Challenge secondary advice

[sparky7189]

Hi, currently trying to decide how to approach UCI's secondary: Please describe to the Admissions Committee a challenge or disappointment you have overcome and what you learned about yourself from that experience. I have a few experiences but not sure which one would work best. Does the experience need to be long-term?

1) Primary caregiver for my grandparents during COVID-19 pandemic. They were stuck in the states for four years due to travel restrictions (they usually visit from overseas every year). Since they don't speak English/really old, I was pretty much their only social/support network (my grandpa got COVID but luckily recovered) and spent most of my attending to them on top of course work, etc.

2) Taught music for four years in college for a music service club and had a young student that had attention disorders and made the first few lessons very challenging. Eventually, I realized he benefited from more of a kinesthetic approach to learning (incorporated movement into lessons to help him learn). Eventually, got him to play in the end of semester recital.

3) Messed up a batch of transformations once in my research lab (killed off cultures) and set work back on a project for a few weeks. Offered to re-do the transformations again on top of my other work (came in earlier to lab, etc).

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[Mr.Smile12]

Can you tell me if you are going for a challenge or a disappointment in each of your proposed topics?

1) How did YOU overcome this situation and learn about yourself? You are caring for others, so the challenge is one that you volunteered for. Not sure what you did to "overcome" caretaking your elders.

2) I don't get the stakes of teaching the student. I see that your challenge was their neurodiversity, but I'm worried that you're impugning those who are neurodiverse as being "a challenge" or "a disappointment." Isn't this more an accomplishment for the student?

3) Research... I don't know what you learned about yourself here.

 

[sparky7189]

Can you tell me if you are going for a challenge or a disappointment in each of your proposed topics?

1) How did YOU overcome this situation and learn about yourself? You are caring for others, so the challenge is one that you volunteered for. Not sure what you did to "overcome" caretaking your elders.

2) I don't get the stakes of teaching the student. I see that your challenge was their neurodiversity, but I'm worried that you're impugning those who are neurodiverse as being "a challenge" or "a disappointment." Isn't this more an accomplishment for the student?

3) Research... I don't know what you learned about yourself here.

Hi, thank you for your insight!

For 1) I am going for more of the challenge aspect. I had to step into caregiving duties due to one of my parents being stuck abroad and the other overwhelmed with work. I guess my main challenge was just trying to balance it with my coursework and also the uncertainty I constantly felt for my grandparents' health during this time. I had to really organize my schedule to be attend to all my duties, spent time playing board games/cards/provide companionship, etc with my grandparents because they were socially isolated (language barrier, etc).

I agree with you on 2, I don't think it fits well.

For 3) I was going more for disappointment since my mistake was due to my carelessness trying to cut corners to stay on top of my work.

Additionally, I could talk about my TA experience being a challenge initially? I helped TA a biology lab course for a year. Used to be very socially anxious, I remember one of the earliest lab demonstrations I had to do in front of the class, I messed up a procedure and a student corrected me. I really took that incident to heart and it damaged my self confidence going forward. I eventually worked a lot on how to effectively present in front of a class, build rapport with students, etc and my confidence improved. This actually led to the course coordinator offering me a job to teach over the summer (which I didn't end up taking unfortunately).

 

[deleted929944]

Eh... I'd go with #2. #2 is best for the "learned about yourself" reflection. You can spin as a challenge for yourself because you didn't know how to teach this particular person (not necessarily neurodivergent people in general). And you're not the only teacher/tutor who couldn't reach a student due to various factors. Happens all the time. So the challenge is that you had to understand the student and adapt your teaching style. You could have given up and say the heck with it. But you didn't. You could have kept pushing your standard method onto this student. But you didn't. You cared. You've learned that teaching and learning are a two way street. And you humbled yourself admitting that you methods weren't working so it's time to try something new. And this is what you've learned about yourself. That you do care. That you let your ego aside and figure how to make the situation work for your students (and the reader would come to the natural conclusion that you'd do the same for your patients).

#1. Still don't understand what you learned about yourself here. When I took care of my grandparents, I learned that his **** smelled like... well... like the worst **** I ever smelled.

#3. What did you learn about yourself here? That you were careless?

BTW. I can literally argue for any point above. I just felt like doing #2.

 

[sparky7189]

Eh... I'd go with #2. #2 is best for the "learned about yourself" reflection. You can spin as a challenge for yourself because you didn't know how to teach this particular person (not necessarily neurodivergent people in general). And you're not the only teacher/tutor who couldn't reach a student due to various factors. Happens all the time. So the challenge is that you had to understand the student and adapt your teaching style. You could have given up and say the heck with it. But you didn't. You could have kept pushing your standard method onto this student. But you didn't. You cared. You've learned that teaching and learning are a two way street. And you humbled yourself admitting that you methods weren't working so it's time to try something new. And this is what you've learned about yourself. That you do care. That you let your ego aside and figure how to make the situation work for your students (and the reader would come to the natural conclusion that you'd do the same for your patients).

#1. Still don't understand what you learned about yourself here. When I took care of my grandparents, I learned that his **** smelled like... well... like the worst **** I ever smelled.

#3. What did you learn about yourself here? That you were careless?

BTW. I can literally argue for any point above. I just felt like doing #2.

Hi, thank you very much for your reply! That's actually a good way of looking at it, I haven't thought it about it like that. Do you think the TA experience that I listed above could work also?

 

[deleted929944]

Hi, thank you very much for your reply! That's actually a good way of looking at it, I haven't thought it about it like that. Do you think the TA experience that I listed above could work also?

Well... what's the "learned about yourself" angle? You learned that if you tried, you can succeed?