Personal Statement for university application in English Class

· Background: I am 24 year old. I was a bad student in Hong Kong, by that means I had bad grades, bad conducts, and bad attitude toward studying. I have three sisters, they all graduated from different universities in Canada. My parents decided to send me abroad to Canada for education when I was 13 to be a grade 9 student in year 2006. My eldest sister was spending her last year in Toronto finishing her master degree, she was 2 hours away from the small town I lived in. Once I moved into Canada, I well adopted the new education system and I loved the environment and people there. I started to set goals and work hard to achieve them like my sisters did. Everything I did seemed to pull me closer to my family and fix the relationship between my parents. But good things didn’t last long, I was forced to drop out of high school when I was halfway through grade 12 in 2009, 6 months before graduation, due to the financial crisis happened in 2007-2008. The crisis got the best of my father, his company couldn’t hold on til I graduate. It directly affected my father’s company and investments he had held back then, and he was the only source maintaing the whole family. Since I had settled back in Hong Kong, I started to work for my own living, but with low education level, not much of a choice but to work as sales associate in a small company. I was once depressed and negative in my life. There was nothing worth to work hard for. It all came to a change when I worked in a bullion trading company. It has become a motivation for me to save up money and to pursuade my parents to pursue what I left off at in Canada. All these years had passed by, each one of my younger cousins gradually going abroad to study in California. I have been always contacting them and asking them the educational system and environments in CA. And I secretly started to plan for my educational journey.

Required question

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.


Things to consider: How did your interest in your major develop? Do you have any experience related to your major outside the classroom — such as volunteer work, internships and employment, or participation in student organizations and activities? If you haven’t had experience in the field, consider including experience in the classroom. This may include working with faculty or doing research projects.

If you’re applying to multiple campuses with a different major at each campus, think about approaching the topic from a broader perspective, or find a common thread among the majors you’ve chosen.

· Work experience: worked at a bullion trading company (Fuji Bullion Limited) for 8 months when I was 19 in 2012, I got promoted as a manager a couple months before I left. I joined the company because it didn’t require any certificate to work the tradings, and I wanted to learn and know more about investment and finance. Then I realized I had chance in a fashion retail shop that I had always wanted to work at back then when I had strong interest in fashion and the owner of the shop is a famous HK celebrity who is my idol. I spent 3 years working at a fashion retail shop as a sales associate, it is where I first learned about Business. There are many branches spread in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia. It doesn’t operate its business in big scale, so I could learn a lot of external and internal operations directly from the manager than a normal sales associate that works in a big scale retail company.

· I thought to major in criminology when I was high school in Canada. The reason was my sister majored in Phychology and I thought it was an interesting subject, but the thing is I never knew what it was all about. Until my job at bullion trading company, I know I want to be more knowledgeable in Economics in order to help my future clientale to invest for profit professionally.

Choose to answer any three of the following seven questions:

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.  

Things to consider: A leadership role can mean more than just a title. It can mean being a mentor to others, acting as the person in charge of a specific task, or taking lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about your accomplishments and what you learned from the experience.  What were your responsibilities? 

Did you lead a team? How did your experience change your perspective on leading others? Did you help to resolve an important dispute at your school, church in your community or an organization? And your leadership role doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to school activities.  For example, do you help out or take care of your family?

· With my own experience of what I have gone through in the past years, I have always wished to help out students like me who are desperated and feeling helpless and to bring out a positive message to everyone. So I volunteered at International Student Rights Center to help international students who have just moved to this foreign country by doing translation service from Chinese to English or English to Chinese, mentoring service for Chinese international students, participated in habitat activities for low income family.

· In the Spring semester, I was a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society member. I wasn’t any board member at that time but I attended most of the social events and I volunteered to help

2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.  

Things to consider:  What does creativity mean to you? Do you have a creative skill that is important to you? What have you been able to do with that skill? If you used creativity to solve a problem, what was your solution? What are the steps you took to solve the problem?

How does your creativity influence your decisions inside or outside the classroom? Does your creativity relate to your major or a future career?

· Links to my personality – I think love being spontaneous is an advantage, it can create a lot of sparks when either doing individual or group works.

