What extra curriculars did you do in high school?:
I did a lot of extracurriculars while in high school and I tried to be as well rounded as possible.
Orchestra was my life. I’ve played the cello for about 12 years now, and I did orchestras both in my h.s. program and outside in more advanced orchestras. I did quartets, led cello sections, national festivals, hs orch trips, etc. Those days were fun.
I also did a bunch of art projects, both for my hs art classes and on the side for fun or for contests. Over the years, I did enough to compile a portfolio for college submissions, which I think helped in some part make me stand out among others.
Forensics. I sucked at it. I did it for three years. It ate up my Saturday mornings when all I wanted to do was sleep. And people at tournaments were big meanies. ‘Nuff said.
I was a member and VP for a time of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) for the youth chapter back home. Good times for Asian bonding. We did cultural events and performed at places, while also hanging out and generally being a bunch of whitewashed Asians.
I did tons more than just that, but that’s the main stuff that I could come up with off the top of my head. My academics weren’t necessarily the most mind-blowing, but they were up to MIT standards at least (probably one B my senior year). Of the people who apply to MIT, most have the academic credentials. But what makes you stand out is what your hobbies are, your background, what you have to offer in terms of your own unique personality and take on life.
What extra curriculars are you currently doing in college?
I am currently a brother of the Theta Chi fraternity at MIT. My Theta Chi is the Beta Chapter, and is currently the oldest active chapter which makes us kind of special haha.
I am also part of the Asian American Association at MIT, currently the co-VP. We aim to serve all Asian ethnicities at MIT and promote “ the Asian American experience by providing social, cultural, political, and educational events for the MIT community.”
In the fall of 2011, I will also be a Residential Associate Advisor in the brand new Maseeh Hall dorm (the RAs are graduate students called “GRTs”) helping out freshmen with academic planning as well as an emotional crutch. I moved out of my fraternity house, as much as I miss it, to be in a dormitory closer to studio for architecture.
I’m thinking about starting an Asian Student Association type thing at my high school since there’s a Black Student Union and I thought it would be pretty cool to have something for Asians, too…but then I realized, what would we do? What kind of things do college Asian groups do?
It’s great to see that someone’s proactive about promoting the Asian community in their school! So the Asian Am. Association at MIT here is an all-encompassing Asian group that seeks to promote Asian awareness and culture on campus.
Since we cater to all Asian groups we hold various sorts of events that can deal with one to several ethnic groups. Below is a list of events we’ve held in the past. We try to be open-minded as possible, and to not exclude any groups as well as single out only certain groups (e.g. Chinese since they would be the dominant Asian group at my school).
- Eating out: If you’re close (walking distance, subway, or bus) to any authentic Asian restaurants you can take them out on the weekends or after school! We usually go into Chinatown for a Sunday morning dim sum brunch and then go around buying Asian groceries.
- Noodle Night: Have an assortment of noodles from different ethnicities for people to taste! Usually get them from various restaurants at a discounted rate.
- Cooking Workshop: Bring out the pots and pans and show people how to cook a simple Asian fusion dish in 15 minutes, and then let them cook their own with given ingredients.
- Coffeehouse: Meant for the winter, hot chocolate cookies supplement a small Asian talent show in a room where people sing, read poetry, etc.
- Korean BBQ: Buy Korean meats. Grill. Serve. Repeat
- Nightmarket: This one is in collaboration with other Asian groups where it’s basically a big cultural food festival with different booths and whatnot.
- Grains of Rice: Look to my previous post. Basically a huge banquet where we bring in a headliner (probably not suitable for high school since you might not have the funding or the resources)
- Xifan Sundays: Not our event, but the Assoc. of Taiwanese Students holds morning brunch with xifan and yiutiao on Sundays.
Speaking of resources, some fundraising ideas would be to sell Asian pastries or bubble tea!
There’s also national high school youth Asian associations around that you could probably join that would be happy to help you get one started at your high school. This is really just quite a quick run down of things, so please ask more questions about logistics and even starting one up and what it takes to be successful.
One word of advice, try to make it appeal to many high school students, not just fobby Asians. Fobby Asians will undoubtedly lead to your events being populated by ten people tops (-_-)V
How do you like the Architecture program at MIT? Also wondering, what is your opinion on the Architecture studios/labs there?
It’s interesting. A lot different from what I thought it would first be like. These days it’s a lot more about computational architecture and how to think critically and logically about design. I think the professors have a lot of good things to say, although like most arch programs across the nation, you spend a lot of time in studio and don’t have much free time.
MIT is taking the architecture curriculum in a forward, modern approach, straying away from the traditional hand drawings and sketching. This was not the architecture program I had originally applied for, but I think the changes they have made in the program since I’ve been here have definitely been for the best.
I’m not really president or leader of anything…is that necessary to get into a good college?
Not a big deal. Being able to put that on your resume is just a textual listing to prove your ability to lead and be assertive. But if you can prove that in your essays and/or the other extracurriculars you do that you’re just as capable as anyone with some a title of some nameless group, then you’ll be fine. It’s all about being well rounded anyhow.
What are your hobbies?
My high school years, I was pretty passionate about painting and drawing, still occasionally finding the time to draw for fun. I do some design work and graphics on the side to help me improve my computer skills as well.
In the past few years, I’ve gotten into photography and started teaching myself about landscape and portrait photography here and there.
Aside from cello, which I rarely play anymore, I’ve been interested in learning some acoustic guitar and singing.
I love to cook whenever I have time (which is pretty rare for me), so I usually hone my skills in the summer.
