YouTube Deep Summary

## Intro... Why everyday experiences matter [00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to our webinar for today. We're going to talk about from summer job to leadership story where we're going to transform ordinary experiences to things that would look good on the college admissions process. I know that many folks uh when they think about what exactly to highlight within the application process, you think that you need fancy titles or big kind of transformative uh large impact roles, but in reality uh you don't necessarily need all of that. Uh it's just about how you speak about it. And so for today, what we're going to talk about is how you identify those leadership kind of opportunities that you can highlight within your day-to-day experiences, whether that's in a summer job or volunteering experiences. We're going to talk about examples on how to frame the uh experiences that you've had. So, we'll go through some examples of like bad examples, good examples on how to showcase your uh qualities that admission officers are looking for. And lastly, we want to talk about like personal branding and portfolio. How do you uh talk about and brand yourself uh in a way that is very clear and consistent uh so that way uh admission officers can really understand your value. So, that being said, let's go into it. And also if you are if this is the first time being able to go on a webinar with me, welcome. I'm coach Victor with Eagle and I am one of the uh senior adviserss uh plus head of enrollment. And a quick background for myself, I went to Berkeley for undergrad and graduate school on a full ride scholarship and also I worked at Berkeley within within their admissions office. So that's actually where I met Coach Tony. Fun fact. And also uh that being said uh my goal here is to be able to share like how I was able to kind of frame those experiences in my past as well. And it's all about framing really. It's all about how you talk about it. The more effective that you are able to communicate your story, your why, your kind of value and impact that you've had, the higher the chance of likelihood of getting into colleges and also potentially getting scholarships as well. So this isn't just applying to the application process but things for the. ## What leadership really means in college admissions [02:00] um scholarships as well. Okay. So that being said, let's go into it. So when it comes to the way that we think about leadership, let me zoom in a little bit here. Uh leadership is not about the title as I mentioned, right. It's really about the kind of qualities of what does leadership mean. Ideally you like yes like being a president being a secretary being a treasurer whatever it is uh there is a little bit of uh a a sense about what kind of uh roles or tasks that you've done and it's it's kind of assumed but even though if you have the title and you you put it into your application if you can't articulate it well then it doesn't mean anything. Yes, it's cool that you were elected as like president for this entire class. Uh, but if you can't talk about your impact or what did you actually do within that role, then it really is meaningless. So, what's underneath that title. We're talk we're going to talk about three major qualities that these admission officers are looking for. First off is taking initiative. You saw a need and you stepped out without being asked. Why does it matter. Well, because think of it this way. If the goal about these activities is to understand will you be a good cultural fit to our uh college and also a lot of these it's not just colleges but also scholarships they want to invest in someone who is willing to uh take initiative in terms of um uh like the in sense of innovation and they are wanting to be able to sponsor someone that they can eventually put their name on and say like oh I am uh super proud that uh so Victor went to Berkeley because he studied here and now he's doing like a lot of transformative things uh now in the current state. Just making that up. But what I mean by that is that they are investing into you because they expect that a few years from after even after college that you'll be able to create these things also in terms of the campus lifestyle as well. They want to be able to know will you actually add any particular value to the uh culture. So the taking an initiative here is part of the innovation uh for the campus culture and also for the um interest of sponsoring after college. Okay. Some examples of this right is uh maybe there is isn't a club on campus that is uh focused on a particular cultural um identity. Maybe like for example, you created the first LGBTQ uh uh club or organization or even the first like Asian-American student association or whatever it is. Or maybe there was never a robotics team at your school and you created that for the first time. The goal is that you're not you don't need to wait till college to really start having these experiences. You can just start doing it right now. So if you're interested about a particular extracurricular or you want to explore something you don't need to uh wait for something to uh to come for to you instead you can just uh initiate. ## Initiative... Taking action without a title [05:00] it right away. So for example starting a club right that we mentioned um starting a project a personal project and uh yeah so those are some examples there. So going next into solving a problem, you found a way to make something better. The reason why um the universities really care about this is because they want to look for people who are not just going not just the most intelligent person in the room, but someone that actually can apply their academics to real life scenarios. So the like when it comes to like grades, that only shares so much, right. It shares about how well can you study to the book. But if you're able to apply that knowledge to something in uh the real world, what that means is that you can probably advance that field even more later on, whether that's in college or even after you're done with college. So applying your um your education to real life problems and also what this is is showing your critical lens as well. They