Where have I been? Where am I going?
"I came to college to find answers" |
In my college personal statements, I said my goal was “to learn how to think.” I wrote this maybe not so much because I fully appreciated what that meant, but more because I heard it at a Harvard admissions information presentation and thought that’s what admissions officers wanted to hear. But truthfully, I came to college to find answers. I wanted to know how to make an impact and basically, how to change the world. Keep reading and follow the links to see what I've been up to—or just use the navigation bar up left to browse through my coursework and writing!
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Right from the start of freshman year, I got involved in the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) and ASUW Student Senate. In addition to helping me find my community on campus, I saw these as platforms for me to do something good. In my academics, I cleared through prerequisites and got in the International Studies major in Spring Quarter. By my sophomore year, I was an officer for FASA and taking upper-level International Studies courses. My Google Calendar was packed, yet something was missing. I found my extracurriculars fulfilling, as tiring as they were. My coursework was fascinating and questions I never even thought of asking before. But that’s all I really had: questions. I didn’t feel like I was any closer to finding answers or learning how to make the big impact on the world I had dreamed of, and so my search for answers continued.
My search took me across the Pacific Ocean and all the way to Singapore, where I spent my junior year. There, I took classes more focused on Southeast Asia, which is my main region of interest. I got to experience Singapore, an exemplar of rapid development, firsthand. Surely, I would find answers here, right? I did learn a great deal about Singapore and Southeast Asia. I learned perspectives on governance and development that I still use today, but I still needed to learn where I fit in global development and what I can do. I came back to the UW senior year to figure that out.
"I learned how to better think" |
Fast forward to winter of senior year and I’m frustrated. I learned about problems in development work, the constraints of policy making, and just how complicated the world is. Four years and thousands of tuition dollars later, and I still don’t have the answers. But I realize that no one does. Watching the world respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic, I realize how uncertain everything is, but despite this uncertainty, we still need to try and find the solutions. Good solutions require deep thinking. My university experience was a quest for answers, but instead, I learned to see the many dimensions of a single issue and ask better questions. Essentially, I learned how to better think. Maybe those admissions officers were on to something after all.
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