My family virtually started from the bottom. My parents and grandparents immigrated from China and built themselves up from the very bottom. They struggled in their villages growing up where they had virtually no income. My family immigrated to the United States searching for more opportunity but knew very little English. Maintaining their hard-working mentality, my parents both worked at Chinese restaurants when they were teenagers while balancing school work. As a result, my dad dropped out of high school and my mom never went to college because they had to provide for their families.
I learned many core values from my family’s past struggles. As one would say,” struggle builds character.” This quote represents how my family persevere throughout their lives and the lessons they taught me throughout my life. As a hard-working, dedicated student, I maintained being in the top 5% of my class all 4 years of my high school career. Taking the initiative in my life, like my parents did when they immigrated to America, I became the secretary of Interact Club, president of my robotics club, and Peer Group Connections mentor for freshmen needing guidance. Also, I have taken the initiative during my high school summer vacations by participating in summer programs like Delaware College Scholars, University of Maryland Terp Young Scholars, Delaware State University Science and Technology Academy for Residence Scholars. Out of school, I have been working at my parent’s restaurant on the weekends, volunteering as a chess coach at a local chess club, and playing tennis.
My ultimate goal is to be successful in college and be happy with the choice that I made. I have been accepted to four colleges and am still waiting for others. I want my parents to be proud of what I have done. I want to show my family that their sacrifices were worth it.