My name's Faris Mourad and this definitely won't be your stereotypical essay answer. I've never shared details about my background in applications, however your question was asking for it, please don't feel alarmed. My family is one of the many Syrian families who moved to Lebanon for education and the westernized mindset. In 2005, the Lebanese Prime Minister was murdered and the Syrian community was to blame. I've been bullied in school for being of Syrian decent until the war of 2006 (between Lebanon and Israel, proving that Syria was not involved) where my family was forced to flee the country.
I went to a French Lycée in Tunisia and became fluent in French. Came spring of 2011, a civil war was declared on January 13th (my birthday), between the Tunisian totalitarian regime and the rest of the population. My family fled away on the 14th to Geneva. Switzerland was our only option since only three flights were allowed to leave the country that day; to Geneva, to Cairo (by the time their plane landed, it all started in Cairo), and the third was headed to Libya.
My parents figured out by then that boarding school was the best option for my brothers and I. Sami, my older brother, went to a Swiss boarding school and was lucky enough to have a large international student body that he could connect with. I went to the Hotchkiss School and as wonderful as it was, I have to admit that adapting to "Manhattan's prep school upper-east side community" was a bit of a challenge even though I ended up having the best years of my life. I am proud to say that I have managed to survive because education kept me going, I thank my parents for teaching me that