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.

After hearing at a summer activity in 9th grade that one of the counselors had learned
many languages on his own, that statement stayed inside my ear walls. It was interesting but Commented [TB1]: Kind of a weird phrase. What about
seemed beyond impossible. However, a year and a half later, after I started to watch Japanese just “stayed with me”?

shows that others were watching, I started to consider “self-studying” Japanese. After all, it Commented [TB2]: Any specific shows come to mind?
never felt right to do something for fun but not really understand any of it.
Of course, I started off quite mundanely. , although itIt was slightly easier to start
memorizing some of the characters because of my background in Chinese. To build off what I
knew, I often memorized more characters’ meanings by creating stories in my head with the
pictures of the characters, as Kanji characters encompassed almost all of the major vocabulary
of Japanese. However, after a couple months of studying, I decided I wanted to have some fun, Commented [TB3]: Interesting approach!
because that was how I had started off this process.
At first, I played old video games, where my background in the game would help bridge
mythe gap in my understanding of Japanese, such as Pokémon. Since there are many games
available in Japanese, I know that there will always be an option to do some Japanese learning
with games if I am bored. After not much progress in studying Japanese, I was surprisingly able
to understand much more than I thought I would. I also decided to chat on mobile apps with Commented [TB4]: The tenses get kind of confusing here.
other Japanese high school students. Comments such as “the word ‘just’ has so many confusing Is this present or past?

meanings” made me realize many things from a perspective I never would have noticed, as well
as being funny often. Commented [TB5]: You can probably take out this caveat
Eventually, after memorizing enough words, I went back to watching some shows, which
I am still doing to improveimproving my ability to understand without subtitles. It was quite fun
to alternate between many activities while learning a language just for the fun of it. Even
though this will likely be unrelated to what I study in the future, combining many methods of
learning was often quite fun for me in this task.

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?

In eleventh 11th grade, the second year of IB, my history class was behind the other classes because

our teacher was new and had not covered as much material. A month before the exam, one of our tests was
graded by the other teacher, and I realized that I was not prepared at all for the IB History test. I knew that if I

still wanted to get a high score, I would somehow have to condense a semester of IB Hhistory test

preparation into the next month, including knowledge and analysis skills.

I knew I had to be very selective in the material I decided to cover, just like a teacher, especially

because this was not the only test I was studying for. The other classes had done many assessments on the

material, so I knew I had to plan my studying within time constraints. Because each subtopic within the main

topics such as the Cold War and US History was important and I had some background information from

previous classes, I was able to figure out the main points that were pertinent. In addition, because many of

my friends in other classes had available resources for the major topics, I made significant use of those

readings and guides. While it was difficult to predict in advance how long each topic would take, I limited

myself to around fifty minutes per topic, as I knew that no individual topic was worth spending an overly

large percentage of my studying on.

I did not have much outside guidance in this task, but using all my available resources as well as my

experience paid off. In July, I realized that my dull but direct plan was quite successful, and I knew that

nothing beats a well-thought-out methodology. I was able to allow myself more than adequate time to study

for other tests that were often no less important, and I know that in the future, if a similar crisis occurs, I will

most likely be able to deal with the issue by budgeting my time in an equally or better proportioned way.

6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest

inside and/or outside of the classroom. (Stem Activities)

A subject that interests me is Computer Science. Part of the reason that it interests me
is because it is very similar to math, which I have done many activities in in the past. I have
takentook accelerated math courses at my school, finishing AP Calculus in tenth 10th grade, and
I am currently taking Further Math, where I still find myself using competition math skills to
solve problems more easily.
Outside of the classroom, I participated in math competitions, such as National Math
Counts in 8th grade and the AIME/USAJMO in 9th and 10th grade. I participated in speed math
competitions such as Math is Cool as well as preparing on many advanced topics for the MAA
math competitions. Participating in these competitions helped me realize my aptitude forin
solving math problems and picking up skills in that area.
Having been exposed to many problems similar to those in Computer Science, I also
went to a programming camp for three weeks the summer before eleventh11th grade and
realized that many areas ofin programming, such as standard languages and game
programming, were quite related, and thus connecting past knowledge to new ideas is very
useful. I also learned that many interesting areas can be self-studied due to the quantity of Commented [TB6]: This is kind of a long, clunky sentence.
resources available, especially online resources for programming. Try breaking it up a bit for clarity.

I am currently taking AP Computer Science at school to solidify my knowledge of

programming. I also enjoy studying computer algorithms in books, because it is difficult but
rewarding, and is also similar to math, which I have had much experience in in the past. My Commented [TB7]: I don’t think you need to reiterate
current Internship is also centered around bioinformatics, and I hope to learn about data this again.
analysis techniques such as analysis using the programming language R. Commented [TB8]: You basically say this again in the next
In the future, I hope to be able to contribute to advancements relating to Computer paragraph, so there’s no need to repeat
Science, such as Cybersecurity and Bioinformatics, which I am currently exploring in my senior
year internship where I study data on erythropoiesis, and more advanced Artificial Intelligence
and Virtual Reality—which will require a very strong background in Computer Science to
contribute to the field. Commented [TB9]: This is all one sentence again. Try to
break it up so that it’s more clear for your reader who won’t
necessarily have the math and computer science
background that you do.
7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

One way I have contributed is volunteering for Math and Science competitions during
high school. Having taken part in similar competitions such as MathCounts and Math is Cool
since fifth 5th grade, I started to volunteer in Math and Science competitions in high school
because it was familiar. Because I was easily able to find activities similar to what I did before
high school, it was not difficult to start volunteering in competitions held at high schools in my
area such as I2MC (Interlake Invitational Math Competition) and KPMT (Knights of Pi Math
Tournament), both annual competitions.
The main activities I did included proctoring the competitions, grading papers for speed
math competitions, and helping make some problems for competitions, such as for the
Interlake Invitational Math Competition, an annual math competition held at my high school in
March. Similarly, I helped proctor and keep score for practice science bowl competitions run by
the Science Club at Interlake High School and a local group called Science for Community that
holds practice Science Bowl competitions for middle school students. For these competitions, I
was with a partner in my room for the competition, and after seeing the competitive spirit of
some of the middle school students in the competition, I knew that contributing to ensure that
the event ran smoothly was important as many people were being positively affected by the
actions of the volunteers. Commented [TB10]: Another really long sentence that
I decided to volunteer for these types of competitions because I was interested in how would benefit from being broken up a bit
they were run and had friends volunteering. These experiences helped me realize the amount
of (often last-minute) planning that goes into many community organized events, as many
people are required to help in different areas such as printing, grading, and writing problems
for these competitions. Having been a participant in many of these events in middle school, I
also realized that these proctors were just students willing to volunteer—not much different
from the participants, and anyone can make a difference if they want to.