Astrid Delgado first wrote her college application essay about a death in her family. Then she reshaped it around a Spanish book she read as a way to connect to her Dominican heritage. But he reworked it to focus on an heirloom necklace that reminded him of his home on the Navajo Reservation. All three students said they decided to rethink their essays to emphasize one key element: their racial identities. And they did so after the Supreme Court last year struck down affirmative action in college admissions, leaving essays the only place for applicants to directly indicate their racial and ethnic backgrounds.

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Persons: Astrid Delgado, Deshayne Curley, Jyel Locations: Dominican