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Rain Sun

Professor Marie Webb

LING 12 T/TH 9AM

26 February 2019

Break the Norm, Break Gender Roles

Gender has played an important role in human society now and in the past. Regardless of

the fact that men and women are born biologically equal, women have always been treated

poorly and unfairly in comparison to men. The Fifteenth Amendment of the United States

Constitution, which gives equal rights to all U.S. citizens regardless of race, was ratified on

February 3, 1870, whereas the Nineteenth Amendment, which finally imparts suffrage rights to

women, had not been adopted until August 18, 1920 ("The Constitution of the United States").

Despite gender discrimination toward women being reduced significantly in recent years,

through thousands years of progress and fight, the inequality of men and women in education,

workplace, as well as daily life has never fully disappeared. Just as what happened to many other

girls, gender role has influenced my academic experiences significantly, hindering but inspiring

me to chase my dreams in electronics engineering and science.

Ever since my childhood, I was different from most of the girls my age. While other girls

were playing jump rope, watching TV dramas, chasing idols, and gossiping in the tree shade

while watching boys playing basketball, I was solving math problems, reading science

magazines, or building model airplanes and boats. Without a heavy workload, distractions from

social media, and endless responsibilities as adults, I was able to join the Electronic DIY class at

my elementary school. In the class, I learned how to construct items like LED lights, resistors,
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capacitors, and switches to create different projects, from as simple as sound control LEDs to as

complex as doorbells with sound control and variations of music mode. Going to Electronic DIY

class every Wednesday after school soon became the best time of my childhood, which I could

expand my creativity and curiosity. However, after two semesters, I realized that the gender ratio

decreased dramatically: the number of girls dropped significantly while the number of boys

increased over time. At the same time, the gender ratio of my other classes stay relatively stable.

This abnormal phenomenon opposed my believe in equal education and raised me a question.

While most of the girls seemed to enjoy a lot of the class, why were they dropping this

interesting class?

The questions started to hover in my mind, but I had no idea why. Just as I did every

single Wednesday, I went to the class right after school, waiting in excitement for our instructor

Huo to announce the project of the day in preparation of the upcoming competition. However,

suddenly, I realized something quite abnormal: the seat next to me was empty. That seat

belonged to my friend Xia, who was completely in love with electronics. She encouraged me to

join the class, built fantastic projects with me, and got the second place in Beijing Teenager

Electronic DIY competition. I was confused and worried because Xia, who was most likely to

show up was not there. Therefore, right after the instructor’s announcement, I went up to him

asking about Xia. What he told me stuck in my mind forever: “she quit, just like most girls.”

Suddenly, I was completely shocked, my mouth opened, my eyes blurred, my ears buzzed, and

my mind froze. Why did Xia quit? Why did most girls quit? Why only girls?

These questions have confused me more and more, and eventually reached a point that

impacted my attention in class negatively. One day during the lunch break, while everyone was
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playing outside on the grassfield except for Xia and me, I finally decided to ask Xia about the

reason she quit. I walked to her, step by step, full with desire of solving the confusing and

nervous of revealing the truth.

“Do you like Electronic DIY?” I asked softly while she was fixated on her phone. She

covered the screen rapidly while lifting her head up. But it was too late, I already saw what she

was looking at –– the photo of her smiling happily with the trophy and her electronic project.

“Not really,” she said while she looked at me and then looked away.

“Why are you lying? I already saw what’s on your screen.” I said quietly with guilt.

Suddenly, she was shocked and looked at me directly in my eyes. She kept quiet, but I could see

the turbulence inside of her from her shaking hands, bitten lips and blurred eyes.

I don’t know how long had been passed, but I heard her mumble: “Why? Why did I quit?

Why am I a girl?” She looked at me, but I know she was looking at something past my eyes,

perhaps her future, and she said in a deep voice: “You know, electronic DIY is my life. It is

something I could pull an allnighter on! My parents agreed me to join the class because they

wanted me to be able to understand the logic behind electronics in case of being able to fix

electricity or equipments in the future emergency.” I nodded my head while I was listening.

“But you know what’s funny?” she asked. Then, she continued as she emitting a short

burst of self-mocking laughter: “My parents forced me to quit just because I told them I wanna

work as an electronics engineer for my future.” I was shocked and confused, so I asked why.

With tears in her beautiful eyes, Xia let out a helpless wry laugh: “Why? Ha! Just because I am a

girl! They told me it is abnormal for girls to become any sort of engineer, especially electronic

engineers!”
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At that moment, time froze, my mind blown, and I understood that girls are different

from boys, not physically, but social and mental barriers caused by gender inequality. These

barriers include belief that girls belong in humanities and in domestic work, represented as

gender rules implemented by the majority, trapping millions of girls inside, hindering girls

succeed in STEM classes. My questions have been answered, but what is left is endless

hopelessness and uncertainty of the future.