· Talking with different people or absorbing different knowledge from different sources. For instance, we had a lot of promotions when I was working at fashion retail shop, Juice Hong Kong, I analyzed the inventory sheets of different seasons, observe customers’ buying trends, gather information from customers from 3 branches, and visit different competitors in Hong Kong, then I reported and suggested what should and dicounted by how much to the manager, and she discussed with the management and accepted my suggestions most of the time.

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

Things to consider: If there’s a talent or skill that you’re proud of, this is the time to share it. You don’t necessarily have to be recognized or have received awards for your talent (although if you did and you want to talk about, feel free to do so). Why is this talent or skill meaningful to you?

Does the talent come naturally or have you worked hard to develop this skill or talent? Does your talent or skill allow you opportunities in or outside the classroom? If so, what are they and how do they fit into your schedule?

· I am good at Badminton singles, received a 2007-2008 Athletic Achievement Award issued on behalf of The Government of Canada. I won a second place when I represented my high school, St. Theresa Catholic Secondary School, to play badminton. My parents invested a lot of money in hiring a coach to teach me since I was 10, but I stopped playing when I had to work in HK. I used to teach youngsters as well.

· I had never thought I would have any interest in business field. After I worked at the fashion retail shop I mentioned above, I started to exploited social media to resell fashion goods and make money from it. The down side is time is much required for this work, and this is what I am doing in the U.S.

· I believed relationships with customers and other people you have encountered in life is very crucial. There is a time that a Chinese customer came to our fashion retail shop, and felt unsatisfied with the service that the sales provided, he was so angry and yelling in the shop. Other customers wree shocked at how he acted. I was the one who was responsible for the whole shop that day. I resolved the dispute by offering a free good and poster of the owner (who is a famous celebrity) that I know he would love, and talked him into a better mood. Now this young man also invested money into my reselling business.

4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

Things to consider: An educational opportunity can be anything that has added value to your educational experience and better prepared you for college. For example, participation in an honors or academic enrichment program, or enrollment in an academy that’s geared toward an occupation or a major, or taking advanced courses that interest you — just to name a few. 

If you choose to write about educational barriers you’ve faced, how did you overcome or strived to overcome them? What personal characteristics or skills did you call on to overcome this challenge? How did overcoming this barrier help shape who are you today?

· Besides the Athletic Achievement Award. I had received Honour Roll for 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 in my high school year.

· Work experience.

5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?

Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you’ve faced and what you’ve learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?

If you’re currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, “How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends, or with my family?”

· Saving up part of my tuition in these years I worked in Hong Kong

· Got to continue the subjects from where I left off 6 years ago. I had to start from much lower level math than other students do who are 6 years younger than me.

· I have to spend my leisure time working for money rather than joining clubs in school.

6. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?  

Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team or a place – like your high school, hometown, or home. You can define community as you see fit, just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community?

Why were you inspired to act?  What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community?

7. What is the one thing that you think sets you apart from other candidates applying to the University of California?

Things to consider: Don’t be afraid to brag a little. Even if you don’t think you’re unique, you are — remember, there’s only one of you in the world. From your point of view, what do you feel makes you belong on one of UC’s campuses? When looking at your life, what does a stranger need to understand in order to know you? 

What have you not shared with us that will highlight a skill, talent, challenge, or opportunity that you think will help us know you better? We’re not necessarily looking for what makes you unique compared to others, but what makes you, YOU.

· I have learned a lot in my life. When I was very little my biological parents didn’t have money to raise me and eventually they divorced and lived their own life, then I was adopted by my bio father’s elder sister, my aunt, and uncle. At the age of 8, I “officially” became their daughter by changing my name to another name with their last name, and that gave me 3 older sisters, the youngest of them is 8 years old than me. I was raised with love and joy, except the fact that when my sisters were still teenagers, they thought that I stole the love from their parents and I didn’t deserve to be part of this family. And this triggered them to study abroad. Then the relationship between me and my mom got worsen since I was in grade 7. We couldn’t talk to each other until I went to Canada. My relationships with my three sisters are fixed in Canada as well. I know how to treat and love my family. I never had a moment thought that they are my cousins or anut or uncle. My ideas for human values and love are absorbed when I was very little.