CSU EOP Questions

1. List any volunteer, extracurricular activities, or work experience in which you are or have
been involved in the past two years.
● Fulfillment Fund
● Mentor Club
● National Honors Society
● Yearbook Committee
● Best Buddies
● Red Cross
● Church Service
● Child Care Provider
● College Classes
● Heal the Bay Volunteer
● Community Service
● GEAR UP
2. Why would you like to attend college? Discuss your career and personal goals. Are there
any particular circumstances, school, experiences, or persons that influenced your
preparation or motivation to attend college?
● I would like to attend college because of my mother. My mother, a single
immigrant parent, did not attend college, mainly because her situation and
circumstances did not allow her to pursue a higher education in the United States.
One of the reasons why she has motivated me is that she has dealt with
discrimation from her bosses. Being the first in my family to not only graduate
high school, but also potentially attend college, I would like to pursue biology,
work in the medical field, and have a career that can help sustain her and my
family in order to avoid such difficult encounters and future humiliations; in order
for me to do so, I need to attend college to pursue a higher education and get her
out of such circumstances. Additionally, being a first-generation college student
also motivates me to attend college so that I can prove to myself and others that I
am capable of attending college. I’ve been working hard enough to obtain the
requirements to attend 4-year colleges and I do not want to waste such
opportunities by deciding not to go.
3. Briefly discuss your academic background. Did you utilize any additional support at your high
school, such as tutoring? Do your grades in high school and/or college reflect your academic
ability or potential?
● I came to the United States five years ago as a thirteen year old teenager. It has
been a rough path, but I managed to officially meet the requirements to stop
 receiving education as an ELD student in my sophomore year of high school. As
an English language learner, I initially struggled with my classes such as english
and math. I asked my former English Language Development teacher, Ms. Luna,
for strategies I could use in order to improve my skills in those two courses. Some
of the strategies that I used to improve my English skills include speaking more
frequently with native speakers, asking questions any time I do not understand
something or clarifying vocabulary words that were new to me. In the math
courses I struggled with Algebra and Geometry, I used Khan Academy as a guide
and researched other outside information in order to understand the material and
become successful in the class. I was offered tutoring during class and afterschool
for both Algebra and Geometry through an afterschool program with GEAR UP;
I immediately took advantage of this because I wanted to improve my math
performance and also take advantage of the opportunities I was given at school. I
feel confident that my grades resemble my hard work as a student and I feel proud
to continue doing as best as I can.
4. Briefly describe your family’s economic background. Include information about your financial
challenges.
● One challenge my family and I had to struggle with was my mom losing her job
as a factory worker while I was a sophomore. My mother was unemployed for
about a year and her being undocumented made it difficult to quickly find a new
occupation. During this time, we depended on food stamps as well as other
government services such as Medi-Cal and EBT. Now, she is currently working
as a housekeeper for three different families. Her unemployment brought me extra
stress; I was constantly worried about how we were going to survive as a family,
as my mother is the sole provider for my family. Although my mother does not
make thousands of dollars, I am in a better position than I used to be. Currently,
there are three people living in my household (me, my mom, and grandmother).
As a single parent household, we still struggle to meet some basic needs such as
paying for rent, bills, and insurance, but we are learning new ways to better
manage our family finances to be more efficient in the ways we use our money.
5. Please tell us more about yourself. Is there any additional information you would like EOP to
consider in determining your admission to the program?
● I used to live a few blocks from my school, however, my family and I moved
outside of Koreatown because it was no longer affordable for us to live close to
school. My school is located thirteen miles away from my current home; it takes
me over an hour and fifteen minutes on public transportation to come to/from
school. Having such a long daily commute is difficult. I need to wake up early in
order to get on time to school and I often sleep late in order to keep up with all my
school homework. Living so far limited my ability to take advantage of after
school programs, as well as joining the boys volleyball team, which I was initially
planning to join my sophomore year. However, this distance has helped me
become more responsible; it has made me better at time management and has
made me evaluate the effort required for my own education. Although I could
have transferred to a closer school to me, I did not want to stop attending
Ambassador School of Global Leadership because of the opportunities I have
received so far, such as Fulfillment Fund and GEAR UP.