Most of us here at UC Davis tend to be extremely proud of ourselves when taking on an extracurricular activity while going to school full-time. The fast-paced curriculum offers little time for many of us to delve into anything other than schoolwork; it is astonishing to find someone who is deeply involved in multiple activities. Prepare yourselves to be amazed, Aggies, because there is one guy out there who is doing (or has done) it all.
Meet John Wu. He is currently attending school full-time as a biological science and political science double major, working for Unitrans (ever see the bus driver in the cowboy hat?), and is the president of Model United Nations. In addition, he has formerly been a UC Davis elections chair for ASUCD, the associate justice before that, and has worked on four different ASUCD senators’ campaigns (including Vice President of ASUCD, Gareth Smythe). All ASUCD experience aside, he was also a former justice in Student Judicial Affairs, was on the cycling team, and—last but not least—has done cancer research. Pretty amazing, right?
While speaking with John, it quickly became clear that Model United Nation (MUN) is extremely high up on his list of priorities. It’s understandable, too, as he has spent nine years of his life in the club. John went to Marines Military Academy in middle school, starting his career in MUN there. “I continued doing Model United Nations in high school, so I learned to be a really good diplomat…and a really good critical thinker,” which encouraged him to continue being a Model United Nations member in college as well. For those out there who are unaware as to what Model United Nations is, MUN is an extracurricular activity in which students take on the part of role-playing delegates and figure out possible solutions to real life problems and events. Along with this, members can win first, second, and third place awards from the debate—all of which John has won. Incredible.
My next question was one that he receives frequently: why do you want to do all of this? “What makes me want to do these activities? Geez my girlfriend asks me the same question.” On a more serious note, though, he explains that he loves it because of the friends he makes. When asked about MUN, he repsonded, “It’s not even [to build up my resume]. I do Model United Nations because I get a family from it.” The combination of hard work and creating close friendships results in a strong network. He explains that in MUN, “You start opening a lot of back doors for people and they start appreciating it.”
How does he manage all of this, you may ask? “Well, you don’t sleep,” he says jokingly to me. In reality, John has to make a schedule for everything—the two most important things to schedule being school and Unitrans. After that, everything is scheduled in around it—sometimes even friends. “My friends used to hate me for the longest time for doing that,” he laughs. My real question was, with all of these activities, does he have time for fun?
Surprisingly, yes, he does have time for fun. One of his interests in particular? Food with his friends. “We’re huge foodies. We’re snobs when it comes to food…when we have nothing to do, food is our answer.” John also goes on to say that he loves wine tasting, mountain biking (as he was on the cycling team his freshman and sophomore years), and exploring new places with his friends. Most recently, they went to Ashland, Oregon for the Shakespeare festival.
With all of these extracurriculars, you would think that John would be a visibly stressed—and yet, only the opposite is true. In talking with him, he came off as a calm, personable, caring, and funny person. Someone you’d look up to. I think that maybe, apart from everything he does, that is truly all that he wants—and it looks like he’s achieved it.
Photo Credits: Jonathan Lu