Prompt 2, Personal Statement Example

“There comes a time, when we heed a certain call.” As the leading singer of the International Student Club (ISC) at Diablo Valley College, I stepped onto the stage and began Michael Jackson’s, “We are the World.” I had never sung English before an audience, yet I felt myself expanding to meet – and surpass – the challenge.  My confidence beamed with each note, and those moments had a double impact.  I was living the experience as a solo singer, and I was  reflecting as well a triumph of the group I had helped lead to this event.

Singing has had great meaning for me since my parents took me to Shanghai to see a band from Taiwan.  When I entered my school’s singing competition at the age of 17, I was advised to give up this dream. You are not one of the advanced students, I was told; focus on your studies. I resolved, however, to reveal to everyone how a true sense of purpose can surmount any obstacle. I studied until the neighborhood lights were turned off every night. I practiced my singing after study, learning how to shape and refine my voice. By the semester’s end, all my grades were As and I took home the first prize in the competition. Tell me what I may not do, I learned, and I respond with a will and a spirit to shine.

This spirit, I found, could be expressed in taking others along my same course. As the Activity Coordinator of the ISC, I know that my dedication to organizing the 2012 International Education Week’s performance helped to make it a great success.  Assigning songs and lines to officers and members, scheduling the practices, staging performances in rehearsal, applying for needed equipment: these were my tasks as the leader, and I embraced the challenges as I would a new song to learn and master. The same dedication that made me a singer, I found, forged a successful team.  Passion translates and inspires, no matter the work at hand, and I led my team as I had led myself to achieve.  The event boosted ISC’s reputation and made it the largest club on campus. For my part, there came a stronger sense of how leadership grew in me through sharing my love of music.

We evolve as we shape our own evolutions and, as I reflect on these years, I see profound connections.  Alone and discouraged, I found my way to becoming what I wished to be as a singer.  Strengthened by this, I was ready to share my strength and lead others to join me on a new and larger venture.  Singing has given me so much, but I count among the greatest rewards how it enabled me to value and use the perseverance I myself needed, as a leader and for the benefit of others.  These are, simply, the qualities and ambitions I am so eager to explore further at the University of California.