My hair was yanked back into an agonizingly tight ponytail and thousands of wispy baby-hairs were welded down by globs of thick, viscous hair-gel. I swiftly slipped into my traditional Korean hanbok dress, gripped my fingers around the instrument that I had befriended for nearly a decade, and bolted onto the dimmed stage with my crew. With adrenaline vigorously pumping, we straightened our backs, delicately placed our fingers on the silk strings, and gracefully glided into our performance. As we...

Third day into the Stanford neuroscience internship and there I was, a jittery intern, nervously sporting a skin-tight neuroimaging cap in the middle of the crowded conference room. Beside me, however, I noticed the projection screen light-up with vibrantly colored squiggles; my nerves were instantly whisked away by my fascination of my brainwaves sprinting across the page. As various feelings, including my love for ethnic cultures and abhorrence for cilantro, flooded my mind, the imaging system projected a montage of...

Whereas some humans are extroverted leaders, there are many who shy away from socialization, but regardless of behavior habits, human interaction is inevitable. And it is that interaction between contrasting personalities that captivates my attention. Sociology and cognitive science appeal to my interests in human interaction, behavior, and culture, and USC is a school that will foster and expand that brewing curiosity. Primarily, as a sociology major at USC, I plan to intertwine my passion for societal culture and health...

With the image still fresh in my mind, I snatched the E33-Sand marker from the bin and artfully stroked the brown pigment in between the crisp pencil-sketched outline. E37-Sepia brown for shading, 100-Jetblack for delineation, R35-Ruby Red for intensity and pizazz. After hours of relentless coloring and shading, I sat back and cocked my head in speculation. Surrounded by a myriad of colorful Copic-brand markers and eraser shavings, my illustration laid on my chaotic desk saturated in...

“I’ll be back,” my dad said, pushing his banana-yellow kayak into the ocean. An unsurmountable amount of “what ifs” and hypothetical “worst-case-scenarios” swarmed my mind as I anticipated the kayak’s journey back towards shore. Despite my anxiety, he always returned; safe and with a kayak overflowing with fresh abalone. During the week, my dad is Hank, of Hank’s Mechanical, a business with one hard working employee performing essential labor that others often overlook. One glance at his...