OFFICIAL TASP APPLICATION ESSAYS
4. Describe your hopes and plans for your future education and career. What experiences
motivated or influenced these hopes and plans? If you feel indecisive about your goals,
explain the reasons for your indecision.
It seems that everywhere I turn, no matter on what continent I find myself on, I am
followed by one simple question. At any time I have to be equipped to answer the adults making
casual conversation around the coffee table, looking expectantly into my face, asking me, “So,
what are your plans for the future?”
When I’m faced with this situation, I am first assaulted by a surge of words in the back of
my throat. Images and scenes rush into my head, and my mind scrambles to pull all of this
together, to form a clear picture.
A little boy at the children’s school for low-income families in the Oakland area pulls on
my glasses. The principal of the school speaks clearly, sitting at the head of the table, telling us
that some of the children are put on watch for the police while their parents conduct illicit drug
deals. I sit next to a two year old, trying to get her to eat, knowing that she might not have
anything besides MacDonald’s at home.
A homeless woman, who has lived on the streets for 17 years, holds my hand and tells me
her life story, wanting someone to simply listen to her. She tells me how hard she’s worked, and
the discrimination she’s faced, and asks me why the world is so unfair. I do not have an answer.
A kindergarten aged girl skips up the steps of the SRO (Single Residence Occupancy) in
San Francisco, following her mom, who is heaving a laundry basket in front of her. As I climb
down the steps I pass by one of the rooms, where a lonely woman sits. A smell wafts towards me
that makes me want to vomit. It is the smell of sickness.
On the way to the subway in Germany, I see a boy around nine holding a bag of
groceries, leading his younger sister and brother home. His sister’s hair needs to be combed, and
their clothes look like they should be washed. It’s hard for a nine year old to be the parent.
My mind reminds me of the kindergarten for children with disabilities, and again I’m
giving hugs, wanting to shield these precious children from the harsh realities of life.
I am holding the book, “Not For Sale”, in my hands, anger boiling in my stomach as I
read about the realities of human trafficking. A prostitute dressed in a sack cloth and five inch
heels on the side of the street in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco sells her body, and I
wish I could offer her a different life.
A lady in a wheelchair struggles to push herself up a ramp, and people pass by, paying
her no attention. I, myself, walk two steps by before interrupting my sentence mid-word and
turning around, firmly grabbing the handles and pushing the lady into the soup kitchen she points
towards. She cannot speak, and looks at me with glazed eyes, but I smile to her and wish her a
good day before re-joining my group. I cannot explain my thoughts during that moment. I just
know I did what was right.
Mountains stand high above my small, five foot frame, and I am filled with awesome
wonder of God. I whisper a prayer, realizing how small I am in this big world filled with pain
and inequality.
Yet amongst all of this inequality, I see hope. I see the smiles on the children’s’ faces,
running back and forth on the playground, oblivious to suffering, and the “God bless you” and
toothless smile of the man on the side of the street, holding a clear plastic bag with a tooth brush,
socks, and a Cliff bar. Despite my overwhelming anger at reading “Not for Sale” I also see that
good is being done, and women and children are being saved from the sex trade. In all these
situations, I see hope.
My dream is to be a part of that hope. The world is obviously full with inequality, and I
firmly believe that there are many opportunities to help bridge the gap between people that are
not being explored. No matter how idealistic or cliché it may sound, I want to be a part of this
bigger picture of helping to make the world a better place.
Being faced by wondering adults, however, is different then when I am dreaming of my
future in the privacy of my mind. Here I do not need a short, concise answer that does not sound
too cliché or idealistic.
From my third story window, when you turn off the lights late at night, you can see the
stars. Staring into the night sky, I have always felt the overwhelming desire to whisper my
prayers and dreams. Raising my hands, palm upwards towards the sky, I talk with my best friend,
Jesus. This is where I let all the pictures in my mind run wild, and I dream big, unabashed of
how crazy I might sound.
My body warming itself on my radiator, my windows wide open, all the lights off, I
dream of taking a year to work with the low-income areas in the United States and to travel into
developing communities around the world. Over the course of a year, I want to have my heart
broken, I want to explore languages and cultures, and I want to see God. The goal would be to
research the questions I have. Why does poverty still exist in a world filled with brilliant
economists, doctors, and teachers? How can malaria be eradicated? How can obesity be
combated? Where is the solution to malnutrition? What is the answer to the fight against human
trafficking? Big questions do not scare me. Rather, they lure me into wanting to search for
answers.
