How to Write the Belmont University Essays 2025-2026
Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Belmont University offers a host of opportunities for its students in over 180 different programs. This year, Belmont has one optional essay for all applicants and one required essay for applicants to the Global Honors Program. Honors applicants can choose between three prompt options for their essay.
Keep reading to see our advice for responding to Belmont’s essays for the 2025-2026 application cycle.
Belmont University Supplemental Essay Prompts
All Applicants
Prompt (optional): What else, if anything, would you wish the Admissions Committee to know about your candidacy? (500 words)
Global Honors Program Applicants
Prompt: In the Belmont Global Honors Program, we seek students with any academic interests or majors to create a robust, fully interdisciplinary team of students. When we review your applications, we are looking for evidence of your curiosity, creativity, commitment, uniqueness, effort, and resilience. We are excited to see your talent onstage, read your writing, be amazed by your robots, gawk at your artwork, envision your entrepreneurial business plan, accompany you in your service, and dream with you about your future.
Grades are important, but it is most important that you have demonstrated a sense of curiosity and a love of learning. We hope to build a strong cohort of students who will work, live, travel, and learn well together.
Choose one of the three prompts, and write a response of 500-750 words. This will help us get to know you better!
Option A: Consider the five following individual identity descriptors: creator, doer, explorer, change agent, seeker. Choose one of these five descriptors that best encapsulates your core identity. Provide 2-3 concrete examples of how the descriptor you chose reflects your identity. How might this core identity translate into action as a scholar-global citizen at Belmont University? And how do you hope to develop your core identity during college?
Option B: Reflect on a recent transformative learning experience. The learning experience can be something directly related to the classes you have taken or to experiences you’ve had outside the classroom. The experience does not need to be academic in nature, but it should demonstrate how you were transformed in the process.
Option C: Belmont’s Global Honors Program is a community of students who hunger for knowledge. What’s a topic you haven’t had an opportunity to learn about in high school that you are excited to learn about in college? Why do you yearn to know more about this particular topic?
All Applicants Prompt (optional)
What else, if anything, would you wish the Admissions Committee to know about your candidacy? (500 words)
This prompt is what we call an “Additional Information” essay. While we normally encourage students to take every opportunity to share more about themselves with the admissions committee by submitting optional supplements, in this case, this essay truly is optional. You will not be penalized for not submitting this essay.
However, if you do have anything you would like to share with the admissions committee that you haven’t had the chance to elaborate on as much as you would like—this is your place to do so. Additional Information essays like this are usually used to share about topics like:
- Extenuating circumstances like illnesses, family matters, moving, first-generation status, etc.
- Severe changes in your academic record (not just explaining the one C or D on your transcript)
- Describing your identity in the context of race, gender, or LGBTQ+ (since the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, colleges cannot ask for your racial information outright, but students are allowed to share it in essays like this if they want colleges to know how an aspect of their background has affected them)
- An activity or extracurricular that is unfamiliar to most and might require further explanation
- Additional responsibilities you had like caring for younger siblings or working at your family’s business
The point of this essay is to share important details the admissions committee should know to view your application in a holistic manner, so you don’t need to worry about your writing style as much here. It’s far better to be direct and clearly explain your situation rather than trying to include colorful language.
Keep in mind, this essay is not meant to be a place where you vent about the challenges you’ve faced or you make excuses for poor performance. You want to show maturity and humility in your response by acknowledging obstacles and recognizing mistakes. If you’ve taken action to improve your situation in some way—whether that’s attending after-school tutoring to improve your grades, seeking counseling to process a traumatic event, etc.—you want to highlight that in your response. Explain what happened, but also the steps you’ve taken to grow and learn from your experiences.
Some students might be tempted to use this essay as a “freebie” supplement, where they can talk about their favorite extracurricular, why they are interested in Belmont, etc.. If you really wish to do so here, you can, but keep in mind most essays will be about extenuating circumstances or true additional information essays, so make sure the tone of your essay isn’t too over-the-top that it would feel out of place.
Don’t pad this section out with fluff, or repeat information you’ve already shared for the sake of answering it, but if you do have something to say, definitely take advantage of this prompt.