I was lost, just like many other girls, struggling between pursuing their dreams or facing

reality. With time, I have come to understand the differences between girls and boys clearer and

clearer, which is the major factor hindering all the girls in STEM. But I didn’t give up just

because of what other people expected me to do. I know if my life is the band, then I am the

conductor, leading life into a beautiful performance. All of a sudden, an important decision has

been made inside of my mind. People only live once, so I will follow my dream regardless of

gender rules, and try to help other girls who are trapped inside of gender norms.

Therefore, I decided to join a science special class in middle school, and competed in

scientific invention competitions, Odyssey of the Mind (OM) and Destination Imagination (DI).

With endless hard work and creation, my team was able to make into the Global Final

Tournament of DI at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. That was my first time competing

in an international competition, as well as my first time coming to the United States. At the

Global Tournament, I saw how girls could compete on an international level just like boys, if not

even better. They demonstrate scientific invention with enthusiasm, just like Xia with her

electronic projects, showing their love of science and creativity without hesitation. At that

moment, something in my heart broke out: my love of science and invention. Throughout the
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three day competition, I worked non-stop with joy of achieving my dream, discussing the

strategy with my teammates, rechecking and rebuilding all the scientific models, watching other

team competing carefully, and becoming friends with like-minded people.

In order to further chase my dream, my family and I made a tough decision to immigrate

to the United States in order to receive a better education and better opportunities for girls in

STEM. At the moment that I landed in America on August 20th, 2014, I knew a new chapter of

my life had begun. Despite the hardships I’ve experienced as a new immigrant such as language

barriers, I soon became active in physics club, math club, and robotics club in high school.

Although it was tough at the beginning since there are only a few girls ever in the club or the

team, but I soon found a place and started to expand my influence, learned how to code,

program, build robots, drive robots, as well as teaching people how to solder, and teaching

children at the local church how to build and program robots. With years of learning, failing and

trying, I eventually made it into the Robotics Varsity Team and became the secretary of the

robotics club and physics club, being able to encourage more and more girls to join the STEM

area to pursue their dreams, explore their creativity, and break the general norms.

Although I was one of the lucky girls who could chase my STEM dream without too

many hardships, I know the road to gender equality in education is still long and full of

difficulties. Time may fly away, but my original intention had never changed. Regardless of all

the difficulties and hindrances generated by gender roles, along the way to my dream, I will stay

unique, challenge myself, break the norm, and encourage more and more girls to break free from

wrongful gender expectations.

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March 12, 2019

Future Rain Sun

South Hall 3431-A
University of California Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara CA 93106-3100

Dear Ms. Sun,

Have you ever felt that your academic achievement has been limited by external factors? You
might not, but I do, perhaps by factors as small as the daily weather or the surrounding people, to
factors as large as geographic location and expected gender roles. For the past few years, I’ve
experienced countless inconveniences on my academic way to achieve my dream due to gender
role norms. I have created a plan for your future academic and literacy success, as well as some
possible methods to overcome the personal and social hindrances.

One step to achieve the plan is to explore your interest and follow your dedication. Just as Hope
Jahren, an award-winning scientist and the author of ​Lab Girl,​ has experienced similar gender
hindrances in her profession. She has important strategies you could follow. Throughout years of
dedication to her love of science, trying, failing and learning, Jahren understand the importance
of seeking opportunities, working hard toward goals, and constantly exploring new things. The
love of science taught her that everything is more complicated than people first assume, and that
the recipe for a beautiful life is being able to derive happiness from discoveries (Jahren 29). The
surface are not necessarily the truth, and the best way to explore the truth is to follow your
dedication and discover the hidden information with joy. You should not only explore your
interest, but also see connections between them. Everything is interconnected, a single leaf of a
tree could connect to million other leaves, all the way to the root, or even the animal and
environment associated with the plant. You will never been able to discover the relationships
unless you dig deeper into your interest, the more you discover, the clearer the field it becomes;
this belief motivates me to join the pre-med fraternity and volunteer at a local hospital.