want to be able to see that you can look at something and understand what is the root cause or root uh challenges that is affecting a particular population or a geographic location and that you understand what exactly is necessary to solve uh for that. So think of it as like a gap, right. You see a particular gap in a issue that you care about and you have this particular critical lens to uh try to think of solutions for this particular need. And so uh what they're also looking for is just people who are critical uh who uh who have a critical lens to identify problems and ideate on solutions. some examples on this. So for uh let's say uh maybe you see a issue about the uh efficiency of like the lunch line at school. It could be the case where like you notice that the lunch line is not adequately serving all these like hundreds of students and they have like a poor system created where you uh where it takes a long time for students to get their lunch. So instead maybe you go in you're like hey why do we need to have like only five lines for this. Can we create different pockets across the. ## Problem solving... Spotting gaps and fixing them [07:30] campus uh to uh enable more supply of food so that way um students are able to like get their lunch faster or something. Or it could be the case where uh you notice like within your robotics club uh your team is uh having an issue where you can't get certain parts and so you were uh being innovative and you found a way to collect parts from scraps from companies that are local. Uh so that way you can uh find these materials for free and you're able to use it for this robotics club. So the problem solving right it doesn't matter about what problem but it matters about more so what is the problems that you care about and this should ideally align with your interests that either your major that you want to apply into or maybe like something that you ideally want to do later on in your career and of course like you don't always know what exactly you want to study or what you want to do but the goal from these activities these uh solving these problems helps you get closer to understanding what you might want to do from it. So examples of this is uh like supporting or helping a like club or school community and also this can al this can be applied to home as well. So it's not just a matter of uh everything has to be located in school but this could be um off-campus uh and even just being able to be like a brother or sister or a supporter within the family. The goal is to be able to show how you're all um uh thinking of solutions as well of solutions. Okay. And then influencing others. Okay. This is your ability to uh encourage groups of people to do something positively uh without necessarily needing that leadership title. And the reason why this matters is because again you're going to be on this campus to uh participate in their campus community. They don't want somebody who is just. ## Influence... Rallying others and making change [09:30] going to study and do really well on their academics and just go to school and then go home and and study. They want somebody who is going to contribute towards the campus climate. So what they are looking for is leaders in a sense leaders who can encourage people to better their community in some type of way. So this is to uh like create a positive like domino effect uh on the uh community. and also just generally like improve the campus like climate. Examples of of this is uh generally speaking when you're in a club or community or whatever group that you want to call it, whether it's an interest group that maybe you're part of a prehealth uh club or a robotics club or whatever uh just uh fill in the blank club. The the goal is to be able to show that you were able to get everybody to think about something that you all care about, right. And uh get them to uh lead them to solving that particular problem or building something new. The goal is to not just be the you you being the only person to care about the problem, but you're able to get others at your campaigning, the rest of your uh your community to be able to care about the same thing. So, in ways it's like kind of like a marketing/sales kind of uh technique there. So examples of this would be uh campaigning your community to care about a particular issue and uh also maybe even like for example like fundraising or like campus events. Okay. So let's talk about a few examples on how you might be able to highlight this uh with like what people might typically do on a day-to-day basis. So let's talk about babysitting. Okay. Cuz with when it comes to babysitting, I know that this is what a lot of students do. They might not necessarily have the opportunity to uh really participate in. ## Babysitter becomes educator example [11:30] the school community because they have like responsibilities at home. And just so you know, when it comes to these examples, there's as effective. Um and uh the universities are aware that not everyone has access to the same resources. So, if you only have access to really uh doing these leadership activities at home, as long as you're able to communicate like what kind of leadership experiences you had at home, then that could be uh just as effective. So, for example, here one student uh babysat two younger siblings all summer and instead of just watching TV, she created three-hour daily schedule that included reading, math games, outdoor times, and crafts. The result of that, the kids were better prepared for school and parents were so impressed that they gave her a glowing letter of recommendation. So, what this what this shows, right, is yes, she could have just easily um babysat, just make sure that they were able to eat and that they were entertained, but the fact of the matter is this is showing that she's taking initiative to make the experience of these kids uh educational. And imagine if this student was trying to apply into studying education or going to early education. Uh she's able to utilize this particular story as a way to demonstrate that she's taking initiative on her day-to-day activities uh working with kids that she doesn't need to be tasked to educate them. She's doing it naturally