Undergraduate / Sociology - uc prompt ; never came to my mind when I was juggling through majors [4]

Sociology never came to my mind when I was juggling through majors. I stumbled upon the subject at first when I started taking general education classes at a junior college level. My interest grew when I took my first Sociology class. I remember my first day of that class because I can remember having the preconceived notion that it was going to be boring and a waste of time. When I walked in the classroom and saw my teacher, I assumed that the class would be nothing but boring lectures and essays to write. My opinion immediately changed as soon as he opened his mouth and started talking about his experiences in volunteering and sharing his knowledge. He made me think about how each and every act that we compose leads to a stepping-stone for someone else in the future. "We were making the future and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is! If we don't end war, war will end us." This quote from H.G. Wells, a sociologist, was my most inspirational quote from the class. Even though it might seem a bit cliché, at the time I read it the message of it just came jumping out at me. From that point on, my life at school had changed completely.

I had been apart of student body now for about a year and obtained a lot from the experience. A lot of it had to do with one of the committees I was representing. It was called Care Bank and it helped Fullerton College students. We would give out free bus passes and gift cards to grocery stores for underprivileged students. I would conduct the interviews with the students and so I was able to see a lot of different cases. Many of them were out of state students who had no money because they were living on their own, but one student in particular caught my eye. He was someone from a minority background and was born into drug and money laundering but was making a change in his life by educating himself. This made me think about how our society works as a whole and if we keep on making the same mistakes in life we don't hold anything in our future. If I can help a kid like this succeed in school then sociology is my path. I knew that I could do what Care Bank does but on a much larger scale. H.G. Wells' quote kept floating through my mind when I was interviewing the kid. If this kid can keep himself from harming others, than the world would have a lot less suffering. So then I thought of something I could do to help students in his situation. Along with my pre-requisites studies for pharmacy school, I would also like to do some research on underprivileged children. The saying " the children are our future" is what best fits my goal in my educational career. My family background comes from a country with a lot of uneducated people who make very little money due to the lack of education in their society. Helping the cause on a more global level would be my goal in my research.

Now after making this decision, it was a struggle for me to explain it to my family. All throughout my life my family and I had the dream of me wearing the white lab coat and helping a person with my cold stethoscope. At first, it seemed like a big jump from planning major in chemistry for pharmaceutical school to majoring in sociology. But when my parents saw how much I was enjoying my new major, however, they knew that it was the best decision for me and gave me their full support. Having my family back me up on this decision made a whole lot easier to motivate myself to work even harder.

I don't think that I would be in this situation if I hadn't done student body and of course taken my inspirational sociology class. Having three older brothers also helped steering me in the right direction. Being able to learn from their mistakes has helped a lot in making my lifelong decisions.

please read and edit

Undergraduate / my prompt for uc undergrad - "your most defining quality" [3]

Prompt #2 (all applicants)
Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are.

The most common and by far the most difficult question in my mind is "what is your most defining quality?" This question has troubled me for months. I pondered long and hard about what I would write about myself and came to a sad conclusion that I have nothing very special to offer, until a friend pointed something out about me. My cultural background is a huge part of who I am. Being a Pakistani American has given me an abundance of opportunities and also some misfortunate stereotypes. The attacks of 911 have left true scars on my family's name. We have had to tolerate a lot by having others single out our culture just because of religious extremist. My life really has been sheltered living in the United States, especially in Los Angeles, but being that I have Pakistani blood I've been exposed to a new kind of world. I find my culture to be very near and dear to my heart. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to Pakistan and experience a lifestyle different from my own. The whole trip was somewhat of a culture shock. Being from a suburban town, I was left jaw dropping when I saw all of the poverty and destitute. Many people were begging on the sides of the streets and stopping cars asking for scraps of change. It made me realize how drastically different our two societies are and how fortunate I am. It showed me that the opportunities that I have in my world are diverse from other cultures. So in essence, my defining quality is the fact that I am a Pakastani-American because having this cultural background has led me to become a compassionate, tolerant, grateful and strong person.