Global Honors Prompt, Option A
Consider the five following individual identity descriptors: creator, doer, explorer, change agent, seeker. Choose one of these five descriptors that best encapsulates your core identity. Provide 2-3 concrete examples of how the descriptor you chose reflects your identity. How might this core identity translate into action as a scholar-global citizen at Belmont University? And how do you hope to develop your core identity during college? (500-750 words)
This prompt asks you to select one of five descriptors—creator, doer, explorer, change agent, or seeker—that best reflects your core identity. You’ll then provide 2-3 examples of how this descriptor applies to you, illustrating how your experiences, interests, or community involvement align with this trait. Finally, you’ll discuss how this core identity will influence your actions as a student at the College of Charleston, and how you hope to grow in this role during your time at the college.
Brainstorming Your Essay
Before you start writing, take time to reflect on which of the five descriptors—creator, doer, explorer, change agent, or seeker—feels most authentic to you. Don’t just pick the one that sounds impressive; choose the one that captures how you naturally approach the world. Maybe you’re constantly tinkering with new ideas, finding creative solutions, or seeking deeper understanding through curiosity. Whatever it is, it should feel true to your personality and the way you engage with learning and others.
As you brainstorm, consider these questions:
- Which descriptor resonates most with you? Why does it feel like an accurate reflection of your personality and experiences?
- What are specific moments or experiences where this identity was evident? Consider academic projects, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, or personal experiences.
- How will this identity shape your role at the College of Charleston? How will you engage with the community, contribute to campus life, or pursue academic opportunities through this lens?
- What aspects of the College of Charleston’s Honors College align with or challenge this identity? Are there specific resources, programs, or opportunities that will help you develop in this role?
What Makes a Good Response
A strong response begins with a clear sense of identity. Admissions officers should walk away from your essay knowing exactly who you are and what motivates you. Instead of simply stating that you’re a “creator” or a “doer,” show it through your actions, reflections, and choices.
The prompt wants you to choose two or three examples, so make sure you choose ones that are detailed, specific, and that show your chosen identity in motion. These examples might come from academic projects, leadership roles, creative endeavors, or community service. The key is to illustrate not just what you did, but why you did it and what you learned from the experience.
Then, connect your identity to the future. Explain how this trait will shape your contributions as a scholar and citizen at the College of Charleston. How will being an explorer, creator, or change agent help you engage with your classes, student organizations, or the broader Charleston community?
Finally, demonstrate personal growth. Show that you understand your identity is not fixed—it’s something that will evolve as you gain new perspectives. Admissions officers are drawn to students who are curious, reflective, and open to learning.
Hypothetical Student Examples
James chooses “Explorer” as his descriptor. His examples include:
- Organizing and leading an environmental cleanup project in his hometown, where he researched local pollution patterns and designed a route that would maximize impact.
- Studying the history and culture of different cities during family road trips, I developed a fascination with how geography and culture influence each other.
- Writing a research paper on eco-tourism in Southeast Asia for his high school geography class helped him realize the global implications of sustainable travel.
- Looking forward: James plans to continue exploring by studying urban geography at the College of Charleston, where he hopes to contribute to projects involving sustainable urban development and participate in study abroad programs.
Anna identifies as a “Change Agent.” Her examples include:
- Advocating for mental health awareness at her high school by starting a student-led support group, which partnered with counselors to provide peer assistance.
- Volunteering at a local homeless shelter and organizing fundraisers to support the shelter’s services, including one project that raised enough to provide new winter coats for 50 people.
- Lobbying her local government to increase funding for youth mental health services, which inspired her interest in social justice and public policy.
- Looking forward: At the College of Charleston, Anna intends to major in Political Science and wants to join the Honors College’s Public Service and Civic Engagement track. She plans to expand her activism through internships, policy research, and community service initiatives.
Carlos selects “Creator” as his core identity. His examples include:
- Starting his own small business in high school, designing and selling handmade jewelry, and learning to navigate e-commerce and marketing.
- Collaborating with local artists to create murals in his neighborhood involved managing a team of volunteers and raising funds for supplies.
- Producing a short film for his school’s annual film festival, where he wrote, directed, and edited the entire project.
