加州大学本科申请Essay 1题目：

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.

描述一下你的成长环境，比如你的家庭，社区或学校，并说明这个环境对塑造你的理想与抱负有何影响。

加州大学本科申请Essay 1范文：

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.

Psychologists always believe that our growing environments define who we are. There is a Chinese saying, which says “Surrounded by ink, you will get black; drawn in cinnabar, you will get red.” Growing environments play an essential role in shaping who we are. To me, my family is the key to my whole life.

I am the only child in my family. Both of my parents are the first one getting into universities in their families. My parents were both born in poor families. When they were young, their families could hardly support them for schooling, so they had to work hard to earn money when they were at school age. Schooling seemed to be an impossible dream for them at that time. They learnt by themselves at night after work with the books borrowed from others. After getting enough money, they took the entrance exam, and eventually passed and got admitted into universities. Later on, they obtained scholarships and graduated. Now they are living comfortable lives. From their experiences I learned that education does make a big difference in our lives, but only when we work hard do we deserve it. My motto of life is quite simple: when I work, work hard. Compared to those who do not work hard and fail at school, we apparently have more opportunities in our life.

My father is a respectable man. To me, he is a true man. Although he is under great pressure, he never says anything negative at home because he cares about our feelings. Also, my father loves us so much that he would sacrifice anything for us. When I was a little kid, we did not really have a lot of money, but my father bought us all necessary things, for which he often had to work continuously from early in the morning till late at night to support our family. His selfless action has been encouraging me to try my best in my life.

My mother is now a professor in mechanical engineering in Guangdong University of Technology. She is also the president of the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. She has a strong and passionate personality. She seldom speaks, but when she talks, she can always convince everybody with the confidence and knowledge she has. Her personality influences me so much that I always seek to be a person like my mother.

My mother has been in charge of several laboratories, and I worked for her in one of her laboratories as a data collector during my high school years in China. She taught me to fully consider everything because if I made any mistake, I might have to restart the whole process and the mistake might even cause dangers. Also, I gained patience and a sharp insight. But most importantly, this experience formed my interest in science. I was born to be a curious person, and I found that science amazingly fulfills my curiosity. In that laboratory, I learned plenty of professional knowledge in science, which I cannot learn from the high school study, and this made me more prepared than others for university science study and my career.

Under the influence of my parents, I have developed a tough character and a keen interest in science. I hope I can get into a good university and find a reasonable job in the future as a reward to support my future family and help individuals in real need. Also, I want to be a patient, considerate and useful person, and like my parents, I will be willing to commit to my study and my future career and sacrifice anything for those I care about. (611 words)