Essay Prompts

• UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII

1. Community or Volunteer Service—– Complete an essay describing what activities you participated in (i.e. any activities including volunteer, leadership, membership and community services in social, school or community organizations which demonstrate your willingness to give back or contribute to your community).
2. Commitment to Heath Care—Complete an essay describing what activities related to Health Care that you participated in (i.e. demonstrated commitment to health care, volunteer work, employment in health services, enrolled in a degree program in any area of health fields; career goals and plans in the health care field regardless of area of study; how you intend to impact the health of your community in the State of Hawai‘i.)
3. 442nd Veterans Endowed Scholarship—Complete an essay describing the role of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army in World War II and their legacy.

           UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

1. Choose an intellectual or creative opportunity (for example, community involvement, a summer program, a unique project, travel abroad, etc.) from your high school years that you have enjoyed and highlight how you have grown personally because of the experience.
2. UGA's First Year Odyssey Program offers more than 300 seminar courses for new freshmen.  Some examples include "The History of Horseracing", "Einstein and the Theories of Relativity" and "The Zombie Plague".   If you could create your own seminar course at UGA in any subject area that interests you, what would it be? What would the course be named and what would you hope to learn?
3. Tell us an interesting or amusing story about yourself that you have not already shared in your application.
4. Incredibly, you have just won a $100 million lottery.  To receive it, you must first earn a college degree.  How does this change your college experience?  How does it change your life after college?
        YALE UNIVERSITY
   In this second essay, please reflect on something you would like us to know about you that we might not learn from the rest of your application, or on something about which you would like to say more. You may write about anything—from personal experiences or interests to intellectual pursuits.

Coming of age FINAL

     Sports was one of the biggest obstacles in my life when i was a kid. It was a big struggle for me because it was like a new word for me and i didn't know what it was until i had P.E in 1st grade. Whenever our teacher made us play certain sports i would always be the one that would make my team lose. Me not knowing sports was the cause of many of my friends putting me down. From then on i was the kid that was always picked last whenever we had to pick teams in P.E or whenever we had recess. It took me until 4th grade to finally get the hang of things when it came to P.E. I was pretty decent at it and my P.E  teacher was really proud of how much i improved. After 4 years of not knowing what sports was and doing so many of them i chose my favorite sport which was basketball.

     Basketball then was my only focus and goal that i wanted to achieve in life. I would always practice everyday on that one sport trying to get my shots down, to be able to dribble on each hand, and to work on my weaknesses. When I was finally felt confident enough to use the techniques i learned, I begged my parents to put me in a basketball team or basketball camp. But my fear of getting picked on really interfered with my decision in being in any basketball team. It was until my parents forced me into going to a 3 day basketball camp that's held almost every summer by my church.I was still very scared and nervous until I met the coaches and they said that I would be alright and i should be fine. 
     Ever since the sign ups i have been practicing and practicing trying to make sure that i get better so i won't get picked as much. When it came to the first day of basketball camp i was already nervous. There were so many kids my age playing like the pros. I felt very intimidated and somehow reminded at what happen before as a kid. When it came to making teams for the next two days i was really nervous. I wanted to be in the championships and i wanted to win. 
     When they called my name they put me in with these players who was very eager to win. When our coach called for a team meeting I was very scared at what my coach was gonna do. Instead of making plays and doing all that "coach" work, we bonded. We talked about what struggles we had in life or why we wanted to come to this camp. From that team bonding i left the camp with a happy face and made a lot of new friends. On the next day, it was the playoffs where the coaches will see who goes to the championships. I was very excited and eager to play the games. On our first game our team did not really start as well in the first half. We couldn't pass the ball to well and our shots didn't go in. But when it was the second half of the game we were able to make a comeback and win the game. As the games went on our team was really doing well. We were able to make it to the championships! I was very proud of our team on how we were able to work together. But I was actually proud of myself because i was able to score a lot of the points and no one bothered to say a bad word to me. Instead my friends were very amazed and happy to have me on their team.
     It was the last day of camp and i was very sad. I wanted to get to know my teammates a little bit more and most of all i wanted to play the games more too. When i found out our division was up first i was very excited and ready to play. I was ready to finally show those friends that put me down and show them that i am no longer that person who was always junk at sports. So when it was time to play i was in the starting lineup. It was our possession and i was shooting guard. I got the ball and i was able to dribble past my defender and make layup. Me making that lay up made me confident throughout the game. It was the last quarter and we were down by 3. It was our possession and my teammate had the ball. For the last two possessions he was able to make layups which shrank their lead to 1. We only had 10 seconds left and i was getting really nervous.So my teammate had the ball and was really trying to make another layup. When i was open he passed it and it was already at 5 seconds. So i rushed to the three point line and shot it. The buzzer sounded and i made it! It was a day to remember for me. I was now free of these constant put downs that would always stop me from playing the sport i loved. I thanked God that day because he was the reason i made that shot. The good thing from my story was not the championship but the will and practice i had to get to where i am now. I finally learned how to step out of my box show people that i am a good player. Today, i still have some people that put me down all the time but because of that day i learned that if i just went out there and step out of my comfort zone, I know i can do it. That is my coming of age.

