How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying. (400-650 words)
Whoever thought it was a good idea to plan a second grade field trip to a taxidermist’s shop must be out of their mind. We stepped into an intimate room filled with still creatures posed for perfection—glassy-eyed foxes, creepy bear heads. It didn’t help when the teacher whispered, “Remember, these were all real live animals.”
That’s when I realized: some collect coins, some collect trading cards, and some collect animal bodies to preserve, slice, stuff, and display.
Yet, I am equally guilty of indulging in the collecting frenzy. I’ll admit it: I am a collector of stories. I like to say I come from a lineage of storytellers even though my parents do not read or write for leisure. Instead, they raised me on a diet of oral stories, from the epic race of 12 animals across the river to family history. They taught me to preserve the world through my senses, slice memories open, and stuff it with vibrant details as a journalist, writer, and human being. I aspired to cut life into seams and share the untold stories underneath.
As I grew older I began to look for prominent Asian American storytellers but I found very few. I wanted to change this. I traded in the ten-minute commute to my local high school for two-hour bus rides to an arts school. My friends and I summon the spirits of Haruki Murakami, Amy Tan and Ocean Vuong through their otherworldly work. I scour classrooms, pages, films, stages, and the world for the to harness the power of literature to shed light on the countless stories of minorities that need to be told.
When I met the Associate Director for Writing Recruitment in my freshman year, I couldn’t believe her descriptions of UPenn. I realized this was a place where I could continue engaging with barrier-breaking books and films by marginalized artists in a house-turned-classroom, studying Asian American Literature and the representation of the Asian experience on screen. I was consumed with the idea of joining the Kelly Writer’s House community and pictured myself among fellow artists holding geeky, late-night conversations, riveting poetry readings, and self-produced works of theater. I want to take part in the variety of bizarre projects KWH and UPenn will fund--a literary magazine, or perhaps something to match the daring of a boat excursion down the Mississippi River.
At Penn, my plays and poetry will come to life in the Annenberg Center through collaboration with likeminded art aficionados who love spending their weekends discussing ink on a page. As a wide-eyed student, I will network with alumni, attend writers retreats, learn the business of the industry. As a graduate, I will return to UPenn fresh out of college for the Alumni Visitor Series to share what it’s like working on the biggest movie or play of the century--still wide-eyed, but now a well-equipped woman in the industry thanks to UPenn’s opportunities.
In the end, the taxidermist and I share many similarities. We both alter what we collect. We arrange and put them on display in a way that honors our subjects and inches closer to capturing life. And we share our passions by leaving the door wide open. But when visitors stop by and enter my collection of stories, I hope that the exhibits are bursting with life—a glimpse into what I’ve gleamed from UPenn. Imagine that: a red fox darting through a forest, a bear on hind legs swiping his claws, and a rabbit leaping from stone to stone across the river in the Great Race.