1.

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively

influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.

It was another Saturday at Hwarang Leos summit meeting. The President and two of the
four Vice Presidents were absent that day. Although I wasnt one of the elected summit leaders,I
felt like it was my obligation to run this organization because I felt like I was responsible for this
club as one of the committee chairs. It was an unpleasant surprise that hit me out of nowhere. I
panicked because more than 100 people were showing up to this meeting. My natural instinct is
to work under pressure. When no one stepped up to prepare and lead the meeting, I stepped
up.
Pressure makes diamonds; now I had to make diamonds out of this dark mess.
Ms.Park, The Hwarang Leo President, had called me to come early; when I showed up, I
realized that I had three hours to create the agenda and have a short meeting to inform the two
attending Vice Presidents about the agenda. At this point, I ignored the hierarchy and bypassed
it; Ms.Park assigned the duty to me, and it was my responsibility to start and finish the task.
I arrived and took over the Presidents role. I assigned each chapters their roles for the
month; and through observation, I saw potential improvement to be made for our next meeting
and through the meeting with the president, I have became a person that will run this club
alongside with the president. Out of the leadership position, I saw this as an obligation and my
passion.
This experience has taught me how to work under pressure, take over a significant role,
and to finish whatever that is assigned to me by any means necessary. After the summit
meeting, I decided to do what was more than needed. I wanted to go beyond the assignment,
thus telling the President that I would be running the organization alongside of her.
Perseverance: a task was given to me--even under pressure-- I will get it done no matter what;
and even going beyond to create the optimum result and success for any of my responsibilities.
2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem
solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how
you express your creative side.

I do something very simple and turn that something into an unthinkable idea. This past
October, Hwarang Leo, a club Im part of, raised over $1,000 for the Guatemala Mission Project.
I supervised three booths at the biggest night market in Koreatown and was instrumental in their
successes.
Before the night market, my business committee members and I brainstormed about our
products. We came up with numerous ideas that lead us nowhere; then suddenly I came up with
an idea: goldfish!
The idea itself was implausible; how can I create revenues from selling goldfish? Then, I
showed my vision of a game. This simple carnival game was goldfish pong, a game that if a
player throws a ping pong ball into a mini fish bowl, he or she wins a prize. No one believed that
this would generate profit; I got criticized from the Hwarang Leo President and the parents. They
didnt believe that this would attract the people in the night market; however, I pushed my idea
through.
Skeptical about my idea, the President and the parents decided to get additional booths
to compensate for my profit. I strongly believed that my minimalistic yet innovative idea would
succeed. Thus, I made a bet with the Hwarang Leo President and the parents. If I had made
more than their booths, then they would donate their profits to the charity of my choice. I
calculated that the each goldfish was 30 cents, and by making the rule that person can only win
one goldfish per game, I could make at least 2 dollars in profits per game. I created tremendous
amount of profit; not only I exceeded my expectations, but I also doubled the profit of the
parents booth.
Thinking the unthinkable, I was able to demonstrate my creative side to the people who
couldnt comprehend my creative process. Pushing through the unthinkable idea, I was able to
influence my volunteers and parents by showing my successful result. Thus, approaching future
conflicts and ideas through my creative process, Im able to create the optimum result.

