YFU Scholarship Essays and Activities
A. Activities
Awards / Honors / Activities
1) Owner / CEO Galaxis Communications Inc., 1 year, 15 hours / week, founded own
web hosting and Internet services company which is growing at an increasing rate.
2) Megaconference VI, 1 year, 5 hours / week (for 2 months), served on the
management team, designed and implemented the system to facilitate presentation
sign ups and rehearsals.
3) Megaconference Jr., 2 years, 5 hours / week (for 2 months), served on the technical
committee and will be the committee co chair this year. Assisted with testing and
technical support of interested schools. Interacted with children and teachers from
schools in over 20 countries.
4) Debate, 2 years, 5 hours / week, once won #2 in the Northern Virginia region,
attended a summer debate institute at Catholic University of America.
5) Student System Administrator, 2 years, 10 hours / week, assisted in maintaining
the school network including critical services such as email and the website, and
our schools “Intranet”, which allows students to communicate with each other
better.
6) Customer Support Representative, Anarchy Online, 1 year, 10 hours / week, served
a customer support representative in the Customer Relations department. Interacted
with hundreds of players from all over the world on a daily basis, in real time and
on forums.
7) Varsity Math Team, 2 years, 2 hours / week, engaged in many very challenging
competitions.
8) Senior Computer Team, 1 year, 4 hours / week, took many high level competitions
and performed very well for a sophomore.
9) Accepted into TJHSST (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and
Technology), n/a, n/a, the public high school that I currently attend, that accepts
only 10% of the 4000 or more of applicants.
10)
Japan Bowl, ½ year, 3 hours / week, learned a multitude about Japanese
culture, customs and many other important facts regarding Japan.
Hobbies
Although it may seem like I am very techy and science oriented, from my
activities I am really an all around person. One of my favorite hobbies is to read a
book. Although it may sound clichéd, once I find a good book I will often read it as
much as I possibly can to finish it faster. However, I enjoy sports as well. After many
years of practice, I am an avid skier. I also enjoy jogging, and even just walking, it
calms me down after a long and stressful day. But, one thing that I like doing and I am
not especially good at is tennis, I practice as much as I can but my improvement is
very subtle. I also like things that engage me mentally in some way, I am never found
sitting on a couch in front of the TV, I am always doing something else at the same
time. I also try to break away from doing work and spend time with my friends. So as
often as I can finish all of the homework from all of my classes, which is a daunting
challenge considering all of the classes I am taking (approximately 12 full year
college credits by the time I graduate), I try to go and do something to free me from
the long day. I wake up everyday at 6am, and I arrive home from school at 5pm,
leaving me precious little time for other activities. However, I try my best to do all I
can.
B. Essays
1. One of the activities that I value the most is my involvement with Megaconference
Junior. In essence, “Megaconference Junior” serves the same purpose as YFU
does: to bring the people of this world together, and to raise awareness of other
cultures. Megaconference Junior is an idea born from “Megaconference,” a day
long teleconference originated by many colleges and organizations to share ideas
between students and faculty. “Megaconference Junior,” arranged for the first time
in the spring of 2004, brings this outstanding goal to children from Kindergarten to
Grade 12. I was a member of the technical committee last year, and this year I will
be a co-chairman of the committee. Though I did learn about the technology
necessary for an event of this scale, I learned something much more important.
Through the many encounters with people from all over the world, I have learned a
great deal about other cultures. Prior to the actual conference I would meet with
others to assist them with the technical side of things, and to just converse, which
to me was a very valuable experience. From what I heard from many of the
participants, they also thought that this was an invaluable experience. People from
all over the world got to meet, we had students from Hawaii, Spain, China,
Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries, including almost everywhere in
the United States. For many of these students, it was their first cross cultural
experience, and I was proud to play a part.
2. If I had to describe my family in a word, I would call it traditional. My immediate
family consists of my father, my mother, and my grandmother who lives with us. I
have no siblings, but I often wonder what it would be like when I see my friends
with their brothers and sisters. My relationship with my father, although it might be
rocky at times because of mutual disagreements, is something I value very much.
