Oh, The Places You'll Go is one of the most popular books by ''Dr. Seuss'' (Theodore Seuss Geisel, Dartmouth Class of 1925). Where do you hope to go? What aspects of Dartmouth's curriculum or community might help you get there? Please respond in 100 words or less.
At Dartmouth, I’ll channel my inner Mindy Kaling to find a family in unexpected places, whether it is collaborating with likeminded theater aficionados to transform YOUR STAGE and house our artwork, or stargazing with classmates who are my teachers and friends, my closest companions. I want to comb through history with Professor Aimee Bahng and spend weekends discussing ink on a page with kindred spirits. Through traveling the world on a Dartmouth internship to hearing music in the forest to studying Asian American literature, I will collect pieces of life and emerge a fully-fledged storyteller. (95)
Shonda Rhimes, Dartmouth '91, creator of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, recently documented her Year of Yes; for one year she vowed to say YES to everything that scared her. Share a moment when you stepped out of your comfort zone, and describe how it helped you grow into who you are today. (200-300 words)
My teacher told us, “If it doesn’t scare you, it’s not worth writing.”
It scared me to write about religion. It scared me to write about heritage. It scared me that only I could write the stories I’ve carried. But in a master class with playwright Octavio Solis, he told me words I will never forget: “Cassandra, you are a poet of the theatre. We need your voice. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Though it is unorthodox in my community for Asians to enter the arts, it is my responsibility to push for more diversity. Asian Americans deserve the cultural translation to the screen, stage, and page. We are more than a “single story” ethnicity—we do not fit into a beginning, middle, and end.
I reached for collaborations with artists across the fields—whether it was filming a short at school, performing poetry in front of thousands, or working with theater professionals in Hollywood, San Diego, Denver, and New York. Through storytelling, I became part of something bigger than me—team member, world builder, rule breaker, emotions explorer.
I believe people in the arts have the biggest capacity for empathy. Artists vie to bear someone else’s suffering on our own shoulders. I believe artists do it for the same reason people risk everything to conquer the highest mountains—we are somehow trying to alleviate the burden of those who cannot live to the fullest. Art is uniting a room in what makes us human. It is making the audience feel a little less alone, because stories provide the most powerful and dangerous thing you could offer someone: hope. (281)