Vivian Srouji Memorial Scholarship

I applied and was accepted to both UCLA and Berkeley, and will be attending Berkeley in the fall as an English major. I grew up with three windows into the world: Spanish, Russian, and English. This unique blend of languages shaped how I understood people and culture from an early age - and I am immensely grateful to have grown up with three such powerful lenses through which to see and understand the world. English was my third language. My Eastern European heritage and my mom’s insistence that her fluency in Spanish would not end with her filled my early upbringing with Slavic syllables and lyrical Spanish consonants. This blend of tongues introduced me to the diverse emotional landscapes, histories, and perspectives embedded in words. Each language exposed me to a different worldview, the ability to resonate with various cultural experiences, and an understanding of how the same concept can be expressed in multiple ways. But what makes me grateful for my knowledge of languages is that it has enabled me to connect with a larger group of people on a profound and meaningful level. The face that someone makes when they realize that you share their first language is engraved in my brain. There is truly no faster way to dissipate the barrier between yourself and a stranger than by sharing the same form of communication. The excitement that paints my dad's face every time he hears someone who shares his accent, and my grandparents' regular visits to their favorite european store, encapsulate what it means to feel at home in a language that carries your identity. I learned early on that speaking someone's language isn’t about knowing the words, but understanding and respecting the context in which someone interprets the world. When the Russian-Ukrainian War started, and I used my Russian fluency to work as an ESL tutor for Ukrainian refugees, I felt the power of language. Even though my experiences and those of the children I was tutoring were starkly different, the knowledge that they were being taught by someone who spoke their language created an easy and comfortable environment for us to communicate with one another. Even though I had never set foot in their country, we found common ground in our values, family dynamics, and experiences - all through language. I spent many Zoom calls laughing at cultural anecdotes, listening to the hardships that my tutorees had persevered through, and even forming a close friendship with my very first tutoree from freshman year- Kate. Through these three windows, I also found a passion for words and the power that they can carry. I believe that my desire to be an English major and my passion for the literary arts stem from growing up with the richness that comes with speaking multiple languages. I could not be more grateful for my parents for teaching me Russian and Spanish while I was young, and for the breadth of human experience that I would not have otherwise encountered.

As I am ending my high school career and looking forward to my future at college, I have been reflecting on how I have ended up where I am. There have been so many people in my life that believed in me and helped me succeed. At San Ramon Valley High School, I have been a part of the marching band. My freshman year, my senior year drum major, Katrina, was running auditions for the next leadership team of the band. I was very shy and was scared to put myself out there and audition, so I walked away from signing up to audition. On my way out of the door, Katrina stopped me and handed me the form. This one simple act changed my high school experience as I decided to give it a try. Her act pushed me into trying a new experience, where I was forced to lead large groups of people who were older than me and take on much more responsibility. At first it was very scary being in front of over fifty band members, and I definitely did not do well on my first days of the audition, but Katrina kept pushing me to get better. Eventually I began to gain confidence and began to socialize more with the other students. Ever since I got the role, I have spent my last four years meeting and learning about all the different members of the band, which has led to many special memories and moments that I carry with me into my future. I am so grateful for her believing in me, and seeing that I could be a good leader even when I couldn’t four years ago. Another experience that I am grateful for was taking AP Calculus with Mr. Meyer my junior year and senior year. Originally, I just signed up for calculus because it was the next level math class and I wanted to take math every single year to meet the college requirements. However, Mr Meyer’s class was the most interesting class I had ever taken at SRVHS. While the class was hard, he showed me how rewarding it was to spend time on difficult math problems when you finally got the right answer. His class structure made me enjoy doing math problems, and eventually inspired me to continue doing math in college as a data science major. Without his class and his vibrant teaching style, I would have never discovered how much I enjoy math and I never would have gone further into math in college. I am very grateful for the support of my parents throughout my life. My parents have always taught me that no matter what I do, they are and always will be proud of me. I especially felt this going into high school, when most of my friend’s parents were always pressuring them to take one more AP class or do one more extracurricular activity, my parents always said that I was enough. The way they raised me made it more meaningful when I myself decided to take AP classes or take on a challenge, as it was because I wanted to. As I am now a senior, I am grateful for all the experiences in high school that shaped me into who I am today, and I carry all the new skills and experiences I’ve gained at SRVHS into college. I did apply and get accepted to both UCLA and UC Berkeley, and I am so excited to attend UC Berkeley in the fall as a data science major.

I have been accepted into both UCLA and UC Berkeley and have decided to attended UCLA this fall. What am I grateful for? Probably the most obscure object, the red checked lounge chair in my parents’ home office. At night after dinner was done and the kitchen was cleaned up, my mom would retreat to the home office to sit in the red checked chair. In this chair, with a solo floor lamp shining over, she would take the time to catch up on work and plan for the next day. Night after night she would be in that chair. My nighttime routine consisted of getting ready for bed, then walking to the opposite side of the house to say goodnight to my mom. I never had to ask where she was because I knew she would be in that chair…until she wasn’t. As a nutritionist, my mom has always made healthy living a priority. She was the picture of health and practiced what she preached. It never crossed my mind that she would have a severe issue, she was invincible, picture perfect. Unfortunately that picture was shattered when the night came she wasn’t in the red checked chair, but in the hospital. She was rushed into the ER and in surgery for eight hours. During those eight hours, the doctor and nurses prepared my dad that she might not make it, but he had no idea how to explain this to me and my siblings. As we begged my grandma for updates, she just kept telling us to pray - so I did, in the red checked chair. My mom’s health was unstable after surgery, so night after night, I would go to the red checked chair before bed and say a prayer. The chair gave me peace, kept me calm, made me feel safe, everything my mom would give me in her hug before bed. As the nights went on, my little sister started joining me and then our brother began joining us. We all knew what the chair meant to us even though we didn’t speak about it. We sat there and quietly prayed for the day our mom would once again be in the red checked chair. As the days passed, our family fell into a new routine. After school, while my dad worked in his home office, I would make snacks for everyone, my little sister would empty lunches and my brother would take the trash out. It wasn’t our favorite routine, but we all did it without any complaining. On a Tuesday after school, I brought my dad his snack into the home office and my shattered picture was fixed. The red checked chair was finally occupied with my mom. But this picture was even more perfect than before because it illustrated more than just peace and comfort, it painted hope and resilience. The red checked chair had the most perfect picture I could ask for and I couldn’t be more grateful.