Even though I can get on his nerves a good deal, he is always tolerant. However,
most of the time we manage to get along just fine. My mother and I are very close,
and I will often go places with her, including shopping. I enjoy the time we spend
together. I don't feel that I give my parents enough credit, because they have been
the best parents anyone could ever have. They are helpful and understanding. I
only hope that sometime in the future I will be able to repay them for what they
have done for me. And I also appreciate and love my grandmother. When I was six
months old, my parents moved to the United States from Romania. After that, they
left me in her care, and thus many of the first memories I have are with her. The
connection between us remains very strong. Finally, my family and I are very
close. We have many traditions, but none that I treasure more than our yearly ski
trip. I have vivid memories of being in 6th grade and counting the days until the
trip. We went to all sorts of exciting places, and many times they were life
changing experiences, because of all of the different cultures I encountered while
traveling in Europe. But perhaps more importantly, it was a chance to get closer to
my family.
3. One of the qualities I most admire in a friend is honesty. I feel that honesty is one
of the most important aspects of any relationship. Honesty builds trust and, without
trust there is no relationship. I am as honest as I can be with my friends, because I
know that in reality, no human enjoys being lied to, even if it is in their interest.
The next most important quality of a friend in my opinion is loyalty. When any
friend of mine asks me to do something for them, I will do my best to help them
out. I am often known for staying up until past midnight to help friends study for a
chemistry or math test. I try to be loyal to my friends, and I hope that in return they
will be loyal to me as well. Because to truly have a friendship you need to trust
each other, and be willing to help each other. Without those important qualities a
“friendship” where you talk to someone every other day but have neither of those
qualities is just an acquaintance. In a friendship I do not put much weight on a
person’s particular interests. I am known to be in many groups of friends, groups
that might be labeled “popular” and groups that might not be. But the point for me
is to try new things and to be with people who I can truly be friends with. I do not
limit all of my friends to others who are very similar to me; instead, I try to have a
truly diverse group of friends, and I will attempt to do the same abroad.
4. Being a child with hemophilia, I have had to deal with a huge challenge throughout
my life. Personal failure often loomed over me. Hemophilia is a condition where
your blood does not clot very well, and it requires an intravenous injection to
correct. Although I only need it when I have a moderate to severe injury, this
problem has been an obstacle throughout my life. And, I have tripped over a hurdle
or two. For many years I desired to be able to infuse myself so that I could be truly
independent of my mother. Because she is a physician, she is very helpful to me. I
would try and try to be able to do it. I even went to classes on how to do
intravenous injections. But still, I would only get it after stabbing myself several
times. However that was not reliable enough. I simply was not able to do it most of
the time and I was very frustrated for weeks. However, more recently, perhaps
about a year ago, I funneled that frustration into driving me forward toward my
goal, traveling to japan. This was my barrier. I tried everything I could and
practiced every few days. I needed to be self reliant. And, after all of my effort, I
can now infuse myself very reliably. I have been on my own without my mother
for weeks at a time, with no incident. When I look back at all of the hard times to
get to where I am now, I am proud of what I accomplished with some
determination and hard work.
5. The exchange opportunity for me is an invaluable experience. One reason that the
YFU program appeals to me so much is that I have a passion for Japanese. This
passion started as a small ember when I decided to take Japanese. And as I learned
more about Japan in class, it was like putting fuel onto the ember. The more I
learned about the culture, the language, and the people behind it all, the more I was
intrigued. The Japanese culture is intriguing to me as a “westerner,” and I feel that
I have much to gain by experiencing it first hand. One of the reasons that the
Japanese culture is so interesting is because it is radically different from the
common western culture. And, all of what I learn in Japanese class cannot possibly
top real life experiences. I would have a chance to see Japan as a person who lives
there, rather than as a tourist. As I live near Washington DC, I have friends who
come from far away all the time, who have drastically different reactions to the city
as a tourist in contrast to a local. As a member of a family overseas I think one of
the hardest things to adjust to will be the culture, not the language. In my opinion,
after being conditioned since I was born, in a western mind frame, it will be very
different to get used to another culture. So many customs are different in Japan,
even though the western world has been propagating into Japan at an increasing
rate. But this is one of the biggest reasons why I would like to go. I believe that an
experience such as this trip promises to be, will be a live changing occurrence, and
will leave me with a great amount of knowledge to apply as I go on to college and
beyond.