herself because she. ## Food pantry volunteer turned organizer [13:00] cares about them. And that's what the universities want to know. They want to know what are your values. what do you actually care about and how do you know that you really want to study this field or participate in this career in the future. Uh how do how do you how does that show up in these uh daily experiences. And for this particular kind of activity, this is something that maybe not a lot of uh students would be willing to do with their babysitting. Majority of the students will probably just try to make it very easy uh for themselves and the kids just by entertaining or playing with them. But instead, in this case, right, the babysitter was able to make it educational and make it worthwhile for the kids because she values and cares about education. Okay. And so next, let's talk about another example, which is the volunteer organizer story. So another student volunteered at a food pantry. After noticing that supplies were hard to find, she created label bin label bins and inventory lists. The result of that, the simple action helped new volunteers get trained faster and even got recognized by the director. Okay. Uh this might seem small but if you think about it she's problem solving here right this is solving for that efficiency issue where a student volunteering the only task that they were probably given to do was just serve this food to the uh to the population of the needy and just give it out right but in that process she understood that uh this there was uh something that was there was added added friction there was something that was preventing her from being able to do effectively and same for her peers as well. So by taking initiative to uh be aware that this is a problem right this is the problem solving she noticed that uh there was a lot of uh like friction and uh it was very slow to be able to give the right type of food and so by being able to label the bins and creating that inventory list makes just makes it a lot faster and easier for people to uh provide this service. So that's an. ## Fast food worker improves systems [15:00] example of identifying problem creating a solution and also like uh iding it and nobody had to tell the student about what to do there. Next part is the retail worker and peer trainer story. So one team worked at a frozen uh yogurt shop helping new hires learn the register. Eventually she created a one-page uh cheat sheet uh result. No title, no promotion, just leadership. Meaning that when it comes to students doing these things, they're not doing it just for the sake of a title or promotion or some type of monetary value. They're doing it because they care or value something. And in this case, right, this teen was demonstrating they really cared about how the uh newer workers were onboarding onto the process. And they can say like within their uh personal insight questions or their personal statement uh or activities generally speaking that they really care about the onboarding experience uh for newer people. And this taught her like the core values of like being able to be efficient and ensuring that uh people are set up for success if they're given the right tools. And this can lead to a example of maybe a student even applying to like business administration or something of that sort. Uh because this is part of like a business function. And so there are ways to easily connect this to a particular major or field that they really care about. And also at the same time it shows that this student is taking that initiative uh that that the universities are looking for here. Okay. So that was just a few examples but there are uh better ways about how to frame it and that's really about uh the um yeah like the strategy on how to talk about it. So just as a reminder right what admission officers want to know is when did you make something better when did someone rely on you more than usual and did you. ## How to use the STAR framework effectively [17:00] influence a change or help others to do something more efficiently. the uh the way that leadership right the whole premise of leadership is that you're not just doing it yourself but the fact that you are creating a dominal impact on other people around you and so these these are the reasons why the questions um they are looking at and so when it comes to talking about it effectively we use the star framework and as a reminder for those who already been to my training we talked about this a few times but the star framework is situation task action and result or reflection the situation is what was the context what going on. Task is what challenge or goal were you working on. Action is what did you do and the results and reflection of what happened and what did you learn from that experience. So of course you don't have to follow this strictly in terms of your uh the ways that you write your activities but it is a helpful framework to make sure that you give enough context to the uh to the readers and also the part that you want to focus on the most is a result and reflection in most cases right the situation and task uh too many students focus on this a little bit too much uh instead they should be focusing more on the action and the result one of the other kind of frameworks we talk about is 30% % of the what and 70% of the why and the why here is the results and reflection and the what is the situation task and action. So I know that seems a little bit more difficult and like how far can you expand on this but again the the reason there's a reason why it's called personal insight question or personal statement they are almost in most cases majority of students are probably doing something very similar right it's highly unlikely that you are a very very unique student that has done this very very unique thing uh compared to everyone else because I'm sure there are other students who are applying that has done something similar in this case the one The thing that differs across those two students is about how they talk about their why. What did they learn from those experiences. Same especially like let's say sports, right. Sports, there's ton of students playing the same exact sports. There's ton of