Criticism wanted for letter of motivation.

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am applying for the Communication and Medai program at the Erasmus School of Economics starting in September 2012. My career ambition is to spread knowledge to the ones less fortunate and educate our population.

Born and brought up in Bangladesh did not allow exposure to much international environments, fortunately for me I am one of the luckier few from this rather backward nation. Lucky in the sense that my family could afford trips to the western, more developed and multicultural world. Every second summer we would visit my grandparents in Canada, however Canada is a long haul and most airlines in those days had a break in journey in England. Since it’s rather boring to see England every other summer, my family and I took small trips out of England for a week or two to major European cities before continuing our journey to Canada. This allowed tremendous opportunity for personal growth and exposure to a whole new world, much different to what I was accustomed to. However at the age of thirteen this all stopped.

The change in life style was for the better. My family got transferred to the booming city of Dubai as a result of my father’s occupation. As one might assume, living in Dubai is like no other city on the face of our planet. Dubai was the hub of the world at that point in time (before the economic crisis). Which meant people from all over the world came there to boost their existing careers or jump start a new one. This made the environment in Dubai truly international, in all sense of the word. I went to high-school with children from over 71 nationalities. I learnt about difference in culture and religion, different ways of thinking and behaving due to differences in upbringing and setting. These differences between people can potentially cause major conflicts. This has been proven time and time again over the course of history, starting from Palestine to Kosovo. These conflicts I believe are due to a lack of communication and understanding. Being exposed to these differences at a young age as I was, opened my eyes. Just learning and observing these differences aren’t enough. In the 21^st century where the world is so small and interactions between vastly different people are plenty, one must be able to accept these differences.

In high school I followed the IB diploma program; the designers of this program recognized the importance of minimizing friction between different races and ethnicities in this ever shrinking world. We had a subject called TOK (theory of knowledge), we were taught many things in this course but the most important lesson I took with me as I passed the course was this; if we take the time and effort to understand each other we can eradicate these difference by means of communication.

My international exposure did not stop there; I did a two week exchange program in Italy. In those two weeks I lived with an Italian student, went to school with her and learnt some of the social dynamics of their culture and ways. That, added to two and a half years in the faculty of aerospace engineering in TU-Delft has made me a truly international specimen.
However, after the past two years I’ve learnt that engineering is not my calling. I am an outgoing, persuasive and open minded person and would love nothing more than a field of study where I interact with other people rather than interacting with equations and laws of physics.

Over the years I have connected with many people and shared my open minded views and I feel I have made a difference. But it is not enough to quench my thirst for change. With proper guidance, which I am sure to receive during my study at Erasmus I believe I can improve my abilities by leaps and bounds to be able to made a difference on a much larger scale.
The media is a very powerful tool; it can be used and abused. For better and for worse, as mentioned on the university website, it really does affect almost everything in our daily lives and its reach is beyond that of any single person. So media and communication can be and MUST be used for the spread of knowledge and understanding, not propaganda and information control.

I have the utmost respect for the makers of TED and their divine vision. Ideas worth spreading they call it. Watching just a few simple presentations on TED.com makes it very evident just how easy it is to connect with the masses and spread brilliant ideas to anyone willing to listen. But is it really as easy as they make it look? Or is it that they have been trained and educated in the field of communication and media so they know exactly how to present their ideas to make it appealing to the simple mind?

I am certain it is the later of the two, and with IBCoM I too will be able to enhance my reach. IBCoM has a few things about it which makes it more appealing to me than other courses. It is very relevant to me that I continue my studies in the Netherlands; I have become accustomed to the life style here. Logistically it makes sense as it is very close to Delft and it goes without say that a course fully taught in English is of utmost importance. On top of that, Erasmus is one of the leading business schools in Europe. This provides a very international learning environment, one that I am already used to, one that I enjoy and one that I have proven myself in, in previous years.

Rotterdam, the gateway to Europe, who would give up the opportunity to study in a city which offers so many possibilities? I most certainly would not, so if presented with an offer to study at this top notch educational institute I would accept in a heartbeat.

After I graduate I want to spread knowledge, all the knowledge I have to offer, and the knowledge other posses but not the tools to spread them. People fear what they do not know and cannot understand, but with the skills I will acquire I will be able to communicate with them in words they understand and situations they can relate to and with that I will educate our population and leave dark and desperate times behind us. More importantly, I want to be able to teach others how to pass on what they have learnt because education and understanding is our only way forward.

With that being said, I would like to conclude, a man much wiser than myself once said, the pen is mightier than the sword. The media is the pen of the 21^st century. And if used with good motives and conviction it can be used to heal the world and rid it of ignorance and prejudice.