Personal statement reading

Author: Jamie Weisel, 2022-23 Kiwanis Family Youth Chair

On the day depicted, a group of our essay editing volunteers got together to read and edit some of the submissions we already received early on. Personal statement reading was an on going event/program that our club held throughout October and November since the UC application was due in late November. This gave students enough time to write and submit their essays, as well as enough time for our CKI members to return the essays. All edits were done anonymously, so people would feel more comfortable giving and receiving feedback. Our volunteers were hard at work for a couple hours to ensure we could guarantee our promise of returning the college essays in 3-5 days. Overall, our club read 127 college essays and served 64 hours to do so.

​The event is meaningful because I know how expensive essay editing services are for college applications. I personally paid a couple hundred dollars just for my 4 UC essays to be read over, so it was really cool to continue this free program for our local key club seniors.