students that are like the captain of the soccer team, but what they learn from it is totally different from each other. And the one that that displays the most self-awareness and most maturity in that uh personal statement uh will likely be the one to be accepted in this case. So let's talk about an example here about how to apply the star framework and this is for example a baby a baby babysitter who became an educator right so very similar example so first off uh let me do just one at a time so first off the situation over the summer I babysat two elementary kids uh five days a week while their parents were at work and uh the task here was that they were responsible keeping them engaged But the parents also hoped that I could prevent them from summer learning loss. And some. ## Deeper reflection... Learning to articulate your why [20:00] for those who don't know summer learning loss is where uh according to research uh students tend to lose their academic skills over the summer. And so based on that uh they created the action of instead of supervising them create a daily schedule that included 1 hour reading, 30 minutes of math games, outdoor activities, and creative projects. I even made a sticky uh reward chart to help them stay motivated. And the result of it by the end of the summer the kids had to each read 10 books improve their math fluency scores on a pra on a practice app and their parents asked me to next year wrote me a letter recommendation for my college app. Okay so let's expand this even more right the reflection piece which is the most uh critical part. So what this uh student could have said right is um this really um interested like peak their interest uh in education and particularly early uh education. And the way to kind of think about these reflections is just always asking yourself why why why. So for example why did this peak their interest in education particularly educa early education. Well, maybe the student could have said that uh they realized they never had this type of uh learning as a young uh child, right. Uh and why is that the case. Well, because that their um um their parents uh were immigrants and were adjusting to the country while she was young, right. And uh and then you can ask yourself another why about maybe why was this important. Don't focus on the parents. Focus more about um the student in this case. Right. Uh the most common number one issue that a lot of uh students tend to do is that they talk about their parents. They talk about the communities. They talk about issues that don't relate to themselves. So keep it about yourself. So in this case the next level why right is uh why was this important to her. Right. And uh in this case, maybe this student could have said that um like they wanted to oh actually I should write this all in like first person because the um uh yeah the rest of the star wasn't in first person. Uh and so my parents piqu my interest. My parents were immigrants and were adjusting to the country while uh while I was young. And uh I want to uh ensure that uh students from my from similar backgrounds don't experience the same issue uh as what I had. And so and then another level why you could connect into the future. Uh based on this entire experience I realized I wanted uh I want to go pursue a career in early education. Okay. So that's an example of uh a deeper reflection based on this experience. Right. It's not about the task that was very important, but it's about the result of uh showing that they're taking initiative, right. Which is through the action here and the problem solving and then going into uh deeper levels of the reflection. Okay, let's go. Next part, the fast food uh crew member who solved a bottleneck. So for this particular student, uh let's say I worked at a at a fast food restaurant where the lunch rush often caused uh long wait times and customer complaints. The task was that my job was to prep orders and support the cashier. But I noticed the biggest slowdowns happen during the transitions between shifts. The action from that particular task. I proposed a 10-minute overlap between shifts so the incoming employee could be briefed before the current one clocked out. I shared my idea with the manager, helped create a checklist for smoother handoffs, and train my teammates on the process. The results, the average lunch wait time dropped by 3 to 5 minutes. customers are happier and the manager recognized me during a team meeting for improving our workflow. Okay, so this is amazing because this is showing that they're taking initiative that they are trying to solve for a particular problem and they influence others, right. They influence their peers at the restaurant and even the manager noticed that, right. So next let's go into again the uh the next R which is the reflection, right. And the reflection here could easily be something along the lines of um I learned that I value efficiency and clarity on process. Why is that the case. uh because I I care about that because um I. ## Real student rewrites using numbers and results [25:00] uh value my time and uh and the time of our customers. Like why is that important. Well, because uh time is money. I care about that because time is money. Uh and uh but and I realized this is a this was wasted opportunity or money. If uh we could support more students or sorry more customers uh if we improved our uh efficiency and let's connect it to the future right of what they've learn like figure out like what do they want to learn because again for these admission processes what's really effective is you can identify what is your gap of knowledge what do you want to learn and like how is um found at the university, right. And so in this case, like I uh realized I wanted to learn more about uh business processes and uh increase efficiency in um in restaurant businesses. And then they can kind of go into like what do they want to specifically learn about within business degree or like how would this business uh this bachelor's in business administration help them in the future. So it creates like a clear understanding of why am I applying to here to gain this particular skill. And just so you know like you don't have to be super super like