globalleadershipinfo@gmail.com

On May 8th, 2016, Global Leadership Initiative (GLI) hosted their annual College Application Experience Sharing Forum, and about 300 people attended. At this event, we had a panel of seniors in high school from GLI who have been accepted into prestigious colleges speaking about their college application process. This allowed the audience members, which included both parents and students, to gain more knowledge and learn the secrets to master everything from college app essays to every day time management.


The student panel included Cherri Wang (Harvard), Angela Luo (Stanford), Eric Hou (Berkeley), Linda Du (Berkeley), and Lillian Du (Berkeley), all of which are core members for GLI. These students’ parents spoke for the parent panel. The emcees were Ashley Zhuang and Michael Zhu. We also had the honor of having state assemblywoman Catharine Baker as our guest speaker! She spoke an incredible speech about pursuing leadership. It was very inspirational to hear her personal stories and encouraging words.


During the event, the emcees asked the student panel questions about the college application process. Then, each student gave their own answer. This was extremely beneficial for the audience to hear about, and I was able to learn so much about the college application process. As a student, I gained so much knowledge about how to choose what college to apply to, what activities and competitions I should participate in, how to deal with parental and peer pressure, how to write college application essays, and how to obtain good letters of recommendation. This opened my eyes to how I should follow my passions and show colleges that I am a well-rounded person but also someone with main focal points being pursued. The students’ answers were also very helpful for the parents. The parents were able to gain more insight on what went on inside their kids’ heads and also learned more about what they should be encouraging their kids to do for their own college applications.


The parent panel was also given a chance to answer some questions. They gave advice that really helped the parents in the audience who may not have raised a high school student before to learn what is best for their children at this age. The parent panel gave advice on how to be there to support their children and push them in the right direction, without giving them too much pressure and too many expectations. At the end of the forum, the floor was opened to the audience to ask questions. This allowed them to learn about anything they felt like was not covered and allowed the forum to better fit the needs of our audience that day.


Overall, the 2016 GLI College Application Experience Sharing Forum was extremely successful. It allowed people to learn so much about the process of applying to colleges and was interesting and informational for everyone that attended. We will definitely continue to hold this forum annually for families with high school and middle school students.