Personal Statement

1. Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

Growing up a first generation American, I grew up accustomed to American culture but I was also in a struggle to follow the Yemeni culture my parents brought forth with them from their arduous journey to America.  My parents emigrated from the country of Yemen, one of the poorest countries of the Arab world. Chaos was arising in my parents native country as it struggled to become one nation. At the time, their beloved country was made up of two separate states: North Yemen and South Yemen. In a state of pandemonium, my parents wanted to get away from it all. America was key in their search for opportunity and getting there was not an easy task. Though Yemen is notorious for its lack of education, my parents put a strong emphasis on my daily learning activities mine. They were seeking for me to strive in getting my education to seek the opportunity that this country had to offer and reach the pinnacle of my abilities. The many sacrifices my parents took in and outside of America made me who I am today. Making these sacrifices were not easy and these actions by my parents drive me to go far and succeed and are the source to my motivation. Their sacrifices shaped me into the person I am today and without their sacrifices, my attempt at receiving an education would be very scarce.


Out of a family of seven, I have three older siblings: an older brother and two sisters. Currently, only one of my older siblings are currently on a path on getting an education in college and even she is not clear on what path to take in her educational goals. By choosing to attend Alameda Science and Technology Institute, I made a commitment to endure whatever was thrown at me and to keep my focus on my education. I chose to stand out from those around me in my community and attend a school a city away from home rather than the local high school no farther than ten blocks away. But this all came with the package I chose to accept, and I never regretted those sleepless nights because just like my parents, I had to take sacrifices to achieve the pinnacle I planned to reach. The sleepless nights became higher achievements in school. The stressful afternoons finishing up my studying benefited into increasing test scores. The lonely days I stayed home to finish up my projects while my family went out made me further determined to finish every assignment.


Outside of school, there was never any time leftover for free time. This limited my participation in extracurricular activities. My dad was always hard at work along with my oldest brother which left me in charge of a lot of work at home. There would be a lot of occasions in which I had to reach out and help my brother and dad at their workplaces because of the stress of working seven days a week was putting on them.



2. Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

There are many experiences that I have went through that shape and relate to the person I am today. Experiences of failure have come to help me mature and learn from my mistakes. Learning the steps that lead to these failures give me a reason to come back with an ever stronger rebound. Without failure in our lives, there isn’t much to learn from ourselves. If we ignore our failures, what will come out of that and how will it help us overcome our difficulties?


An important failure that I went through in my life that turned out to be a learning experience was one that occurred in the second semester of my tenth grade year in high school. We started off the second semester that year without our math teacher present. She was going to be out for a long period time grieving the death of her husband. In place of her, they put in a substitute teacher that was not familiar with our standards and our teacher’s teaching methods. I took advantage of this time by mistakenly slacking off by failing to do the homework assigned and also failing to take notes of the lesson being given. There were times in which I was ready to switch back on and start paying attention again but a lot of my classmates were in a similar situation and I took on the role of the follower.


After about a month, our original teacher came back and assigned the classroom a test based on the lessons taught by our substitute teacher. This was bad news since there was not much that came to thought when I tried remembering our lessons. Later in the week, I went to check on my grades and found out at was at a new low in my learning; my grade was at a astonishing twenty-seven percent, a very low F. This failure brought an enormous amount of stress upon me. Never have I received a failing grade and at a low twenty-seven percent, I thought a rebound was inevitable.


I knew had to retrace my steps and find out how I got to this point. This failure helped me learn a lot of the things I was doing were mistakes. My notes had to be precise and on point, my attentive listening needed to be towards the teacher and not my classmates, and homework needed to be done. Even if the homework was not a big part of the grade, it was key to doing well on the tests that were assigned. And from there, the rebound was enforced and I made my math class top priority. Even if the grade seemed hard to rebound from, just leaving that failure untouched would leave a big burden on my back. Surprisingly, all the hard work payed off as I brought my grade back up to a B, far above a failing grade. This was an important learning experience I went through in high school because it closed the door on my easing off in and out of education.

