I have always been interested in human nature, in the concepts of good and evil, right

versus wrong. Growing up I enjoyed watching superhero movies and TV shows. I admired the
good guy who tried to save the world, protecting the weak and defenseless from the bad guys. I
respected him for fighting for innocent people who couldn’t fight for themselves, for letting the
villain go at the end when he could have just done away with him altogether. In college I studied
literature and psychology on a diverse campus where I learned about people from different coun-
tries and cultures. I attended Douglass, an all-female college within Rutgers, a co-educational
university, where I took a few classes in gender studies and learned that women are not always
treated equally to men. These studies continued to feed my desire to learn more about myself
and others, to try to understand what makes people tick and why we do the things that we do.
Up until I went away for college I lived a rather sheltered life. Born in Milford, Con-
necticut I was raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. I stayed home most of the time and kept to my-
self for the most part. Partly by choice as I am introverted by nature, partly because it was what
my family wanted. I guess they just wanted to keep me young and innocent to protect me from
all of the bad things they must have seen or experienced in the world. A few years ago I moved
to Beijing to teach English. Having hardly ever traveled before then it was a big move for me. It
really opened my eyes to a whole other world outside of America, one in which the laws do not
exist in the same way as they do for us.
In China they do not have the same freedoms and rights as we do here in the USA.
Google and Facebook are banned. The common people are not allowed to use guns, only the
military can carry weapons. The locals generally cannot practice religion and are forbidden from
saying anything bad about the government. Just as women must obey their husbands, children
must respect their elders including their parents and teachers who may use physical punishment
as a form of discipline. Not everyone is treated equally. As a foreigner my salary was a lot
higher than those of the locals, including those doing the same exact job as I was doing. After
living in Beijing for a year, I realized that the Mainland Chinese are not entitled to the same hu-
man rights that we Americans are.
Even within a homogenous group of people living in the same country there is still a lot
of diversity. Despite the common language being Mandarin, each province has its own dialect
and distinct culture. As a whole the Chinese have a lot of pride and patriotism. And within the
different provinces there is even more pride. But amongst the people themselves there may be
distrust of foreigners, or those who are different. Just like in America, whereas some may wel-
come the differences, others may be more suspicious and may stereotype people from different
provinces or countries. People from Shanghai may think they are better than the people from
Zhejiang even though they may be neighboring provinces. The people in Hong Kong may com-
pete with the people in Macau or Taiwan even though they are all Chinese.
Did you know that the USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world, followed by
China? But unlike in China, guns are legal in the USA which probably accounts for why we
have so many homicides. Somehow, that does not strike me as the land of the free, home of the
brave. As a second-generation Chinese American I have been exposed to both the Chinese and
American forms of punishment. As a child when I did not listen to my parents they would either
hit or yell at me and naturally rebellious, I would fight back. Similarly, in the US (or China),
when a citizen does not adhere to the laws, the police arrests him and throws him into jail. And
then when he gets out, even after paying for his crime, the returning citizen is still being pun-
ished as now he cannot even find a job with his record and may end up on the streets or perhaps
may reoffend and go back to prison.
 So why do I wish to become a paralegal? I wish to help change the laws that are not
working, to fix this broken system, to help push for a more humane and merciful justice system
as opposed to a harsh punitive one like what we have here in the US. I want to stop evil in its
tracks rather than contribute to it. I want to study the laws, both the ones here as well as interna-
tionally, so I can help fight for what is fair and just for everyone. I want to help give everyone
else the same liberties and rights that we have in America, if not more. I want to help those who
cannot help themselves, to relieve others’ pain and suffering. I want to make right what is
wrong, to make better what is bad, to try to correct all of the injustices in this world. I want to
give a chance to people who otherwise may not have one. In essence, I wish to become the su-
perhero (or in my case, heroine) in my own real-life action story.
If chosen to participate in the paralegal certificate, I hope to utilize the skills and knowl-
edge I will gain from the courses I will be taking to work at a nonprofit, NGO, or public interest
law firm where I can help the poor and disadvantaged. I wish to help reform the criminal justice
system and advocate for more mental health rights in the US. I wish to help give the ignorant
and repentant lawbreakers a chance to redeem themselves and change their lives for the better. I
want to help women obtain all of the same rights that men have, to have equality in the work-
place. I would like to help end fear, prejudice, and discrimination between people of different
races, cultures, and backgrounds. I want America to live up to its pledge of liberty and justice
for all, then have the rest of the world follow in its footsteps. I would like to help put an end to
all of the misfortune and wrongdoing throughout the world. I would like to stand up for civil
rights, social justice, and equality. I know I am only one person and I may not have superhuman
powers, yet I can still contribute to making the world a better place for all.