- Looking forward: Carlos hopes to develop his creativity by pursuing a degree in Arts Management at the College of Charleston, where he can connect with local artists and businesses, and possibly intern at one of Charleston’s art galleries or museums.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One common mistake is choosing a descriptor that doesn’t truly align with you. Avoid picking a word simply because it sounds impressive or fits what you think admissions officers want. The most compelling essays come from authenticity—when your stories and reflections naturally fit the descriptor you’ve chosen.
Another pitfall is being too vague or broad. General statements about being a “leader” or “hard worker” don’t reveal much about your individuality. Focus on concrete examples that show how your identity has influenced your choices and actions.
Students also sometimes forget to connect their identity to the College of Charleston. The essay isn’t just about your past; it’s about how you’ll bring your identity to campus. Mention specific academic programs, opportunities, or communities within the Honors College that align with who you are and what you hope to become.
Lastly, don’t overlook personal growth. The prompt asks not only how your identity has shaped you so far, but also how you hope to continue developing it in college. Showing that you’re reflective and eager to evolve demonstrates maturity and intellectual curiosity.
Example Essay
Seeker
“For as long as I can remember, my favorite phrase has been “I don’t know…but I want to find out.” My parents tell me that as a child, I once spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out how rainbows worked, sitting by the kitchen window with a flashlight, a spray bottle, and a stack of mirrors. That same curiosity has followed me into high school, shaping how I approach learning—not as a checklist of answers, but as an ongoing pursuit of understanding.
That mindset took hold most clearly during my sophomore year, when my biology teacher mentioned in passing that some fungi can communicate with trees. The idea felt almost mystical—how could something without a brain “talk”? Instead of letting the question drift away, I dove in. I spent weeks reading scientific papers about mycorrhizal networks, sketching diagrams in the margins of my notebook, and even emailing a local university researcher to ask if I could visit their lab. What fascinated me wasn’t just the science itself, but what it revealed about connection: how invisible systems sustain entire ecosystems. That discovery shifted the way I looked at everything from forest trails to classroom communities: beneath every surface, there are networks of support we rarely see.
This same drive to understand connections extended beyond the sciences. During a unit on world religions in history class, I found myself fascinated by the overlap between belief systems—the shared metaphors, the recurring themes of compassion, sacrifice, and renewal. I started keeping a notebook where I collected quotes from Buddhist sutras, Bible verses, and Sufi poetry, searching for patterns. It wasn’t about finding one “right” answer but about appreciating how different perspectives could coexist and deepen one another. That’s when I realized that being a seeker isn’t about certainty. It’s about holding space for complexity.
At the College of Charleston, I want to keep seeking, both within and beyond my major. I’m drawn to the Honors College’s interdisciplinary approach, especially courses that connect philosophy, environmental science, and global studies. I can imagine myself taking part in research on coastal sustainability, not just to study environmental systems, but to understand the human stories behind them. I also hope to join the Honors Engaged program, where I can translate my curiosity into community impact by partnering with local organizations that focus on education and environmental equity.
Being a seeker doesn’t mean always knowing what comes next. For me, it means asking better questions—the kind that don’t have easy answers but lead to growth, empathy, and understanding. I hope that at the College of Charleston, surrounded by others who are just as curious, I’ll continue to chase those questions, and learn to listen closely enough to hear what the world has to teach in return.”
Global Honors Prompt, Option B
Reflect on a recent transformative learning experience. The learning experience can be something directly related to the classes you have taken or to experiences you’ve had outside the classroom. The experience does not need to be academic in nature, but it should demonstrate how you were transformed in the process. (500-750 words)
This could be a good option for you if you’ve had a moment where you learned a lot or where your perspective on something really shifted. You want to pinpoint a specific experience for this essay, so if you can’t think of something specific, maybe consider the other options.
Brainstorming Your Essay
Start by thinking about moments, big or small, that changed how you see something. This doesn’t have to be about earning an award, solving a hard problem, or achieving something impressive. Instead, focus on a time when you learned something in a way that changed your perspective, your behavior, or your understanding of yourself or the world around you.
Ask yourself:
- What recent experience made me rethink something I believed or assumed?
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When did I realize I was wrong, unprepared, or challenged — and what did I do next?
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What have I learned outside the classroom that changed how I approach my academic or personal life?
