I spent most of my formative years in Arcadia, CA before moving to Cupertino, CA for high school: Monta Vista High School Class of 2012. My path to Cal was relatively straightforward. I pretty much worked diligently just like my classmates at school and then applied for colleges. In 10th grade, while studying some Dutch words for my world history class project, I thought that I would maybe end up at Cal and take Dutch (seemed a bit far-fetched at the time). After two years, I indeed ended up choosing Berkeley for a variety of other factors, but hey, my 10th grade premonition inadvertently came true. I am now a CS/Linguistics double, and I look forward to taking more language classes my next two years here.
I have been programming for 2 years but it does feel longer. Python is my go-to for daily needs, Java for some more speed, C for classes, and Javascript for some web hacking. I dabbled in R, MATLAB/Octave, and SQL for some online courses. Speaking of online courses, there has never been a better time to learn more about the world than right now! Browse your libraries, EdX, Coursera, and others. You don't have to commit to any one class -- just follow those that turn out to be really interesting!
I definitely enjoy watching, playing, and officiating sports. If you are playing an IM sport during the summer, you'll most likely see me at some point. You might also see me at Foothill watching the World Cup and eating lunch as well!
Otherwise, I like to indulge in information, material from online or in books. I might forget most of everything I read, but then I might remember one tidbit that might end up being interesting for others.
Of course, there is nothing more fascinating than language. If I really do have time, I'd try to practice (and fail at practicing) a foreign language. If enough people are interested, hey maybe we can all learn a foreign language together on the side before summer ends.
3.5 years ago, I once wrote an essay for a contest hosted by the Spanish embassy, and I didn't think too much about it before a call came in saying that I won a trip to Spain (I didn't get the top spot, but the technicalities worked out well). Now that month was incredibly memorable! I can still picture myself walking along the Spanish streets, with the freedom to explore at will. The pictures are fading, though, so I'll most likely have to make another trip back soon, maybe after graduating from Cal. I definitely have Chris and Magellan Study Abroad to thank for my experience, as they sponsored that contest with the embassy.
There is so much I want to do this summer but so little time. First and foremost, being a good TA for 61A will be my primary commitment. Second, I would like to build up my personal project arsenal with something cool involving natural language processing or maps. Both sound difficult but also have well-developed libraries, so I'll see how far I can get. Third, I have a few books to read. After surfing the Internet for productivity tips early this summer, I now have a few books under my list, and I'm sure I'll discover more along the way. Finally, this is Berkeley, so there are always a few good classes that are running during the summer. I might visit some of them when I need a break from the previous three commitments.
I personally learn best first by learning the rules very deeply, then after practicing a lot, start to form an intuition that will hopefully guide me through more difficult problems. Thus, I expect my sections to be a bit mechanical at the beginning, where I present lots of easy problems. If one gets bored of easy problems, aim for speed and accuracy, then try to write out your intuition. It's only after one gets enough practice that s/he gets to see the patterns to guide intuition. I also like to be informal and easygoing, so expect a lot of trivia and talk about life along the way.