Picture Credit: ACA Bruins
This week, we managed to snag an interview with Samantha Ong, a second-year international student from Singapore, who is striving to create her own major: Aesthetics (a combination of Art History and Philosophy). This girl is also involved in a ton of different campus organizations, and in her spare time (if any!) she likes to dance, swim, practice martial arts, and read food blogs.
Her Campus: Describe your personality in three words!
Samantha Ong: I’m a flowerchild.
HC: What sort of clubs/extracurricular activities are you involved in? Tell us about them!
SO: I am Publicity Chair to the Association of Chinese Americans; External Vice President of Rieber Hall; Fellow at the UCLA Volunteer Center; Staff on the Cultural Arts Collective (a series under USAC’s Cultural Affairs Commission) and an active member of UCLA’s co-ed Entrepreneurship Fraternity, Sigma Eta Pi! I also volunteered at Unicamp my first year of college, and am hoping to return again this year! I enjoy service-oriented activities because they help your heart grow into something bigger than yourself. I’m also passionate about the arts because it’s such a dangerously beautiful way of engaging with the world. My efforts go primarily toward combining the two, because sharing a slice of your life, thoughts, experiences and motivations is really the best way to reach out and inspire others.
HC: Wow, that’s quite the list! Where do you see yourself five years from now?
SO: I want to be a lawyer! Probably in litigation because it provides innumerable opportunities for learning (it’s a very broad field, you could be dabbling in maritime law one day, and defamation the next) and research (since the law is always changing). Argumentation is probably the only real, innate skill I have, and the prospect of someone being willing to invest their time, money, even their lives, in what you write just makes everything more exciting and worth your effort, no matter the sleepless nights.
HC: Who are your role models?
SO: People I actually know– my younger brother for his surprising maturity and unconditional kindness; my dad for all his life and relationship advice (also the only person who cares to pick up my 3 AM calls); my Big, because even though he’s judge-y and probably thinks I am stupid, is a prime example of a passionate and hardworking person who I would do good to learn from.
People I wish I knew: Marilynne Robinson, Oscar Wilde, Azuma Hiroki.
HC: What are your guilty pleasures?
SO: Eating? I have very disgusting eating habits, like eating cheese off pizza (but not the bread)… yeah, I have no friends.
HC: If you had to pick an animal to represent yourself, what would it be and why?
SO: A flamingo? It’s kitschy and I love that sort of stuff. Also, it’s very obviously pink and feathery and flamboyant, but somehow manages to carefully understate all its fabulousness.