A Persistent Commitment to Success by Romae-Anne

A Persistent Commitment to Success by Romae-Anne - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

My sophomore year is not an accurate marker of my commitment to academic rigor as I suffered heavily from the economic, emotional and physical hardships of the serious illnesses and deaths of loved ones during this time frame. The large quantity of approximately 12 deaths in Philippines and the U.S. in my freshman and sophomore year, led my family to continuously face financial and emotional challenges to support my first-generation college student education. These tragedies impeded on my academic success particularly in my second year of undergraduate education with those relatives closest to me that lost their lives. Particularly with the onset of culture shock both during and after my study abroad program in Spain at that time, I was unable to cope with the trauma and familial loss alongside my academic and extra-curricular responsibilities during the fall and winter quarters of my sophomore year. As a result, my grades suffered significantly during the fall and winter quarters of my undergraduate second-year, with my lowest GPA ever, including grades of a “C” and “F”. Especially as a first-generation college student and immigrant, I felt discouraged, isolated, and without resources. But I refused to let the damaging effects of adversity and devastating familial loss deter my determination to bear the hopes of my lost loved ones that dreamed of a better future; one where their sacrifices were valued.
I delivered on the opportunity that UC Davis offered me with obtaining A’s and boosting my GPA among an immensely larger load of courses and extracurricular activities. Despite continual familial loss in my third year of undergraduate education, I continued to excel with the following specific term GPA’s: two terms at 4.0, two terms at 3.8 and one term at 3.9. My GPA continued to increase, specifically through the unmentioned term GPAs that never fell below a term GPA of 3.075. Furthermore, in my third and fourth year of undergraduate education, I increased my course load and heavily involved myself on campus successfully even with additional family losses during these times. I transitioned from failure in a 12 unit workload during my worst term to academic excellence of a 3.8 term GPA in a 22 unit workload while maintaining a job and more than three extracurricular activities. Therefore, following my sophomore year, despite feeling the emotional loss of additional family members that passed away, I continued to demonstrate academic success.
Despite my nearly seventy-hour work-week, in my third and fourth years of undergraduate education, I continued to demonstrate academic excellence through a variety of honors and awards. In May 2018 I became a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honorary Society, Delta Upsilon Chapter. Additionally, I became a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Society, which is only available to the top 10% of UC Davis seniors. Furthermore, in March 2019 I made the Dean’s Honor List, which placed me among the top 16% of UC Davis students for the winter quarter 2019 term. This upcoming June, I will graduate UC Davis with completion of the University Honors Program, a minor in Human Rights and three Bachelor’s of Arts degrees: International Relations, Political Science and Spanish. Thus, even among significant adversity, I continued to demonstrate a persistent commitment to success.