Then, I plan to attend college, where I can begin to quell my desire to learn about the
world. By studying economics and global health, I’ll be equipped with the tools to search for
answers to my questions and work in a field where I can help the world. I want to study
languages and incorporate travel into my education to further my love for people, new places,
and adventure.
After university education, my hopes and dreams are fuzzier. I do not know what
opportunities will open up, but I do know that I would like to take a few years to travel and work
with non-profits in developing countries. My dreams include researching why things are the way
they are, but also, more importantly, what can be done to help make the world better. The World
Health Organization, UNESCO, or WorldVision are all organizations I would consider working
for. I could also see myself researching development in the American health care system or the
eradication of homelessness--which is why I want to study economics.
My hopes and dreams stem from the experiences I’ve had working with and seeing
inequality and problems in our modern day society, as well as my open discussions and
conversations with my parents and my host mom, who encouraged me to think for myself and to
pursue knowledge for the love of knowledge. My hopes include a family, something that my
own unbelievably wonderful family has influenced me to appreciate and love. I believe that it is
incredibly important to invest in future generations, and hope to instill love for books, learning,
and a desire to help the world for the better in my own children.
In this way, I hope to leave a legacy. My life goal is to be a vessel of God’s love, and I
hope that through my actions, the world will get a glimpse at the boundless love he has for them.
I can summarize my desire to help the world, to study economics and global health, and
to work in the non-profit sector, into a short paragraph, delivered whenever approached by the
ever present questions. Adults will smile and nod, satisfied with a thought-out answer, but I have
not even given them a glimpse of the great dreams, plans, and desires.
No, these dreams will continue to be whispered into the night sky and written into my
journal, carried deep within heart.
There, in the dark, I close my eyes, and let peace flow over my body. “May your will be
done,” I breathe, and close my window, before snuggling into slumber, only to dream some
more.
3. TASPs are small, educational communities that rely greatly on individual members’
maturity. Write an essay discussing a conflict you have faced and attempted to resolve that
led you to new insights about yourself and/or other people.
If the teenage years are infamous for anything, it is for the conflicts they drag into the
lives of everyone around said teenager. Of course there is conflict in all stages of life, but the
conflicts of growing up are served with an appetizer of peer pressure, a side-dish of rebellion,
and the main dish of figuring out who exactly you are. These conflicts, of teens with themselves,
their parents, and their peers, are a rite of passage across the globe, and parents of all languages
and cultures shake their heads and commiserate once their first child turns thirteen.
Even our family dog seems to know that being a teenager comes with a required amount
of pain and suffering. At two years old, which is equivalent to the dreaded thirteenth year of a
human’s life, even well trained dogs will relapse to old, rebellious ways, questioning their
position in the pack. Alba’s incessant barking and growling, along with a couple of episodes of
stealing lasagna off of the kitchen counter (something she knows is so not ok) are just signs of
this exact process, something my host dad confirmed when he told us it was her birthday today.
Happy Birthday, Alba, and thank you for being a pain.
Despite how painful the process, however, I must concede that these past four years of
my admittedly short life have been pivotal (how could they not be?) in teaching myself about,
well, myself, as well as about life in general. Dealing with conflicts has taught me how to
communicate more effectively and has given me a much deeper respect for my parents as well as
broader view of the world – which, incidentally, does not revolve around me.
My long sixteen years on planet Earth have been marked with a good amount of
disagreements, arguments, and conflicts which I have attempted to resolve. However, it has
proved that the conflict that led to the greatest personal growth was one whose resolution I never
would have foreseen.
At the onset of high school, I had the knowledge that the world was not about myself, but
lacked the practical belief of that knowledge. Knowing something is true is not the same as
accepting this truth. I am not saying I was completely egocentric, because I had embraced my
faith in Christianity and fully believed in Jesus as my savior, and the practical application of
service, but I am saying that often, when I came home to my family, I dumped my stress,
frustration, and pent up negative energy on the people who love me the most.
During my sophomore year, my father had been without a job for over ten months, and
my parents had frugally moved us to a smaller house and adjusted our lifestyle according to our
means. Looking back now, I am filled with wonder at how shrewdly and wisely my parents dealt
with the economic crisis, and how much personal strength they had despite the difficulties.
