My High School Experience

Ever since I have started studying in Canada, my dad, who is living alone in Korea, skyped us everyday. After few year, we got used to the daily life without dad while my dad was alone, without anyone to celebrate his birthday or spend weekends with him. My dad always missed the life of 4 of us together. Because studying in Canada required too much money, my dad has always worried about he and my mother’s old age. If I go to universities in foreign countries, my dad will have to keep spending more money. But most importantly, life before I came to Canada will be the last time that the four of us could live together. That is why I decided to go to Korean universities instead of heading to the States or staying in Canada. KAIST provides different

When my family first moved to this area and enrolled my brother at Corona, my parents knew next to nothing about the American school system. They trusted the guidance counselor, who was very friendly and spoke Spanish, to put my brother in the correct classes for his abilities. This did not happen. It seems the guidance counselor assumed by brother was not fluent in English (he was born in Mexico) and placed him in the lowest level classes available. For the record, my brother is very capable in the English language and was definitely competent enough to be taking honors-level classes; the fact that he was placed in what he lovingly referred to as “flunky classes” shows there was a pretty serious miscommunication that should have been fixed. Again, this did not happen. Despite my brother ragging on his teachers and his counselors to move him up, he simply was never able to advance any levels and spent his three years at Corona in Purgatory. While his ordeal was obviously painful for him, it taught him a lot about advocating for one’s self, which in turn helped me a lot when the time came for me to enroll at Corona. My parents, while still knowing very little, realize how important it is to back me up, and I know how important it is to address problems with my schedule or my schoolwork at the very beginning, and not later when the problem has compounded. The only person I can thank for helping me achieve success in this area of my life is my brother, and had he not gone before me, who knows how my school years would have shaped

I found myself with more free time that I knew what to do with. I negotiated with my dad and found an academic alternative to satisfy his concerns and fill my abundance of time. My new academic endeavor was found in competing to become part of the NASA HAS Aerospace Scholars program. Being successful in this new type of competitive event convinced my father that I had made the right decision and it is something I am quite proud

The traditional Chinese family has long been characterized as patriarchal, patrimonial, patrilineal and culture, women have consistently held a lower hierarchical status than men. I was actually grown up in this culture and gender inequality environment. In my family system, sons are permanent members. In contrast, daughters are only temporary members. Throughout my childhood in my family, I haven’t any rights. Until 2008, I married and immigrated to the United States. Unfortunately, I soon divorced my husband because he abused me. My life was turned upside down and I lost my direction. Learning how to survive in a foreign country is not easy, I believe education is the only way to change my life. I found a short termed program to study in

The alarm clock rang three consecutive times, as the young man remained in bed, paying no attention to the alarm, and continued to lie asleep. His first class already starting, he decides not to attend, but instead dozes off wasting the day. This was just another typical day for my father back then. As a teen my dad always skipped out on classes whenever he got the chance to. He was the type to always fool around, and never took school seriously. At the age of 12 he basically raised himself, ever since his parents gave him up for adoption. Always moving from family to family, and having to interchange schools several times, he grew tired and became irritable to the point where he no longer had interest for an education.

However, I just realized that I literally couldn’t do that when it came to a study abroad fair taking place in my high school. As a class monitor, I was put in a priority to be arranged to do an English placement test for high school students with no-cost. If my result was above the standard score, I would get a full scholarship to study in the US as an exchange student for one year. My aspiration had been again raising up until the day I received the result. I was the student who got the highest score among over 400 contestants, it was such a most surprising news ever to me. However, it was also the worst day ever in my entire life. I came home with a sense of excitement and smiles appearing on my face during the way home. That was not an ending of a day as happy as the Korean romantic dramas, I showed the result to my parents, immediately, my father said “No” as if he was the judge in American Got Talents saying to contestants who failed at their performance. Yes, “No” meant that I wouldn’t be allowed to get that scholarship and had to stay in Vietnam to continue my study, graduate and enter a well-known Vietnamese college. I feel like everything in the sky was falling down onto my head after hearing that word. All my effort one more time was thrown away. A bunch of negative thoughts had begun coming out into my mind. Without any responses, I went to my room in silence and torn down all my American stuff,

