My Experience At St. Peter's Vietnamese Church

I have several notable accomplishments, most of them are of academics. Some of the awards/accomplishments that I can recall ever since I was in middle school are: First position on spelling contest, department award for the most Helpful student, Student of the quarter, Presidential award for educational excellence (Gold Seal), 4.0 Honor roll, Indian Classical dance, Achieve3000 state winner, department award for “Excellence in English Language Acquisition,” and Academic Excellence Lettering Award. Among all these awards and recognition, I consider Achieve3000 to be the greatest because it was a state level competition and was moderately competitive to win. In the Achieve3000 program, basically, an individual has to compete with the students

School is an extremely important part of anyone’s life, and I have the opportunity to attend New Prague High School. Here I have been able to strive academically. Over the years I have tried my best to get good grades, on both my tests and report cards. I have taken my education very seriously. I do this by getting all my work done on time and having good grades and maintaining my GPA. Over the years of attending high school and trying to improve my education, I have received a few academic awards. One award that I have received was student of the month for math.

After receiving the award, I continue to visit the residents at St. Barnabas and share my gifts of music, by playing the piano, flute, and leading group sing-a-longs. I throw myself into my activities and do so with a happy, humble heart. An important quality I possess includes my integrity and respect. I always uphold strong moral integrity and respect those around me. I understand that you must treat others as you would want to be treated, and to be respected, you must do the right thing even when no one is watching. I am a strong leader as I am a person who takes action and gets involved, in order to help others and the team. When I see an opportunity to be supportive and to lend a helping hand, I jump in. I am not a person who sits in the background and waits for someone else to do something. I am a go-getter, who thrives on helping those around me. I am very organized with all of my activities, both academically and socially. I input over 200%. I understand that without a strong work ethic and passion, only the minimal will be accomplished. As Class Secretary for the past four years and as upcoming National Honor Society Peer-Tutoring Coordinator, I remain organized in sending emails, marking attendance, collaborating new ideas and fundraising opportunities, and encouraging others. I am an effective communicator as I understand that each voice matters. I do not speak just to hear my own voice, and I value the thoughts of others. I speak up when I have

Along with being a diligent student who has been enrolled in 11 Advanced Placement classes, I have also dedicated my time to other causes. For example, I have volunteered at public libraries, Special Olympics events, orphanages for intellectually disabled children, and food pantries. While maintaining a rigorous course load and volunteering, I also work at Kumon. I tutor children to boost their confidences and understanding of concepts vital to their future success. Moreover, I have received membership to The National Honor Society and have been awarded an AP Scholar with Merit Award. My dedication to becoming more culturally aware and five years of enrollment in Spanish classes has allowed me to be inducted into Spanish Honor Society. Within

After playing for more than ten years, piano has only meant more to me as I constantly learn new dimensions to musicality. Changing my approach over the past couple of years from trying to perfect every aspect of my technique to focusing on my fluidity and rhythm has drastically improved my musicality. I find that while playing piano at the senior center, I can translate the emotions running through my head as a play a piece and connect with them on a deeper level. This developed connection has showed me the limitless ways to bring people together through music and it’s something that I want to continue to explore.

I have achieved academic excellence throughout Middle School and High School. In Middle School I was awarded School Board Scholar because I was in the top 5% of my class. In High School I have been awarded with being on the Principal's List, maintaining a 4.0, in 9th and 10th grade as well as achieving Academic All Conference in the Mississippi 8 through basketball.

I have played piano for the past ten years and have gotten the top award at many piano competitions including Superior Plus (highest ranking) at the National Piano Playing Auditions Guild, Superior Plus (highest ranking) in the Achievement Awards Adjudication competition (AAA), and Superior (highest ranking) at the Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival. I am currently working toward my International Diploma in the Piano Playing Auditions Guild in May 2017.

