Student profile
Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
For the first time in my life, I was the teacher instead of the student. In the summer before my Freshman year, I was a Leader-in-Training at [name] Science Camp. My campers were building fan-powered cars, and I noticed a student becoming frustrated with attaching the fan to her car. I was nervous about explaining the steps in a way she could understand. Nevertheless, I demonstrated and explained how to snap each part of the fan together. To my relief, she not only understood my explanations but was even able to help other campers. [Name] Science was the first of many teaching experiences that have empowered me as a leader.
Two summers later, I served as a camp counselor at the [name] Junior Museum and Zoo, where I demonstrated specific evolutionary traits in each animal. I explained that falcons have bony protrusions in their nostrils that prevent air pressure buildup during high-speed dives. Watching my campers, I was gratified to see that they looked engaged and intrigued. Last summer, as a high school biotech camp TA, I had the privilege of teaching a subject that I plan to pursue further in the future. For the first time, I planned and delivered a lecture on heredity that I designed myself. Remembering the benefits of having a visual from my experience in Zoo Camp, I drew out a rough diagram of chromosomes. As I spoke, I was thrilled to see students' heads nodding in understanding.
Teaching requires knowledge, but it also requires a set of softer, less easily defined skills. How do I capture the attention of a camper uninterested in the material? How do I help a student without doing a task for them? How can I present complex concepts in digestible lessons? At each camp, I learned new ways to convey information and to answer these questions, and rediscovered joy in subjects I had previously studied. While I find it exciting to gain an understanding of a topic on my own, it is even more rewarding to lead someone else to that "aha" moment.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
When I started swimming, I did it because I liked swimming. I enjoyed the feeling of being in and around the water, especially shooting through the water after pushing off of a wall. At five years old, my priority was to have fun. That was about it.
Twelve years later, swimming has come to represent much more to me. When I tell someone "I swim 15 hours a week," they're amazed simply by the amount of time I commit to the sport. In truth, my commitment is much more than just 15 hours a week. From practice on Friday evenings preventing me from going out with friends, to my paltry amounts of free time forcing me to prioritize which activities are important to me, to swim meets taking up my entire weekend, I have had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to keep swimming competitively.
In December, when my team goes to [state] for a travel meet, we miss 2 days of school. Considering this meet happens less than 3 weeks before finals, we all bring homework there; however, in the excitement of aiming for personal bests and hanging out with each other, we put off most work until right before we come back. The frantic scramble to finish homework and cram for tests on the plane ride back has become something of a tradition on our team. To me, missing school days to join my team at the meet has become a welcome sacrifice.
From sports to school days, I have voluntarily given up a lot in favor of swimming. At times, I sorely missed participating in some activities, and still wish to this day that I could have had more time to participate in more sports and clubs. In retrospect, however, I have realized that swimming has taught me grit - I commit to my goals with the resolve to follow through.
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
I am by nature an analytical person. I prefer to make conscious, calculated decisions rather than live off the spur of the moment. To push myself out of my comfort zone and try something new, my freshman year I decided to take drama.
Class was held in our school's theater, and I found that being on a physical stage helped me loosen up and feel less self-conscious acting in front of others. My favorite part of the class was a weekly activity called Families, where groups of characters loosely related to each other would improvise a short TV-episode style scene given a prompt and a few short minutes of planning. As my character grew and developed new relationships, I learned how to better convey the spirit of how they would feel in the moment.
My experience in drama culminated in my participation in our school's production of Twelfth Night. I knew that taking AP Biology the following year would mean that I wouldn't get the chance again, so I auditioned, and was surprised to see that I had been casted as First Officer. During the weeks leading up to the performance, I experienced funny and emotional traditions unique to my high school drama program's culture, such as going to IHOP at midnight, Senior Speeches, and a couple others that are sworn to secrecy. The rehearsals flew by, and before I knew it, I was in costume, on stage, saying my five lines in front of an actual audience. Despite only having a minor role, performing was still an unforgettable experience.
Even though I no longer take drama, I still enjoy watching plays, musicals, and improv shows of all kinds, and have a newfound appreciation for the acting I see in movies and TV shows.
Prior to drama, I had lived in a bubble with my GATE, STEM-oriented friends. Being exposed to the world of theater really helped me recognize that the world is more than just people who share my worldview, which in turn sparked a curiosity to discover new subjects.
Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
If you had asked me what I expected to do during the summer before my senior year, I definitely wouldn't have answered with "counting fish on the bay," yet that was what I did. As part of the Marine Science Institute's Fish Data Internship, I voyaged on a research vessel in the San Francisco Bay, where I quickly discovered that counting and measuring fish is just as hard as it sounds. There I was, on a boat, scooping fish out of a bucket with my bare hands, laying them on a board with ruler markings (although I would occasionally drop one and have to scramble to pick it up), and dropping them into another bucket. I would then record the species, size, location, and number of fish, and enter their demographics into a database used to monitor fish populations.
Despite the initial novelty of working with fish, the repetitive responsibilities of being a Fish Data Intern -- interrupted only by the occasional ray or shark -- would bore most people. However, this was far from the case with me: I understood the greater impact of my role as a Fish Data Intern. The bay is more than fish, water, and algae; understanding the interactions between components in an ecosystem is the essence of the research MSI contributes to.
My decision to take part in the [name] Internship was the result of a longstanding interest in biology. In middle school, I built a microbial fuel cell and competed in the California State Science Fair. Later, I took AP Biology and Science Research, where I learned how biological processes worked at every level from molecular to ecological.
During an internship at the [name] Labs, I shadowed the lab procedures of leukemia researchers. Most recently, I taught biotech as a TA for a summer camp, and took a biotech class that helped develop the communication and technical skills needed in a lab.
I hope to continue studying biology throughout college and beyond, and the research-focused nature of the UC system would provide an excellent opportunity for me to pursue this interest.