Escaping from slumber, I gradually sensed my grandmother gently carrying my tiny body from my bed and quietly walking towards the living room window. With tears slipping down her fragile cheeks, she whispered to me: “When I was your age, I didn’t have as many opportunities as you do now. I wish and pray for you to have a happy and successful life in the future.” Once while curiously flipping through a Vietnamese newspaper, I asked my grandmother to...

Imagine you are at [school name], and you're invited to give a lecture to all the students and faculty. What would you talk about, and why? Imagine a piece of paper placed in front of you. What is your first thought when you see this ordinary paper? Is it a space to write your thoughts or a canvas to paint your picturesque imagination? Whenever a neglected piece of paper, unused napkin, or chocolate foil wrapper catches my eyes, I always...

Ben Franklin once said, 'All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.' Which are you? While some may believe that Benjamin Franklin referenced the three classes as the three main social classes in the past two centuries (peasants, landowners, robber barons), I believe that he expressed the deeper meaning of how a person’s attitude—whether it is moral or selfish—affects his or her motivation for achieving...

Before joining Jazz Band, I was intimidated by the idea of being a soloist; soloing in front of people who are attentively listening to what I play made me nervous to even go up on stage. Overtime, I decided to take a major step and join, knowing that I would be soloing as a flutist for most of the songs. For my first year in Jazz Band, I felt tense and uncomfortable soloing in front of my music teacher and...

I applied to so many colleges, I never had the time to dedicate a particular...

I lived in California all my life, up till I chose to go to University of Pennsylvania....