Meet Yoshnee!

With the 2 Day workshop just days away, let’s get to know more about one rising senior who’s part of our team of friendly facis, Yoshnee!

Introduce yourself!

Hello folks, my name is Yoshnee and that is how I usually go by. For some odd reason, most people seem to pronounce my name as “Yaw”-shnee thus compelling me to tell them that it’s actually pronounced “Yo” like “yo-yo wassup”.  Other nicknames of mine include Yosh and Yoshi — yes I used to play Super Mario 64 when I was a kid and I know Yoshi is this green dinosaur character from there.

Born and brought up in KL. I attended SMK Assunta and then TCSH for my A-levels before heading to the US of A. I am currently a rising senior at UCLA. What do I enjoy doing during my free time? Other than the watching a movie, sleeping and surfing the net usuals, I also enjoy sitting down and talking about anything and everything with friends and family over some great food. Two of my favourite topics are politics and celebrities – yes a big contrast indeed! Lastly, you can’t say you know a tad bit about me if you don’t know that I am huge fan of The Vampire Diaries. Just understand that in this case, the synonyms of huge also include crazy, super and obsessed –so yea, you get the picture.

What did you do in high school?

I was a prefect all throughout secondary school, from the end of Form 1 to Form 5, so I was pretty disciplined, strict and autocratic (Yea right? This is probably the biggest joke ever). No, but yea I was also very much into badminton and I used to represent the Selangor State up until I was 17. I spent most of my after school hours attending centralized training, therefore I wasn’t very active with any ECA’s in school. I remember that in the whole month of March 2006, I only went to school for one week because I was away on tournaments most of the time that month.

Why did you choose to apply to the US?

To be honest, my story is quite complicated. To make this brief, lets start with the fact that my father did his Undergrad Degree in the US as well, so he had always been encouraging me to do the same from a very young age. When I was doing my A-levels, I was surrounded by classmates who were gearing up to go to the UK, which influenced me to think that that would be a better option. Despite that, I still kept my options opened and let’s just say that upon the request of my father, I randomly (keyword: randomly) applied to the UC schools. I initially intended to apply to more universities in the US, but with the workload and pressure from doing A-levels, I just didn’t have the time and capacity. Well, I’m here now, so it all worked out for the best – and I’m more than glad it did.

Why did you decide to be a part of USAPPS?

Because I know how it feels like to be clueless, to not know how to go about and to deal with what’s in store for you during the next few months; at the peak of the application process. I wish I knew about USAPPS during the time when I applied. It’s always nice to have someone who has “been there and done that” to guide you and answer your questions. The time has come for me to give back by sharing my journey, thoughts and experiences with all of you folks who aspire to study in the States. Just like Chan Leong wrote in his blog post, the reason is simple, and it’s – you!