What are you studying?

I'm currently a junior studying Health and Societies (HSOC), concentrating in Finance and Healthcare Markets. I'm looking into healthcare consulting, or consulting in general, but I might try public finance related to healthcare. I haven't tried anything finance related, so I'm still trying to diversify my experiences. I was pre-med when I applied to college, which is probably why I'm HSOC now because I can relate the most to the medical field.

Have you always wanted to be a doctor?

I actually have a philosophy about the careers Asian Americans want to go into. They usually want to be a doctor, lawyer, or banker, mostly likely because of parental pressures, but also because of peers and relatives. I went through the law phase before in middle school, and I was going through the doctor phase in high school. Now, I'm sort of transitioning into the business side, into consulting or even banking.

What appeals to you about business?

I changed my mind about being pre-med prior to coming to Penn, so I wasn't actually influenced by the proximity to Wharton. During my senior year in high school, I had a grant from NASA for one of their student researcher positions. I was studying how the body's immune system reacts in space. However, my experience completely failed. I had a $10k grant, but it went horribly. I was testing rats, and their cells mutated. When I was presenting my findings at the end of the summer, I was trying to present this failed product, but all my mentors said, "Although your presentation failed, it seems like you were trying to sell me the drug that failed. Why don't you consider business?" For the second half of the summer prior to college, I went back to China to visit family. Many of them used to be farmers, but now they're huge factory owners. When I went back, they exposed me to all the different aspects of business. They made me promise to diversify my interests and not just be stuck on pre-med during my college life. I still haven't taken a single pre-med class at Penn yet - not even bio or chem, even though everything on my app was pre-med related.

Tell me a bit about your family and how you grew up.

My family background is that of the typical first generation immigrant. In China, my dad was a small business owner running small gift shops — the stuff you see at swap meets. He owned 5-6 small shops and has people run them. My mom used to be an elementary school teacher before she worked for the government. In 2000, my dad came to the US by himself, mostly because of me. When I was in China, I was an utterly horrible student. I was like, second to last in the class. In elementary school, China has presenters to come speak to little kids. I was so bad that my teachers sent me to the other room so that I wouldn't distract other students. My mom realized that I was hopeless. In China, if your family isn't wealthy, the only route to success is through education. In my dad's logical (or perhaps illogical) reasoning, he thought that the US had a less strenuous education system, or at least there would be more opportunities besides sheer academics.

Out of the three career tracks I mentioned, no one within in my family is in those fields, besides small business. Right now, my dad is a long distance trucker and my mom is a casino dealer. When they first came to America, my dad worked at restaurants, construction sites, bakery stores, and a bunch of miscellaneous places. My mom has always been better at academics, so she was working as a nurse. However, she had bad reactions to chemical procedures so she had to quit her nursing job. She worked briefly at a beauty salon, and also got fired from a restaurant on her first day. Now she works at a casino, but I'm not sure how that happened.What were the most important lessons you took from your childhood?

The most useful lesson was getting to know different people and being able to accept different cultures. I've moved 7-8 times since I came to the US. I moved almost every year until high school, which forced me to make new friends quickly and get to know as many people as possible. I've always been very outgoing, and I'm not the type to sit at home and read. I actually picked up English so quickly from communicating with so many people.

Was it hard for you to move so much?

I used to complain when I was younger, but we moved because of my parents' jobs. You can't really complain when you know they need to put food on the table.

Do you think you were mature than your peers because of this experience?

I think I was more mature than my peers because my family relied on me at an early age. My dad doesn't speak English, and my mom only learned English recently. I had to deal with all the telephone bills, water, and such while growing up. This used to annoy me when I was younger because I perceived these as adult responsibilities but I shouldn't have to take care of. Because of that, I was exposed to more responsibilities when I was really young.

On the other hand, I was also pretty rebellious. I used to be upset that I had to take of all these things, so I lashed back a lot in middle school.

Do you think your background sufficient prepared you for college?

