Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America. There are tiny communities that live on the equivalent of a dollar a day. The summer before my senior year, a program came to my school that took twenty or so students to different cities in Nicaragua, and I—doing something so outrageously spontaneous—signed up. I remember one of the days we were there more vividly than the rest. Driving about twenty minutes out of our “home city” of Estelí, we...

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires,” said by William Arthur Ward. I was lucky enough to be taught by a great teacher for not one year, but two. At the opening of my high school career, for fifth period, I had English ½, taught by Mr. Patterson. He was a strict, sarcastic, and daring teacher, but never had such a thought-provoking teacher taught me before then. He was self-proclaimed a cliché �...

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Said by the late Nelson Mandela, it was our choice of quote in Nicaragua, where I and twenty other California students created a community center for the small city of Estelí last summer. We painted that quote on the wall to encourage everyone who saw it to “be the change they wanted to see”, said by Gandhi. Since that trip, I have given more and more...

By random chance, I ended up in a band class. When given the class choice form in fifth grade, my mother left the elective choice up to me. She advised me to take a language, but said it was ultimately my decision. As independent as I told myself I was, I asked my friend what she chose and we agreed to take the same ones: Intro to Language and Band. After the summer, we received our schedules and marched happily...

I may be biased when I say this, but the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh is seriously the greatest thing I've ever done. A marching band of ~350 students, both undergrad and graduate students, CAMB is a high-energy family that plays at football games, private parties, and most recently, the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. Not only is this a fun way to de-stress, it's also a resource. My first week into college,...

Animal Science 1, my first major course, was probably the best class...