Empowerly

Student profile

What have you done to make your school or your community a better place? 

It was the first day of an exclusive SAT preparatory program; as the teachers introduced themselves as Harvard alumni and former lecturers at Stanford, a peculiar feeling settled itself into the pit of my stomach. As the program progressed, the root of my unease revealed itself: the playing field was far from equal.

I recognized I couldn’t single-handedly reform the SAT, and resolved to circumvent the system by creating a student-run organization to provide free tutoring for my lower-income peers. I quickly recruited a partner, who addressed the legal aspects of establishing a nonprofit while I created curriculum. We assessed the options before us, focusing on networking, investing countless hours to actualize our goal.

Months passed; in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was January, the deadline we had set to have the organization off the ground. Another blink, and it was June, when we had hoped to recruit students and begin classes. And we’d gotten… nowhere.

I struggled to determine my next move and was forced to re-evaluate my motives; was my goal to level the playing field, or prove myself? Confronted with this harsh question, I reached out to an acquaintance who had created a similar initiative to address the needs of local students. 

Soon, I was a volunteer tutor, explaining strategies and developing curriculum to give the students a fighting chance. With every practice test, every problem set, their scores and understanding improved, reaffirming that it is not a matter of capability leading to lower scores in certain populations; it is a matter of opportunity. Given the sheer volume of colleges which have integrated the SAT or ACT into their application process, such tests are a gateway favoring the rich and further disadvantaging the poor in a world where living wages require degrees and degrees themselves require money to spare.

I learned to put my pride aside because this was not about me; it was about evening the educational playing field. I hope to use my UC education to continue empowering others to access the opportunities that should be a right, not a privilege.

Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. 

Andy Weir’s The Martian utterly captured my imagination my sophomore year. Mark Watney’s botanical escapades on the Red Planet made me wonder: could life conceivably exist on Mars? 

My curiosity got the better of me, and I frantically collected data on martian atmospheric composition, topography, and climate, increasingly delving into theoretical papers. As I read about the Late Heavy Bombardment, a period in which comets and asteroids collided into the surface of the Red Planet potentially leading to the loss of the hydrosphere, I was conducting a bombardment of my own, pelting my teachers with questions and initiating discussions which often raised more questions than they answered. 

Working a bit closer to home, I was fixated by and determined to learn the fundamentals of how life sustains itself. In trying to reconcile my interests in microbiology and medicine, I pursued an internship centered around cancer research. Our cohort had the privilege of learning the principles of cancer biology by leaders in research, including professionals from Genentech and Abbvie. We were tasked with conducting a literature review relating to a cancer-linked gene - compiling information from various databases and holistically assessing the role of the assigned gene in the formation or progression of a malignant tumor - and presented our findings. 

This experience reframed the way I viewed disease, emphasizing the role of malfunctioning protein pathways as the cause of symptoms, which profoundly impacted the way I viewed medicine. I’d perceived disease as without true beginning or end, but this lens allowed me to visualize treatment as a puzzle: move this protein here, that one there, and you have a properly functioning system.

These systems, both microscopic and global, must be taken into account when assessing actionable methods to improve human life. I'm interested in uniting these two passions in pursuing an Environmental Science major while remaining pre-med. The UC system has a reputation for helping students unite seemingly discordant disciplines into research or careers. 

Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.  

When I sculpt, my mind goes blank. It’s escapism at its finest; the thoughts, anxieties, and doubts dissipate and the human imperatives to touch, to feel, to create quickly take their place. Hours melt away and the only marker of time I recognize is the stinging in the pads of my thumb and forefinger as the abrasive materials take their toll.

My hands are my tools of choice. I need neither chisel nor scalpel for I work with neither marble nor clay but rather with bits and baubles overlooked or discarded by others, creating pieces often held together with wire and my own ingenuity. I see things not for what they are, but for what they could be, and in doing so am able to mold, if you will, new futures for the odds and ends which fall into my possession.

As an enthusiastic member of both the artistic and scientific communities, the perceived distinctions between art and science never cease to baffle me, nor does the implied subtext: art is academically inferior to science. It seems evident art and science are the same pursuit from different angles, and when studying the mechanics of art, this becomes only more apparent: cooking is little more than chemistry, and an artist hoping to create a human likeness must understand the interactions and limitations of bones and muscle tissue to convincingly portray a person.

Art is capable of presenting information in a way science cannot. While the precision of scientific jargon is crucial in communication between scientists, it often lacks emotional resonance and is unable to appeal to the sensory-oriented human mind. Scientific papers are regularly supplemented by graphics and pictures, but despite science’s heavy reliance upon art in clarifying points and mobilizing entire communities, art remains devalued in academia. 

I hope for reconciliation, for the realization that an artist and a scientist have more in common than they think. In the meantime, I’ll create a space in which both my passions can thrive and continue to explore the grey area in which art is science, and science is art.

What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?  

My eyes widened as I saw her expression - one I’d seen before, but never on her face. She turned her face to hide her tear-filled eyes, and a silence settled over the room.

I can only recall seeing my mother cry twice in my life. She was stoic, unshakeable, bulletproof, and it was to this image of strength that I aspired. Try as I might, though, I failed to follow her example. I didn’t have her decades of experience suppressing and numbing myself to my own inner turmoil. Nevertheless, I was able to muddle through my childhood using this admittedly unsustainable approach.

It was during the 2016 presidential election that everything changed. Even growing up Muslim in a post-9/11 world, I was hopelessly unprepared for the weaponized hatred levelled against me by both strangers and purported friends in the wake of Trump’s election. I was unprepared for the emboldening of bigots nationwide, for the realization that I and many others now had targets on our backs. I was unprepared for the complacency of my peers, for the apathy on their faces as I tried to express my fears. I was unprepared for the breakdowns, for the nightmares, for nights plagued with visions of flames and scarlet skies.

I took up writing as a last resort, harboring no high hopes but figuring it would keep me busy. The change was initially imperceptible, but every time I picked up my pen, it seemed to fit the contours of my hand better than before. When I touched the pen tip to paper, my hand seemed to move on its own, leaving my shoulders slightly less heavy, as though I was drawing strength from the page itself. 

My writing is my rebellion. I use my words to keep despair and burnout at bay, to cope and inspire others to action, to remind both myself and those around me why it is essential to continue to fighting, even as the air is sapped from our lungs. If no one stands, we all fall.