I, I sadly must admit, was just another difficulty. Wanting to get away from the family
stress, and searching for my own identity, I stuffed my schedule full with three advanced
placement classes, participated in a sport, a show, piano lessons, a job (tutoring math and
science), and youth group, and then turned around and spewed my pent up frustration and stress
back on the family, starting a nasty never-ending cycle of conflicts.
It was easy to forget everything and just smile when outside of the house, but back at
home, things were completely different. When patience snapped and arguments began, you could
be sure to find me at the end, locked into my basement room (which my father took to referring
to as “The Cave”), thrown across my bed, brimming with tears and hot angry words, a long with
a good measure of juvenile pounding of my pillows. Somewhere during the last hours I had
probably told everyone that I hated them and never wanted to see them again, and that the agony
of my life was all their fault. I was exhausted, my eyes were puffy, and all I wanted to do was
curl up in a ball and sleep for a very long time. Hateful words had been uttered on both fronts,
things that should never have been said in the first place, and definitely should not be repeated a
second time.
My overwhelmed calendar, my coping mechanism, proved to be exceedingly
counterproductive, and lead to even more conflict than had been present before. Arguments
would begin quite simply: I would moan, “Mom, I’m so stressed,” and bang my head on the
kitchen table, missing my four-inch AP biology textbook by a hair.
This would be followed by my mother’s gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) prod of,
“Well, Honey, I think you might have too much on your plate,” to which I would roll my eyes. I
knew what was coming: the you-have-too-much-on-your-plate speech. I would listen for a few
minutes, and slowly zone out (I had mastered this art), until my mom interrupted herself, saying,
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Of course, Mom,” I would assert, slowly becoming annoyed. It would not take long for
someone to utter a caustic remark, our body language shutting each other off. From here, things
would escalate, until we could not even hear our own voices amongst the pointing fingers of
“You” messages.
You have too much on your plate.
You don’t understand me!
You don’t spend enough time with the family!
You always argue with Dad!
You, you, you!
These messages, sent with fierce tones and angry looks, were only effective in rousing
more anger and solved nothing. My teenage hormones would hit about an hour in, and I would
start crying for no real reason, heightening the tension.
To be honest, I hated to argue, so I attempted to deal with the conflict the only way I felt I
could, by spending even less time at home than before. This tactic was just adding to the overall
discord, however, and aggravated the situation.
I wish I could say I suddenly pulled a mature stunt and solved this conflict by realizing
how right my parents were, but I will have to disappoint and say that it took a rather drastic
measure to help me see things through clearer lenses. Last August, I boarded a plane to
Germany, and put about 5,300 miles between myself and my family. The point of leaving for a
year was not to solve any of the conflict between my family and myself, but my time away
helped me in growing up, until I could admit that I was wrong.
Filling up my schedule and losing myself in busyness had been my way to escape my
family’s issues, but taking a year away from the hectic mess helped me to see how much I
admire my parents. This change in attitude was, however, not immediate, and when I first arrived
in Germany, I actually started out trying to follow the same pattern, filling up my schedule with
every possibly activity.
Slowly, over these past five months, something changed within me, however, and I began
to see that I had been building my identity on outward achievements. “Who am I?” is a question
every human being wrestles with, and my answer up to this point had been found amongst the
myriad of extracurricular activities, scholarships, and hobbies. As I wrestled with a new family, a
new school, and a new language, the lesson of “It not about me” was truly becoming something I
could tangibly grasp. My identity was being reworked, and this time, I was basing it on God.
This change is attitude lead me onto a road of letting go and being truly content. I have
rediscovered my love for learning by starting to read again, and have begun to invest in things I
truly love, like my host family. Being in a new family forced me to be disciplined, and taught me
to deal with stress in constructive ways (such as running or journaling). Serving more and
complaining less, I now look out for the other members of my family. Who would have guessed
what my parents were saying all along was valuable? (Please, this is purely rhetorical.) Now I
see what an incredible feat my parents pulled, by holding our family together and giving us
stable lives in an unstable economy.
I’m not saying I am all grown up or know everything there is to know, because that
would be immaturity in itself, but I am saying that through a conscious choice of pursuing my
dreams of studying in Germany, I grew up and changed my attitude. I chose a path that would
force me to mature, and this growth, in turn, has affected the way I interact with my family, as
well as the respect I have for my parents, and has solved a conflict I needed to deal with, but did
not know how to.
