Shun Lin '19

First, I want to thank The Berkeley Club of Taiwan for providing me with this scholarship. I am really grateful and happy to receive this scholarship, especially because my family and I are going through a very rough time now. This scholarship definitely shines light on my life, as I have received many bad news recently. I want to say thank you again and I hope that in the future The Berkeley Club of Taiwan can continue to provide support for students on campus.

I am a third year Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) major at UC Berkeley. I was born in Taiwan and I immigrated to Los Angeles with my younger brother, who is attending UC Riverside as a sophomore, when I was twelve years old. I came to America for two reasons, one is to get a better education and another is to take care of my elderly grandparents. My parents stayed in Taiwan and they are high school teachers, I lived with my grandparents, who immigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. more than 25 years ago, back at LA before I came to Berkeley. When I immigrated to LA nine years ago, I did not speak any English and  I remember that the only English word I knew was "apple". It was a very hard time for me to adjust to a new and strange environment while also taking care of my grandparents and my little brother. With the support of many great teachers at my school, I persevered and I was able to come to my top choice school, which is UC Berkeley. I am very grateful to be here.

Last time I visited Taiwan was during last Spring semester for my grandmother's funeral. She was my role model as she always studied hard and tried to learn English even when she was old and she knew it was difficult. She always cared about my brother and my well-being even when she was bed-ridden. I always looked up to her and I want to be a lifelong learner just like her.

I chose EECS because I really enjoyed solving the challenges I face in both my computer science and engineering courses but also in my personal projects. In terms of  extracurricular activity, I am currently the Vice President of Technology for DiversaTech Consulting and I also enjoy playing online Go and learn about new technologies on my spare time. After graduating from Cal, I want to become a software engineer at a company where I can work on impactful projects that help people and improve people's life around the world.