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Was there a class project, community experience, job, or relationship that made me grow in an unexpected way?
- How do I know I’ve been transformed — what’s different about how I think or act now?
Once you identify a transformative learning experience, think about how you’ll show that growth through a story. Remember that transformation isn’t just about the result — it’s about the process of learning, including moments of confusion, discomfort, or realization. Those details make your story compelling and authentic.
What Makes a Good Response
You want to balance storytelling with reflection in this essay. Start by showing your reader what happened, not just telling them. Instead of summarizing the event, bring it to life through sensory details, dialogue, or a snapshot of the moment when your perspective began to shift. This approach draws readers in and makes your transformation feel authentic rather than abstract.
After establishing the moment or experience, move into reflection. Explain what changed for you, whether that’s in your thinking, values, or your approach to learning. Be specific about how this growth happened. Did someone challenge your assumptions? Did you have to confront failure or discomfort? What ideas or questions stuck with you afterward? The middle of your essay should trace that evolution of thought step by step, showing how you wrestled with new information or perspectives.
As you write, focus less on what you did and more on what you learned. The heart of this prompt is not achievement, but transformation, so your reflection should reveal an inner shift. Use introspective language to show self-awareness (“I realized…,” “I began to question…,” “I started to see…”), but tie each insight to concrete moments in your story so it doesn’t come across as cliché.
Finally, close your essay by connecting this learning experience to your future as a student. How has this change shaped the kind of learner you are now? What will you carry forward into college classrooms, research, or community engagement? A strong conclusion doesn’t just summarize your lesson—it looks ahead, showing how this moment continues to influence the way you think, grow, and interact with the world around you.
Hypothetical Student Examples
- Sophie – Learning from Failure on the Debate Team: Sophie had always tied her confidence to success, so when her debate team lost at the state championship after months of preparation, she was devastated. But instead of blaming herself, she decided to analyze what went wrong. She realized she had focused more on “winning” than understanding her opponents’ perspectives. That realization led her to shift how she thought about argument: not as combat, but as communication. She learned to value listening as much as speaking. Her transformation wasn’t about becoming a better debater, but about becoming a more thoughtful, empathetic communicator.
- Leo – Rethinking Creativity Through Failure in Art Class: Leo’s “aha” moment came when a painting he’d worked on for weeks didn’t turn out as planned. His art teacher encouraged him to use the mistake as part of the final piece, and it ended up being stronger because of it. That experience changed how Leo approached not just art, but problem-solving. He learned that perfection isn’t the goal—experimentation and adaptation are. The transformation wasn’t just about creating art; it was about learning to let go of control and embrace creative resilience.
- Marcus – Discovering Empathy Through His Job at a Grocery Store: Marcus started working part-time at a grocery store to save for college, thinking it would just be a paycheck. Instead, he found himself learning about patience and perspective. Interacting with customers from all walks of life taught him how invisible challenges can shape people’s moods and actions. One conversation with a lonely regular customer especially struck him because he realized how small acts of kindness can have real impact. Marcus’s “transformative learning” wasn’t academic, but it taught him more about human connection than any textbook ever could.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One of the most common mistakes students make with this prompt is focusing too much on what happened and not enough on how they were transformed. Admissions officers aren’t looking for a play-by-play of an event—they want to understand what it meant to you. If most of your essay is spent summarizing the situation and very little is spent reflecting on how your thinking evolved, your response will feel flat. Make sure your reflection section carries as much weight as your storytelling.
Another pitfall is choosing a topic that’s too generic or overused. Essays about service trips abroad, winning a big game, or learning the value of hard work after failing a test often tread familiar ground. These experiences can still work if they’re truly personal, but you need to offer a new lens—something that reveals your inner dialogue or a surprising insight.
For instance, if you write about a volunteer experience, avoid framing it as “I learned how fortunate I am.” Instead, focus on a moment that genuinely challenged your assumptions, made you question a belief, or sparked curiosity about a systemic issue.
Finally, avoid ending your essay abruptly or with a neat moral. Transformation is rarely tidy, and admissions officers appreciate honesty about ongoing learning. Rather than wrapping up with “This experience made me who I am today,” point toward how it continues to shape your curiosity or perspective. Leave the reader with a sense that your learning journey is still unfolding and that college is the next step in that evolution.
