For U.C - Personal Statement Example

I. Transfer Applicant After moving from Indonesia I moved to Cupertino, California. I currently attend De Anza College where I study business and finance and hope to soon transfer to your institution and major in this field of study. There are a variety of elements that have contributed to my choice of this major. My perspective on education is slightly unconventional. I place primary emphasis on my scholastic pursuits, but I recognize the important of gaining a diverse understanding of world affairs and academic disciplines. I believe that an individual’s profession should carry with it more than merely a paycheck. I think it should also contain a sense of meaning and purpose. For me this is a complex notion, but I find my purpose in thought and innovation, and follow an internal motivation that has driven my intellectual and scholastic pursuits. I am drawn to individuals such as former Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs who studied calligraphy and later traveled to Asia to study in a Buddhist monastery. These experiences would later come to inform some of his greatest innovations. While I study finance and business, I have also cultivated a number of other academic interests. I am highly interested in the United States political situation and have followed both the Republican debates, and the current Obama administration avidly. I also have developed an interest in American literature. While I have long been a fan of Asian and Asian American writers, such as Haruki Murakami, I have lately cultivated an interest in some of the cornerstone elements of the American tradition. I’ve taken great inspiration from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s perspective on self-reliance, and greatly appreciate Mark Twain’s satire on social hypocrisy. Increasingly, I’ve found comparing these aspects of American culture to my background in Asia and attempting to gain a broader perspective on the implications these divergent perspectives say about humanity. Still, my primary interest is squarely rooted in investigations of finance and business. In the study of finance I found a world of excitement and intrigue. Stories of corporate fraud and failure, philosophical questions regarding the essence of motivation – I believe economics are one of the central thorough-puts for understanding human nature. I am currently interested in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, the nature of Keynesian economics, and the emerging Asian markets. I’ve given significant consideration as to the United States economic crisis and the proper economic response to this crisis. I’m highly interested in the theories of Joseph Schumpeter who encourages entrepreneurship and innovation as the keys to economic growth. Individuals such as Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page inspire me. While I am not an engineering study, I feel a sense of kinship with their independent spirit. I believe their drive towards innovation is one that can be applied to all aspects of American life to progress society and bring the United States out of this recessionary period. I long for the academic environment at the University of California where I can further cultivate these intellectual interests. II. All Applicants Throughout my life I have always been drawn to cultures and ideas. I grew up in an exciting and vibrant Indonesian neighborhood. After immigrating to the United States, I recognized that many of my peers had access to aspects of contemporary technology and life amenities that I did not have growing up, but during my formative years I never seemed to notice. There’s a popular slogan that I come across on occasion that notes, “It takes a community to raise a child”. When I consider my life in Indonesia I recognize that I gained many valuable experiences that have expanded my worldview and made me more prepared to face the modern world. My father is Indonesian and my mother is Taiwanese, providing me with a unique perspective on these Asian regions. The region I grew up in had individuals with great disparities in socio-economic status. I was lucky as my family was able to attain a solid middle-class income, while individuals only a few miles from me experienced significant poverty. Even with the great income disparities in the area, for much of my life it did not occur to me to divide people by their economic background. After moving to the United States I came to recognize that other regions of the world place a great degree more emphasis on class disparity. I’m not sure of the sociological implication of this distinction, but I am sure that the emphasis my community placed on human character over economic status has made me a stronger and more empathetic individual. After moving to the United States during high school I experienced a slight degree of culture shock. The differences between Asian and American culture are significant to the extent that listing them would take an exhaustive account. For a period I was shy and unassuming. I concentrated on my studies and on the weekends played soccer at the local park. Through these interactions I began to establish friendships that accelerated my acculturation. While I felt culturally apart, my experiences in Indonesia had taught me to look for the common human elements in people rather than their cultural differences. Through soccer I was able to forge bonds that would ultimately lead me towards becoming a fully integrated part of American society. Today I stand along a unique cultural line. I possess intimate experience with Asia and this region’s social and political history, have become an active participant in the American cultural landscape, yet I ultimately understand the deep importance of human character as transcending the confines of socioeconomics status. I believed this personal and intellectual quality makes me a unique individual. I recognize that it has oftentimes given me an edge in examining aspects of human motivation and perspective and has informed my decision-making in a variety of contexts. I also believe that this background makes me a valuable individual in an educational context, as I am able to offer a multicultural perspective as well as insight into the developing Asian world. Read More