Rongsen Zhang Personal Statement

Since I was in elementary school, I have been fascinated by the world and country that I live in. My grandfather was an intelligentsia during China`s Cultural Revolution. When I was eight, I learned he suffered political persecution by the Communist Party of China; he was sentenced to death by an accusation of anti-revolution. I started to be aware of the political issue of China. Then I constantly began to focus more and more on national politics and the economy. During the middle school, I started watching television news and reading internationally recognized journals and magazines. I have become convinced that an American university education is relevant to world affairs and would help me gain knowledge that would allow me to pursue a wide range of possibilities. Since I came to an American community college, the new information and experience have challenged and provoked me. For this reason, I am interested in western democratic thoughts and spirits of liberalism. I really want to understand and explore the causes and effects of current and future international relations. I believe we Chinese should not just learn advanced science and technology from the western world. We also have to understand the democratic politics and liberty from another country. The international relations could exert profound influence on the future of China. It is the main reason that I would like to study International Studies in University of Washington.

When I just arrived in US, I used to live with a home stay in Shoreline. My landlord was a social worker who was working at Seattle Union Station. We really got along with each other. She was very nice. We would always chat about International affairs and politics. She really appreciated my passion of international affairs, and then she introduced me to volunteer work for Asian Pacific Islander (API). This is an organization focused on seeking to be a united voice of positive change on the issues that affect immigrant rights, social and human services, race relations, anti-Asian violence prevention and voting rights. During my volunteer work, I have been helping API to advertise the theory of Martin Luther King to Asian community by distributing their flyers. I also use my foreign language abilities (Mandarin and Cantonese) to be a translator for my colleagues. On October 25, 2012, I was asked for be a volunteer by API for a campaign. Basically, our job was to get Asian Americans to vote in 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. I was sent to a Chinese community to explain why they needed to vote. I went door to door with my colleague to encourage Chinese immigrants to get out and vote. This experience was significant for me, and I learned a lot about American politics and public relations. It also gave me strong confidence and courage to continue studying and working in international studies areas.

My educational goal is to earn a degree of International Studies admission in University of Washington. I am currently enrolled at North Seattle Community College (NSCC) in pursuing an Arts degree. My performance at NSCC is considered to be outstanding. While taking full-time classes and keeping average GPA above 3.7 all the time, I also volunteer in IP (International Programs) office for orientation of international students. Studying at NSCC is not hard for me although I had a language barrier and spent a lot of time on learning English. My score of TOEFL is not very high, but I believe I will be working hard on my English in