Imagination and Ambition

I've been filling out applications. That is, one application. My situation is unusual, and I've fought so hard to go to this college that if I can't manage it, there really is no reason to try elsewhere. So in filling out my application to St. John's (http://www.stjohnscollege.edu), I've also been reading most of the information on their website, including the Dean's opening lecture (http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/about/SF/opening_lecture_08.shtml). She speaks about personal transformation through imagination (specifically in the character Sancho Panza from Cervantes’ Don Quixote), and this strikes a particular chord in me.

The potential held out by our imaginations to transform us cannot be overestimated. For there is no liberation through authors, or the books they write, or the tutors who guide us in understanding them unless we ourselves bring the hunger to taste what is lofty and difficult, to digest what we encounter with full acknowledgment of what we lack and therefore stand to gain. This takes imagination.

She uses the words 'hunger', 'desire', and 'yearn', but never 'ambition', which I think is the root of her lecture. As Sancho Panza hungers for that which is lofty and difficult, my ambition is specifically pointed toward those places which I believe will make be a better, and hopefully, happier person.