New York if I Could Admission Essay

Thomas Jefferson had a profound effect on the formation of the United States, and I think he would have a profound effect if he came back today and met with leaders across the nation.

I would share New York City with Jefferson, but I would share other parts of the state with him, as well. He was a politician, but he was also a farmer, and I would want him to see the farming techniques we have today, and how far agriculture has progressed. I would think that he would be extremely interested in what we are doing today, and he would probably be amazed at how agriculture has grown to be such a huge industry. I would show him science labs and other breakthroughs that he probably never could have imagined, and I would share our universities and schools with him, as well.

I would also ask Jefferson about slavery, and why the Constitution or Bill of Rights did not ban slavery. Of course, he could not know that eventually the issue of slavery would lead to a bloody Civil War that would divide the nation, but I would ask him why the founding fathers did not outlaw slavery, and if looking back, he thinks they should have. In addition, I would ask him the truth about Sally Hemings. Rumors have circled for years about Jefferson's relationship with Hemings, and if she was the mother of some of his children. He denied it, and there have been everything from DNA tests to claims from Hemings' decedents that speculate he had a relationship with Hemings and fathered her children. I would like to learn the truth and set the record straight, so that history knows the truth. I would take him to visit Geoffrey Canada at the Harlem Children's Zone, so he could see what black people have been able to accomplish, and see how he felt about that.

I think it would be an amazing experience to share New York with Thomas Jefferson. I think he would offer great wisdom and insight into problems we face today, and I think that he would be amazed at how far the country has come and what it has…