8/9/2019

Promises and Pins

During my time teaching in Imazu on the Global English Camp program, there was a student named Jiefei. She wasn’t in my group, but the class quickly came to know her for her confident speaking voice and excellent English skills. 

When it came time to do life mission speeches on the final day, Jiefei gave her presentation on wanting to study marketing and commercial science. After her presentation, I asked where she wanted to go to university. She replied, “UCLA,” without missing a beat. It was clear Global English Camp has spurred that passion within her to go abroad.

Mark and I, who are both UCLA students, wanted to give her something so that she would remember that dream. Mark went into his bag to grab some UCLA merchandise he brought from America; however, he realized he had none left. While we were both scrambling for some UCLA swag, I remembered I had one “True Bruin pin” on my backpack. For UCLA students, this pin is given to you once at orientation before your freshman year. For me, this special pin symbolized all the hard work I had done to get into my dream school and my immense appreciation for UCLA. 

SoI decided to give Jiefei the pin. If this pin could motivate her to study at UCLA, or even help her remember her dreams of studying abroad, then giving up the pin I cherished so much was worth it. I took the pin off my bag and walked over to give it to her. She immediately burst out into tears, and we took a picture together (attached below). Then I said: “I’ll see you at UCLA.” It was clear Jiefei was never going to forget Global English Camp or her dream.

Although it’s tough to look at my bag and not see the pin anymore, I know my pin is in good hands now.

Written by Marisa Sashti, 2019 Intern, UCLA

Edited by Paige Goetz, Director of Communications