Oregon State: Contributing to an inclusive community

About 100 words

OSU remains committed to creating an inclusive environment and dismantling systems that perpetuate discrimination at various levels. How, specifically, will you contribute to furthering this commitment?

What it’s really asking

The keyword is specifically. OSU wants a concrete contribution you will make on their campus, ideally rooted in something you have already done, not a statement that you value inclusion.

Why they ask it

As a large public institution, OSU cares how you treat people unlike you and whether you act, not just believe. Specificity here separates genuine intent from a checked box.

Three ways in

Extend something you already built

A group or effort you made more welcoming, carried forward to a specific OSU setting.

Name a real OSU program

A specific OSU club, center, or role you plan to join or start, named rather than implied.

Put your perspective to work

A language, lived experience, or translation role you will use on behalf of others, with evidence you have done it before.

✕ Weak opening

“I believe diversity is important and I will always treat everyone with respect at Oregon State.”

✓ Strong opening

“At my school I ran a peer-tutoring table in Spanish so newcomer students could get math help without fighting the language first.”

✦ Annotated example · Translating the form. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →

At my school, enrollment paperwork is only printed in English, so families who speak Mam or Spanish get stuck at the front desk. ¹I started translating during fall registration, ²then realized translating once doesn't fix the door. ³So I helped build a bilingual intake packet the office now hands out by default. ⁴At OSU, I'll bring that same instinct to the Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez, ⁵looking for the quiet places where a default shuts people out, and changing the default. ⁶

1Identifies a specific, real barrier rather than speaking about inclusion in slogans. OSU asks 'how, specifically,' and this names the system.
2Begins with personal, hands-on action, grounding the abstract topic in something he actually did.
3Honest self-reflection: he critiques the limits of his own good deed, signaling he understands dismantling systems, not just patching them.
4Moves from individual help to a durable structural change, which is genuine community contribution and concrete impact.
5Connects forward to a specific OSU resource, showing he researched how he'll actually contribute on campus.
6Closes with a clear personal philosophy for furthering inclusion that is active and systemic, exactly what the prompt rewards.

Stuck? Start here

What is one barrier you have personally helped someone get past?
What specific OSU club, center, or program could you name and plausibly join or extend?
What can you contribute that comes from your actual experience, not a generic value statement?

Before you submit

I describe a specific action, not a belief or a promise to be respectful.
I name a real OSU program, role, or plan, so the 'specifically' is answered.
I tied my future contribution to something I have already done or can clearly start.

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