Hunger Games Book Review (Final)

What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

In The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, we see a number of themes pop out throughout the book. There are themes of love, hate, survival, and power, just to name a few. It tells a story of survival, in which a sixteen year old is forced away from her family and thrown into a battlefield to fight to the end.
The setting takes place in a nation known as Panem, sometime in the future. The once thriving United States no longer thrives and a form of government cruel to its people has arisen. People are separated and put into districts, where they are limited of food, water, and shelter. Young children are sent out to provide food for their families, as is the situation of the main character Katniss, and failing in doing so can result in starvation for the whole family.

Power is obviously the main theme of the book. After putting down a rebellion put forth by the thirteen separate districts of Panem (and destroying the thirteenth district), the Capitol created the Hunger Games to take place each year. How the Hunger Games works is that they choose one boy and one girl from each district (both children) from a box full of names. The result is a number of twenty-four children put in an arena to fight to the death until one is left. The reasoning behind the games is to remind the people of the districts how powerful the Capitol is and how they can kill them in an instant by taking their children away. It works because the Games have put enormous fear upon the people of Panem and even though the games take place once a year, the fear it brings is present year round.

The government has made the situation into an Olympic like scenario, in which they hold festivals for the Hunger Games when truly, the people of Panem despise of it. Unfortunately, any word of resentment coming out of the mouths of the people of Panem and they will be immediately executed publicly, to set an example of what can happen to others:

“Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch - this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion” (pg. 18).     

In The Hunger Games, the main character Katniss stands out not only because she is also the narrator of the book but because of the distinctive and unique characteristics she exemplifies throughout the Hunger Games. Katniss was a key part in giving hope to not only her twelfth district, but to all of the people of Panem. Her diminutive acts of rebellion against the Capitol that started ever since she volunteered for the Hunger Games to take the place of her weak younger sibling, Prim, play key to what can eventually lead to a second rebellion against the Capitol.         

 Katniss also demonstrates many characteristics not seen by any ordinary sixteen year old. She demonstrates leadership and self-perseverance that plays an important role to her and her family’s survival. When her father was killed by a land mine set up by the cruel government of Panem, Katniss’s family seemed hopeless to survive without him. Her mother was no longer the same; soulless and in grief, she knows she doesn’t have what it takes to take care of Katniss and her younger sister. Luckily, Katniss steps up and takes up the role of keeping the family together. Like her father, Katniss was an extraordinary hunter with her bow and arrow, something that will benefit her in the hunger games that take place later into the book.

“Katniss, the girl who was on fire” (139).

Yes, this quote was simple but it summarized Katniss, the sixteen year old who was able to withstand the wrath of twenty three other kids all looking to kill her if the chance was given. Extraordinarily, she outsmarts all of them, including the creators of the Hunger Games: the Capital.

Though a thrilling book, The Hunger Games was not without its weaknesses. One weakness I think stood out of the book was the symbolization of the mocking jay. The mocking jay is located in a number of Suzanne Collins books dealing with the Hunger Games but it doesn’t seem to do a good job of explaining it. In my opinion, I think the mocking jay symbolized hope and rebellion. Mocking jays were hybrids created by the government to be used to their advantage to spy on people. Instead, it backfired and mocking jays memorized harmonic melodies and would sing throughout the districts.

Another weakness, in my opinion, was the failure of the author in giving background information about what exactly occurred before the Hunger Games was set up. This leaves a big question mark in the readers’ mind since the book was about the government’s response to the rebellion that occurred and committed by the thirteen districts of Panem against their government. This weakness leaves the reader with unanswered questions by the time they finish reading the book. Unless the rebellion is discussed in the next two books to the Hunger Games trilogy, there are mysteries that will remain unsolved.