Example Essay
“The day I dropped my first egg was supposed to be the easiest day of AP Physics. My partner and I had spent weeks calculating angles, drag, and terminal velocity to design the perfect contraption for the annual Egg Drop Challenge. Ours was a symphony of cardboard wings and bubble wrap, engineered with the precision of a NASA launch—or so we thought. When it hit the ground, the unmistakable crack echoed across the parking lot. My egg had failed.
At first, I laughed it off. Everyone did—until I saw the other eggs, perfectly intact, emerging from their parachutes like tiny survivors. My grade took a hit, but what stung more was the realization that I had followed every rule, every formula, every line of reasoning we’d been taught—and still failed. That afternoon, I stayed behind in the empty classroom, staring at the fragments of shell inside the broken capsule. What had I missed?
The answer didn’t come from a physics textbook but from a conversation with my teacher, who asked me to walk her through my process. Halfway through, she stopped me. “You designed for perfection,” she said. “But you didn’t design for failure.” That sentence hit harder than the egg drop. I’d been so focused on creating the right solution that I’d never considered what would happen if I was wrong. It was a strange kind of blindness—the kind that comes from believing success depends on flawless execution rather than resilience.
Over the next few weeks, I started experimenting differently. I built smaller prototypes and intentionally tested their limits. I dropped them from higher places, used weaker materials, and even sabotaged my own designs just to see how they broke. Instead of trying to avoid failure, I began learning from it. My lab notebook filled with messy sketches and scribbled notes, each documenting what went wrong and what that wrongness taught me. When it came time for the final project, my design wasn’t the most elegant or complex, but it worked.
This small shift in thinking—designing with failure in mind—transformed how I approached learning altogether. In my chemistry class, I stopped erasing mistakes from my lab reports and started analyzing them. In history, I began questioning sources that I’d once accepted at face value. Even outside of school, I noticed the change. When my younger sister struggled to build a birdhouse for her science fair, I didn’t swoop in to fix it. I asked her what she thought might be going wrong. Watching her eyes light up when she figured it out herself reminded me how powerful learning through imperfection could be.
Looking back, that broken egg taught me more than any successful experiment ever could. It taught me that learning isn’t about control; it’s about curiosity. It’s about having the humility to be wrong and the persistence to ask why. That transformation has shaped how I see myself not just as a student, but as a future scientist. I’m no longer chasing perfect answers; I’m chasing better questions.
At Belmont, I hope to continue testing boundaries in that same spirit. Whether it’s through research that fails before it succeeds or discussions that challenge what I think I know, I want to keep designing for failure—and for discovery. After all, progress, like physics, depends not on what stays intact, but on what breaks open and teaches us something new.”
Global Honors Prompt, Option C
Belmont’s Global Honors Program is a community of students who hunger for knowledge. What’s a topic you haven’t had an opportunity to learn about in high school that you are excited to learn about in college? Why do you yearn to know more about this particular topic? (500-750 words)
This prompt is all about your intellectual curiosity. Belmont wants to admit driven students who are interested in learning. If there’s any topic you are passionate about—it doesn’t even have to be related to your intended major—than this is a good option to demonstrate your intellectual curiosity to the admissions officers.
Brainstorming Your Topic
When it comes to figuring out your topic, think beyond your traditional high school classes and consider the niche topics that genuinely excite you. This could be something specific within one of your generic classes (a specific concept within chemistry or biology or a historical era you just briefly touched on in class), or it could be something beyond what you would learn in school. Don’t be worried that a topic isn’t “academic enough” at first—just consider what you’re curious to learn more about.
Ask yourself:
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What’s a topic I’ve always wanted to explore but haven’t had formal access to in high school?
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Why does this topic fascinate me? What question, moment, or experience first sparked that interest?
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How have I already tried to learn about it informally—through podcasts, books, YouTube, or conversations?
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What do I hope to understand more deeply in college, and how might this knowledge shape the way I think about the world or engage with others?
- How does this curiosity reflect who I am as a learner—and how does it align with Belmont’s Global Honors Program, which values inquiry, global awareness, and interdisciplinary thinking?
