#gudemamas

[dilesxpressions]

Sophia Baltasar

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

Sophia Baltasar, 3rd Year Global Disease Biology major/Human Development Minor, Millbrae, CA 

2. What’s your roman empire?

How much free time I would have if I wasn’t a pre-med girlie 😞

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

“Sophie you smell really good.” Usually my bf tells me I stink 😍

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

If my life was a movie it’d be a comedy bc I am an April Fool’s baby and people say I was an #accident. 

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

Completing the Davis trilogy, going river rafting in Sac, and having a photoshoot at the Dixon sunflower fields with my housemates. 

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

My guilty pleasure is asking Chipotle for 3x sour cream when I get the bowl.

7. What are your bad habits?

Talking too fast, snacking instead of eating real meals, waiting to do my laundry once a month, sleeping at 9pm, having too many kids. 

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

“Good days on my mind.” Fun fact: “Good Days” by SZA was my #1 song on Spotify for 3 years in a row. 

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

Neutral people don’t exist. They always have an opinion leaning to one side, but don’t always get the chance to voice their own opinion.

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

I’m actually part of a community service club on campus (yeah service is sexy or whateva). I was the vice president my second year, and was honestly chilling. One day during winter break, the president had to leave school to focus on personal matters. Yeah, I was not prepared when I found out on the first day of winter quarter. I barely knew anything about logistics, and However, being able to dive head-first into leading this club was the kick I needed to be able to step up. Mind you, it was scary at first having to lead meetings myself, attend weekly meetings with adults in the community that I had never met before, and reorganize the club’s activities. This situation was my blessing in disguise – I had never learned time management better in this period of time. I was in charge of organizing service events, coordinating youth stayovers, planning a banquet, managing finances, and maintaining membership – and found it was something I loved to do (albeit stressful alongside ochem with Nasiri). Knowing that people saw me as a boss definitely put a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but faking it until you make it is the best piece of advice I received from the former president who got me through this. I’m currently the president now, and feel that with the support of my board members and alumni everything is a lot more smooth sailing. Join Rotaract guys the founder was S2K21 namesake Mitty Chang. Service above self.

[dilesxpressions]

Jazmin Adachi

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown 

Jazmin Adachi; 4th year/alumni; Biopsychology major, human development minor; Atlanta, GA + Palo Alto, CA 

2. What’s your Roman empire? 

The fact that the time zone on the East Coast is 3 hours later than the West Coast, so when BeReal goes off at 3:00 PM on the West Coast, it goes off at 6:00 PM on the East Coast. This is just so ridiculous because that means the people on the East Coast have completed their day and have nothing to “BeReal” about.

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received? 

I caught up with a friend I hadn’t talked to in a while, and she told me that moving to New York spontaneously was such a “me” thing. 

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you? 

Comedy or documentary; some Asian actress idk we all look the same

5. What is something on your college bucket list? 

Horseback riding which I have completed :) 

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.) 

Watching Victorious 

7. What are your bad habits? 

I yap too much 

8. What are your favorite song lyrics? 

“Ring ding ding daa baa 

Baa aramba baa bom baa barooumba 

Wh-wha-what's going on-on? 

Ding, ding 

This is the Crazy Frog 

Ding, ding 

Bem, bem 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

Ring ding ding ding baa baa 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

This is the Crazy Frog 

Breakdown 

Ding, ding 

Br-br-break it, br-break it 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum

Bem, bem 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

This is the Crazy Frog 

A ram me ma bra ba bra bra rim bran 

Dran drra ma mababa baabeeeaaaaaaa 

Ding, ding 

This is the Crazy Frog 

Ding, ding 

Da, da 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

Ring ding ding ding baa baa 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem 

Ring ding ding ding ding ding 

This is the Crazy Frog 

Ding, ding 

Br-br-break it, br-break it 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Bem, bem 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

Dum dum dumda dum dum dum 

This is the Crazy Frog 

Bem, bem” 

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take 

Black olives make a great snack 

10. Describe a time when you had to step up and be a leader.

For the last group project of my undergraduate career, my group and I had to create a public service announcement video about health disparities in a certain community. The project was to make a presentation and have a voice-over on top of it about the announcement. In this scenario, I will use fake names heheh. There were 5 team members: Mike, Clara, Oscar, Scarlett, and me. The project was due on Sunday and it was Wednesday. Mike created a timeline for when parts of the projects should be finished. We decided that Mike, Clara, Oscar, and I would split up parts of the research and create the presentation as well as create a script for the voice-over. Scarlett would then do the voice-over part. In addition to the research, I also took on the job of creating an organized presentation as well as helping Scarlett do half of the voiceover as I have slight video editing experience as well. 