In conclusion, The Hunger Games was a book about survival, power, and corruption. The book was meant to show what can happen in the future to our beloved democracy, which eventually might not even exist. Katniss, the main characters of the book, was able to save not only herself in the Hunger Games, but she was also able to outsmart the Capital (the government) and maybe lead to hints of a possible second revolution. There are some weaknesses in The Hunger Games but like every book, there are weaknesses. Hopefully, the next book in the Hunger Games trilogy exemplifies similar themes and picks off from where it left off because the ending surely does leaves readers hanging.

Peer Review Comments

For Crystal L. :

Very good start. I can pull at least three themes without even reading the book, but by rather just reading your draft. Good Summary. Good character analysis. Good generalizations at the end. There's no obvious weaknesses but maybe you can expand and go beyond by throwing a character analysis between Macbeth and Hamlet, but it's not really necessary.

For Jackson F. :

Seems like you have a basic summary on what the book is about. What you can maybe expand upon is maybe including a good hook in the beginning of your draft and also working on a good conclusion that will summarize possible themes of the book and also include a few generalizations. To make it more interesting, include any interpretations you might have of the book by including an analysis of the main character or other characters.

For Jasmine G. :

You have a basic draft done and overall it sounds pretty good. Maybe you can expand upon this draft by providing more background information about the characters. There's a lot of possibilities in which you can make good connections such as the one Alyssa states about making a connection to the way people in the past used to speak compared to now.

Hunger Games Book Review (RD)

Rough Draft of Introduction

The setting takes place in a nation known as Panem, sometime in the future. The once thriving United States no longer thrives and a form of government cruel to its people has arisen. People are separated and put into districts, where they are limited of food, water, and shelter. Young children are sent out to provide food for their families, as is the situation of the main character Katniss, and failing in doing so can result in starvation for the whole family.

Power is obviously the main theme of the book. After putting down a rebellion put forth by the thirteen separate districts of Panem (and destroying the thirteenth district), the Capitol created the Hunger Games to take place each year. How the Hunger Games works is that they choose one boy and one girl from each district (both children) from a box full of names. The result is a number of twenty-four children put in an arena to fight to the death until one is left. The reasoning behind the games is to remind the people of the districts how powerful the Capitol is and how they can kill them in an instant by taking their children away. It works because the Games have put enormous fear upon the people of Panem and even though the games take place once a year, the fear it brings is present year round.

The government has made the situation into an Olympic like scenario, in which they hold festivals for the Hunger Games when truly, the people of Panem despise of it. Unfortunately, any word of resentment coming out of the mouths of the people of Panem and they will be immediately executed publicly, to set an example of what can happen to others:

“Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch - this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion” (pg. 18).

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

             

In The Hunger Games, the main character Katniss stands out not only because she is also the narrator of the book but because of the distinctive and unique characteristics she exemplifies throughout the Hunger Games. Katniss was a key part in giving hope to not only her twelfth district, but to all of the people of Panem. Her diminutive acts of rebellion against the Capitol that started ever since she volunteered for the Hunger Games to take the place of her weak younger sibling, Prim, play key to what can eventually lead to a second rebellion against the Capitol.

            

 Katniss also demonstrates many characteristics not seen by any ordinary sixteen year old. She demonstrates leadership and self-perseverance that plays an important role to her and her family’s survival.

Book Review: Hunger Games Part II

After finishing reading the second and last part of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, a big reoccurring theme integrated throughout the book is once again, Power. In the first half of the Hunger Games, I discussed in my previous post the manipulations the Capitol (the totalitarian government of Panem) have put forth upon its people how evident the theme of power is in the book. After reading the second half of the book, the theme of power is still evident but a new theme, Love, is integrated in the book.


Power is obviously the main theme of the book. After putting down a rebellion put forth by the thirteen separate districts of Panem (and destroying the thirteen district), the Capitol created the Hunger Games to take place each year. How the Hunger Games works is that they choose one boy and one girl from each district (both children) from a box full of names. The result is a number of twenty-four children put in a arena to fight to the death until one is left. The reasoning behind the games is to remind the people of the districts how powerful the Capitol is and how they can kill them in an instant by taking their children away. It works because the Games have put enormous fear upon the people of Panem and even though the games take place once a year, the fear it brings is present year round.


