Angel Tecuahutzin

Villanueva

CNSL 1

March 27, 2017

Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your

readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the

university.

I havent taken no extreme extracurriculars such as shadowing a doctor, doing internships in

hospitals or volunteering in hospital. But something I have done is that I always do my best

academically meaning I never stop my academic learning even if Im lying on a hospital bed. I

personally do my best to achieve the goals I want and passion for. In the past few years I have

been in and out of hospitals. I wouldnt be able to go to school as a normal student, but it didnt

stop me from learning. I took the initiative of my problem and asked for a teacher. I looked for

resources to have tutoring in my room at the hospitals Ive been to. I emailed my past teachers

personally even if I was yelling in pain or felt like my life was ending. Even though, I was in a

bed I learned medicine by being my own doctor. I used to inject my own medicine instead of the

nurses doing it for me, or I programmed my medicine to the correct speed to be given by

calculating correctly, and I finally I did research to all kinds of cancer to see the statistics and

learn from my own cancer. That is what I did to prepare myself for my major.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and

demonstrated that talent over time?

My skills are self management, networking, initiative and problem solver. I consider myself

someone who manages themselves at the age of fourteen I took the initiative by learning how to

take care of myself by learning the purposes of the medicines I was taking. I networked with my

past teachers and school nurse to provide me the right resources to earn my diploma on time

even when I had pancreatic cancer. I problem solved every single situation by asking the right

questions and showing my leadership and matureness among my doctors. By controlling my

narcotics for my chronic pain for 3 years without being addicted and dependent on it.

Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have

taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic

achievement?

The most difficult challenge that Im currently still facing is my pancreatic cancer. It affected me

by missing school and not being able to learn in a classroom and have that extra support with

peers. The steps I took to achieve and earned my diploma and keep my academic learning are

networking with my social worker that manage my case and asking them for a teacher from the

hospital, or by emailing my teachers and asking them for work, or calling my principal and

school nurse to arrange my homework to be sent via fax to the hospital. As well as, calling my

peers from school to help me and send me notes even if I was receiving chemo by central line or
getting up from my bed even with pain that was seven times stronger than a woman in labor to

go to the classroom of the hospital. That is how I overcame my challenge because it made me

realize that Im stronger than what I thought I was.

What is the one thing that you think sets you apart from other candidates

applying to the University of California?

Something that sets me apart from other candidates is that nothing can bring me down to achieve

the dreams I have. Which is to be an oncologist instead of a patient to be a doctor and to give

hope to the same people who struggle the same. Im proud of myself because I didnt want the

cancer to make me a victim, but instead make it as a learning and growing opportunity as an

individual and student. Thats what sets me apart from other students because I have that passion

to learn and to become someone in society to inspire and be the person i fought to be which is a

doctor.