Mike created a timeline of when everything should be finished and helped accommodate a lot of our schedules. For example, I had a rave to go to on Saturday, so I asked Mike to go ahead and change my planned schedule from Saturday to Friday. Scarlett was also not free on Saturday, and as her job was the last thing to do, Mike moved her items to Sunday. When Sunday rolled around, I finished my voice-over parts very quickly and edited them to send over to Scarlett. The task was simple: I just read off the scripts that everyone else provided. I let Scarlett know that the script might have to be shortened a bit as our teammates made it long and there is a time limit for the video. Scarlett agreed but said that she was not home yet and would have to do the voice-over later in the day. 

As 6 PM rolled around, Mike called me as we were worried that Scarlett wouldn’t do her part. I had a birthday dinner to attend and could not do Scarlett’s part quickly. We got no updates from Scarlett until around 8:30 PM when she said she was working on it and would submit it. At around 11:00 PM, she sent in the project. My other teammates thought we were all relieved until I noticed that the video was almost a minute and a half over the time limit. We started complaining about how our grades would go down because of the overtime, and Scarlett edited the video to make the voice-over faster which made the video sound very awkward and still about 30 seconds over. With 35 minutes remaining, I decided to step in and shorten the script that Scarlett did the voice-over on, and rerecord everything Scarlett did. When finished, I still had about 13 seconds to spare with no fast-forward editing on my voice. I submitted the project at 11:57 PM with 2 minutes to spare, and my teammates thanked me for my hard work. We all got a 100 on the project – except for Scarlett. 

There was a feedback form for teammates who did not contribute too much, and I wrote one for Scarlett. Nothing against Scarlett; I’m sure her quarter was hard, and I did feel bad. However, it was the last project of my undergraduate career, and it took Scarlett about 4 hours to do half of a voice-over with the script given to her. I frantically redid what Scarlett completed in 12.5% of her time. We already worked around Scarlett’s schedule, and she did not have to do any research on the project whatsoever. I took on her part, did the research for my slides, wrote my script, and created the template for my slideshow. There is no excuse for her not being able to do 10% of the project, especially when she almost negatively affected the entire group’s grades. I don’t know what grade she got,and I wish her well, but I hope she did not get a full score when she contributed nothing to the team. This was more of a rant about my teammate not doing the work she was supposed to do, but I do believe that I stepped up heavily to become the leader of my team’s project for us to get a good grade.

[dilesxpressions]

CJ Carino

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

Christian James "CJ" Carino, Third-year, Managerial Economics, Vallejo CA

2. What’s your roman empire?

Not gonna lie I don't fully understand the question; but I'd say Augustus.

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

"Bro what cologne do you wear, you smellin kinda good."

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

It would probably be a documentary (it's the capricorn in me) about being a philanthropic billionaire. The actor that would play me would probably be Henry Golding (from crazy rich asians).

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

Getting a summer internship, getting my degree, making new friends, leaving a positive impact.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

Song: I'd say edm dubstep because I be banging my head like a weirdo?? who does that. Movie: I'd say watching this filipino movie called "she's dating the gangster" because I mostly just watch the movie to cry. Food: I'd say takis because for one, it's unhealthy, and for two, it's painful when I have to use the bathroom to let it out. But like, it's so good you know..

7. What are your bad habits?

Pulling an all-nighter for a midterm/final. It doesn't help with retaining the information but at the same time it does the job.

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

"who cares what the world's gonna say? 'cause you know they're gonna say it anyway". - gryffin

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

Nerds are so attractive! Like.. you read self-help books? that's so hot..

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

During my employment with the City of Berkeley, I was the human representative for a recruitment in the public works division. For this recruitment, we had a performance exam and there were three subject-matter-experts who will be rating the performances, and my job as the HR representative was to be the middleman for both the candidates and the raters. During this exam, there was a bit of plagiarism because the raters were being biased to the candidates and already had two candidates they liked. Once I overheard them talk about the candidates, I gathered them together and let them know that this was a performance exam and not an interview. They agreed with me that the candidates should not be failing the exam due to the biases they had. Instead of ending the recruitment with only two candidates to present to the interviewers, we had seven candidates that passed fair and square. Jobs determine where most people live, how much they eat, where their children go to school, etc, and if I did not step up and be a leader, the biases of the raters would have affected the five other candidates who just wanted an opportunity.