um exact or specific here. Like it's understandable as like a 17year-old or 18-year-old that's applying to college. It's not expected that you would know everything about what you will learn but generally you just know what the right direction is and so it's okay to uh go at this level of depth here. All right. Next is the volunteer who improved pantry operations. So the situation here is at my local uh food pantry. I volunteered to sort and distribute supplies every Saturday morning. The task is I noticed that new volunteers often struggle to find items quickly because the pantry layout and labels were unclear. I spent a few hours reorganizing the shelves, reabeling them by category and creating a simple map for incoming volunteers. I also suggested a five-minute orientation that I helped lead for first- timers. And the result here, operations ran more smoothly. New volunteers became more efficient and director said that improvements save 30 minutes of prep time every day. And she even asked me to train her uh next year's volunteer volunteer team. All right. And again going to the reflection here, right. Uh the reason why this is important to me, right. And that remember that's always a question. Why is this important to me. Uh I highlight this because I really care about the onboarding experience for new and new volunteers. H why. Because I was uh very lost when I first onboarded and it prevented me from uh from quickly serving uh more um uh what's it called like clients. And why is this important to me is that uh I like the uh negative or uh inefficient onboarding experience uh like detered uh me and others from participating. And uh because of this uh the reason why this is important is that I really care about uh the community we were serving and I wanted uh to ensure um more volunteers would support this particular cause. And then if you're to connect it to college uh in the future I know uh this or this has helped me understand that uh in the future I want to support lowincome communities and uh that um has it encouraged me to uh study like social welfare or something like that. Okay. So there's not like a so in ways right what is kind of interesting about this one is this is taking this particular action or this particular task uh but it's connecting to the. ## Personal branding... What colleges should know about you [30:00] particular community that this volunteer is uh uh is particularly motivated to serve and support. And by thinking about that particular community, they realized that one of the issues is this like food pantry challenge. And that by going through this process, they realized that they were more motivated than usual. And the reason why they were more motivated was because of the population they want to serve and that they want to continue serving this population in the future through uh social services. And that's why they wanted to study social welfare. So if you can see it, this is kind of the example of just being able to tie what they learned in the moment. Uh what was the result of it and what was the impact they had, but also why is it important uh to them in the kind of longer in the larger grand scheme of things. All right. So let's go to the next part which is um to bring these experiences um that can impress uh admission officers and I'm going to show different examples of like weak versus strong kind of examples uh on uh what we typically have seen in the past uh regarding like in these activity section. And so generally general rule of thumb always try to use numbers metrics when possible. Focus on the results not just the task. Okay. Because they want to know that uh you're you're not just doing things for the sake of doing it but you're doing it because you want to attain a certain result or that you are trying to affect a particular outcome. So an example here, summer job at a retail store. I worked the cash register and it helped restock shelves. Okay. Uh this this doesn't really share me anything, right. It's not Yes, you worked. Okay, uh kudos, right. A lot of people work. Uh but it doesn't really give me any depth that I can like use and and say that there was something meaningful there. And again, uh when it comes to a lot of like firsttime jobs that a lot of students have, it it could be this case, right, where they do work at a retail store. But there's another way that you could be able to uh talk about it. So, for example, you manage over 75 customer transactions per shift while reducing checkout weight times by 20% while reorganizing counter flow and suggesting faster payment methods. Okay. Uh this is also effective for résumés. Uh if you're a parent, you probably have known what it's like to think about changing bullet points and to make it sound more impressive. And this is an example of it where you're identifying the number of uh customers that you're able to support and that you had this overall um impact of reducing these weight times uh through your critical lens and problem solving skills of reorganizing the counter. Okay. Uh next is uh example number two which is volunteering at a local food pantry. So the week uh version is I volunteered every weekend and helped sort donations. Okay. uh I think a lot of students are doing this right it's usually out of food pantry maybe they're doing something over the weekend and yes you've done these things but uh add some numbers to it and also what was the impact right so here they are streamlining donation sorting by redesigning the inventory system which reduced item displacement by 40% and sped up volunteer training by 30 minutes per shift so the difference here right the student is taking initiative right they're showing that they're not just thinking about how to uh support the uh client at the very end, but instead they're thinking about processes, about the systems, about ways to improve the process of supporting that those uh particular clients or community in need. So that's what the kind of problem solving or critical lens is what we're looking for here, right. It's being able to show that you're not just doing the work, but you're enhancing the work and you're making it better for everybody. Example three is babysitting and childcare role. So the weak