Ever since I started dreaming about becoming an accounting professional, I had been searching for a proper university of international repute. Santa Clara University started haunting me since one evening when my mom narrated over coffee about the experience of her friend’s daughter in the famed business school in Silicon Valley. What excited me about Santa Clara University was the committed professors who paid attention to individual students since I believed in business schools students would not get individual attention as they used to get in high schools. I began to research about the university through the internet and friends who too provided positive feedbacks about the campus. I happened to meet a graduate who had just graduated in accounting major from the university through a friend. I settled upon Santa Clara University as the graduate revealed that she was able to pass the CPA exam on the first try.
If you visited campus, describe what aspect of your visit experience most influenced your impression of SCU. (Maximum 150 words)
The best part about visiting Santa Clare University is its location in Santa Clara, and the campus hardly a 10-minute walk away from downtown. To me, it was almost a love at first sight experience when I visited the campus one early winter morning. I liked the calmness even as students enjoyed socializing and eating literally everywhere, sitting under huge trees and on the building corridors. What attracted my attention was the cleanliness and safe atmosphere existing on the beautiful campus. It was not the place where unauthorized people roamed about aimlessly. The multinational corporate giants encircling the campus would always remind me of my dreams to make the most of the campus. The campus has a beautiful church to help students grow spiritually. With dedicated team of teachers and a serene ambience around, I have no doubt the University would help me to sharpen my knowledge, skills and professionalism.
Santa Clara University's strategic vision promises to educate citizens and leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion and cultivate knowledge and faith to build a more humane, just, and sustainable world. What aspect of SCU’s strategic vision appeals to you? Why? (between 150 - 300 words)
Thanks to the Christian faith upon which the foundation of the University was laid, the appeal of building a more humane and just world inspires me the most. Even as the strategic vision of the university beautifully entwines the three basic qualities of a leader, competence, compassion and conscience with building a sustainable world, the concept of producing leaders who are human beings in the first place is really encouraging and appealing to me the most. In the light of globalization and severe competition challenging business leaders like never before, it is quite natural for them to resort to unethical means of operation and treating their customers. Therefore, the virtue of compassion that motivates leaders to see others, including their competitors, employees and the customers from their own points of view is very essential for business graduates. This would help budding business leaders to grow as humane leaders who always treat all stakeholders fairly with a win-win attitude. In fact, the real value of education remains not in individuals learning and growing to establish their personal glory, but in making life easier for fellow human beings by showing them the right way. Education must thus show light where there is darkness. Conversely, education is not about learning difficult things and cumbersome solutions, but it is about facilitating people to find their own solutions to day to day problems (Robinson). I believe the vision statement of SCU would always remind its students of the real purpose and meaning of education towards producing responsible future business leaders and fellow citizens.
Reference
Robinson, K. Bring on the learning revolution. TED. February 2010. Web. 03 January 2016. http://www. ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution/transcript? language=en
