Brief Biography of Raea Limb
My name is Raea Limb, born in Seoul, Korea. Since I was young, I loved learning foreign languages, such as English and Japanese, and traveling.
One greatest opportunity that I could apply both of my interests was when I got to stay in Eaton College in England as a 4th-grader and learn not only the foreign language, but different culture. Staying in England for about a month and traveling around Europe gave me memories, but more importantly, I gained experiences and was eager to learn English.
When I graduated elementary school in Korea, our family moved into America.
I was very interested in English, and despite the fact I was not a good English speaker back when I was 7th-grade,
I was ready to adapt into the new world with positive mindset. Now, with much support from my great parents, and with my efforts to be academically successful, I became a senior student of Los Alamitos High School.
Most of my interest and pursuit was academics, and I received straight A’s from 7th-grade and maintained full 4.00 GPA.
With my interest in language, I started speech a debate as an 8th-grade to improve speaking skills. Through debate, I was able to fully express my opinion and talk about any issues with anyone.
Also, I learned how to appreciate others’ opinions, and be open-minded and unbiased.
With great success from many debate tournaments I competed in, I became the president of Speech and Debate Club in my school. Also, using my debate skills, I became president in FBLA (Business Club) and now I am an active member participating in various business competitions.
Other than academics, I do various volunteering and serving for the community.
With my religious belief, I believed that I should share what I have with people disadvantaged than me.
That is why I volunteered to help for homeless people through Habitat for Humanity, fundraising money to build homes.
But, my greatest contribution to the community is through volunteering for mentally disabled people.
I created an organization called “Volunteering with Dance Club,” and my peers and I visit many different organizations regularly to teach dance and fitness to the mentally disabled people, so that they can enjoy music and have opportunity they could not have before. Other than dance, I volunteer at Therapeutic Horse Riding program to assist mentally disabled children in horseback riding, with my two year experience in horseback riding.
This summer was a turning point in my life.
One, I was selected as the school representative of California Girl State, supported by American Legion Auxiliary, and became one of 500 selected California 12th-grade girls to spend a week at Claremont College for government/leadership camp.
Here, I had an opportunity to learn that there are so many girls talented and brilliant than I was, and that became a push factor for me to try harder and be humble. Another was the three-week outdoor camp in Alaska. In order to find another me, and in order to do something that I never normally do, I decided to go on an outdoor camp which we did intensive backpacking, hiking, rafting, sea kayaking, etc. From the challenging activities and survival-camp-like three weeks, I learned that I can achieve anything if I continue to put in effort and continue to have a positive mindset. Also, the beauty of Mother Nature was engraved in my memory (especially the ice glaciers we got to look through four-day sea kayaking). I now have only one year left of high school, and it is time for me to put my best effort for college application. And I would pace myself to reach my future goal.
Biography of Tatiana Hammond
Tatiana Hammond is a 17-year-old senior at Los Alamitos High School. Her interests include math, science, French, singing, songwriting, playing guitar, painting, drawing, and improvising. She is averse to rap music, hot weather and writing about herself in the third person.
Hammond grew up in Anaheim with her biological mother, a woman of unpredictable rage who spent a lot of time on drugs. Through luck and the efforts of her father and maternal grandfather, her father did eventually gain custody of her.
After that, it was fairly smooth sailing.
She attended three different middle schools, the first in Washington State where her family lived for a year, the second in Long Beach when they moved back, and the third in Los Alamitos, when she changed districts in order to attend Los Alamitos High School.
Fortunately, she has attended Los Alamitos High School all four years, and couldn’t be happier with her educational experience there.
When Hammond was attending seventh-grade, her little brother, Jackson, was born.
He is now five years old and attending kindergarten. He is a very intelligent and playful child. As it is just the two of them, she hopes to stay close with him, even as she hopes to go to college on the East Coast.
Hammond is:
• A founding member and co-captain, Comedy Sports High School League Team/Los Alamitos Live Improvisation Team (912th). Re-established team in a way that saved thousands of dollars, Coordinated matches with out-of-district schools, organized business operations, collaborated with faculty sponsors, trained new members, supervised auditions and rehearsals, performed improvisation in various venues. Coordinator, Science Olympiad Club oth_12tto.) Trained for and competed in annual Science Olympiad and Science Bowl. Reestablished, recruited and organized team (11th).
• Founding Member, Creative Outlet Club (11-12th). Assisted in the establishment of the club. Shared original songs, poems and paintings. Encouraged artistic growth in others.
• Co-Founder, Los Acapellamitos (12th). Created, recruited for and organized student club. Arranged, led, practiced and performed a capella numbers with a group.
• Gay-Straight Alliance (9-12th). Served as secretary of publicity (12th). Held meetings, discussions and activities. Ensured school-wide awareness of club activities and meetings. Expressed support for social tolerance. French Honors Society (11th-12th).
• Attended club meetings, tutored French students of various levels, aided in development of lessons for extracurricular French classes at elementary school. (5.25 Community Service hours)
• AMC- American Math Competition oth_i2tto.) Participated in the annual American Math Competition. Community Service: President/Secretary, Conflict Mediation Club (1001-120). Served as president (12th) and secretary (11th). Taught members how to perform mediations between conflicting peers. Organized lessons and events and ensured club awareness of events.
• Recorded community service hours. Certified conflict mediator. (22+ hours)
• Tutor, California Scholarship Foundation (12th). Assisting students in all grades and subject areas.
• Volunteer, Rossmoor Science Day. Helped run booth at science fair. (3 hours)
Volunteer Drama Instructor, kossmoor Elementary School. Taught elementary students basic improvisation skills every week. (1.5 hours).
