In 2013, a ten-year-old me walked out of Cheesecake factory with a smile on my face. It was the first day of my summer vacation and I already completed two items on my summer agenda —to go to Target and eat at a Cheesecake Factory with my family. Just as we turned the corner to the parking lot, two middle aged men approached us; they brought their hands up to their faces and stretched the corner of their eyes and yelled “chinkâ€, my mom grabbed my hand and quickly scurried me towards our car. Now safely back in our rental car tears began to roll down my face. However, they weren’t tears of sadness or fear, ten-year-old Jonathan was angry. I screamed at my mother asking her why she didn’t say something, but deep inside, I knew the answer. What could a mother and her ten-year-old son do to two grown men? I felt a boiling anger within me, but at the same time, I felt powerless.
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At times like these my parents always taught me to be quiet, to lower our heads and walk away. As a result, every time I was confronted with conflict, I turned around and looked for a way to escape instead of searching for resolutions. However, after going through years of education in boarding school, along with hours of public speaking and debate practice, I began to find my voice. I found the courage to voice my opinions when confronted with disagreement, I found the ability to stand up and voice my views in front of an audience and I found the will to battle against injustices. I am extremely privileged to have undergone years of private education to find my voice, but I know that there are others out there, who don’t have the same privilege as I do, yet who feel the same everyday as I did on that fateful summer night. This is why I became interested in political science; I want to be the voice for those who are unable to speak for themselves.
In the summer of 2018, I created a group chat with a few of my friends to talk about LGBTQ+ issues and the stigma surrounding their communities. What started as a group chat soon blossomed into an organization of high schoolers with similar backgrounds and a desire to speak up for the silenced. In 2019, we began working closely with the APLA, an organization dedicated to serving underserved communities fight against illnesses such as HIV, and we expressed interest in contributing to their events. Biweekly, I have organized meetings with my groupmates to share our ideas of speaking up for the stigmatized. In some weeks, we approached local parks and YMCA buildings to set up local marketing groups to raise awareness and funds for the APLA, in other weeks we designed informative posters to share out information about HIV and LBGTQ+ individuals. Every other week was filled with exciting events while we planned for our biggest event —the Los Angeles Aids March. During this summer, the event was brought to life, I, along with 20 of my peers marched in the streets of LA (following quarantine guidelines) to spread awareness and raise funds about the issue. And over the summer, we raised nearly 500 dollars disregarding the money contributed by our parents. Although this may not seem like a lot, I feel that this is a step closer to achieving equality and reducing the social stigma surrounding the underprivileged.Name of Activities Your Role Exact Duties and Activity Details
Los Angeles AIDS Walk Team Online Recruit
6 Hours per week
24Hours per month
Total Weeks: 8 weeks Team Leader
As the biggest AIDS activity in the U.S, this is my second time to build my own team for this activity.
I have recruited 10 team members from Walnut High School, Diamond Bar High School, Temple City High School, Arcadia High School and Whittier Christian High School. -Teambuilding for the LA AIDS Walk
-Arranging online training session for my team members about the HIV and AIDS
-Marketing Campaign Brainstorm and Marketing Planning
-Creating Event Flyer to local community to reduce stigma about the AIDS Patient and HIV-Positive, as well as reeducating local community about the difference between HIV and AIDS
Appreciation Event for Los Angeles LGBT Center
5 Hours per week
20 Hours per month
Total Weeks: 4 Team Leader
Working with 1 student from Temple City High School, and three student from Whittier Christian High School. Los Angeles LGBT Center provides medical and preventive care for LGBT community. As an appreciation for this underserved community, I worked with my team to ask the sanitizer and face mask donation from different churches in Walnut and Rowland Heights.
APLA Health & Wellness’s Federally Qualified Health Center program
5 Hours per week
10 Hours per month
Total Weeks: 3 Food Delivery Helper APLA is the largest healthcare organization for the AIDS communities. Each Wednesday, I went to their downtown office to volunteer as a food deliver helper from 9:30 A.M to 3:30 P.M.
issues on equality, change is slowly built up, grain by grain, brick by brick, and I want to use my voice to help others find theirs.
Major (If you have/had a minor, please specify also) Political Science
Major GPA or Overall GPA My accumulative GPA at the Webb school of California is 3.92 ( Non-Weighted) and 4.87( Weighted)
List the courses related to your intended study area
Please specify the course name and the corresponding grades
American Society, Past & Present : A
The American Idea: A
Advanced Gothic and Horror Literature: A
Advanced Human Migration: A
Advanced The Long Novel: A
AP French Language: A
Please briefly describe your personality and hobbies
I’m an extravert boy who is passionate for Political Science. I’m an active member with School Debate Team, Varsity Water Polo Team, and Varsity Golf Team.
Why do you choose this school and major? Please refer to one school only. The final version we provide will only cover one school, however, you can amend it for different applications.
Because I’m extremely interested into the political science, particularly about the human right for underserved communities, like the LGBT communities. I hope that I could become a human rights attorney later.
What do you regard as most unusual, distinctive, unique, or impressive about you?
I have a deep understanding about the social issues, as well as the deep knowledge about the history. Being a trilingual (French, English and Chinese) would enable me to embrace the different cultural and historical record, so that it will help me to explore the different social issues.
My motto? The idols I worship? (A brief introduction of the reason)
My motto is "The truest wisdom is a resolute determination."
