UC Personal Insight Questions

UC Personal Insight Questions

UC2. 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.

Tabula rasa. I stare at a blank slate. A blank wall in my bedroom, and I wonder, what can I do to this wall to make it unique. I have painted and changed my room through every stage of my life. Every time I change my room, I return to the tabula rasa. Staring at this wall makes me ponder the next steps of my future. How can I combine my best character traits -creativity and altruism- into a major and a future career? Creativity is the predecessor to my future career in medicine and my reason for success.

I am very creative in the way that I find new solutions. For example, I know that the prescribed path to medical school is any type of science, especially biology. For me, following this narrow path, could potentially make me narrow minded-something I can never be. This made me inquiry if there was an alternate path. Even though everything about me choosing an alternate major seemed wrong, a guest speaker at my school encouraged students to take alternate majors before medical school. I then explored the human connection to medicine and I found the perfect major for me, biological anthropology.

            The answer seemed so simple, everyone told me, “Go Bio!”. Not being on the path that everyone else is, is scary at times, but no one ever made an impact by doing the same thing as everyone else. Medicine needs people to think outside of the box, to find new solutions for the well-being of mankind. Medicine needs people who can connect the dots between the different “silos”. I understand that humanity is what connects these dots. My perspective incorporates a holistic view of medicine and this is potentially powerful.

So again, I stare at my blank wall as I step into this next chapter of my life. I now have a future that is wide open and it no longer scares me, it inspires me. Confidence has built up inside me from my principles of creativity applied to the complexity of human design. I know I can change the world, but I still cannot decide what color to paint my wall. (361 words)

UC5. 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?

            Bump. Set. Spike. These words would be heard thousands of times since I first stepped on a volleyball court in the sixth grade. From the first time I stepped on the court  I dreamed of being an outside hitter. I learned to “bump,” I avoided the “set”, and lived for the “spike”. Throughout my years of volleyball all of my coaches urged me to be a defensive specialist or a libero because of my height. I am currently five feet six inches and I did not reach this height until I was sixteen. If you are familiar with the sport of volleyball, you would agree being an outside hitter was not something that was acquired in my genetic makeup. Every single year of club tryouts, middle school tryouts, and high school tryouts, I tried out as an outside hitter. I listened to my coaches advice, but remained steadfast on my goal of becoming an outside hitter. I studied the position and understood what was mentally and physically required. I trained hard working on my strength, speed and jumping ability.  Despite my best efforts, season after season I found myself in the familiar position of playing right side hitter and or riding the bench. I wish I could say that this did not have an impact on me but it did. During my freshman and sophomore year, I barely got to play and I felt worthless to the team. As a result, I began to question my drive, did I love the idea of playing outside hitter more than I loved the game of volleyball? By my junior year I concluded it was my love of the game and the comodoratey of my teammates that was most important. Despite my reservations and fears I committed myself to learning the position of defensive specialist. For the first time I tried out for a different position and made the varsity team my junior year. As this was my first time ever playing this position my playing time was limited. I sat the bench the whole season except for maybe a few points. Self doubt creeped back in and I found myself again questioning my drive. This was further fueled by the fact that many of my closest friends decided to quit because of lack of playing time. I am not a quitter and my efforts were rewarded my senior year. As a defensive specialist my senior year, I played more than I ever had during my high school career. Unfortunately this story does not end with the short girl becoming an amazing outside hitter and being committed to a pac twelve school for volleyball. Although , I believe volleyball has taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life. My struggle in volleyball taught me to never give up. Volleyball gave me mental grit, it has taught me to never take no for an answer. Despite what all my coaches told me, I still tried to be an outside hitter, I did not give in and I stood my ground. This mentality has helped me maintain my good grades because I never settle for bad grades or test scores. This mentality will continue to help me through my academic career and life because many people are going to tell me that the Mexican girl can not get into medical school, let alone be a doctor. I am going to prove them wrong. (470 words)

I learned that sometimes no matter what you do or how you try your best may not be good enough. This was very difficult to accept but through this process I did learn to accept, accept myself both my strengths and weaknesses.

UC6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.

“If you use a tampon you will no longer be considered a virgin!” Growing up in a Mexican household this and many other wives tales are considered to be factual and are rarely questioned. However; being the inquisitive sort, I challenged these long standing beliefs in an attempt to separate fact from fiction. The quest to prove to my family that these ‘wives tales” are misguided lead me to the field of science. In particular, science is my truth. The scientific method is something I have had to live by. Growing up I had so many questions about the world I lived in, and science always helped me find some kind of answer.

I was raised in a Mexican household. There are countless wive’s tales that I have heard and quite often, these tales are absurd. My mother would never let me go to sleep with my hair  ill because I am “tall and skinny”. I always questioned if these stories were true because they seemed so odd. To find the answers to these questions, I looked up if any of these statements were actually true. I was then informed that none of these statements were true and I was actually a normal height and weight. The only type of truth I could find was through scientific inquiry and this helped me test my hypotheses to formulate my own conclusions.

Science does more than just disprove ideas, it helps me find truth in the choices I make. I questioned if majoring in biology was the only route to medical school. I created a hypothesis- if I major in something other than biology, then I will thrive in the medical field because I will have a unique and different perspective than others. A possible solution to my hypothesis is biological anthropology.This major will help me understand the humanity that exists in our similarities and will give me the ability to make connections between culture, diet, beliefs, and human beings. This knowledge broadens the scope of any graduate field.

My use of the scientific method developed from skepticism and this taught me the importance of questioning pre-existing ideas. Along the way, I realized that my whole life is enveloped in the scientific method. This has lead me to finding the truth about any questions I had and will help me find the truth to the questions I have not yet asked. (350 words)

UC8. 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?

California bleeds diversity. Our past, present, and future are dependent on a continuation of the same ideals. Diversity comes from the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. If a driving principle of the  University of California system is to achieve diversity among students, I believe I have the perfect candidate for you.

I sprouted up in a clash of cultures. My Jehovah Witness practicing grandmother that only speaks Spanish was devastated when my homosexual cousin came out to her. They are both entirely from different worlds. Their two worlds collide and the energy created from this conflict motivated me to find commonality. Even though they are polar opposites, I found the thread that pulls them together, instead of identifying their differences. They may be different, but at the end of the day, I accept and love both of them because they are my family and they are very human.

Diversity is a part of me. College experience will give me many opportunities to expand my mind, but I already have a head start. I am not simply tolerant, I accept people for who they are and I appreciate and acknowledge new and varied perspectives. For example, I do not entirely agree with the principles of the Jehovah Witness religion, but I think the believers’ opinions of this religion have value because without different perspectives there can be no progress or change in the world.

I was born with an enhanced world view. I have witnessed alcoholism, a plethora of religions, struggle with sexuality, different languages and accents, different skin colors and races, divorce, marriage, celebration, and death. I have seen life. I love it. I am glad I have seen it and I cannot wait to see more. Seeing all of these things has made me want to implement positive change in this world. In order to do this, there must be a common ground. What is it? Humanity. We all want the same things and those things come as a result of understanding and progress. I am the perfect candidate for the University of California because I do not have to adapt to diversity, I am a product of diversity. (370 words)