I learned at an early age that education is not just about acquiring new knowledge. It is also the means to finding your way in the world, to learning how to challenge your limits, and to discovering how to make a difference through what you are able to accomplish.
I first studied English in my native Taiwan in an English conversation class in junior high school. In that school, we had many teachers from different countries, and I started to explore a foreign language by talking with foreigners in their own tongue. While I was learning the basics of a new language, I was also building my self-confidence. Starting to speak English, I realized that this could open up opportunities to study abroad and expand on those feelings of mastery in unknown environments among new faces.
During that year, I took advantage of a chance to spend two weeks in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. I was immersed in a multinational program, interacting with students from all over the world. When I returned to Taiwan, my class spent three months in a competition that required us to work on songs, scenes, and projects developing and demonstrating our ability to communicate in English. Our team won the competition. By senior high, English has become my favorite subject, and not simply because I did well in it.
I decided to pursue my undergraduate studies at Santa Monica College, and there I faced a new challenge. In my first semester, my coursework included a math class, a subject I usually do well in. Before the final exams, I was getting a B average in math, but then I became ill and fell behind. By the end of the semester, my math average had dropped to a C, an unacceptable level for me. I applied myself and now expect my final math grade to more accurately reflect both my abilities and my mastery of the subject.
In Taiwan, my father is a vice president and general manager in the Kaohsiung branch of the China Developm
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