Undergraduate / UBC personal Essay - My reliability [4]

This is my first draft for the essay. Please let me know if I atempted the question correctly and if my answer is too general

Tell us about who you are.

How would your family, friends, and/or members of your community describe you? If possible, please include something about yourself that you are most proud of and why.

Most members of my community would describe me as a level headed and flexible individual. My friends have always expressed how I like to take on new challenges and opportunities, and how I like to try to help my community and school. When we do group projects, they usually look to me to take the lead, breakdown the work and express it in a straightforward manner. They know me to be a rational thinker who likes to understand a problem clearly, before attempting it. I am characterized by my ability to innovate, try alternative approaches or construct solutions that often have links between multiple disciplines.

Something I'm especially proud of is the student teacher's assistant program, which I created during my year 12. I had been reading extensively on learning disabilities that past summer, and when I learned that our school had such students integrated into the normal classrooms, I saw it as a chance to support our school's special education department. I acted as the director of this program and was able to efficiently coordinate between the volunteers and faculty. I even encouraged the volunteers to keep tabs on students who particularly had difficulty following the class's pace. I volunteered in a class of my own, division 3C, and lead by example. When my students finally moved to the next grade, I was filled with pride knowing full well that they all did well in their finals without assistance.

(240 words)

Undergraduate / Perseverance - UBC personal profile: What is important to you and why? [2]

determination to finish what i started

What is important to me is perseverance. Growing up, I had always been a shy individual. I was, for the most part, a sheltered child, spending the majority of my time reading books. So, when I visited a local Toastmasters club, it was far beyond my comfort zone. I distinctly remember sitting in the corner, nervously avoiding eye contact with the other children. At the end of the first meeting, I had only spoken twice. Despite this, I forced myself to continue attending the club meetings regularly. Eventually, the positive influence of my fellow members helped me gain the courage to give a full 7-minute speech.

Had I withdrawn from the club after the first meeting, I would not have grown as an individual, and I wouldn't have developed many other soft skills, such as conflict resolution and adaptability. I eventually became the Vice President Education of my club, where I applied my skills to conduct educational sessions for new members. Even then, I tried supplementing my existing knowledge, asking senior members to mentor my speeches and leadership projects. I remained diligent, continuously improving myself while consciously looking out for members who required assistance. My tenacity eventually led to my crowning achievements - the Outstanding Gavelier Award and the Outstanding Executive Committee Member Award in successive years. If not for my persevering attitude, I do not think I would have become the leader I am today.

Please let me know if I have answered accordingly to the prompt. Mention how I could improve the essay or if is missing any components

Undergraduate / Research - Most important activities - UBC essay [2]

Tell us more about one or two activities listed above that are most important to you.

Please explain the role you played and what you learned in the process. You will be asked for a reference who can speak to your response.

Since the summer of 2017, I have participated in a research internship every summer. For the past 2 summers, I was a research assistant to Dr. Peter Stanwell at the University of Newcastle. I worked on projects related to Brain Trauma and Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease. My primary role was to anonymize and run datasets of patients and controls. This required not only knowledge of basic neuroanatomy, but also made me learn specific neuroimaging software, such as Freesurfer and Conn toolbox.

Undoubtedly my involvement in these projects helped foster my interest in biomedical sciences, particularly in neuroscience. Working in these projects allowed me to look outside of a highschool textbook and see the big picture. In preparation for the projects, I read over a dozen publications and assimilated knowledge that would help me better understand the questions we were trying to answer. Furthermore, this prerequisite reading also forced me out of my comfort zone of just anatomy and made me grasp concepts from other disciplines like biomedical physics to understand the work assigned to me.

In addition to this, the experience improved my attention to detail. When running a dataset, I learned the function of each task in the software pipeline, so I could was aware of how the data was being manipulated at each stage. Despite this, I often came across many syntax errors. This required me to meticulously review my inputs, which inadvertently taught me patience.

And lastly, I learned to take advantage of the abundant knowledge and experience available with my peers and seniors. Almost daily I would review my progress with Dr. Stanwell, in order to improve my productivity. I learned how he presented findings in a coherent manner and how to cite relevant sources. Ultimately, the projects I worked on were unique opportunities that have overall changed my approach not only to science but also in my daily behavior.

Please let me know if I have answered accordingly to the prompt. Mention how I could improve the essay or if is missing any components