: What do colleges do now after affirmative action ruling?

The Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action has triggered angst on campuses about how to promote diversity without considering race in admissions decisions.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word Is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word Is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” wrote Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane in New Orleans because of the region’s diversity.

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

A lot of what you’ve heard about affirmative action is wrong

Debate leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision has stirred up plenty of misconceptions. We break down the myths and explain the reality.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said. Her final essay describes how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“Criticism will persist,” she wrote “but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Collin Binkley, Annie Ma and Noreen Nasir write for the Associated Press. Binkley and Nasir reported from Chicago and Ma from Portland, Ore.

More to Read

Editorial: Early decision admissions for college unfairly favor wealthy students

Jan. 4, 2024

HBCUs brace for flood of applications after Supreme Court affirmative action decision

Sept. 22, 2023

Opinion: In a post-affirmative action world, employers should learn from California’s experience

Sept. 16, 2023

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Contrast — Compare And Contrast Essay On Winning And Taking A Stand

Compare and Contrast Essay on Winning and Taking a Stand

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Cambridge claim victory in the 2024 Boat Race

Cambridge celebrated a double success in the 2024 Boat Race, winning both the Men's and Women's races.

The Boat Race- one of the world’s oldest and most famous amateur sporting events- is an annual event between crews from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. This year, in the 169th Men’s Boat Race, Cambridge made a rapid start that allowed them to open up a lead of more than 10 seconds. Although they slowed towards the end- with rower Matt Edge clearly struggling- the team ultimately held on for a comfortable victory. Cambridge were also victorious in the men's reserve crew race. 

In the 77 th Women’s Boat Race, Oxford made a flying start but were overtaken after about 10 minutes and could not recover. However, the Oxford team, called Osiris, triumphed in the women's reserve crew race.

The University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey CBE FRS FMedSci, said: 'I’m so proud of all our Oxford crews for their determination, grit and performance today. Not the results we wanted but congratulations do go to Osiris who were victorious, and of course to Cambridge on their impressive wins. Thanks go to the coaches and support teams as well as the supporters who turned up in droves - next year!' 

The Boat Race took place on The Championship Course on the River Thames in South West London. The approximately 4.25 mile course, first used in 1845, stretches from Putney to Mortlake. The average time taken to complete the course is 20 minutes, but the Cambridge men's crew holds the record for the fastest time of 16 minutes and 19 seconds, achieved in 1998.

The Boat race is held in March or early April, after the captain of the previous year's losing team issues a formal challenge. The Men’s Boat Race was first raced in 1829 and the Women’s Boat Race first took place in 1927. Typically, the event attracts over 250,00 spectators, with many millions more watching on television.

After this year’s results, Cambridge now have 48-30 and 87-81 leads in the women’s and men’s races respectively.

Previous Men’s Boat Race and Women’s Boat Race results can be found on the Boat Race website.

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Here are the winning numbers for Friday's $977 million Mega Millions jackpot drawing

By nbc staff • published march 22, 2024 • updated on march 22, 2024 at 8:16 pm.

The winning numbers for Friday's $977 million Mega Millions jackpot have been drawn, potentially giving one, or multiple, lucky winners a life-changing fortune.

The winning numbers are 3, 8, 31, 35, 44 and a MegaBall of 16. The Megaplier is 3x.

The nearly $1 billion fortune represents three months of no jackpot winner for the Mega Millions drawing.

The winner could opt for a $467 million cash option, which would be a one-time payment in lieu of receiving the $977 million over 30 years.

Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.

Lottery winnings are also not tax-free. A big slice of those winnings would go toward federal taxes, and many states also tax lottery payouts.

The jackpot has been gradually building for months thanks to 28 straight drawings without a jackpot winner. The last time someone won the game’s top prize was on Dec. 8, 2023, when two winning tickets were  sold at the same gas station  in Los Angeles, splitting the $394 million prize.

The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever,  worth $1.602 billion , was sold on Aug. 8, 2023, in  Florida . 

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Lottery jackpots grow so large because the odds of winning are so small. For Mega Millions, players have a 1 in 302.6 million chance of taking home the top prize. 

This is just the sixth time in the nearly 22-year history of the Mega Millions game that the jackpot has been this large, and five of those six jackpots exceeded $1 billion, according to a Mega Millions statement.

If it seems like lottery jackpots topping $1 billion are more common nowadays, it's because they are. Since 2021, seven prizes have topped $1 billion. The increased frequency  is due to higher interest rates .

