By Celiang Huang, staff writer
As a 1st generation college bound student, I knew applying for college might be difficult since my family and I immigrated to the USA only 5 years ago. I knew it would be hard to understand the instructions for applying for scholarships, the college applications and I was afraid there was no one who could help me with the application process.
October 1st, the day most college applications opened, was one of the most stressful days of the whole application process. I started receiving a lot of emails from colleges stating that they had opened up their applications. This is where the stress began as I wasn’t sure how to fill out the application correctly, how to write the personal insight essays, and I wasn’t sure what kind of major I wanted to choose. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to complete these tasks.
Fortunately, there was a college preparation meeting during my English class which is where I met Kristen Tatum and all my stress went away. She provided much useful information about college and how to apply for scholarships. She told me that students can go to the computer lab for more help. And she would help students fill out college applications, as well as applications for scholarships.
I started going to the computer lab twice a week after school for help. Kristen took me on a step-by-step tutorial on how to apply for FAFSA. She also guided me on how to put my thoughts together to write a good personal insight essay since it’s hard for me to fit in all the details in a short amount of characters (UC has a limitation of 350 words).
After I finished my first draft, she helped me with editing and revising my personal insights which were extremely beneficial. JCYC not only gave me help on filling out applications but Kristen also gave me a fee waiver that reduced the fees for applying to colleges. I was particularly grateful for the fee waivers for 4 UC applications as it saved me almost $300.
I really appreciate how much Kristen helped me go through the process of applying for colleges. Without her help, I believe that I would have stared at the screen for hours and completed nothing. Words can not express how grateful I am, she was my inspirational hero and I want to say thank you to her for her diligence.