version is I watched two kids and kept them entertained during the summer. And in this case for the stronger version designed and implemented a weekly learning schedule that improved reading time by 45 minutes daily and helped children complete uh complete 12 age appropriate books over eight weeks. Okay. So here again using the numbers to be able to show what that impact actually looks like and also taking that initiative to uh generate something taking initiative right uh again a lot of students are a lot of babysitters are probably just doing things to entertain the kids but not many are actually trying to initiate learning during these times. All right. So, now that we talked about a lot of examples on how to talk about it, right. Uh you can use this as a future reference to be able to improve your writing skills. But the next part it's we're going to take a step back a bit and maybe I should have talked about this first, but it's to create your personal brand or portfolio. So, we're. ## Portfolio strategy... Bringing your value to life [35:00] going to talk about what does a personal brand actually include and also what's an example of a portfolio that you can use and then we'll go through an exercise on how to start thinking about your personal branding. So, first off, a personal brand always includes your core values and interests, right. Uh what this means is what do you care about. What topics uh causes or activities that light you up. Remember, we talked about a lot about values for all these other examples. Not everybody has to do that volunteering. Uh not everybody has to take that initiative. Uh for some reason you decided to take that initiative. You decided to problem solve. You decided to think a little bit more critically about everything here. And so what's the uh uh what what is the uh the driving force that is motivating you to take a step in this direction and uh committing to these particular um activities. All right. Your why statement very similar here. uh a clear sentence about what drives you and what kind of impact you want to make. And this I I would say this is like uh not just your core values but your overarching uh mission or vision that you want to accomplish. Uh so back then uh I would say when I was applying to Berkeley and uh and and also writing my scholarship applications, one of my main like reasons why was like because of my background uh coming from an immigrant household that was like lowinccome, I wanted to make sure that uh communities uh that were very similar to mine or families that were similar to mine uh would not have to experience the uh challenges of what's like to grow up in a uh and grow up in poverty and that and the vision that I was being able to see was that I wanted to ensure that there that your zip code or your geographical location does not negatively determine your out your life outcomes. And I remember that was something I wrote down in my uh personal statements that uh really I would say really helped me uh show that I really cared about equity, quality and why I was supporting this particular uh community here. And so being able to think about like what's the future vision that you want to accomplish uh is a way to think about it. And of course like you might not really know right now. It's it's it's understandable as a high school student. You might not clearly understand that. But at the same time you at least know some direction or maybe a little bit of an inkling about what do you hope to accomplish in this life. All right. Signature skills. What are the specific strengths whether it's organizing, writing, public speaking or problem solving that show up across your experiences. So thinking through like you compared to the rest of your friends, what would you think uh they would say about you. What are your particular qualities or characteristics that might uh differentiate you from your rest of your peers uh that you might be proud about. Proof of action. So leadership stories, personal projects or volunteer work that show initiative, not just participation. And this proof of action is just pretty much being able to showcase what results have you had. Consistent messaging, the way that you introduce yourself in resumes, bio, LinkedIn or interview should tell the same story that no matter if anybody were to say like, "Hey, um, what do you think about Coach Victor?" Ideally, it would all be the same. Okay, for those who kind of know who I am, right. uh my kind of personal branding at least within Eolock is that I'm that internship professional career guy or coach that um helps students to be able to get internships. That's and that's why like a lot of my webinars are all all about um internships or getting jobs or something of that sort. So that's part of the consistent branding or messaging there. And while like we know over uh for coach Tony, he used to be admissions reader, right. And so we always emphasize that he used to work in admissions. He used to be the one that that uh that evaluated students um applications and uh same for many of the other um coaches that we have on our staff. So we try to maintain a consistent messaging not just within our company but also even outside as well when people think about us. Online presence, your LinkedIn profile, personal website, digital profile that showcase your values, skills and work samples. So just imagine if someone were to Google your name, right. uh what would they see. And maybe you don't have anything yet, but you will. So, uh what do you want them to know about you. Right. If you don't create your own narrative, then people will create a narrative about you. And so, you want to be the first to define what your narrative should be. Testimonials or endorsements. Okay. Uh so, teacher quotes, employer feedback, or peer recommendations that support your strength and characters. So being able to identify what are the um um people to speak directly uh to their experiences working with you to maintain that consistent messaging. All right. So an example here and uh I see in the chat no worries uh you will get the copy of this um notes. ## Final reminders... Reflection, results, and storytelling tips [40:00] So, one of the kind of examples we have here