Recommendation letter for Dan & James

For Dan

Dear Admission officer,

My name is W.H. I am currently working in XXXX. I used to work in a same group as Dan in the Department of XXX.

I first met Dan in June 2012. He was our new hire. Soon after we talked to each other, I immediately admired his braveness. He jumped from grade 10 position all the way to grade 18. I never knew anyone who even dreamed about such a great leaping, but he tried and achieved it.

When Dan joined us, our group was very short-staffed. We needed him to handle the work load as soon as possible. He didn't leave us disappointed. Whatever I taught him, I only needed to teach once. Dan's mind is very clear. He understood what he learned and could extend the knowledge to further related fields reasonably. He is friendly and funny. It was a fun experience for me to teach him.

Dan is very responsible. He remembered the work instructions, and followed them. If he doubted about anything, or found something inaccurate, he would point out to us and lead a detailed discussion until we came up an acceptable conclusion. Because of his accountability, he earned our trust within couple of months. He started handling all the late afternoon tasks independently.

By the time when Dan first came, he was still a student in college, learning programming skills. But he was good at practice and he learned the knowledge in real work. He soon started reading the build scripts and understanding the requirements, then he started to improve them. Also, by pure self-motivation, he developed a wiki site and re-organized the work procedures and tips we collected for years. Instead of being clustered in a Word document, now all the information can be easily searched and updated within the agency. The result was noticed by the segment leader and lead to an independent project to redo many documents.

About a year later after Dan joined the group, more new employees came. Dan also helped to train the new people. He was good at providing clear instructions. He is nice, patient, and always there to help. Everyone loves him.

With more and more people retired, the migration group handles more work load, not only the WebSphere migration, but also requests from the Mainframe development group. Everyone has needed to learn new processes and works harder. Under the great pressure, Dan thrived and became even more reliable and dependable.

Other than being hard working, Dan also enjoy life. He likes biking, hiking, snowboarding, or hanging with friends to do painting, bowling…... He also owns a dog, a house, and does a lot of house work as a handy man.

Knowing that he wanted to go back to school for graduate study, I didn't feel surprised. He is smart, energetic, enthusiastic. All these talents allow him to achieve whatever he loves to do. I truly hope the school will consider him and provide an opportunity to lead out more of his potentials.

Sincerely,

W.H.

 

The James I know

My daughter, E has been dancing since she was three years old. Whether it is jazz, tap, ballet, Chinese folk dance, or K-pop, she has never stopped dancing. Even during the COVID pandemic period, she still danced at home on her own.

E joined a dance club during her first year at the college. But somehow, she didn’t have much excitement about the club and their activities.  Not long after the second year, she told me excitedly that she found the Ballroom Dance Club. The president was very smart and enthusiastic. This was the first time I heard James' name. Since then, this name became part of our conversation.

"James is amazing. He works really hard and I really admire him. He is so passionate about ballroom dance. I am excited to learn it too. "

"James is amazing! Most of the people whom James talked to about ballroom dance would join the club. Even if they didn't, at least, they would come and observe once."

"James plans to write an app that can record and calculate the ballroom dance competition scores. I am also helping with it, and I have learned lots of programming skills by doing this."

"James is doing co-op this semester and earns money now. He is very generous and often uses his own money to buy some little things for the club."

"James is about to graduate. He wants me to be the club president, but I don't think I can do it. I'm not as smart as he is." ……

The time that I really got to know James was through a mock competition live-stream. While watching my daughter‘s dance, I also saw James. From on-site hosting to cheering for members, from dance critiques to award ceremonies, from giving competition tips to planning fun dance activities, James was everywhere. 

The whole video is more than four hours long. After the live-cast, I watched it again and again. I was amazed by the pleasant atmosphere in the dance room. Humorous jokes, sincere applause, everyone talked and laughed, devoted themselves to it completely. I could not imagine how the event would go if there wouldn’t be James.

I was so excited about their competition at Ohio. So when Evelyn told me that they canceled their trip and stuck in Buffalo due to the snow storm, I was shocked. I felt so sad that they put so much time and energy into it and now they couldn’t go. But on the other side, I also felt proud that this group of 20-year old young people could make such a responsible decision.

On Thanksgiving eve, James and two other friends drove back to New York from college to reunite with their families. They made a short stop at my house in the middle of their trip, which gave me an opportunity to meet this energetic young man. Although my English ability is limited, I can't understand all their fast speaking, I was still immediately attracted by his life experience and amazing personality.

James started to learn ballroom dance at high school. Music, posture, movement, to James, Ballroom dance was a great hobby and excellent healthy exercise for lifelong. This Ballroom Dance Club was created by James during his study in college. After graduating this summer, he found a job nearby and planned to assist the club's operation until the board was ready.

With a full-time job, a part-time teaching at college, club events, and one-to-one dance tutoring, James is super busy. He only has 4-6 sleeping hours a day, sometimes skips meals, and sacrifices his own health to make time for others.

When E told me on Dec 1st that the club was suspended by the school and no club member allowed to contact James, my heart skipped a beat. What’s going on here?

These students are adults.  While in Buffalo, they chose to stop, and all the members returned to school safely. What I saw here was mature, cautious, rational, and responsible behavior, and I am so proud of them. However, some other parents have not yet believed in their children’s ability to be independent, or maybe they were afraid to let their children be independent and take responsibility for their own decisions.

James, a lovely young man who is passionate about ballroom dancing, who wants to introduce a healthy activity to this screen generation, who wants his friends to have more fun, right now is blocked from his friends totally. He is forbidden to communicate with any of the club members. I cannot imagine how painful that James is feeling with the current situation.

I know that James is also applying for a ballroom dance course at college. I hope that this incident won’t affect the school decision of his application. He is such a nice and enthusiastic guy and very popular with students. I wish the best for his future.

The club can still run without James, but that won't be the same club. James can move on without the club, but that won't be the same James either.

I sincerely hope that the school would like to seriously investigate this matter, listen to all different voices, and release the suspension as soon as possible.

Thank you for your consideration.

12/04/2022