Motivational letter for university

Hello! I'm writing my first motivational letter in order to enter a Dutch university. I'd like someone to correct it and I'll be pleased to receive any kind of advice.

Here is my first draft.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I’m an Italian student willing to apply to the Bachelor program of Global Management of Social Issues offered by X University.
I’m currently attending my last year of secondary school and so far my grades has shown the profile of an hard worker with an high sense of duty.
One of the main aspects that struck my attention visiting the website of the program was the importance given to the single student’s experiences and background. That’s something difficult to be found in the Italian educational system, which is pretty standardized in my opinion.

Since I was young I’ve shown a certain interest towards social issues and now I’m sure this program will help me expanding my knowledge.
Being from Italy means having a really deep understatement of some of the most compelling problems of the last years, such as immigration and political instability. But since we live in an European developed country we may not be aware of certain other problems, some of which I had the chance to discover during my journey to Colombia. There I learnt how to speak Spanish and I was able to experience what poverty really means. During my stay I visited both the capital city, Bogotà, and a small town on the coast. The chasm between the living conditions of the rich and the ones of the poor made me feel the duty to do something. Actually I had always felt a powerful desire for justice but in that occasion it finally became clear to me that I wanted to be make the difference, to take care of all these difficulties people usually turn their back to. I wasn’t raised to accept social abuses and inequalities, therefore I want to be a voice to denounce them, a voice for all those people who can’t stand for their own.

My mother’s work as an accountant as strongly influenced me in developing my interests, since I could gain an insight into economics and its effective implications in every other fields.
Then, after a summer spent working with her I realized that my interest in economics didn’t stem from a fondness of finance or accountancy, but that it was related to the fact that the key to solve a problem is to get to its roots, and they are often related to the economic field.
My self-motivation has alway characterized my nature as well as my fondness of competition. In fact one of the reasons according to which I think I’m the right person to fit in this program is that I’m always up for a challenge, especially when it comes to such important matters as the so called “wicked problems”. Sympathizing with the victims of abuses is not enough, I’m ready to take the wheel and starting attempting a concrete change.

My school- in spite of its scientific orientation - offers solid humanistic basis upon which I was able to develop a well-defined moral character by my own and it enriched my natural appeal to research. In the end it provides its students with critical and analytic thinking that can be easily applied to humanitarian and philosophical matters.
We are also encouraged to take part in projects in which team work is essential. In the last two years for instance my school has been involved in a project dealing with scientific divulgation; our role was to open up the doors of science to children of kindergarten and m middle school. I dealt with the organization of the project itself with a team of other students.

I know how important is confronting with people coming from different cultural backgrounds; that’s why I’m willing to study in an environment as multicultural as possible, in order to have a wider insight into other cultures.
I had the chance to rub shoulders with students coming from all over the world while I was attending a summer school in Brighton. I haven’t only had the chance to improve my language skills, but also to live in an English family and adopt their daily habits.
My love for travels has also brought me in Holland, where I was struck by the open-mindedness of people. I personally think that the Netherlands are a very stimulating country and it mirrors my own innovative and creative attitude.