Define what academic integrity means to you. How has it impacted you as a student?

During the late Nineteen Fifties, my grandmother sold unique colourful tapestry rich with socio-political and artistic meaning to financially assist her family. Her works became popular within her Illocano community, an indigenous neighbourhood in the Philippines, however it wasn’t until deceitful people imitated her designs to earn profits. Since then, for as long as I can remember, my grandmother stressed that authenticity and honesty are foundations of true artwork. This, in turn, influenced my approach to academic integrity.

Despite the hardship, my grandmother continues to weave and, as I gaze at the loom seeing the once white canvas now filled with patterns symbolising the values and history of her culture, emphasizes that creating true artwork gives her great pleasure and great pain. It is much like completing an essay I thought. Like weaving, writing an essay, layer after layer, never has the perfect process. Sometimes I tangle my ideas and others together. With the effortless accessibility of a plethora of information, it is so easy to plagiarise and inappropriately attribute the ideas and discoveries of others. There is great temptation to violate academic honesty and fabricate data. However once these thoughts of corruption and deceit are disregarded, the process of exhaustively refining and reworking pieces of art, either an essay or a tapestry, becomes so irresistibly beautiful. Once all of the clauses connect, the conclusions of others are credited, and the data is represented in its truest form, I am exhilarated with satisfaction like no other.

I employ academic integrity for its intellectual challenge and rewarding return. I employ academic integrity to show others how beautiful the process is; to lead society towards a new city, a new dawn where standards of our academic community are adhered to.