Personal Insight Question

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have

positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group
efforts over time.

One leadership experience that I did was feeding the homeless. Our church, Saving
Grace Baptist was involved in feeding the homeless in 2016 with a group called the
Renegade. Every Sunday at 10am we would gather at Applegate to feed the
homeless. My youth president at the time kept pushing for me to help lead the other
members to join and feed the homeless too. During that time I didn't have the courage
to do it, but as we kept going I got used to the people going and broke out of my shell.
So I started to invite other friends to come join us. We started with 5 members of our
youth group and soon double. We began to be happy for what we could do to help
someone in need that after feeding the homeless that Sunday morning. We would
pack up the leftovers and sometimes buy even more food to deliver to other homeless
that couldn't make it to Applegate. We would drive around town to find them and pass
around clothes and food to them. This experience really opened my eyes to how
many people need help and how happy it is to see them be happy when you help
them.

What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed
and demonstrated that talent over time?

I would say that my greatest talent or skill is my ability to support my peers. It made
not be the greatest talent but for me, I loved to help out those in need. I was never
great at anything. I don't have a good singing voice or great athletics skills and
thought that I was talentless. So everytime people would ask what my talent was, I
could never tell them anything because I don't know. However during last year, I came
to realized what my talent was. My youth president at that time was ending his term
and he told me something that helped me realized I had this talent. He told me that I
feel that I never had a talent, but how I already have a talent that no one else usually
had. A talent to support others. He told me how I came early to every event to help set
up. That at the end of the event when everyone wants to go home I stayed back to
help clean up. How when he or someone needed help, I always offer my help. He told
me that was my talent and that many wouldn't even be able to do what I do. To put
friends and families first and help them. Ever since then, I started to notice more that
that is true. I never had the talent to be great at many things but when it comes to
offering help. I always did my best to help. In class, I help my classmate out on
homework or problems they needed help on. I helped my church feed the homeless
and it just feels great. To know that someone like me who thought I didn't have a
physical talent could have a talent or skill to support others instead. Like I said before,
it might not be the best or to some it might not even be considered one but to me, I do
think it is my talent.

Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have
furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.

An academic subject that inspires me is math. I love math. Math is simple and there is
always an answer, and there are always different ways to reach the answer too. Math
inspires me because there so much much you could do with it. When you think you
learned enough of math there always more to learn. Now it's become something I
liked to do and enjoy some complicated ones at times. So when others asked me to
help them with their math problems I always enjoyed helping them, but I did have a
problem though. My problem was never communicating right. I always had trouble to
explain the problem correctly to my classmates. So to furthered this interest, I tried to
better my vocabulary and grammar. To speak clearly and slow so I wouldn't say
things that others wouldn't understand and to be more confident when explaining
things. Til this day I still have difficulties but it's been better compared to when I was
younger. Right now I am mentoring and tutoring friends and peers to try to overcome
this problem and so far it's been good. I hope to get even better at it.

Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe
makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of
California?

I think that I am a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California

because I am a persisting hard worker, honest, and responsible. I know that I might
fail at times, but I'll work hard and continue to pursue my education. I'm different from
the other candidate because I strive to be the best I am. I always give 100% in
anything I do. And once I put my mind into something, I see it through to the end. I
have great attendance and make it a priority to always keep my education first.
Education is important to me. To me, it means that I could be something. I could be
able to better myself in the future and make my parents proud. I'm not doing just this
for myself but for my parents too. In our Hmong culture it's very family oriented, so I
want to be successful and able to make them proud.