Undergraduate / 'Growing up Belmont, San Francisco' - undergraduate Essay [3]

Thank you, Sarah, for your help on those last three essays!

UC ESSAY #3

Growing up in Belmont, San Francisco with two younger brothers, my life was perfect. Although I failed to appreciate and value my life, I was innocent and unaware of all the pain and suffering in the world, more closely, at home. I went to a catholic private school, Immaculate Heart of Mary, joined Girl Scouts as a Daisy, and was involved in gymnastics and ballet. We had the warmth of family friends all around us in the perfect community; resembling the perfect life.

Oblivious to my family's financial problems, I refused to move to another city, especially one that was on the other side of home, Hong Kong. Within a year and a half, my family moved to Shanghai for the same reason. Over the course of those years, I have learned a lot mentally and socially.

The cities for one were similar in the way that it was urban and cosmopolitan. But the languages spoken were not the same and so were the lifestyles of locals. I have learned much from living in both cities, learning to communicate with people, navigating my path to the destination, assimilating myself culturally into the various societies present. The experience in itself was a lesson for me to connect myself with my own ethnic background.

In the three years in Asia, I attended four different international schools, which was personally very dissimilar from a small private school in the states. As I was socially more exposed to activities such as camp outs, sewing classes, clay-modeling, and such from getting an international schooling education, I was eager to make the same kind of friends that I made back at home. I felt that all the people I grew up with as children had disappeared from my life. I missed my friends and family. So I decided to continue with Girl Scouts and ballet classes like I had done in San Francisco. But whenever I began to "settle" with new groups of friends, it was always time to move again from city to city, school to school. Through many indescribable emotional pains of unsteadiness and uncertainty through these years, I have always unconsciously placed my social life as a first priority.

Most of my attention throughout my high school career was spent on extra-curricular activities than on academics. This was partly because of my need for sociality. However, my junior year was deeply impacted by the increasing number of on-going activities.

Taking AP English was a challenge for me. Not only is it my first honors English class ever, but it is also an advanced college course. I worked hard to improve my grade throughout both semesters.

I discovered an academic weakness during my junior year when I decided to take the science course, Physics CP. Although it is a regular course, my intelligence is incomparable to its standards of concept and work. After many attempts of trying in after school and out of school workshop and tutoring, Physics is just an impossible course for me.

Most of my time was invested into C-HIGH TV productions, resulting in my staying after school for hours ranging from 6 to 8:30 pm at night, and other activities I had outside of school. This accumulation of time, I regret, was not spent on the proper priority, thus, as an example of this lack of time, AP US History, carried a failing grade.

Undergraduate / 'Mass communication today' - University Ca Essays [6]

Unaware of the rigors of the program, I was pressured by my parents and peers to enter the Model United Nations (MUN) at school, which required that I participate in debates. After struggling through two weeks of class, I desperately wanted to drop it. All the students were confident and assertive, and unafraid to express themselves; I, on the other hand, was lonely, shy, and lacking in self-esteem. In time, however, I began to overcome my fear of other people's opinions of me, and eventually conquered my apprehension about public speaking. The conferences we attended over weekends and during school gave me an opportunity to meet new people and to see the various ways people express themselves in speech and thought. Vocalizing my assertions became second nature, as long as I had done my research well and was fully prepared. There was no need to fear anything--least of all myself.

-Maria Ho

Following my stint in MUN, I pursued more experience in debate by narrowing focus from the international arena to issues that struck closer to home. I founded the Junior Statesmen of America (JSA) chapter at my school. By doing so, I was able to continue pursuing my passion for the subjects I care about the most: leading and inspiring debate on important topics, and involvement in the political world. Most important of all, I was afforded the opportunity to help others get engaged with the issues that affect our nation. I still run this chapter today.

My interest in communications didn't stop there. I decided to join C-HIGH TV, a new broadcasting program that airs every day at my school. I became one of the main anchors. The preparation was always painstaking, but worth the effort. This experience led to my decision to pursue a career in mass communications in college.

Mass communications today are no longer limited to the verbal domain, as technology and visual expression have become inextricably tied to global communications. To gain experience in the more technical aspects of communication, I successfully applied to the school's yearbook team and trained myself in the use of design programs such as InDesign and Photoshop, later taking the skills with me to the Southeast Regional Occupation Program, in which I honed my skills in expert graphic design. These abilities give me a firm foundation in mass communications that I am eager to build upon in a university program.