is actually a high school profile where um they are creating a portfolio for themselves and they can actually use this more so for like applying for jobs. Of course, you can't just send this to college applications. Uh typically, you have to fill in the boxes. So, you don't really get to create something like very unique or very uh creative here. Uh but this can be used for like your internships or your um uh summer jobs or really anything uh else. And ideally, I would say even for students, you should start creating your portfolio now because it makes it easier for you to be able to uh reference back when you start applying for colleges and also scholarships. And also at the same time, uh you're going to start developing your professional presence and identity. And so it's better to get started on it now and make a habit out of it. So that way you might be one of the first people in your grade level that can acquire an internship that's very uh prestigious. So in this particular example of a portfolio uh and also if you don't know this is notion you can actually create a copy of this. If you were to log in uh you can be able to uh create a copy. So uh don't worry that link will be available to everyone. But here uh this student is able to write a particular bio a little bit about themselves. uh they're talking about their mission here which is aspiring bio technologist based in London and also their goals to looking for internship opportunities. They have different examples of uh projects that they've worked on in the past and also links to what that might look like and also this is an example student. This isn't real. So this might be something that uh you could be able to showcase all the things that you've done. And if you notice right what's the branding of this uh particular student so far. It looks like they care about healthcare and they like tech, right. And so biotechnology is pretty consistent throughout here and also being up to date with the latest uh technological trends such as AI and and other things is what is um showing that they are more on the uh what's it called. uh up to date on the modern technology. Also courses and certifications, they show that they were able to complete uh certain courses uh like micro courses or certifications. And so this shows like what particular skills that they have. And so you can really put anything on your portfolio, right. It doesn't mean that you have to have everything that's here, but the goal is over time you're able to showcase uh what you have, right. And also, if you haven't started LinkedIn yet, we're actually going to have a LinkedIn uh workshop. I think I forgot which week. Uh in a few weeks from now, I think it's in July uh where we'll teach you about how to uh start your LinkedIn profile. But generally speaking, your LinkedIn profile is what majority of professionals in the field uh create their kind of portfolio on. And okay so that's an example of like one of the uh particular uh portfolios that you can uh consider for yourself. So let's talk about the personal branding. So this is kind of an ideation here. If you don't know what your personal branding is just think of it this way. So first you put your name here and you just create a mind map right. What are the four characteristics or qualities that you want to showcase about yourself. Okay. So maybe okay let's say this is myself right. This is Vic uh Victor and the kind of qualities that uh he wants to show about. Let's say if I'm trying to apply into computer science, right. I really care about computer science and AI, I want to also show that I really um I care about leadership, right. I want to take initiative uh initiative and leadership here. Uh I really care about a particular problem. Let's just say the problem I really care about is uh let's see what's a problem I care about. So let's say I just care about like uh like animal shelters. I really care about pets. I have three pets by the way. Two dogs, one cat. So uh I care about the fact that there's animals that are not getting adopted. And maybe a fourth kind of example here is that um I love uh being like uh innovative. Okay. So if I wanted to make these the four qualities about myself, then I have to make sure that throughout my uh personal statements, my activities, they speak to at least one of these four. Right. If you're applying to UC's or University of California, you're going to have to write out like four personal insight questions. So think of it this way. Your PIQ's uh each of the PIQs should have a distinct uh thing about yourself, a distinct quality about yourself. So one PIQ can be about computer science AI, one is about initiative leadership, another is about animal shelter and pets and fourth is innovative. So the next part is to think about what are the examples that you can be able to uh talk about uh for each of these. Right. So for computer science and AI, I can talk about like oh how I uh created an application from scratch and uploaded to the um Apple Store and Google Play and got 1,000 downloads. Okay. So this is showing how uh this student or for me I was very interested about this particular skill set and I developed an application uh using AI I guess from uh from scratch I guess using AI and maybe this application uh was uh solving a problem regarding study uh tips uh for high school students. Okay, so that's an example one. Uh and of course like if I had more time then I'll go into the reflection piece about like each part of it like why does this matter. uh you know you can just generally say like this has helped uh solidify my interest in uh CS AI uh and I can see the u future impact of expanding on the skill. Okay. All right. That's I know that's a little bit long one initiative and leadership. Right. Maybe I am a uh I am a member of the uh robotics club. Even though I didn't hold a position, I heavily influenced the curriculum of our robotics club. Uh I worked with the teacher advisor and a leadership team to uh uh enhance the curriculum for uh 9th grade students to learn more quickly about uh robotics. And what this taught about for myself is that uh I really care about education uh and learning of um of students, right. As an example, another