One of these experiences is developing and implementing the music literacy curriculum for the Badger State Girl Choir with the help from Dr. Kenneth Liske and Mr. Eric Britz. This has truly been a recent eye-opening experience in regards to applying the content that is learned in our music education classes. I also have had the blessing to lead the a cappella group on campus since my freshmen year; this has not only allowed me to use my practical skills like piano, theory, and aural skills, but it has allowed me to create a community of singers that are involved on campus and around the community. Besides the direct education experiences, I have been an active role at my job on campus to create and implement training materials for the IT technicians for Residence Life, and learned practical skills such as purchase orders and understanding institutional policies for hiring. Because of these experiences, I believe that I am a viable candidate for the Stanley Linton Memorial

My experiences with the Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church children’s summer camp remain one of the most challenging ordeals I have ever encountered. Not only must I wake up daily at an outrageous hour to lift tables and set up the camp, I am obligated to entertain and care for young, hyperactive children for eight hours a day. Quick wits and swift feet are required to keep up with the children, and it is essential to solve problems as soon as they appear. Although I was warned beforehand that the camp would be a long and mentally draining experience, I am not the one to shield away from obstacles – I power on through them. Throughout the four weeks, from handling skinned knees to bawling kids to dealing with inactive participants, I displayed

Throughout my life I have been exposed to Christianity. My parents are Christians, and that is all I have known my whole life. When I enrolled in this class I knew that I would be challenged to go to another religion service and I looked forward to it. It was a different, but interesting experience for me. I chose to go to the Vietnamese Buddhist Association of Louisville, Ky Inc. I will talk about the assumptions I had regarding the tradition before I discuss my experience at the temple. I came in knowing more than I would have because we had already discussed the Buddhist religion in class. The perception I had going in was very different than what I experienced. I thought that it was going to

The Catholic Church has a role in my family situation for a number of reasons. Not only were we originally married Catholic Church, but the church was also used successfully as a prop by my ex-wife in the hearing. My ex-wife was not originally a Catholic, but converted to the faith during the divorce process. Her conversion ironically, also coincided with her affair with Lt. Col. Robert Hicks. In court the ex-wife openly professed her faith which was transparently insincere given the nature of her affairs, perjury, fraud and other behavior. My ex-wife also sought and was granted an annulment after 17 years of marriage and three children. She was clear in motives for requesting the annulment in that she wished to have another wedding in the

Some of my personal achievements are that I am currently VP of Production at the Junior Achievement Company in Kennebecasis Valley and I am currently an honor student, about to go into my last semester of high school. Contributions that I have made to my community would be that I volunteered at the Teddy Bear Fair at the Regional Hospital with Irving last year which was an incredible experience and I have volunteered at a Church Camp in Saint John twice during the summer. I am very involved at my school. I have been in the school musical twice, I have been in the KVHS Bluetones for four years, and I am also in a Leadership Team “Pod”. Before being in Junior Achievement I rarely voiced my opinions or suggestions out of fear but after being VP of Production, I can now

I decided to try a religious experience I had not been in since I was a child. I have been to a Catholic Church before, but mainly only for funerals. I cannot remember the last time I attended an actual service at a Catholic church. I do remember never being fond of sitting through the service, so I kind of wanted to go back and see what caused me to stray away from a religion that most of my family has. My parents never forced my siblings and I to be anything but baptized. All of my cousins attended church, bible study, they had confirmation, and my immediate family was just very different from the rest of the rest of my family. None of my siblings have stuck to the catholic religion either, which is odd considering we were all semi-raised in it.

In my second field experience, I’d decided to go to a Baptist church. However, I did not come from a religious background. Although I am not completely in the dark when it comes to religion I have learn about different religion through friends and books. Therefore, I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally experience a service and put my ignorance aside. Meaning the assumption and expectation I had of church service. Furthermore, it provided me the opportunity to challenge myself and my own biases I have towards going to church. Once I went to church I was surprise to see so many black people, for the first time since I moved too Greensburg, I was actual able to see a room overflowing with individual who looked just like me, my first emotion was excitement and enjoy. Some of my expectation, was something I have learned from my mother. My mother always told me that “black people churches last longer”, with this in mind I was prepare to be there for a long time. However, to my surprise it did not last as long as I’d expected it to. My overall experience, was warming, peaceful and positive.

Christianity today is one of the dominant religions in the world. Christianity has a variety of beliefs, exercises and forms, despite the many denominations all have one common belief, which is faith in Jesus Christ and that He is our Lord and Savior. I am a strong believer in God and Jesus Christ. I am of the Christian religion and the church I attend in The Bahamas is a non-denominational one. My choice for this class site visit was to attend St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church. Father Maximilian Kolbe is honored because his faith gave him the dignity to live and die knowing that, despite whatever horrendous condition he experienced; they believe God is always with them. Though large and