2. Discuss a specific problem or topic in a field that interests you. You may address
political, philosophical, social, literary, aesthetic, or other questions. Your essay should
represent your own views and thoughts; it should not be a research paper.
Slavery. When most people see or hear this word, the first images that come to mind are
those of a skinny man with a beard and a top hat named Abe Lincoln, or the famous movie
“Gettysburg”, or the Underground Railroad. Slavery is supposed to be a thing of the past, dealt
with and conquered in the 19th century. Little is the general public aware, however, of how big of
an issue slavery still is.
Modern-day slavery, more commonly known as “Human trafficking”, is defined as the
exploitation of any person for commercial sex or forced labor. According to the U.S. Department
of State “Trafficking in Persons Report 2010”, human trafficking is a $32 billion industry, with
around 12.3 million adults and children as victims of some kind of human trafficking around the
world.
The fact that people are used as slaves anywhere in the world should make every person
who calls themselves an American indignant, but in the face of the multitude of wars, genocides,
and famines, slavery might seem like just another world issue to be reported from somewhere
thousands of miles away to the comfort of our living room TV screens. This makes everything
just a little more bearable, and alleviates the guilt of the modern consumer.
The problem is that human trafficking is not just happening in Cambodia or Indonesia, or
some other faraway, poor Asian country. It happens right down the street, and most people are
blind to what is going on. Slavery is a daily occurrence in the United States, which has been
classified by the Department of State as a source, transit, and destination country for human
trafficking. The organization Humantrafficking.org estimates that somewhere between 14,500
and 17,000 slavery victims are trafficked every year into the U.S. alone.
Every citizen of the United States should react to this news with passion and outrage. The
basic rights of human beings, on which the belief of our entire country is based, are being
violated. Our “Land of the Free” turns out to actually be the “Land of the Not-So-Free” for over
1,000,000 people, according to the CIA.
In his book, Not for Sale, David Batstone describes human trafficking on all the
continents of the world, including North America. Human trafficking is shown in the form of
mail-order brides, servants in the homes of rich Americans, and children forced into prostitution.
Stories of whole families being forced into working fourteen hours a day for generations, to pay
off inflated debts, spread themselves across the pages. Young women wanting to start life afresh
in a new country are often duped by “brokers”, promising a job with good pay, who steal their
passports and sell them to their customers. Children are being sold by parents, unable to support
their families, to salesmen who deal exclusively with the sale of human beings.
In the U.S., runaway teenagers have a high chance of being manipulated by older men
who at first treat them well and lure them into the system, before using them in the cycle of
prostitution. A strip club owner in Los Angeles can call up a human trafficking pimp on Friday
and ask for two women in their early twenties, with blonde hair and a good body and have them
delivered by Monday. This, if nothing else, should make one sick to one’s stomach.
When I tried to talk to classmates about this pressing international problem, I was met
with the shocked expressions. With every person I talked to, I realized how unknown this world
issue was, at least to my peers at school. These were teens attending a well-admired college
preparatory high school, and yet they had no idea of the massive scale of slavery in their own
backyards. Almost every single person I talked to wanted to know why they had not heard of the
issue before, a question I myself had no answer to.
When faced with the stories and realities of human trafficking, it is easy to become
overwhelmed. Even if one feels a desire to make a difference in the field, it is hard to imagine
what one can do. What impact can one person have on a world scale issue? Greg Mortenson’s
“Three Cups of Tea”, which portrays Mortenson’s life, dedicated to building schools in Pakistan
and Afghanistan, answers this question with four simple words. “The Enemy is ignorance.”
Although discussing the problem of the War on Terror and Pakistani-American relations,
Mortenson’s statement provides a clear answer to the fight against evil in any situation.
Education, the eradication of ignorance, is the only answer to fighting evil in the
long term. Well educated citizens can make wise choices, such as buying products approved by
the FairTrade organization, which do not exploit human beings. By also informing us about what
exactly is going on in the world, we can spread the word and participate in the call for legislation
to be passed by the United States government to combat human trafficking. Becoming active,
participating in rallies, signing petitions, making smart consumer choices, and funding
organizations making visible impacts with the abolition movement… there is a world of
possibilities in the fight against human trafficking. This crime against the basic dignities of
humanity can be fought and overcome as people join together as “single drops”, as Mother
Theresa once described individual action, without whom the “ocean” would be less powerful.