[dilesxpressions]

Kaylee Ong

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

Kaylee Ong, first year Biomedical Engineering major (switching to Manecon), from San Francisco

2. What’s your roman empire?

My roman empire is how my life will be after I graduate.

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

The best compliment I’ve ever received is that I have a soothing voice.

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

The genre would be adventure and the actor would be Sandra Oh.

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

Something on my college bucket list is to take a unique class.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

My guilty pleasure is rotting in bed.

7. What are your bad habits?

Forgetting someone’s name right after they tell me and bottling up my feelings 

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

My favorite song lyrics are “Why’d you have to lead me on, why’d you have to twist the knife, walk away and leave me bleedin’, bleedin’” from Taylor Swift’s song “Say Don’t Go”

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

The best part of a brownie is the crunchy edge, not the soft center.

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

In my junior year of high school, I collaborated with two other students to raise awareness about financial literacy and labor rights. We did this by planning a series of Zoom workshops, hoping to educate our peers and those who were unaware of their right as workers on these topics. As all of us were a part of the Asian American community, it was important to us that we could educate people about their labor rights and teach them about how to not get taken advantage of in the job market. We had little to no turnout at those workshops and we felt like our hard work went to waste. However, we were still driven because we knew our work could make a difference in people's lives, so we were determined to increase our turnout. I stepped up and proposed that we should create a TikTok account. Recognizing TikTok's potential as a platform where videos could gain many views, I acted as a leader by giving my team ideas on what kind of videos we could film. As we started posting our videos, some of them gained a decent number of views, allowing our zoom workshops to gain more traction. We ended up having a slightly higher turnout at our following workshops. Although it wasn’t a huge success, the fact that we were still able to get the attention of a couple more people to attend our workshops was still extremely important to my team members and I.

[dilesxpressions]

Cecilia Chu

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

My name is Cecilia. I'm a first year majoring in English!

2. What’s your roman empire?

My Roman empire is WHAT CAN I GET TATTOOED NEXT??

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

One time my teacher called me a wordsmith and since then I’ve been trying to manifest that into a real career fr.

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

I think if my life was a movie it would definitely be a comedy starring Scarlett Johansson.

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

I’d love to perform at one of the Aggie Open Mics or Poetry Nights in Davis.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

I have a huge sweet tooth and am prone to indulging in caramel frappes. I’m very weak to the appeal of blended drinks in general…smoothies, slushies, etc

7. What are your bad habits?

I’m a huge procrastinator! And not just academically; I’ll delay anything from washing the dishes to putting the laundry away. Big fan of instant gratification.

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

I don’t have a specific lyric in mind but if I did it would definitely come from Noah Kahan’s discography. Or! Anything written by the boygenius trio would definitely do it.

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

My unpopular opinion is that I actually love brussel sprouts and everyone who says they hate them have just never tried any that aren’t boiled in unsalted water. TRUST

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

I’m not sure if this counts as voluntarily stepping up but when I used to work concessions at Oracle Park (the Giants’ home stadium in San Francisco), I had the opportunity to move up in the ranks from my position in the crew to a cart lead, which meant that I would be under a lot less supervision and be expected to handle most operations on my own. The way my manager put it, I would essentially have to learn how to manage a stand on my own, though of course I wasn’t alone in the process. Far from it! In addition to the attractive pay raise, I wanted to take on the role in order to challenge myself and get outside of my comfort zone in a way that had “real” stakes. Though of course we weren’t exactly doing open heart surgery up in Peet’s Coffee. But up until then, I’d had little experience taking initiative and being in charge of anything, so it was definitely a learning experience for me. I learned the hard way that despite how spirited the attempt, it’s always impossible to accomplish everything on your own. In fact, trying to cover all the bases (haha) by yourself might even impede the speed of the work. I learned that we work in teams for a reason, and part of trusting the process and each other is letting everyone pull their own weight. That experience and working in customer service in general has also shown me all of the ways that my own performance could be improved as well, especially in terms of clear and effective communication.