Inspired by Jahren, I fully understand the importance of digging under the surface to keep
discovering little, meaningful things that make life colorful. Doing the same thing over and over
again could be extremely boring, especially for science and math, which require a large amount
of memorization and practice. It has been said that the most beautiful things are all around
people, but the reason why many people get bored of life is that people lose their passion for
their interest and the sense of accomplishment over time. Therefore, the interest and motivation
into doing the same thing repeatedly may fade. In order to stay motivated and active in learning,
you should keep trying new things while discovering the beauty from redoing things, perhaps
interpret from a different perspective, ask yourself a question and find the answer along the
action, slow down the pace and pay attention to your surroundings and actions. The more
patience and curiosity you bring into performing actions, the more likely you will be able to
discover something interesting and meaningful from the action, and the more excited you will be
for continuous study. There are many things that could increase your interest of studying,
ranging from as small as treating yourself to a scientific joke after an hour of intensive study or
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discussing with friends about the interesting book you read over the weekend, to as big as
planning a scientific trip to a science museum or walking in nature with family and friends to
discover different wild plants and animals. Therefore, it is necessary for you to keep trying new
things while discovering the beauty from them.

Another step to achieve academic success is to write everything down to prevent poor memories.
The road to achieve further academic success is never simple, people are not only hindered by
the boredom of repetitive tasks, but also short memory. It could be extremely disheartening for
people to keep forgetting the key concepts from the lectures, failing an important exam, or being
rejected for the lab intern position. Just as in the​ Lab Girl,​ Jahren understands that the only way
to defend people forgetting important things is carefully writing down everything (28). It is
absolutely normal to forget the past knowledge or to make mistakes, but one of the most
important solutions is writing everything down. Such as taking notes carefully in classes, writing
down the solution for a math problem step by step, and mark all the deadlines and goals on
planner. It could not only defend you from forgetting, but also remind you of your dreams and
passions. Recording things you’ve done carefully also helps you to reflect on your past, motivate
yourself, and avoid repetitive mistakes in the future. While people walking alone in the darkness,
struggling hard to move every step forward on the road to achieve their academic dreams, any
add-on difficulties could become the last straw breaks the camel’s back, hindering them from
reaching further. However, it is important to remember that you are neither fighting alone, nor
you are fighting for nothing. There are many wonderful memories of you chasing dreams, many
like-minded people for you to reach out to, and brilliant opportunities out there for you to
discover and utilize, but what you should do first is to remember and remind yourself. Write
about your daily life and academic life into a diary, include what you have done, what mistake
you have made, who you have encountered, and what ideas have challenged or reinforced your
perspectives. Besides, you could also spend 15 minutes everyday to go over the whole day in
mind, record the important moments of your life, learn from the past failure, and improve in the
future.

In order to discover further into your interest in the medical profession, you should reach out to
local hospitals to gain hands-on experience. When Jahren was still in undergrad, she held many
different jobs, in which the working experience at hospital pharmacy had a life-changing impact
on her perception of things and her career path (32). Not only did she learn how to make bags of
intravenous medications, and the importance of health and science, but also she also learned how
to multitask while staying accurate and efficient. With that in mind, the next goal of your action
plan is to expand my passion in the medical field by getting a lab position in neurology study and
volunteering at local hospitals, perhaps in the Emergency Department, including Santa Barbara
Cottage Hospitals. Volunteering at hospitals not only contributes to the local community, but
also offers people who are interested in medical field the opportunities to gain realistic medical
working experience. Through interactions with doctors, nurses, patients, scribes, and other
volunteers, volunteers could establish the networks benefit the future career. Through this, you
will become more familiar with your area of interest, become braver into exploring new things,
and more dedicated to your dreams.
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The last and the most important step of this plan is to take action. Actions speak louder than
words. People always trap themselves in the cycle of making decisions, but eventually give up
by not taking actions. Therefore in order to chase the interest in science, you should break out of
your comfort zone in a reachable distance, meaning making reasonable goals, and take actions to
achieve them step by step. Start from small, achievable goals, such as watch scientific videos,
read daily news, join under-serve medicine seminars, as well as join PhiDE, the only co-ed
professional medical fraternity at UCSB. Join PhiDE will expand your connections and have
more access to research, laboratory, and volunteer opportunities. Accomplishing these small
goals could increase your interest and confidence significantly. Getting a lab position in a
research lab is one of the best ways to expand scientific research skills, as well as having a better
overall understanding of conducting scientific experiments. In the lab, you will not only gain the
ability to learn from other scientists through collaboration, but also have the chance to satisfy
your curiosity while discovering new creatures.

With an action plan, you will discover the passion of discovering the beauty from repetitive
things, persistent attitude in reaching out to opportunities and experiencing new things. You will
also believe in actions in front of words, and your academic goals will soon be achieved.

Sincerely,

Rain Sun
South Hall 3431-A
University of California Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara CA 93106-3100
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Work Cited

Jahren, Hope. ​Lab Girl.​ Vintage, 2017.

“The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription.” ​The National Archives and Records

Administration​. ​www.archives.gov/ founding-docs/constitution-transcript​. Accessed 01

March 2019.