Vera Yangildina

I am Achiever
I remember when I was a child, I wanted so much to ride a bike, but was scared even to sit on it and almost gave up until one day I just suppressed that frightening feeling and followed my ambitions to make my dream come true – riding the bike. I felt scared many times before I began bicycling in a proper way, but I wanted to achieve my goal. I kept riding and rebuilt my confidence. Having everything come easy doesn’t pay off, only hard work yields results. I learned to ride my bike from failure and turned that into success. I have learned that quitting does nothing for you; if you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it.
As a passionate student, I have always had an enthusiastic and resilient approach to learning and a desire to broaden my knowledge across many disciplines. As a responsible individual, I have always been driven to forge my own path. I’m aware of what bolsters my spirit and what hinders it. I know that my opportunities for growth are amplified when I have access to the most challenging material and when I’m surrounded by the most productive people. I have noticed that collectivist cultures value shared points of view and discourage or reject highly individual behavior and opinions. I moved to the United States on my own at age 21. I knew there would be a long obstacle-ridden road ahead. I believe only personal achievements through breaking through give the real feeling of nirvana. My character and attitude will eventually bring me to the right altitude. For six years I have been working on my immigration status while raising my kid. Being a single mother is a course of domestic engineering (starting from changing the light bulb in the kitchen to making and managing time and money), especially when there is no family and old friends around who help when things get a little rocky. There are moments in my life when I’m faced with a task and it gets challenging and my mind tells me to give up. An example of this is when I was taking English 101. The teacher was a tough maker; and the course load was intense and overwhelming. There was a time when I was given an essay to write and it was due the next day. I didn’t do well on the essay because my son was sick and I need time to think through before I write. However, that didn’t make me give up and drop the course. It is always too soon to quit; I decided to stick with the course until it ended, and my final mark was A.
I got my Green Card and permit to work, my son goes to one of the best schools in Los Angeles. I am in the President’s and Dean’s honor lists, Ralph Bunche Scholar, a member of the world’s largest honor society for community college students, Phi Theta Kappa. I’ve just been nominated, received an invitation and have enrolled in the 2016 International Scholar Laureate Program, Delegation on Engineering and Technology that will commence in China, and I’ve received $1,000 award to apply toward tuition to attend the program. Also, I’m a temporal paid intern in LA Superior Court, Human Resources. So far I got admitted into four universities as a transfer student in Fall 2016: Cal Poly Pomona for Food Science and Technology, Cal State LA for Food Science, Cal State Northridge for Food Science and Administration, and Cal State Long Beach for Chemical Engineering.
Very rarely one finds himself at the pinnacle of achievement by happenstance or good fortune, or by “winging it.” To succeed in life, one must set a goal, plan his route to obtain the said goal, and, finally, take the initiative to achieve it.