Prevention surely is one of the biggest keys in the abolition movement, which can only be
brought about by raising awareness of the issue. Therefore, there should be much larger media
attention and teaching in schools when it comes to human trafficking. Countries where this issue
is the largest should be targeted specifically to educate the people about the dangers, and so by
spreading knowledge, slavery can be abolished, once and for all.
1. Write a critical analysis of a book, poem, play, essay, or other text you have read
outside of school. It will be important for you to formulate an argument about the text
and support it. Your analysis should not be a plot summary or an analysis of literary
devices, although you should feel free to discuss plot and literary devices as they relate
to your broader argument.
Published in 1879, Henrik Ibsen’s, “A Doll’s House”, is often called the first true
feminist play. Highly controversial because of its futuristic views on gender equality, the play
criticized the Victorian picture of marriage and expressed a highly radical view of gender roles
that parallels modern thought on the subject.
The drama follows a classic Norwegian housewife in the 19 th century, Nora Helmer, who
forged a signature to take out a loan for her sick husband, Torvald, who is portrayed as the
classic, 19th century husband. Throughout the drama, Nora grapples with her role in her marriage
and as a woman, as the man from whom she procured the loan, Krogstad, threatens to publicly
announce her forgery, unless she can stop her husband from firing him. Nora is unable to follow
through with Krogstad’s demands, but believes that when her husband finally finds out the truth
that he will take the guilt upon himself. She is willing to take her own life in order to save him
from public shame.
Her husband’s actual response, however, is to castigate his wife, bemoaning his fate of
being at the hands of Krogstad. Torvald tells Nora that their marriage will only be one of social
obligation from that point on and that he is forced to give Krogstad his job back. At this time, a
message comes from Krogstad, who has a change of heart, due to the influence of Nora’s friend,
Christine, telling Torvald that the debt is canceled and that he will not announce the forgery.
Torvald, relieved, immediately forgives his wife, but it is too late. Nora has seen for the first time
how her husband truly views her, and is portrayed by Ibsen as becoming “empowered”. She
claims that her husband never truly loved her, but rather, treated her as a plaything. With her
newfound view of her marriage, her husband, and her role as a woman, Nora ends up leaving her
family in the quest of educating herself about the world, asserting that she is too uneducated to
be a good wife and mother.
Although Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” displays thoughts about gender equality and
the treatment of women that went far beyond his time, his solution to the protagonist’s personal
dilemma is not one of an empowered woman, but essentially one of running away and avoiding
the problem, without true belief in her own strength.
The most important part of “A Doll’s House” is the very last scene, where Nora is
portrayed as becoming what Ibsen believes is a liberated woman, but in reality only runs away
from her problems, displaying weakness. “I have existed merely to perform tricks for you,”
(Ibsen, 106) Nora correctly states, telling her husband that he never treated her with the respect
she deserves, and never saw her as a fully equal individual. She asks him if it strikes him as
“strange” (Ibsen, 105) that this is the first time in their entire marriage that they have sat down
together to have a serious discussion, to which her husband asserts that he was only doing what
he saw as right for her. At this point, Nora takes the correct stance of an empowered woman,
saying that Torvald and her father were wrong in treating her the way they did, as a doll rather
than a human being of equal worth. She must, she tells him, go out into the world and become
educated and figure out what she believes. “I must think over things for myself and get to
understand them,” (Ibsen, 109) Nora says, again showing how she has transitions from being the
submitting Victorian wife, to the free, modern woman. Her statements about needing to question
the things she has accepted without doubt are valid, and Ibsen sees that women need to given the
opportunities to explore the world for themselves.
After this point, however, Ibsen begins to go wrong. Nora continues on to say that she
must leave her family, as she has “sacred duties” (Ibsen, 108) to herself, and she must learn to
“stand quite alone” (Ibsen, 107). Although women are equal in value to men, and have a right to
be free individuals, Nora takes the cheap way out and runs away from her family, believing that
the only way to become truly emancipated is to sever all ties to her old life. This irresponsible
abandon of her children and husband does not show an empowered woman, but rather one who
is too weak to deal with the responsibilities she has, even if under her old, Victorian mindset,
allowed herself to take on. Although Ibsen tries to show that women should take equality in their
own hands, he fails to recognize the reality of responsible, adult action. Nora does not seem to
believe that she truly has strength at all, which is shown in her lack of confidence in her ability to
raise her own children. Nora places the children into the hands of their father, who she, few
sentences before, claims is not the “proper man to educate [her] to be the proper wife” (Ibsen,
107).
