Nishanth Prajith
ENGL 11000
Formal Letter of Introduction
Dear Ms. Aisha Sidibe-Leyva,
My name is Nishanth Prajith and I am an immigrant from the Indian subcontinent. I was born and raised in the state of Kerala which is often referred to as “God’s own country” because old stories in the Hindu manuscript claim that God himself came down to earth and threw his ax to create new land for his devotees. Being an Indian has really molded who I am, because, from a young age I was primed to compete and be the best, so I always tried to do everything to please my parents. But, I was not always the sharpest or brightest person, I was mostly average, I used to get in the 90s and the 70s in tests and quizzes and did crudely in classes such as science and English. But, all this changed when I got into 6th grade and met my English teacher Ms. Francis, a Christian and God-fearing woman. She was very kind to me from the beginning to the end and helped me understand the concepts and emotionally helped me grow. This was a very important event for me because I started to really try my best in all my classes and got within the mindset of being a winner. My hobbies mainly include drawings and programming. I would spend hours on trying to learn new things in technology and art. I also like to build computers and try to play with different operating systems. One thing, I like to do most often is ethical hacking I play around with different software’s and try to hack my other computers. This may not seem very interesting, but the thing is that it is very challenging, and every step must be carefully planned out to make sure that nothing gets destroyed. Additionally, I also play sports such as soccer and basketball.
My goals for this class are simple. Firstly, I want to improve my writing and grammar, this may seem like a rather obvious goal, but truth be told English is not exactly my strong language. I got a 600 on the SAT due to my lack of ability to comprehend and understand the conventions of the English language. Therefore, I want to really recognize the conventions of writing and someday get very good at writing. Secondly, I want to make new friends, since this is my first semester in CCNY, I don’t really know anyone that well and do not exactly have many social contacts. And lastly, I want to graduate from the class with a good grade and keep my GPA strong. My goals for my future career are to get a job right after I graduate from CCNY, study for my masters and finally get sponsorship and then a green card because my visa would expire in 5 years. I am hoping that I would be able to achieve this in the years to come as I have already started to prepare myself for my future career as a software engineer. Additionally, I also want to make sure that my brother gets an education here and that he graduates with a good degree with a job right after.
My path to CCNY was rather a weird one because I wanted to go to CCNY from the start of high school. But during my senior year when I applied to CUNY schools, I put city college 3rd in my application which I thought would not really matter. However, it did and so I was later waitlisted and then denied. This made me very sad but when I realized I had to take a 6 months gap year due to visa issues, I reapplied. During, the reapplication, there were so many issues and I did not literally hear back from CCNY the day before my orientation. And even that would not have been possible if I had not called the Director of Admissions who quickly evaluated my application and made sure that I got my acceptance letter that very day within an hour. That day I was happy because I had been waiting for my acceptance for over 6 months and in the last possible minute I got in due to my persistence of not giving up calling the admission office regarding the decision.
In conclusion, being an Indian and an immigrant has been a rather crazy journey for me in America because, when I came here I did not really speak English and my competitive nature was left destroyed. But, over the years, I have taught myself and grew to be more than what I was before.
Best Regards,
Nishanth Prajith
