The UC Transfer Strategy: Mastering the 4 Personal Insight Questions

Prompt 1: Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university.

Psoriasis. That word was glued to my mind since I was 5. I have always been worried about my mother. She suffered an incurable skin condition which caused her to socially withdraw herself. As a child, I was confused and frustrated about why the medicine and therapies she endured caused no improvement on her skin. I researched about the sickness and its cure but discovered that it could not be wholly cured, only suppressed, which crushed me.

Although it was not a pleasant experience, researching diseases and medicine piqued my interest in biology. The habit of exploring nurtured my passion for biology and chemistry, allowing me to discover my interests. My passion aided me in selecting STEM electives in high school, which supported me to lay a solid foundation to build upon.

To prepare for my major, I fulfilled all the major requirements needed in the chemical biology pathway and achieved a perfect GPA as a reward for my tenacity. To familiarize myself with the real-life application of being a chemical biologist, I interned at a medical clinic and RA Kartini hospital at Jepara, Indonesia. Through my internship, not only was I able to observe the practical application of chemical biology in medicine, I was also able to observe and analyze the relatively poor conditions of the laboratory equipment and techniques in my home country. Test tubes used for blood tests were littered with stains from the blood previously tested and the blood analyzing equipment was not cleaned after used. Looking at the circumstances, I was further motivated to pursue my career in biochemistry since I realized that I enhance and improve the quality of Indonesia’s medical future.

Experiencing the STEM pathway in both high school and college cleared a path for me to walk on towards my goal, and my internship gave me a glimpse of the career I have chosen. I believe that these experiences would scaffold my path to success in college and ultimately bring a change to the world of medicine, especially developing a cure for my mom.

Prompt 2: Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.  

Ever since high school, whenever someone asked me to be creative, I would jokingly answer “my creativity died since I graduated from elementary, along with my sleep schedule”. Creative would be the last word I would describe myself with. However, my opinion changed when creativity acted as a catalyst to the abrupt and unexpected change of my relationship with my family.

Dealing with my brother, Varrell, 12 years younger than me, has always been a tedious task for my family. His hyperactivity has made him distant from other family members since he would rather run around than maintaining a conversation with others, impairing our overall communication with him. I began to search for something, anything, that would suppress his hyperactivity, but most of my efforts proved futile.

One day, I played Twilight by Kotaro Oshio on my guitar next to him to calm him. It was a tranquil piece which I often played in college to calm myself down and outlet my emotions. From the corner of my eye, I caught him staring at my guitar intensely without any regard to his surroundings. I continued playing the piece and sure enough, his gaze was still fixed to my guitar. At that specific moment, I felt genuinely connected to him.  Sharing this discovery caused a significant change in my family. Music now acts as a medium between Varrell and my family. To further strengthen my bond with Varrell, I started taking guitar lessons outside school and registered for examinations, all for the sake of my bond with Varrell. My father and Verrend, my 9 years old brother, began playing the piano for the same reason as mine.

Music has presented itself not only as a solution but also a reinforcement to my family’s bond. It exemplifies the prove of care between us by drawing out the extent of effort other members of my family would do for my brother. It made me realize that all the aspects of the world are malleable and when infused with creativity and could be used for the benefit of others.

Prompt 3:  Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

The world of biology is rigid and fixed. Growing up in an environment that does not encourage learning outside the materials, that dogma was absolute in my mind. However, I decided to challenge this by being a biology teacher’s assistant.

I realized that although I graduated with satisfactory marks in both biology and mathematics, I was merely scratching the surface of what was presented. I wanted to dig deeper. Looking at the materials from the eyes of a teacher differs significantly from the eyes of a student and being a teacher’s assistant provided the perfect opportunity. I tackled the material with a more open-minded mindset, allowing me to expand on the information given and research further on related topics.

Additionally, the class I taught was scheduled to conduct a research on marine ecosystem in Sepa Island, Indonesia. I took advantage of this opportunity by expanding on the results of the field observation and conducted an independent research on the extended impact of coral bleaching on the environment. This opportunity allowed me to approach the issue of the dwindling population of the coral reefs from both sides- the locals and a biologist. While the biologist might want to completely isolate the island and let the corals regenerate, the locals prefer inviting more tourists to come to their island to boost their economy, even if it meant ruining the ecosystem. This opened my eyes, allowing me to understand that there is different perspective to the destruction of coral issue and that solving requires much more effort than merely presenting facts and numbers.

My mind transformed, becoming more open-minded. I could dive deeper in the field to establish a solid foundation to prepare for college level biology and understand the issues about modern biology, such as the destruction of nature in Indonesia. The world of biology is a vast one and by being a teacher’s assistant, I was able to address an issue from different directions- a skill necessary to explore contemporary biology. Ultimately, being a teacher’s assistant was never only about improving others, but also about improving myself.

Prompt 4: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?  

“How would you pronounce this?” I asked Ridwan.

“M-I-C-E…MEE-CEH”, he replied

I smiled patiently and corrected him.

Ridwan was the first child who I guided to read and write. He was 7 and due to financial issues was unable to attend school, causing him to be illiterate. Most people in his community, including his parents, are uneducated which caused Ridwan to be unable to find anyone that could teach him how to read and write. I felt empathetic and resolved to educate him.

In a year and two months he was able to read a whole picture book. I was elated since the reason I volunteered as a church librarian is to expand the knowledge and education of the children in my community. Turning an illiterate child to a literate one was a huge accomplishment for me. This joy acted as a catalyst for me to approach even more children in the community to nurture their literary skills. I was aware that my time in Jakarta was limited but I was determined to help the less fortunate children in my community wherever I go.

As a result, in college, I was determined to continue my passion. I volunteered to manage the children library at Gereja Injili Indonesia, located in San Francisco. The library was lacking visitors, so I devised methods such as reaching out to the parents and creating a book club to bolster the children’s interests in books. Furthermore, I optimized the selection of books by applying a weekly book cycle to keep the children’s interest. None of my efforts were futile. I always felt a genuine feeling of joy and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment when I could develop the library to flourish. The children’s smile and enthusiasm were the ultimate reward I received.

Community service was never about the honor and respect. Contributing to a community signifies concern about the drawbacks of the community and the desire to eliminate them. I understood that the community can always be improved, and the euphoria of achieving an accomplishment motivates me even more to help others in my community.