MANDATORY: Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university.
Although it took me quite some time to realize, I have been preparing for my major and career all my life. When I started fifth grade, my teacher fostered my love for reading by challenging me to read books that were much more difficult for my grade level because they addressed heavy subjects. He recommended that I read Flowers for Algernon, and it became the very first book that made me feel shock, heartbreak, joy, and frustration all in a single read. Although I did not know what I wanted to be in the future, I knew that I would be able to read for the rest of my life …show more content…
They grew up experiencing political and financial instability, and all they wanted was for their own children to feel secure. They preached what they believed was a foolproof formula for success in stable America: work hard in school, find a well-paying job, and comfortably raise a family. Like many parents in my community, my parents firmly believed that any sort of deviation from the step-by-step process would lead to failure, and so I believed the same. Although having a plan is important, I feared doing anything outside of it, thinking that doing so would stray me off course. Cultural expectations evidently became a barrier of fear between me and fleeting opportunities. In high school, I already began failing the first step of the success formula. I was doing quite well my first few years, but was deeply unhappy— and that unhappiness became destructive in my junior year. I came across the California High School Proficiency Exam online out of desperation. Passing the CHSPE was an opportunity for me to withdraw from my unhappy high school life and move onto college to pursue what I wanted to learn. However, I hesitated. How could I tell my parents that I wanted to leave because I wasn’t doing well in school? What if I don’t even pass the test? I decided to forgo telling my parents altogether, and dove right into the test. I have wonderful friends who were willing to drive me to the test location, and …show more content…
I am an English major, but most people expect Asian-Americans to pursue a career in a STEM field. Despite being quite a laughable stereotype, such an expectation exists for valid reasons. My own parents expected me to be a doctor, engineer, or some kind of scientist because I excelled in math and science in elementary and middle school. If I wanted to pursue a career outside of STEM, I was to be a lawyer. Because I grew up in a community where the majority of the population is Asian-American, the same cultural expectations were held for my peers as well; pursuing and excelling in STEM was as normal as breathing. I guess you can say that I was tired of
Although it took me quite some time to realize, I have been preparing for my major and career all my life. When I started fifth grade, my teacher fostered my love for reading by challenging me to read books that were much more difficult for my grade level because they addressed heavy subjects. He recommended that I read Flowers for Algernon, and it became the very first book that made me feel shock, heartbreak, joy, and frustration all in a single read. Although I did not know what I wanted to be in the future, I knew that I would be able to read for the rest of my life …show more content…
They grew up experiencing political and financial instability, and all they wanted was for their own children to feel secure. They preached what they believed was a foolproof formula for success in stable America: work hard in school, find a well-paying job, and comfortably raise a family. Like many parents in my community, my parents firmly believed that any sort of deviation from the step-by-step process would lead to failure, and so I believed the same. Although having a plan is important, I feared doing anything outside of it, thinking that doing so would stray me off course. Cultural expectations evidently became a barrier of fear between me and fleeting opportunities. In high school, I already began failing the first step of the success formula. I was doing quite well my first few years, but was deeply unhappy— and that unhappiness became destructive in my junior year. I came across the California High School Proficiency Exam online out of desperation. Passing the CHSPE was an opportunity for me to withdraw from my unhappy high school life and move onto college to pursue what I wanted to learn. However, I hesitated. How could I tell my parents that I wanted to leave because I wasn’t doing well in school? What if I don’t even pass the test? I decided to forgo telling my parents altogether, and dove right into the test. I have wonderful friends who were willing to drive me to the test location, and …show more content…
I am an English major, but most people expect Asian-Americans to pursue a career in a STEM field. Despite being quite a laughable stereotype, such an expectation exists for valid reasons. My own parents expected me to be a doctor, engineer, or some kind of scientist because I excelled in math and science in elementary and middle school. If I wanted to pursue a career outside of STEM, I was to be a lawyer. Because I grew up in a community where the majority of the population is Asian-American, the same cultural expectations were held for my peers as well; pursuing and excelling in STEM was as normal as breathing. I guess you can say that I was tired of