one. Oh, cannot let me. Okay, there we go. And let's say animal shelter and pets, right. So maybe uh the next thing is being able to share that uh I volunteered at a local animal shelter and I noticed that certain uh dogs were not being adopted. So I uh created uh I mean it might be a little bit extreme to say I created another application but but I uh like updated I to I took the initiative to update the website uh to um promote uh dogs close to euthanization. uh to uh get extra attention. So this is like a showing example of like problem solving, right. And also uh showcasing that they also have this uh skill set in like website design and marketing as well. And then the last piece is like the innovation, right. So it could be a case here where um I mean they could talk about this application in ways that this is uh kind of one and the same. But remember that uh if if you're showing that um this particular application you can use it for either quality, right. For the innovation or the computer science and AI, it's totally possible that you just want to use one for the one or the other. So let's just say uh I realize oh this is actually probably better for innovation. Then I could go back to the computer science and AI and just think about what's a better example um of where I can showcase my interest in computer science and AI. So maybe this could be a different application or it could be even a um like uh like talking about projects within uh AP computer science class and just essentially you can just ideulate on different things that could uh can go into here. So again, what are the four distinct activities or or different examples that make up who you are. And then you're kind of showcasing what is this messaging or branding that you're having about yourself. So uh this is uh something that you all can reference uh for future if that is helpful. Uh so just know that there's not a perfect type of branding that like a cookie cutter uh type of candidate that these admission officers are looking. Again, they just really care more so about the self-awareness, right. How much do you know about yourself and also how well can you communicate what you learned from the experience and how does it relate to what you want to do later on in the future. Okay, so now we're at our end of our presentation. Uh, if you found this helpful, um, I hope it was, uh, then you can text notes or replay to 949-7750865. So that way you can be able to get all these notes that I've typed out here and you can get the recording. Also, if you want a free student brag sheet, this is a worksheet that we've created in the past where you can be able to uh, keep track of all the things that you've done over time. So, this is kind of like a living document that you can uh, add to it after each leadership moment or activity. uh and also gives you some space to reflect on the examples so that way you can make it easier for you to write about it in the future. It's like almost in a way like think of it as like your long list of a resume that you can uh build upon. So if you want that type uh text brag sheet to 9497750865 and also if you are new to this uh webinar this maybe this is your first time uh being able to experience it. Welcome. Uh this is Eagle Lock. We provide a lot of free information about the college admissions process and uh to ensure that you can maximize your chances to get in and even for us we want to make sure that we provide a free service of a co-f free coaching session. Uh this is where we give you some useful tips and advice on for you uh and your child specifically on what you can do to maximize your chances and uh our goal is to be able to understand where you're currently at in the admissions process and see uh what kind of steps can you do to be able to further that long. So if you're interested in that text coach 2949-7750865. All right. So that brings us to the end of our presentation. Right. Uh, and again, uh, you can text no or replay, text brag sheet, or text coach for any of those freebies or, uh, for the, uh, information here. So, let's go now next into, uh, Q&A. Uh, if there's anybody that has anything that uh, you want to, uh, ask. I can finally drink water now. Any questions from this crowd. any help uh with the why on being a sports referee. Okay, that's a good one. Uh so let's see for sports referee. Well, I think the question would be also uh is a student looking to like play competitively in sports in the future or um is there a particular major in mind. I'm just kind of curious about that. Uh for a lot of the kind of things that doesn't really directly connect to major or what you want to do later on, there is probably some type of quality that you gain from it, right. as a referee, he might like value um the sense of uh people following the rules or people making sure that people are able to uh play fairly and that fairness is a quality that you care about and you uphold that. Uh and that's something maybe is a core value that you can share about. Maybe uh another core value that you've gained as a sports referee is like mentorship and guidance towards younger people. Uh it's possible like let's say you're working with a a younger soccer league and you're able to work with those kids and you not just care about soccer but you also care about ensuring uh these kids have a good experience and uh that that contributes towards like the leadership quality of collaboration and community where you're able to influence others. So maybe you're able to talk about how you've influenced those kids or maybe other referees about how to create a stronger uh sports community. So another so maybe a guiding question is like what is the impact that you've had as a sports referee aside from just making sure that the game is like well maintained. Is there anything anything like taking an initiative that you could be able to reflect on. Right. Great question there. Any other questions, comments. All right, hearing none. Um, hope everyone will have a good rest of the night. Take care and if you have any questions, feel free to stop by my office hours. Uh, they're typically on Thursdays, 4 to 5:00 p.m. Uh, so looking forward to, uh, talking with a few folks there. Right, take care. Bye.