The higher the interest rate, the larger the annuity can grow over three decades. The U.S. is in the midst of a remarkable run of interest rate increases, with the Federal Reserve  raising a key rate 11 times in 17 months,  and that higher rate enables a roughly $500 million lump sum prize to be advertised as a jackpot of about twice that size.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings occur every Tuesday and Friday night at 11 p.m. EST.

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10 Senate Races to Watch in 2024

With Democrats holding a one-seat majority and defending seats from Maryland to Arizona, control of the Senate could easily flip to the G.O.P.

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By Jonathan Weisman

The fight for Senate control is playing out almost entirely in Democratically held seats this year as President Biden’s party defends a slim 51-49 seat majority.

The retirement of Senator Joe Manchin III, a Democrat, in deep-red West Virginia has all but ceded one seat to the Republicans, who are targeting a number of vulnerable Democratic incumbents in red or swing states. And if former President Donald J. Trump wins the White House, one seat is all the G.O.P. needs to flip the chamber. Should the Senate come down to a 50-50 split, the vice president plays tiebreaker.

For Democrats to hold the Senate, the party would most likely need all their incumbents to win; for their candidates to prevail in open seats in Arizona, Michigan and Maryland; and for Mr. Biden to be re-elected so Vice President Kamala Harris would play the tiebreaker in an evenly split chamber. The party is targeting two Republican-held seats, but those are considered more difficult terrain.

Here are the Senate races to watch in 2024.

Montana: Farmer vs. former Navy SEAL

Senator Jon Tester, the flat-topped farmer from Big Sandy, Mont., has defied the odds before in his increasingly Republican state, but his Senate victories in 2006, 2012 and 2018 all came in strong Democratic years nationally. His fight for a fourth term will be considerably tougher with Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket in a state that Mr. Trump won by 16 percentage points in 2020. And Mr. Tester will most likely be battling the Republican Party’s selected candidate, Tim Sheehy, a decorated former Navy SEAL and businessman with the wealth to self-finance his campaign, as well as Mr. Trump’s backing.

Mr. Tester has the power of incumbency, and the authenticity of a third-generation Montanan. In 2012, President Barack Obama received 41.7 percent of the vote. Mr. Tester earned 48.6 percent. He may need even more ticket-splitters — people who will vote for Mr. Trump for president and him for Senate — this November.

Cook Political Report rating: A toss-up

Ohio: Sherrod Brown faces the fight of his political life

Besides Mr. Tester, Senator Sherrod Brown is the only other Democrat defending a seat in a solidly Republican state. He too has had the advantage of winning in strong Democratic years — 2006, 2012 and 2018 — and like Mr. Tester, he has established an image as a stalwart supporter of the working-class voters who will decide the election. As a powerful member of the Senate — he is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee — Mr. Brown has amassed a considerable war chest for his re-election campaign.

Unlike Mr. Tester, he will be running against a Republican who was not the Ohio G.O.P. establishment’s choice. Bernie Moreno, instead, was the candidate of Mr. Trump. The Republican’s sizable fortune will seed fund-raising and undergird his campaign against the incumbent, but Democrats boosted Mr. Moreno’s candidacy during the primary because they believe his business background will make him vulnerable to attack.

Arizona: Kari Lake, a prominent election denier, tries again

The retirement of Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat-turned-independent iconoclast, has set up a stark Senate race between Representative Ruben Gallego, a progressive, and Kari Lake, a former television news anchor and a favorite of Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement who lost her race for governor in 2022. The primary in Arizona is July 30, but Mr. Gallego and Ms. Lake have established themselves as the odds-on favorites to represent their parties in the open Senate contest.

President Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020, and unlike Ohio and Montana, the state promises to be a presidential battleground, potentially warping the Senate race. Ms. Lake made a name for herself by falsely claiming that Democrats stole the Arizona election for Mr. Biden in 2020, then falsely claiming that her Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, Katie Hobbs, stole her election. Mr. Gallego is less well-known outside of his Phoenix House district, but as a Latino with a Harvard pedigree and combat experience in Iraq with the Marine Corps, he has a compelling biography.

Michigan: Trump looms large

The full range of Republican Party factions will fight it out for the right to contend for the Senate seat of Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who is retiring. There’s Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Mr. Trump just after being sworn into the House, then lost in the 2022 Republican primary to a Trump-backed challenger. Mr. Meijer has now said he will vote for Mr. Trump in November. There’s Justin Amash, the libertarian-minded former congressman who denounced Mr. Trump, faced a fierce backlash that chased him from his party, tried to run for his House seat as an independent, lost and is now running for the Senate again as an anti-Trump Republican. Then there’s Mike Rogers, the mainstream Republican who said the party needed to move on from Mr. Trump, then wooed and won Mr. Trump’s endorsement for Senate and embraced him.