The main character, Katniss, puts a twist to this year’s Hunger Games. When her younger sister is chosen to take place in the Hunger Games, she knows theres no chance shes coming back out alive. In a split second she heads for the stage to take her sisters place, in which the Capitol agrees to. The people of the twelfth district show a small act of rebellion towards the Capitol when the representative for the Capitol asks for a round of applause for Katniss volunterring:

“I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love” (24).

Though this simple act might seem meaningless, it is in fact a sign of rebellion against the Capitol, something rarely ever seen ever since the huge rebellion took place before the Hunger Games. Into the Games, we see similar small acts of rebellion by Katniss all throughout the book. Katniss play a big role into opening hope for all twelve districts of Panem. She becomes a favorite to all those watching back home, especially with her daring move towards the end of the book, which got under the skin of those back at the Capitol.

Book Review: Hunger Games Part I

Halfway through the book, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, a lot of major themes have already popped up out of the book. The setting takes place in an nation known as Panem, sometime in the future. The once thriving United States no longer thrives and a form of government cruel to its people has arose. People are separated and put into districts, where they are limited of food, water, and shelter. Young children are sent out to provide food for their families, as is the situation of the main character Katniss, and failing in doing so can result in starvation for the whole family.
     
Going back to the themes brought up in the book, we can see that the main character demonstrates a theme of Independence and leadership. At the age of fifteen, she has become the head of the family, bringing home firewood, bread, and whatever is available in the black market created in the society made by the government:

“Most businesses are closed by this time on reaping day, but the black market’s still fairly busy. We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt” (pg. 11).

In the black market, Katniss at a young age has to provide food for her younger sister and mom. Without Katniss’s self-preservation and leadership, her family will instantly fall apart.


The book also brings up the theme of government control. Instead of a world where the people make up the voice, the people of Panem are treated like slaves. They are separated into districts and each year, the Hunger Games occur in which a boy and girl from each district enters and fights for their lives until the last one standing. The government has made the situation into a Olympic like scenario, in which they hold festivals for the Hunger Games when truly, the people of Panem despise of it. Unfortunately, any word of resentment coming out of the mouths of the people of Panem and they will be immediately executed publicly, to set an example of what can happen to others:

“Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch - this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion” (pg. 18).

By the looks of things so far in the book, there have been a lot of foreshadowing showing possible themes of love and betrayal while at the same time, anything can happen.

Family History Connections

Looking through Google Reader, I found a lot of similar family histories by my classmates that shared various connections with the one I shared about my dad’s difficult journey in his home country Yemen. Not all connections were clear at first but in some way, each one of these parts from my classmate’s family histories showed a connection.

In Vy Troung’s family history :

“My parents were raised during the Vietnam war as they were getting older they knew that to get a better life for their family they would have to move to the United States. When my parents got married and had my sister. My dad and his brothers were forced to work in mining for the
communist. They did not want to work because they were scared of getting sick or losing their family so they decided to take their family and run.”

In Vy’s family history, she tells us about the difficult journey her parents went through just to get into the Philippines and eventually, America. They were going through hard times, especially since the war had begun to devastate their country. By arriving to America, the hope of a better life for her parents and the thought of their children in mind was going to work. In Vy’s story, her family goes through extreme hardships so that she can grow up to have a good life. Though my parents didn’t go through the same rigorous journey, they had the same idea in mind of gaining opportunity and a better life in America for both them and their children.

Leaving out the love story, Max’s dad also traveled to America in search of opportunity:

“Leaving the states for the first time was a big step for him, he had never been so far away from home and family before. So he said his goodbyes and ventured to America. As he arrived he was already bewildered by the things he saw. Though quickly ignoring them on focusing on task, with the little money he had left he got a taxi and got a ride to Liz's place.”

As Max says, it was a big step moving to the United States. There is a life that you must leave behind and once in America, start a new one.