Cornell University — Political Science
Applicant discovers the Laughter Club in Mumbai and learns how political humor can serve as a tool for social awareness and activism. Through jokes and community engagement, she evolves from passive observer to advocate for marginalized communities, eventually channeling humor into real civic participation and policy discussions.
Personal Statement
Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
Hannah Arendt’s observation on the banality of evil offers a troubling revelation: the worst acts of evil aren’t committed by monsters but by ordinary people—often due to thoughtlessness, lack of ideological conviction, or fear of authority. Oh, how easy it was to detach from the world—or so I thought.
At 4 a.m., I, too, confronted my own thoughtlessness. Let’s wind it back. Living in Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, I had made peace with getting 4-5 hours of rest, but I faced the dilemma of deciding what else to do. Some days, I’d speed-run through Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policies for my coursework—I had learned Russian by then—or reread Kafka’s The Trial for the 41st time. Yet something felt missing.
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