School: Phelps ACE High School

Grade: 12th

Zodiac sign: Capricorn/Year of the Dragon [long – in Chinese]

Interests/Activities:

My common interests are reading, creating poems and even watching shows, such as American Horror Story and Criminal Minds. I choose to watch these types of shows because I have a certain interest in mystery and plot twists. Some activities that I particularly love are working hands-on, such as building and cleaning, but mostly learning new languages. Some languages that I have already learned throughout my years in school are Chinese l & ll, a little Korean (listening to a lot of kpop), and Spanish. What people don’t know about me is that I like East Asian lifestyles, their culture and traditions, and I want to be able to speak to them and take part in their holidays that I know most about. I feel like the Japanese Plus program will help me further my love for learning new things about Japan.

Future Career Interests:

In the near future I see myself and have always seen myself as an Executive Chef. Cooking has always been a part of my life, since I was little and was very observant and even curious about new things, such as art, music, and language. By me learning multiple languages and their cultural backgrounds, it will help me become more understanding and reliable to the people I will either cook/bake for or people that I’ll have to interact with on a daily basis. Also it will be good for the people that will hire me that I have a passion to learn about their cultural differences and background as a human being to be able gain their attention/interest and provide an amazing performance in the workplace.

Personal Statement:

To start off with the how I got introduced into the program was my very good friend spoke to me on several occasions stating how she joined this program and how she learned so much about the culture, and how they even had her visit Japan over the summer to experience something new. When she found out that the program was taking in new students, she told me I was the first on her mind, because she knew for a fact that I am very passionate about East Asian culture, starting with Chinese being my first inspiration and interest. I feel that the outcome of this program will help me experience something that I could only imagine, such as becoming fluent in 4-8 languages, seeing new people, making friends, and even learning the similarities and differences of each country and state that I will hopefully soon visit.