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GLI 2018 End-of-Year Gala

By Angela Chu

    On June 3rd, 2018 from 4-8 PM GLI hosted its first End-of-Year Gala. The event opened with a slideshow and a performance from 7PM, the official Global Leadership Initiative Band. Band members include guitarist and GLI Co-President Darron Dai, pianist Justin Wang, drummers Eric Chang and Laryn Qi, and bassist JJ Chan. After a performance of “Demons”, GLI project leaders discussed their respective projects and their accomplishments for the 2017-2018 school year. Projects include, but most certainly are not limited to: Living Arroyos, City Impact, the annual College Forum, and the 2018 Flea Market.

    The annual College Forum was combined with the gala, lasting about 45 minutes. Rising college freshmen Ashton Lam, Erich Chang, John Zhou, Kevin Gao, and Shannon Yan reviewed their high school experiences and offered advice with regards to the application process. They proceeded to answer a variety of questions, with a few being the ACT vs. the SAT, how they determined their dream school, and how they were able to maintain good study habits during high school.

“One thing I would have liked to have known starting freshman year, and I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about college applications, is that students try to do anything and everything that they can, because they think that it will look good when it comes to application season. But I think one of the strongest pieces of advice that I would give to you guys and something that’s resonated with me in my high school career, is just pursue the things that you like. Colleges want an individual … They don’t want someone who’s the jack of all trades; they want someone who focuses and specializes in one field,” Ashton stressed. “I think the most important part of my high school career was realizing what my limits were. Like maybe I couldn’t take necessarily as many classes as some other people, but I learned to find my true belonging and to do it well,” Shannon added.

After all questions were answered, UC Berkeley attendee Eric Ho and Columbia University graduate Chris were invited to speak about their college experiences and study habits and how it affected their lives. “What I did was I looked at the weaknesses and strengths I had in terms of how I learned. I’m really good at building mental models of how things work intuitively, and then on exams I could use that to derive the answer. Building up a group of people that all thought in similar ways really helped,” Eric said.

    Following the College Forum, 7PM resumed their performances, including renditions of “Attention” and “We Don’t Talk Anymore” by Charlie Puth, and “Lucky” by Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat. The event came to a close around 8 and volunteers and GLI members stayed behind afterward to help clean up.