4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or

worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
 I remember running up the stairs of my apartment. I saw glass shards embedded into
the 80-year-old red velvet carpet and dead cockroaches lying side by side. None of that stopped
me. I finally arrived at the roof. There she was, the City of Angels, smiling at me with her
heavenly eyes, blinding me from miles away. Awed by her beauty, Ithe country boy from
Bakersfieldexperienced something more than just the beautiful lights of the city; I had been
awakened. I realized this world had much more opportunities and differences than I could ever
think of. I was lost.
Growing up in Bakersfield, I was just an ordinary child from a small town. Although being
the center of my small group of friends, I had never developed a leadership
characteristic.Though I was able to create plans and gather people, I wasnt able to step up as a
leader when any kinds of troubles came along. When I came to Los Angeles, I gradually took
action and develop my skills as an innate leader. My leadership quality was there, but I needed
to develop myself to become a better leader. I took the opportunities that were given to me; I
became the 11th grade Vice President and later, the Student Body President. Through student
body leadership, I learned how to delegate other people to work as a team.
Soon after, I was able to become the business club chair of Hwarang Leo. The business
committee had a group of 20 members that are from different places. Distance was a huge
factor for communication. Despite the distance, through trial and error of using different methods
of communication, I was able to finally succeed in communicating with the members. After
successfully communicating with the members, I was able to hold 2 successful fund raising
events that earned over 4000 dollars in profit.
My innate skills were developed to help me become a better leader, better listener, and a
better communicator. An uncut diamond, I was able to be cut and polished through these
multiple educational opportunities.

5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken
to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic
achievement?
 Through my country boy eyes, Los Angeles was the mecca of fame and success. When
I had arrived at my mothers place, I was so devastated by what I had just witnessed;d the city I
had romanticized was different in person.Her room was 8 by 8, regularly patrolled by
cockroaches.
My mother would come home around midnight everyday. I would see her exhausted and
too tired to spend time with me. Her body would break down from standing, her ankles bruised
from her weight. It broke my heart every time I would see her agonized in pain, but she worked
extra hard for me to get what I wanted and needed. I didnt want her to live this way any longer.
This burned the fuel of my deep ambition to succeed for my mother. I set my goal: get straight
As all through my high school years.
Although wanting to become successful, I had a hard time transitioning to Los Angeles.
From a small town, I was overwhelmed by every bits of this heavily populated metropolis.
Despite being an outgoing teenager, I stayed home all day and isolated myself from everything.
I had slowly given up my goals to become successful.
When I gave up, the relentless result showed. I had gotten few Bs in my report card in
my freshman year. When my peers were successful, I had hit my bottom. I failed to strive for my
goals and I was disappointed at myself. However, instead of seeing this as a discouragement, I
saw it as an opportunity to become better. I stayed up longer to study, I woke up extra early to
review, and I stayed after school to ask questions. After my freshman year, I got straight As for
both sophomore and junior year.
This academic challenge helped me push my limits. When I had disappointing results, I
worked extra harder so that I can succeed. I may not accomplish my goals every time; however,
every time I fail, I now learned how to get back up.

7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive, said Joseph Batten. Through my
freshmen eyes, my school was a sinking boat and I just boarded a sinking ship. With no form of
school spirit, proper student government structures, and organized activities, my school was
falling apart. Students were unmotivated to get involved, and the activities were planned. Im
going to take over, I said to myself; then before my senior year, I was elected as the Student
Body President.
My first agenda was to build a solid Student Body Government. I created a cabinet
system and appointed my peers as cabinet memembers. After I appointed my cabinet members,
I drafted a 20 page Constitution that explains the officers roles as well as qualifications. Now
that I constructed a solid foundation to the Student Body Government, next was to bring school
spirit back.
I carefully appointed the popular kid as the Commissioner of Rally. After I had
appointed her, school spirit skyrocketed; majority of students participated in school activities.
Students cheered louder; I overheard conversations about how this years pep rally was better.
Slowly but surely, I was taking steps to accomplish my goal.
My last goal was to coordinate events in the most organized way. During the month of
November, I brought back the annual Turkey Bowl. Last year, the faculty cancelled the Turkey
Bowl because the organization was a mess. However, this year I begged the faculty for one
more opportunity.
When they had granted my wishes, I delivered the optimum result. After the event, all the
teachers and the principal, told me that this years Turkey Bowl was the most organized outdoor
event the school ever had.
After hearing these comments from both the students and the faculty, I was proud of my
work. I finally accomplished my goals for my school to be more efficient and fun. I was not only
proud of success, but I was also overjoyed that I was able to make the school better for all the
students and establish a solid foundation for the future students of my school.