Describe how to have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to
overcome an educational barrier you have faced?
The public education system is extremely ableist, and cares not about your physical and
emotional wellbeing, but rather about if they are going to get paid if you show up to class. I have
experienced this first hand. My freshman year of high school I was forced to drop out of public
high school to be homeschooled because the system lacked empathy and understanding. I did
everything right, and everything the school asked of me but after every single step I was told I
didn’t have enough “proof” of my severe chronic conditions and was still told that I would be
arrested for truancy if I missed any more days at school, even though every single absence was
excused by a medical doctor. The school pushed me to the side and refused to meet with me
about my needs and a 504 plan until my attendance started to rapidly decrease due to my
severe health conditions. I was told that I needed to wait till the second semester to even
consider a 504 plan...I didn’t make it to the second semester I was forced to leave in November
of my freshman year. The school system harassed me, my parents, and my medical team. I was
threatened, cheated, and lied to. I was forced to spend the next year and a half in a homeschool
program where I was immediately given a 504 plan and all my needs were met. I got my health
in order, and was not able to come back to the public education system until the beginning of my
Junior year.I now am a student of the public education system again, and I still don’t have a 504
plan through them, I am forced to overcompensate, my needs are not met and I am left to fend
for myself. I have personally suffered at the hands of the education system in the name of them
making more money. I and many others like myself have experienced things like this and much
worse.
Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to
overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
I’m sure you want to hear or at least expect to hear about my dead mom, my severely
abusive childhood, or even my rare chronic condition that I will suffer with for the rest of my life,
but if I’m being completely honest with myself and with you the hardest thing I’ve experienced is
none of those things. The most painful thing I have experienced is the complete and utter loss of
hope. After you’ve spent your whole life suffering, your whole life begging a greater being to
lessen your pain, or to just give you a short break so you can breathe….but never getting it, you
start to lose hope. You see I spent my whole upbringing just thinking that if I could just get
through one more trial, one more day, one more year, I would be free. Free from pain. Free from
trials. Free from abuse, and the tortue of watching everyone you care about die or leave, but at
the end of every trial, every day, and every year, there was more pain to face and more suffering
to endure. After so much you lose hope that things will get better. I am no longer that little girl
counting down the day till she’ll be happy, she grew up and she lost the little sliver of hope she
lost the one thing she had. Once you’ve lost all your hope you realize it's easier to not feel
anything at all...it hurts much less that way. I stopped hoping, I stopped loving, I stopped caring.
I used to be in the gifted and talented program and still maintained a 4.0. I then became a C
student, I put in little effort and did the bare minimum, but I decided I deserve better, so I turned
it around and decided I wasn’t going to let my past define my future.
Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this
interest inside and/or outside the classroom?
I am extremely inspired by health, human sciences, and the female reproductive system,
as well as fetal, and child development. I plan to pursue the doctor career path and I aspire to
become an OB-GYN. I have spent many years educating myself in these fields and have
worked extremely hard so that I can take classes that I enjoy and that fall under these
categories my senior year. This year I am taking Intro to health careers, sports medicine, health
and family living, child development, and anatomy and physiology. I plan on going to The
University of Utah, because they have a really good medical program. I plan on volunteering in
a hospital and doing a ride along in an ambulance. I have spent much time furthering my
knowledge in health and human sciences. I hope to someday be able to make a difference in
the world by helping women and children around the world, get the medical help they need. I
hope to be able to spread knowledge and kindness to women and girls everywhere. I plan to
spend the next decade furthering my career and moving around the country so that I can gain
the best degrees, and the most knowledge on the subjects that I love most. I plan to start my
education in Merced, then I will transfer to Sacramento, then Seattle, then Mayland, the Utah. I
have studied for an extended period of time on where the best places to get the degrees I’m
striving for are. After I become an OB-GYN I would love to build a social media platform where I
can educate the world instead of just the people who have access to my medical care. I would
love to travel the country and maybe even the world to do seminars and talks about my medical
expertise.
Beyond what you have already shared in your application, what do you believe makes you
stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
I know I am a strong candidate for the University of California because I’m a strong
candidate for anything. I know it sounds cocky, but I think I’ve earned the right to be a little
cocky. I’ve never been handed anything in life. I have had to earn everything I have. I have
spent days pleading, crying, and wondering, what I did to deserve the life I was given, and it
took me way longer than it should have but I finally put it together. I don’t deserve it. I deserve
so much more, and yet I was handed nothing. I have fought most of my life just to survive, just
to stay afloat, and yet have been given nothing in return. Everything in my life that is good I
worked for, I fought for, I took, I earned on my own! You are wondering what makes me stand
out from other applicants? It’s simple. I don’t have a breaking point. I have hit rock bottom, and
then was handed a shovel and told to “dig deeper”. I have looked death in the face and laughed,
because death is nothing compared to what I have experienced. I have felt five lifetimes of pain
in seventeen years, and I’m still here, I think that, that speaks for itself. There is nothing I can’t
handle anymore, I am willing to work for what I want in life, and I want this...I need this. I am
willing to work harder than anyone for what is important to me, because I know more than
anyone that the strongest of people have to take what they want. I can be trusted. In this world I
have learned that the only way to move forward is to build strong relationships, with a
foundation on trust. If you choose to accept me, I will not let you down. I have not made it a
habit to let people down and I don't plan on starting now, or ever.