[00:00:00.

250] - Speaker 1
I bet you guys are going to be like, what the heck? It's just a summer program. You know what? I don't
care.

[00:00:23.090] - Speaker 1
Okay, so if you don't know Yale Young Global Scholars is a summer program at you guessed, at Yale,
and it has like a 20% acceptance rate. I was recently accepted to the Applied Science and Engineering
session, and I thought it might be useful to share what I put on my application because on the Internet, on
College Confidential, I've been getting a lot of messages asking me how I got in and stuff.

[00:00:57.170] - Speaker 1
I'm going to look at what I put on my application. I'm just going to be reading from here, and I'll also be
reading my essays as well. So for the whole application, I can't speak.

[00:01:17.210] - Speaker 1
They asked you to put in, like, your transcript, which you have to ask your counselor, I think, to put that in.
I just asked my counselor, and also you need two letters of recommendation for that. I asked my physics
teacher and also my counselor. So I basically gave my resume and just highlighted sections I wanted my
counselor to highlight in the recommendation letter. I was so surprised when I got accepted.

[00:01:46.530] - Speaker 1
Queue the screen with the confetti on it.

[00:01:52.870] - Speaker 1
Compared to other people who got accepted, honestly, their activities, like their ECS extra career clears,
in case you didn't know, were like, I was here, they were like, there, and my essays were like, they were
just fine. I didn't think they're like, outstanding or anything. So, again, like, I was really surprised that I got
in for the activities section. You got to put in, I think, maybe up to three activities and not I don't actually
remember. It was like December when I got accepted, and I filled it in my application in November.

[00:02:25.830] - Speaker 1
But anyway, for the two activities that I put in, the first one was like, it was this activity called Social
Enterprise, which is where my friends and I, we started campaigns to reduce single use. And now I'm also
working on an initiative to reduce food waste around my school. And the other activity was me
collaborating also with my friends to organize Stem compositions in my school. And we organized quite a
lot last year, and it was quite a big part of my year eleven or sophomore career. And by the way, I'm a
junior.
[00:03:06.900] - Speaker 1
I should have said that earlier, but yeah, for the awards, I did not have any national champion of, I don't
know, Science Olympia. Our school doesn't even have science. Olympiat. So I basically just put my
school awards, which was Upper Secondary Social Sciences Award, which is really sad because I
applied to a Stem session. But I put it down anyway because I had this many awards.

[00:03:35.650] - Speaker 1
The other one was award for basically being this off in the class, which is like, I mean, I'm not
complaining, but yeah, now I'm going to talk about I really should have prepared a script for this. Now I'm
going to talk about looking at my stats. Yes. So I go to kind of like British school. So we have IGCSE, and
now I'm doing IB.

[00:04:05.300] - Speaker 1
So IGCSE is for years ten to eleven, which is grades ten, grades nine to ten. And IB, which I'm in my first
year of, is four years twelve to 13, or grades eleven to twelve. On my report card for the most recent
semester, which was my year eleven, second semester, I got straight A stars, which that was like the first
time. I don't usually get straight A stars, so that's basically like a plus, I think. So I think that might have
helped as well.

[00:04:37.080] - Speaker 1
And my teachers comments were also pretty positive. Yeah, let's get into the essays, which is probably
the most important part of the application, not just for summer programs, but also for college applications.
So, I mean well, I literally worked on these essays for, I don't know, like an hour. And I looked at.

[00:05:00.000] - Speaker 1
At them for 20 seconds and submitted it. I feel like I should have maybe spent more time working on
them, but whatever, I got in anyway. So let's read my essays. The first essay is 500 words long, and he is
the prompt.

[00:05:24.890] - Speaker 1
When planning this, I basically scrolled through all the pages on the Yohji's website, which I'll link in the
description below. It was really helpful. It was really informative because they were asking for how I would
be a great fit for the program. So I have to focus on where their features in mind intersect and overlap.
Basically, let's start reading.

[00:05:49.790] - Speaker 1
Why would I like to participate in YYGS? The answer is obvious I love learning, not only in the classroom,
but with an applied approach which combines all styles from lectures to discussions to projects, with the
unanimous aim of cultivating globally aware leaders. I'm intrigued by the YYGS community, and I would
love to hear stories young people my age have to share from their schools, families, backgrounds and
everything in between. It would be an eye opening experience for me to meet people from every part of
the world and learn about their experiences, which would undoubtedly be different to mine. I am grateful
that in my school, students are encouraged to think global, act local, and strive to become better global
citizens each day.

[00:06:30.700] - Speaker 1
It is this mantra that pushes me to venture out of my comfort zone and undertake activities that make my
school community a better place. Throughout my high school career, I have led and participated in
numerous student led initiatives, beginning with Stop Single Use Shanghai, which aims to reduce single
use plastic. In our school, we students participated in a Global Issues Network conference to share our
ideas and action plans like selling reusable cutlery pouches and campaign posters, and discuss other
global issues linked with the UN Sustainable Development goals. SDGs with students from all parts of the
world stemming from my passion for Stem, no pun intended, that's cringy AF my peers and I organized
Stem competitions for secondary students. I gained priceless experience from participating, and I also
helped others gain this park of interest when they took part in our competitions.

[00:07:22.050] - Speaker 1
And to know that you have incited interests interest in young aspiring mathematicians like yourself is
incredibly rewarding. This year, I was chosen to be a prefect, a role model for students that promotes the
UN SDGs. I recently gave a presentation at the whole school assembly, raising awareness of Goal 16
Peace, justice and Strong Institutions. I received a Merit and a Learner Profile Thinker Award nomination
for this because I quote quotation marks, delivered a thought provoking presentation, and engaged my
audience to quote my teacher. I hope to gain inspiration for how to better incorporate these SDGs in their
everyday learning from participating in YYGS so I can bring a greater impact on my school community.

[00:08:07.530] - Speaker 1
Besides leading various initiatives, I'm an avid community catering class, unafraid to question anything
and express my opinions in Yygs's diverse community, with students coming from all over the world with
unimaginable experiences, I believe my contributions from my international background will be invaluable.
Moreover, as someone living in China, spending two weeks in the US will be incredibly foreign to me. So
I'm grateful for the inclusion Ywichi's brings, accepting every person for who they are, regardless of their
background. I truly believe I belong in this community, as my values of learning for the sake of it, giving
back to others, and taking action to achieve global goals align perfectly with those of YYGS. So that was
the first essay, and honestly, after I got accepted, and I was like, Whoa, did I do something really good?

[00:09:00.030] - Speaker 1
And I was looking back, reading on the essay, I was like, this is really bad, because I was, like, watching
some videos about YYGS, and some of the accepted applicants were saying how they found hardest
about the application was having to write the required narrative essay. I just freaked out. Like, I did write a
narrative essay. Did they accept the wrong person? I think that may have been one good thing in that I
didn't choose to stick to a narrative essay, which is what most college essays ask for.

[00:09:35.960] - Speaker 1
Well, they don't explicitly ask for narrative essays, but those tend to be the most successful ones and
they're for the most common ones, I think. But I chose to just basically list kind of my accomplishments
and why I do what I do in school and what I find meaningful, and I think that might have helped.