Mr. Rogers has to be considered the favorite in the Aug. 6 primary, but past and present views of the former president will loom over this race all summer. The primary winner will almost certainly face Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat who has used her national security credentials to win over swing voters in Central Michigan since 2018. Her trick will be to keep those centrist voters and energize more liberal voters in and around Detroit. And looming above it all is the presidential contest.

Cook Political Report rating: Leaning toward Democrats

Nevada: Low-key incumbent vs. political newcomer

In recent years, Nevada Democrats have profited off Republican voters’ penchant for nominating candidates from the G.O.P.’s extremes, but this year, party leaders are rallying around Sam Brown, a political neophyte with an extraordinary story. The West Point graduate nearly died in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when a roadside bomb burned him badly and left him permanently scarred. His thin political résumé could be a plus, since it will make him difficult to label.

Senator Jacky Rosen, the incumbent Democrat, isn’t flashy, but the power of incumbency matters, unless Mr. Biden’s support in the state craters.

Wisconsin: A wealthy Republican candidate faces questions over his ties to the state

Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, has been a low-key fixture in Wisconsin politics since her election to the State Assembly in 1992. With her comes little drama, but Wisconsin, a state that just re-elected its famously quiet governor, Tony Evers, in 2022, seems to like Democrats who speak softly.

Republicans have recruited Eric Hovde, a banker and businessman who, if nothing else, can finance his own campaign. But his connections to Southern California in a state full of Badger pride have helped keep this race leaning toward the incumbent.

Pennsylvania: David McCormick tries again

The Keystone State may be a key battleground in the presidential election this year, but Senator Bob Casey, the Democratic incumbent, is an institution. His expected Republican opponent is David McCormick, the former chief executive of Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. Mr. McCormick lost the Republican Senate primary in 2022 to Mehmet Oz, and the lines of attack honed two years ago on his wealth and his mansion in Connecticut are sure to be recycled.

Maryland: Larry Hogan makes things interesting

Reliably blue Maryland should not be in play, but Larry Hogan, the moderate former Republican governor, has decided to run for the Senate seat of Ben Cardin, the retiring Democrat, making the race one to watch.

Democrats had figured they could count on the three-term Representative David Trone , the wealthy founder of Total Wine & More, a large retailer of wine and spirits. Then Mr. Trone used a racial slur at a House hearing, for which he has apologized and said was inadvertent. But several Black Democrats endorsed Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive, ahead of the May 14 primary, as did Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee.

Cook Political Report rating: Likely Democratic

Texas and Florida: Democrats try to flip seats in reliably red states

Democrats have only two races to play offense in: Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign in Texas and Senator Rick Scott’s in Florida. Both men have never been personally popular in their states, but those states have been reliably Republican of late. Democrats like their candidates, Representative Colin Allred in Texas and former Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Florida, but it would most likely take severe erosion of Mr. Trump’s support to put those Senate seats in play.

Cook Political Report ratings: Likely Republican

Bonus races to watch: Long shots

Utah is nobody’s idea of a swing state, and the retirement of Senator Mitt Romney at the end of his term has drawn in nearly a dozen Republicans ahead of the June 25 primary, including Representative John Curtis; Brent Orrin Hatch, the son of Senator Orrin G. Hatch ; and Brad Wilson, the former speaker of the State House. But one Democrat made waves with a unique announcement video : Caroline Gleich, a professional ski mountaineer.

Nebraska is almost as red as Utah, with an incumbent Republican, Deb Fischer, running for re-election. Her main opponent is not a Democrat but an independent, Dan Osborn, who led a strike at the Kellogg’s plant in Omaha in 2021 and is testing whether his pro-labor, working-class message can resonate at a time when the union movement is resurgent.

Cook Political Report ratings: Solidly Republican

Jonathan Weisman is a politics writer, covering campaigns with an emphasis on economic and labor policy. He is based in Chicago. More about Jonathan Weisman

Our Coverage of the 2024 Elections

Presidential Race

Donald Trump, who ends many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual, has infused his movement with Christianity .

Trump posted a video to his social media website that features an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied together .

A campaign event intending to galvanize support among organized labor and Latino voters behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid instead drew condemnation from the family of the labor organizer Cesar Chavez .

Other Key Races

Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, abruptly ended her bid for U.S. Senate, a campaign flop that reflected intense national frustration with politics as usual .

Kari Lake, a Trump acolyte running for Senate in Arizona, is struggling to walk away from the controversial positions  that have turned off independents and alienated establishment Republicans.

Ohio will almost certainly go for Trump this November. Senator Sherrod Brown, the last Democrat holding statewide office, will need to defy the gravity of the presidential contest  to win a fourth term.