Recently, my father's vocational position was removed by his employer, and he was shifted to a less than equivalent title. With the drop in our family income, and having a sister who plans to attend college the year following me, I am obliged to attend an in-state school, disregarding my goals of attending a prestigious private

In addition to the aid that I constantly had to provide to my father and grandmother, my parents continued to pressure me to uphold good ethical conduct in accordance with the Chinese culture as well as maintain a good academic track record. In addition, I could tell at the time that the divorce was taking a toll on my mum as she was always stressed out whenever she came to visit. However, these experiences have taught me that, in order to succeed in life, I have to be independent. Moreover, I have to go against the stereotypic beliefs in order to better myself. In light of this, Rice University provides a pathway through which I can be able to achieve my desired goals, and I am sure that my background has taught me well enough to be able to avoid such challenges if they recur in

This proved to be a lot more difficult than I could imagine. For the longest time I struggled in English and Math. My father never had the opportunity to begin kindergarten

I remember the last night before I left my country, my dad was hospitalized with cholecystitis. I asked my mom to take me to the hospital, but she rejected. She told me tomorrow was really important to me and the opportunity to study abroad was hard-earned. She said achieving good grades will be a gift especially to my dad.

So, he took a loan in one of our national banks. He paid for Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Summer 2017 and Fall 2017. Unfortunately, my mother, the one who took care of my sisters, lost her job. So now my father is responsible for everything. Through this email, I am not trying to tell you that I am the most needed person in the entire school. No, but because I trusted my previous University and I really wanted to come to this well-ranking University I put my father in a really unpleasant situation. Therefore, I applied for different scholarships and I tried to get an on-campus job. I got the job, so they send me less money to live. But I did not get any

A year ago, I was living alone in Saudi Arabia and my family was living in the United States. I recognized that year would be very arduous because I thought my parents showed favoritism to me. They wanted to take all my sisters and my brother to study in United States, but they did not want me to come with them. I had faced a problem. If I studied in United States, I would be in ninth grade and that would make me late two years behind my current grade in Saudi Arabia. However, this was in my last year of high school in Saudi Arabia. As a result, my parents decided that I would complete my education at home. When my parents told me their decision, my morale bottomed out. Living without my family would be disturbing and tedious because my family makes me happy and gives me activity when we do our work at home. We all agree that family is one of the most important elements in our lives.

I was born in China even though I only lived there for a year it’s still a part of me that had impacted me a lot. I grew up in a family that takes education as a top priority. Ever since I was little my parents always gives me lesson about the importance of education and how it will benefit me in the future. Understanding, that it will help me in the future to obtain a good career. Even though, my parents were strict, it made me more determined to work harder to accomplish my goals. When I was young, I tend to get upset due to my parents using a strong tone explaining the importance of obtaining a good education. Looking back, I realized that it was for my own good. I remember

Before I truly began to walk with Jesus, I was under the impression that I always had been. I was baptized as a baby, attended the same church my entire childhood, and spouted off every Sunday school answer without missing a beat. I loved the Lord, and I understood that he was my Savior and Creator, but I did not fully understand to what capacity I had been saved and created. I was missing something, and at age thirteen I developed a serious case of perfectionism. I closely monitored what I ate, religiously worked out, and devotedly studied to obtain unbeatable grades. I practiced piano every day until my wrists hurt and would except no less than flawless performances. I was captain of the cheer squad, and often referred to as “little miss perfect.” At a young age, I had constructed an image of what I thought I should be. Behind the facade, I was extremely lonely and insecure, but assumed those feelings were just middle school angst that would subside when I entered high school.

When I was fourteen years old, I realized that I was very different from my twin sister Annsley. When Annsley and I were in the eighth grade there was a form that we received to encourage students to join the band. I had no desire to join the band, I wanted to play soccer while Annsley on the contrary, could not wait to sign up. She even had a countdown for the first football game because she could not wait to march with her now, new band friends.