Student profile
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.
A strange structure sits on a desk, waiting for my team to begin the competition. It is made up of styrofoam cups connected with skewer sticks, and yellow, blue, and orange pipe cleaners bent and coiled into curious shapes. Paperclips, post its, and strips of tape are scattered randomly throughout. For Science Olympiad’s “Write It Do It” event, each team is given a pre-built model, which I describe through written instructions that my partner follows to recreate the structure as accurately as possible.
I warily approached this contraption. I had just 25 minutes to write concise and accurate directions. I began by figuring out the best progression to assemble the pieces. Then I found patterns and shapes that I could easily describe.. Item 19 of the 21 elements read, “orange and yellow pipe cleaners: wrap around each other to form a candy cane like pattern, then bend into upside down U shape approximately 1 finger section wide.” I hoped my methodical approach would help my partner visualize the device. Sometimes I described the objects more quantitatively: “Blue paperclip: points 2:15, U’s at northeast, outside end at northwest pointing southwest, bend side 2 upright 80 degrees, then down towards 11 o’clock approximately 30 degrees.”
At these competitions, my creative side is engaged. To me, creativity is coming up with new ways to approach a problem or adjust to a situation. I have learned how to adapt to different structures and partners, using various styles of writing. Some people I work with think visually, others think logically, so I have to fit my perspective with theirs.
I use creativity to adapt my communication about a difficult topic to people of all levels and mindsets. My experience with Write It Do It extends beyond describing wacky models to working productively with diverse groups of people. In the future, employing creativity and effective communication will serve my major in data science well, which is not only analytical, but also requires creativity to devise innovative ways of modeling and visualizing data and create efficient algorithms to solve business problems.
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
When I applied for [name] University’s Summer Academy program, The [name] Mathematician, I expected to learn statistics and fine tune my math skills. However, as I delved deeper into application of data science, ideas such as how bias and ethics can impact data collection and subsequent research captured my attention.
I learned that if the process of getting data is compromised, then research is unreliable and untrustworthy. Issues with bias and ethics, such as not representing a whole population, only selecting data that supports your claim or argument, or infringing on the privacy of individuals during this process, all have a negative result.
Before my [name] experience, I never would have paid much attention to ethics or bias in the data collection process, yet they are such important aspects to successful and trustworthy data analysis.
I have been able to apply these ideas to my current work as an intern for the UC Berkeley based startup, [name], which deletes, quarantines, or redacts personal data on documents, to help users comply with privacy laws, keep their personal information private, and prevent data from being taken without consent.
I help train their AI model by collecting documents containing different elements of personal information and labelling the different types to redact on each one. A fine line exists between cherry picking data and collecting good data, so while gathering documents, I make sure I obtain different kinds, with various formats and elements, that are from reliable sources.
Through these educational experiences, I learned that everything in the real world is much more interrelated and complex than just knowing facts. What at the time may not seem relevant or applicable, later could spark an idea. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to learning by applying multiple subjects, such as sociology and philosophy to data science and AI, will enhance my future studies.
At UC, I will take classes outside my major and join a variety of clubs to gain different perspectives and new ideas to enrich my approach to solving problems.
Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
My first semester English final was a Socratic seminar, a discussion to question the values of transcendentalism using Curtis White’s “Spirit of Disobedience.” I had many ideas about the values of self-improvement and individual thinking in my head, begging to be let out. With sweaty palms and a rapidly beating heart, I sat through this seminar without saying a word. Afterwards, I ruminated: “Will this ruin my grade? What is wrong with me? Why can’t I just talk?”
Later that afternoon, I received an email from my teacher. “Seminar: Can you come in for the last half of fourth period?” When we met, she reinforced that while I have good ideas that surface in my writing, I needed to have the confidence to share them with my classmates. I wanted to improve, and this was the push I needed. Her trust that I had something valuable to add to the discussion helped me believe in myself and find my voice.
I started speaking in small groups, and began participating in larger discussions. My confidence gradually built up and at the next Socratic seminar, I felt the familiar beats of panic in my chest, but instead of allowing that to hinder me from speaking, I turned my nervous energy into excitement to share my ideas. I enjoyed the conversation when I actively engaged with my peers to collectively come to a consensus, instead of being stuck in my own head. I noticed myself leaning in, nodding, and
making more eye contact instead of slouching in my chair looking at my notes.
Now, I actively try to practice public speaking. I speak at the Science Olympiad club and even performed a rap to illustrate the tenets of Puritanism for my English class.
I am still shy, but I know that my voice is important because I have valuable ideas and a unique perspective to contribute. At college, people of different backgrounds, cultures, and views come together, and I hope to add my ideas to this diverse community.
Community
What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Growing up in [city], I see the divide between different groups, highlighted by the racial diversity and wealth inequality.
My volunteer experience with Reading Partners was a particularly powerful experience that solidified this observation. Volunteering involves teaching at an underfunded school to help a student one-on-one that is behind their grade level in reading. I saw the improvement that Isaac, the third grade student I tutored last year, made in his English reading and comprehension, and that rewarding feeling that came with helping him stuck with me.
I wanted to make the same impact on more people and I noticed the same racial and economic divide at school, so I agreed to be a table teacher for an English class of English language Learners. The students in this class weren't in any of my classes, so I didn’t have a chance to spark discussions with them until I joined as a table teacher. At first, it was difficult to talk to them, because of the language barrier, but once I asked them questions, they were very open to sharing their experiences with me. For example, Moises, an El Salvadorian, worked a job to help support his family, and Davit, from the country Georgia, talked about the pain of leaving his family to come to California. Just as they talked to me about their hardships, I also shared mine. I told them what it is like for me to grow up in America as a second generation immigrant and
explained my struggles with my bicultural identity.
Through these experiences, I gained a broader knowledge of, and empathy for people I was unfamiliar with. Now, when I see these students around campus, I wave, and although there is still a divide, we’ve begun to build a bridge to join our groups together and close this gap.
In the future, I will continue to reach out and welcome diverse students, and extend help to those who need it. While others will stick to those familiar to them, I will embrace the opportunity to know the people most unlike me.