The Idol who I worship, is Upton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair has written the famous novel, The Jungle, exposes the food safety issues, workplace exploitation and other social issues. I hope that I can dedicate myself to help those underserved communities.
How do/did I gain the professional interest for my intended study area?
Political Science
When I was a child, I have spent my spare time into reading various books about history, ranged from Asian Ancient History to European History. I reckon that History is not only a record for us to recall the past, but also a record for us to rethink about our mistakes, and how we can make our society a better place. When I start my high school, I extend my interest into current and past social events, and conduct my own research about the cause of those social events. I feel that the misunderstanding about those underserved LGBT or AIDS community is mainly about the stigma. Reducing the stigma about AIDS and LGBT community would help our society become a solidary community.
The following is about relevant professional experience and project work. What were your concrete tasks in those professional experiences and project works? How did you accomplish them? What was the most memorable story when you were facing those challenges?
Golf: We just play golf as a group. A lot of people consider golf as a sport for individuals, and after trying many sports as a kid, I realized that I was simply better at individual sports. I was a quiet kid who was scared of competitions. High school golf changed that. The first thing was tryouts, every year, we had to complete a tryout to join the golf team, and there was constant competition among us, which was something that I used to hate. However, it has grown to be a part of me, and I began to be more comfortable with competing with others. Another aspect that changed was teamwork. When I started golf, I never considered how important the team was, quite frankly, I chose golf because of the lack of need for a team and collaboration. But through playing on a team for 4 years, I learned that teamwork and sportsmanship is essential to all sports. As a varsity member, I would often help out the Junior varsity guys with their swing during the practice rounds. Sometimes even giving up an opportunity to play in order to support my teammates. I learned this from all the wonderful Varsity players from the years before. I learned that sometimes, to win, you need to help your teammates improve as well. Even if I spent hours perfecting my own swing, it may not have as much of an effect on our overall score than if I spent 30 minutes on 2 JV guys.
Orchestra ( Honor First Oboe) I have been in orchestra for all 4 years of high school and it has made a huge impact on me. Most people drop out of it after 1 or 2 years because it doesn’t offer an AP or 1 point GPA boost. But I found it has a time to work on myself and enjoy my time. The concept of an orchestra is simple, but if you think about it carefully, it really is quite stressful. The entire piece relies on not having a single mistake made by all 40 or so people in the orchestra. So essentially, the burden of a successful performance rests on me, and everyone else around me. Sometimes people get really frustrated when others mess up, and honestly, that was my reaction freshman year. I paid no attention to others and was just dying to get to my solo parts. However, I realized that sometimes, other people’s parts are just as, or more important than your own. We often forget that in our own lives, but I feel that orchestra always makes me think about not being self-centered, and inconsiderate.
Head of International Student Liaison
The International Student Liaison takes care of new international kids that arrive to Webb. It is special to our school because our school has such a diverse student body. Every year, new freshmen come in from different countries, and it is our job to make them feel at home. This is a very difficult process as some of the freshman are leaving home for the first time. Many, including me, experience homesickness as they are trying to balance school and friends along with the absence of family members. Since I have experienced the same things, I try to use my position to make the students feel better. Every year, we plan cultural events to make people feel more at home. This is a tricky thing because we need to make everyone feel included. This year, I stepped up in ISL and became the Head ISL. This means that not only do I have to organize activities, I also need to think of activities to plan, and map out events for the entire school year.
VP of the Stress Club:
Organize meetings to focus on Webb students’ mental health and mindfulness. Teach students meditation and other techniques to help students relieve stress and encourage students to slow down the pace of their lives. Sponsor yoga and movie nights with cookies and candies for students. As VP, I helped with organizing a lot of these events, and also helped with buying a lot of snacks. This is rewarding to me because I help people feel relaxed, while making myself feel relaxed as well. Our club meetings act as a sanctuary from the pressures of school.
Member of school debate team
In the debate team, I would travel to different schools and compete in tournaments in schools in our area. This is a fun experience and allows me to practice my skills as a debater. Before we go on these tournaments, we would have practices with the rest of the members of the debate team. We would work in groups and help out each other improve on our debate skills, think of arguments to make, and bond as a team. Debate is a very meaningful experience to me as it allows me to research into both sides of a controversial argument which often changes my opinions. In society, especially politics, people often have unbending views, and are unable to find common ground. To me, this is what is detrimental to our two party system. I believe that competing in debate, and arguing for topics that you might inherently believe is wrong, is very meaningful and can alleviate America’s current political problem.
President of Online Marketing Club
In the online marketing club, we would talk about items online that could be resold for higher value, or talk about selling some of the things that we already own. The whole idea is that we would create a platform where students can learn little tips and tricks of marketing, and by using a successful marketing measure, they can begin to earn a little bit of money. This was my hobby, and I made a lot of money off it, so I started this club in hopes of teaching other people this as well.
(Optional) You may be underestimated in academic aptitude and endeavor because of your low undergraduate GPA; can you give any reasonable explanations for that?
In 2018, Thanksgiving, My mother passed away during the thanksgiving. This was the most sadden event ever happened to me. My father was in grievance, all I could do as a son, is to input myself into study, so that I could make my mother’s wish come true that I will enter a top 30 university.
Please list the awards and the achievements you have during the college life, including the academic and non-academic ones.
At my high school I was the International liaison since 9th grade.
In 2020, I’m listed as the Brown University Book Award at Webb School.