This text was produced as a part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teenagers round New York Metropolis to report on points that have an effect on their lives.
“Is Waner too Jewish-sounding?” I blurted out final 12 months throughout my household’s common Shabbat dinner. Stress crammed the room. My mother and father didn’t reply. My brother checked out me. The silence within the room mentioned sufficient.
As we sat in silence, I noticed I had simply mentioned aloud one thing that I had by no means thought of: how my identification as a Korean Jew would possibly work towards me within the faculty admissions course of.
We have been speaking about faculty functions and the way candidates are evaluated. Following the 2023 Supreme Courtroom ruling banning race-conscious admissions, faculty essays — particularly identification essays — grew to become one of many fundamental methods candidates can discuss how their race or tradition has formed them.
On the identical time, Jewish and Asian college students have raised considerations that these identities may work towards them. Some Asian candidates fear they are going to be stereotyped as being academically sturdy however missing creativity or individuality, whereas some Jewish candidates fear they are going to be seen as privileged, overrepresented or much less in want of consideration.
To this point, my Jewishness had been essentially the most steady a part of my identification.
My mom is Korean and my father is Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish. Each identities have formed me, but every appeared loaded with its personal dangers and alternatives.
My household celebrates Shabbat each Friday night time and belongs to Congregation Rodeph Sholom, a Reform synagogue on the Higher West Aspect.
On the identical time, once I was with my prolonged Korean household, I used to be typically subtly or instantly reminded that I used to be not absolutely Korean, subsequently putting me in a scenario the place my Jewish identification felt extra seen. However in different elements of my life, particularly in school, the dynamic flipped and I used to be normally categorized as Korean earlier than I may clarify the rest.
School admissions made the way in which I navigated these identities really feel strategic. The top of affirmative motion modified how Asian candidates considered discussing race, whereas the rise in campus antisemitism after Oct. 7 left many Jewish college students questioning easy methods to current their identification.
For the primary time in my life, I discovered myself asking: While you belong to multiple neighborhood, how do you determine which a part of your self turns into the story?
Different college students I spoke with described working by means of comparable questions, although the solutions weren’t at all times the identical.
A Chinese language Jewish highschool senior from the suburbs of New York Metropolis who will attend Wesleyan College this fall described a unique method. (She requested to not be named as a result of she considers the knowledge she shared private.) Rising up in a predominantly white suburb with a big Jewish inhabitants, she typically felt extra linked to her Jewish identification as a result of it had a stronger presence in her day by day life.
“It positively trusted the setting,” she instructed me. “I’ve at all times felt I may join with my Jewish aspect somewhat extra as a result of there’s extra of a presence of synagogues than Chinese language areas.”
The top of affirmative motion made her rethink easy methods to focus on tradition in her utility.
“The entire half about affirmative motion shifted the narrative of what you must say and what you shouldn’t say,” she mentioned. “I wasn’t fully certain easy methods to method it.”
At first, she thought of writing about her multicultural background, however after being identified with Kind 1 diabetes, she determined to focus her fundamental essay on how the sickness has modified her life and perspective.
Even so, she mentioned she by no means felt that essential elements of her identification must be hidden.
“Lots of people have been instructed this may injury your utility when you point out your cultural experiences,” she mentioned. “However I really feel you may’t cover one thing that’s a part of you.”
Listening to her, I used to be struck by how in another way she approached the identical query I had spent months wrestling with. Whereas I used to be apprehensive about which identification ought to take heart stage, she appeared much less involved with selecting between identities and extra targeted on presenting the experiences that mattered to her most.
So too did Noa Fay, a Black Jewish scholar who graduated from Columbia College in 2025. She utilized earlier than the current shift in admissions coverage and campus local weather. On the time, she didn’t really feel pressured to decide on between identities.
“It was frequent data on the time that these universities appreciated folks like me,” she mentioned. “Blended folks and individuals who represented racial range.”
Fay selected to not heart her fundamental essay on identification. As a substitute she used the shorter supplemental responses to current totally different elements of her background and tried “to speak about all of them evenly.” She believed that her identities may strengthen her utility somewhat than work towards it.
That confidence took a flip whereas she was a scholar at Columbia College throughout the protests following the struggle in Israel.
“Earlier than Oct. 7, I assumed that each a type of identities was equally appreciated,” she mentioned. “After, folks expressed overtly how a lot they disliked the Jewish identification.”
Trying again, she sees the admissions course of in another way and believes college students at present face a more durable setting, however she nonetheless advises them to not cover.
“Don’t downplay your Judaism as a result of sure locations gained’t prefer it,” she mentioned. “If there’s a query that asks about it, don’t cover it.”
Sam, a university counselor who works with highschool college students from private and non-private colleges throughout the USA, instructed me that he has seen extra anxiousness round identification for the reason that finish of affirmative motion. (Sam requested to be recognized solely by his first title and requested that his employer not be named as a result of his firm’s coverage restricts staff from talking publicly about admissions issues.) College students typically really feel that they should join their background to a particular hardship, he mentioned, as a substitute of permitting their identification to return by means of naturally of their writing.
“I see many candidates making an attempt to guess what faculties need to hear, which might make their writing really feel a bit compelled,” he mentioned.
When advising college students with a number of identities, Sam tells them to not match each a part of themselves into one essay. As a substitute, they need to deal with the expertise that has most formed their day by day life or future targets. He additionally mentioned college students shouldn’t cover an essential identification as a result of they concern it may harm their possibilities.
“Typically the best possible essays discover the strain or the great thing about residing between two totally different worlds,” he mentioned. “They don’t have to decide on only one.”
Sam’s reply took me again to the query I requested at Shabbat dinner. On the time, I assumed I needed to determine which a part of my identification can be most secure to current to an admissions officer, however the folks I spoke to helped me see that identification doesn’t must be offered as a selection between particular person classes.
My final title could trigger somebody to see me as Jewish, whereas my look could trigger somebody to see me as Korean first, however every identification alone can’t inform the total story of who I’m. Collectively these identities make up who I’m.
I nonetheless have no idea precisely what I’ll write once I apply to school, or how an admissions officer will interpret it, however I do know that I don’t need concern to be a deciding issue on which a part of my identification I embrace. The query is now not whether or not Waner sounds too Jewish, however how I can inform the story of the entire individual behind the title.
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is a highschool scholar in New York Metropolis.
The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially replicate the views of NYJW or its dad or mum firm, 70 Faces Media.
