LETTER OF CONTINUED INTEREST

LETTER OF CONTINUED INTEREST

The Admission Committee,

Rice University,

6100 Main St.

Anderson Hall, MS-50

Houston, TX 77005-1827

USA

Dear Admission Committee,

I must admit that I was disappointed when I learned that I was deferred to Regular Decision, but being an owl, giving up isn’t an option. However, this shows the faith that the admission committee has in my application. I hereby write this to reaffirm my interest in Rice University.

I devoted my time to explore my love and passion for architecture and art, and surprisingly I learned that I still have an extensive research area to undertake at Rice. As a way of catching up with what’s happening at the Rice School of Architecture, I followed the school Instagram account, and I was impressed with most of the projects. I was particularly drawn to Professor Carlos Jimenez’s Class, where students were tasked with designing an immigration Center in Houston.

One peculiar thing that was visually appealing, and invoked even a greater motivation to join Rice School of Architecture was the Greek architecture .The Greek produced aesthetically pleasing temples at such ancient times. An example is the Parthenon temple at Athens which is the most magnificent temple of its time and it’s also optically refined .Unfortunately I could not understand what brought the optical refinement but I think it is the first item on my bucket list to research on once I set my foot on MD Anderson Hall. I also learnt the three beautiful and classical orders invented by the Greek. I was particularly attracted to the Doric order which is the simplest of the three and was used in construction of the Parthenon temple.

Since my decision, I have been involved in several activities that really mean a lot to me. Other than watching The Impala Saracens play every weekend in the Kenya Rugby League, I have also dedicated my time to mentoring high school students as a volunteer mentor through The Equity Group Foundation. Most of the students are scholars under The Wings to Fly scholarship program which is an initiative of the MasterCard Foundation and Equity Bank Group. I had a group of four mentees and I guided them on good academic performance, leadership transformation and drug abuse. I was able to establish a good relationship with the students that I learned two of them are leaders at their school and all of them are doing well academically.As an appreciation to my good work, Equity Group Foundation made me the Head Mentor of Nairobi Region.I believe I would have made great impact on the style of effective mentorship across the region before I join Rice.

To satisfy my architectural knowledge appetite ,I started reading and I was lucky enough to come across a book by Jane Jacobs, titled The Death and Life of Great American Cities . I learnt a lot about what make cities more desirable and this is of great importance to me as a architecture student .Jane Jacobs mentions about sidewalks and neighborhood parks just to mention a few.She mentions that sidewalks helps grow people contacts and constructive socializing, they should therefore be interesting and safe.The safety does not necessarily come from police but rather the trust formed over time for many little public sidewalk contacts.I would be happier to write a review of this book at Rice.

I look forward to joining the Owls Rugby team and representing Rice University in Texas and beyond.I would also like to further develop my leadership skills through the Centre for Civic Leadership that has programs such as Leadership Rice Mentorship experience.Furthermore,I would want to be a part of the Rice Student Volunteer Program impacting lives of the community at large.

GO OWLS !

Sincerely,

Hosea Oloyionte Matinkoe.