What Makes a Good Response
Your goal isn’t just to share a topic you find interesting with the admissions committee—it’s to show why it matters to you, how it connects to the way you think, and what you hope to discover next.
We recommend beginning your essay with an anecdote to show either where your interest began or an example of you engaging with this topic in the past. Maybe you stumbled across a documentary about coral bleaching and couldn’t stop researching how ecosystems recover, or maybe a debate about AI ethics in class made you realize you didn’t understand what it truly means for a machine to “learn.” Whatever the spark, describe it vividly. Help the reader feel that moment of intellectual excitement or confusion that sent you searching for answers.
Next, show how you’ve already tried to feed that curiosity, even without formal instruction. Maybe you’ve watched TED Talks, read research papers you barely understood at first, or tried to replicate a scientific experiment in your kitchen. This section is your chance to demonstrate that you don’t wait for assignments—you chase ideas on your own.
For example, a student fascinated by linguistics might describe how they compared slang evolution across social media platforms, while a student interested in mythology could share how they noticed recurring archetypes in modern films and started reading Jung to understand why.
Then, connect your curiosity to what you hope to learn at Belmont and in the Global Honors Program. This is where you shift from past exploration to future growth. You might explain how Belmont’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning will let you explore your topic from multiple angles, like combining environmental science and economics to understand sustainability, or merging psychology and art to study creativity. Be specific about how the college environment will help you move from fascination to expertise.
Finally, bring your essay full circle by reflecting on why this topic matters beyond personal interest. What bigger questions does it raise about the world, humanity, or your place in it? For example, if you’re drawn to studying climate fiction, you might end by saying you want to understand how storytelling can shift public perception about environmental crises. This shows intellectual maturity—you’re not just curious; you’re seeking meaning and impact.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One of the biggest mistakes students make with this prompt is choosing a topic that feels too generic or insincere. Writing “I want to learn more about psychology because people are interesting” or “I want to study business to become successful” doesn’t reveal much about your intellectual depth. Admissions officers read hundreds of essays like that. Instead, focus on a topic that genuinely fascinates you.
Avoid cliche essay setups like describing a high school class that “made everything click” without explaining what ideas actually captivated you. Similarly, don’t just restate what Belmont offers; show what you’ll bring to that learning environment through your curiosity and motivation.
Another common pitfall is writing an essay that tells rather than shows. Simply saying you’re “curious” or “excited to learn” doesn’t prove it—you need to demonstrate that curiosity in action. Include details about how you’ve already tried to explore your topic, even in small ways, such as researching independently, talking to mentors, or experimenting on your own.
Example Essay
“The corner lot had been empty for years, a patch of cracked concrete and weeds, and every day I walked past it on my way to school. I imagined a small public plaza there, with benches, shade trees, and murals reflecting the neighborhood’s history. That vision wasn’t just daydreaming—it was the start of a deeper fascination with how cities function and how urban design affects community life. In high school, my studies in architectural drafting and AP Human Geography gave me the technical tools to sketch my ideas, but I yearned to explore the intersection of design, social equity, and environmental sustainability. I wanted to learn how thoughtful urban planning can transform neglected spaces into inclusive, vibrant places where people connect.
To pursue this interest, I initiated a neighborhood mapping project, documenting vacant lots, traffic patterns, and pedestrian usage, and shared my findings with local community organizers. I also volunteered with a city youth program that taught children about public spaces and civic engagement, helping me see firsthand how environment shapes behavior and opportunity. These experiences made me realize that design is not just about structures—it’s about people, policy, and long-term impact.
At Belmont, I am excited to engage with courses like Urban Design Studio and Sustainable Community Planning, where I can combine technical design skills with policy and environmental studies. Participating in service-learning projects and collaborating with the Global Honors community will allow me to pilot small-scale interventions, gather feedback, and understand the practical challenges of urban renewal.
Ultimately, I hope to become an architect and urban planner who designs spaces that strengthen community bonds and promote accessibility. Belmont’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning, hands-on experiences, and civic engagement will equip me to turn my observations and ideas into real-world solutions, helping neighborhoods thrive and shaping cities that serve their residents equitably and sustainably.”
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