Coming of Age Draft

     Sports was the biggest obstacle in my life as a kid. It was a struggle for me at that time because it was so new to me and i didn't know it existed. Maybe the only sport that i knew was running but I never thought of any other sports like football, soccer, etc. Whenever it was P.E, I used to hate it because of my lack of knowledge towards the sports they teach us and my friends would hate to have me on their team. It was not until the 4th grade where i finally got the hang of it and I was pretty decent at it. From then on sports was getting a little bit easier on me which led me to picking my favorite sport basketball.

     From then on i kept practicing on that one sport trying to dribble smoothly, getting my shots down, working on my weaknesses and finding out my strengths all on my own! I can pretty much say that the techniques i had was based on my own hard work. When i finally felt confident enough to use it i have been begging my parents to put me in a basketball camp or basketball team. But because of my fear of getting teased by teammates i took back at what i said to my parents and hesitated to play on a team. So from there i kept practicing and waiting until that one day at church where my parents signed me up for this 3 day basketball camp. I was still very scared and nervous until I met the coaches and they said that I would be alright and i should be fine.

     On that first day, I was still very nervous but excited to play the games. Trusting the coach's word I just when out and did my best in games and limit my mistakes. When it was time to make teams for the games that they were going to make i was trying to forget the past and just focus on the game. When they called my name they said they wanted me to be with these players who was very good and really wanted to win. When our coach called for a team meeting, I made sure I'd pay attention to him and that my teammates would trust me. The very next day, it was game time or the playoffs to see who could make it to the championships. So the games we played that day was very surprising. We were undefeated and able to play the championships. The next day I was happy. I felt very proud of myself. I myself doubted that we could win the championship but we were able to win it. As i received the medal i felt special and i wanted to come the next year. 

      That year i thought very highly of myself and i really considered myself as a pro basketball player. I also at that time bragged to almost everyone in my family. But when it came to last years camp things changed. On the first day i was very excited and i really expected a championship medal again. I was also happy because my cousins were able to come this year and we were able to have a family competition. On those two days of basketball camp, I was really confident on winning the championship. We were undefeated again and the first seed of the playoffs. That last day of camp was a day i had to remember.

     As i entered the gym and doing my usual warm-ups i talked too highly of myself and the team. I felt that i knew i was going to win the championship. When it came to playing the championship game i wasn't too confident anymore. Two of our best players had left and wasn't able to come to the camp. So now the team depended on me to win it. During the first half of that game i was surprised that we were up by 6 points. But during the second half our team had broken down hard. Our defense was not good and we gave too many wide open shots to them which led to them winning.

     Basically I had to go back to square one again.  After that championship game i just kept practicing and practicing on my skills and really worked on not being so cocky. The good thing about my story is that the result of my friends putting me down led me to become a better player. But me becoming like those friends led to no championship at all. I can now say i have changed from being too overconfident to being humble and learned to just play your hardest. When it comes to basketball i now just play for fun but still want to get better at it and maybe next year i'll be able to win next years championship!   

Mini Essay

   In the state of Hawaii there were many blowhole/park incidents in 2011. The problem was that there was no one to blame for the incidents of so many people/tourists. Like one Northern Californian man came to the island of Maui and visited the blowhole at Nakalele Point. He disappeared due to dancing around a blowhole when huge wave struck him from the behind which threw him into the hole. There were many incidents like these in the stat but sadly the state government wasn't gonna take any responsibility for him. But i believe that its both the tourists and states fault.
   First of all I believe that its partially the tourists fault because they didn't use common sense. Cindy Orlando, a superintendent of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, said, "It would be nice to assume that common sense would prevail, but that's not always the case and we have to be aware that our visitors are not in their regular environment and that they need to be made aware of the potential dangers." Its also the states fault too because some of these tourist attraction don't have signs posted anywhere. Signs are also important because it warns people about the dangers of the area and lets  people know when the place is open or closed. They also show tourists where to go and not to go. 
    Lastly, I believe that the state and tourist should be held accountable for the incidents. First the tourist/people should really use their common sense. Also the state should also put signs where tourists know where to go and not to go so incidents like these won't happen ever again. 
   

Position Statements Group work (Christine, Skye, Kainoa)

Common Sense is needed because tourists are not in their regular environments so they should be more cautious. If the area looks hazardous they need to be more cautious and not fool around. When in doubt, dont go out!

Signs are also important because it warns people about the dangers of the area and lets  people know when the place is open or closed. They also show tourists where to go and not to go.

Important information from other sources are also important because they can give people detailed information the sign may not give. Information from people with experience is more influential but before going to an attraction, tourist need to do research about this place.

Rewriting the future

The changes i made to my blog are everything except the posts. I changed the title first because i felt it was the hardest to do. The title process took me awhile until my sister helped me out and came up with rewriting the future. Then i tried to come up with a good header graphic would help explain/describe Coming of age. I thought of a book being open and pictures of what i've been working on since i was little.  Then i changed my wallpaper to match my graphic. For my Header graphic i used a website and photoshop. For the book being open i used photoshop and used photovisi.com for the fonts and picture frames. It shows my skills by i was able to use what i learned in the past and make my website look good. Then i organized my blog archives by just organizing them by months and to show the newest post first.