As an emancipated woman, Nora should educate herself about the world and develop her
own opinions, but should also realize and accept the responsibilities she has to her family. These
responsibilities are not those of the Victorian mindset, but rather that of an emancipated woman,
to care for her children and educate them to become self-sufficient, liberated citizens themselves.
Ibsen’s portrayal of Nora leaving her old life is one that too many woman and men nowadays see
as an option to rid themselves of their problems, and our society sadly accepts this as a legitimate
response in the face of difficulties. Rather than doing the honorable thing, and dealing with
trials, the modern individual is offered the option of pretending that nothing ever happened. This
ends up with great psychological damage to all involved, however, as people try to cut out entire
parts of their identities, partners must learn to be single parents, and children must wrestle with
the feelings of abandonment. Ibsen’s Nora, therefore, is a weak individual, who really has not
grasped the concept of freedom.
It is generally accepted that with great freedom comes great responsibility. What Ibsen’s
Nora wanted was the freedom that came with emancipation, without accepting the responsibility.
Ibsen’s views on equality were therefore unbalanced, failing to see the true situation that the
modern day woman must deal with. Although Ibsen pointed out many of the failures of the
Victorian view of women and gender roles, especially within marriage, he did not realize that a
balance must be found between the freedom and responsibility of the modern woman.
5. Discuss the topics of the seminars, in the order of your preference for attending each,
addressing the following: What attracts you to this seminar? What would you like to gain
from this seminar topic? What concerns would you have if placed into this seminar? Please
indicate if there is any seminar you would definitely not want to attend, and explain why.
Please be succinct. We do not expect a formal essay. Your answers to this question will help
us to place you in an appropriate seminar if you are selected.
First off, I have to say that I would be satisfied in any of the four programs. All of the
topics are interesting, stimulating and worthy of discussion, and I find myself attracted to every
single of the four programs.
Having said that, my number one choice would be the Michigan I Program, Freedom,
Dialogue, and Polarization. I have always loved to discuss the idea of freedom, and the question
of where it begins and where it ends. Abortion is a topic I find ethically fascinating and
challenging, and freedom as a whole is a concept I am passionate about. Individual freedom is a
enigmatic concept that I would love to explore, especially seeing how it is reflected in history as
well as in the present day.
My second choice would be the Cornell II Program, Thinking Girls, Thinking Boys. Part
of the seminar description mentioned discussion of the social justice and political change our
views of “Girlhood” and “Boyhood” can affect. After reading “Thee Cups of Tea”, I am
seriously interested in investing in education all over the world to fight terrorism and inequality.
I also find the study of people and their characters exciting and interesting in itself, so this would
be a seminar I would love to attend.
My third choice would be the Michigan II Program, Visions of America from Abroad.
This topic is particularly interesting to me, having been abroad this year, in Germany, with the
Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange scholarship. The view of America from abroad is a idea I
believe is not discussed enough in the United States, and one I would be excited to learn more
about.
My fourth choice would be the Cornell I Program, Intergenerational Justice, solely
because one had to be chosen last. To be honest, I would be as excited with this seminar as with
the others. I agree that we as a human race have the incredible gift of being able to affect the
lives of future generation, but I know that we often use this gift for evil. The questions of what
we owe posterity and what voice they should have in the decisions made in the present day are
ones that would excite me, and I could see myself studying this summer,
6. List the titles and authors (where applicable) of some of the books you have read
in the past year that you consider most significant, for whatever reason, along with any
periodicals you read regularly. Indicate with an asterisk which books you read for school.
This should not be a list of every book you have read in the past year.
The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
Not For Sale – David Batstone
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson
The Shack – Paul Young
Pygmalion – George Bernard Steward
*Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
*The Tortilla Curtain – T.C. Boyle
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Freakonomics – Scott D. Levitt
Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
The Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen
Nothing to Envy (Ordinary Lives in North Korea)- Barbara Demick