College wasn't really a culture shock. I never got homesick, strangely. Growing up by moving around a lot makes you very independent. I call my parents maybe once a week, which is pretty bad considering what I just told you. I don't really depend on them for anything emotionally. This kind of goes back to my financial philosophy. I really believe in financial independence. I hate using my parents' money, and I'm very self-reliant. My dad has an American philosophy that when you're 18, you should be able to take care of yourself. When I got into arguments when I was younger, I'd literally be kicked out of the house for a few days until I wandered back or my mom brought me home. When I was a kid, I always had a plan in case I was abandoned as a child. That sounds really strange now, but I was always prepared with an idea in mind for how I'd take care of myself if the need came up. I knew how to make money - the Asian communities are willing to take in workers without questioning your identity too much. I also thought about child protection programs, school food programs, etc. I did some research on about this stuff. I applied for school subsidies and knew how the system worked. I was never really worried about surviving.

How close were you to your parents?

I'm closer them now. I still only see my dad once a week when I go back, though. I'm closer to my mom, but I listen to my dad more probably because he's more logical. I value them a lot as parents, but they really taught me that you can't rely on anyone else. This came through in everything happening growing up, even small things like doing laundry myself when I was lazy. They have the very immigrant philosophy of "negative parenting". A lot of American parents will be very encouraging, but my parents will do the opposite. If I get 2nd place in something, he'll say, "You only got 2nd, you can't even get 1st."

When I was applying for college, I had mediocre grades and wasn't that great at standardized testing. My SAT scores at the time were only matched to some local colleges, but I was applying to a lot of Ivy League schools. I cut a deal with him — he said he would pay for my apps only if I got into the private schools I applied to, which were the top 10 schools. If I didn't get into any, I'd have to pay for them all. At that time, it was something like $1300, which is a lot for a high school kid with no income. Fortunately, I got accepted to more than half of them so he took care of it. It was a classic scenario — he said I couldn't, and my rebellious self wanted to prove that I could.

What caused the transition between rebellious middle school years and being a good student in high school?

Mostly friends. In 5th grade, all my friends were Hispanic. In 6th grade, I went to an 80% African American school in Pasadena. I had friends that were Asian as well, but it just seemed like no one cared about academics, you just wanted to be cool and popular. But in high school, all my friends were nerds. I wasn't used to the concept of studying until I met these guys. Most of my friends were 2 years older than me, and they sort of showed me the ropes of how to apply to college, etc. Since freshman year, I knew what extracurricular activities to do, what to be involved in, what grants and scholarships to apply for, etc. My family became close to their families as well, and that's how I got engaged with this community. I call it the "Ivy Club" at home — all of those kids went on to great schools. When I was immersed in that community, my grades also became top notch. I was doing the same things they were doing. That's why I consider myself very lucky. I had a lot of fun in the younger years, like ditch school and all that, but when I got to high school, academics became what was important. If you did well academically, you might not be the coolest kid but people respected you because you were smart. I just matured. I also became more motivated because in 8th grade, I was sent back to China. Most of my older cousins were taking the gaokao, or the college entrance exam. They were in a different stage of life and I saw how important academics were to them.

What or who had the biggest influence on you growing up?

I don't know if I can answer in terms of a single person. There were so many different influences. I pick up different things from different people. Even in middle school, when I was living in an Asian community, I had a typical American childhood growing up - playing football, doing BMX, doing AC racing, skateboarding, etc. I aso went through different phases like normal American kids. I'm fortunate to have had many different kinds of friends. When they started turning down the wrong paths like joining gangs, I happened to move. My parents didn't really have a strong say in who I was friends with. My mom worked night shifts and I rarely saw my dad. I think they had a lot of trust in me. My mom always says I was a nice boy because I never had any legal issues. I wasn't involved with anything legally troublesome. My dad had only one policy — you can do whatever you want, as long as your grades are good. That's the policy I stuck by in high school, so I still had plenty of fun.

What cohorts do you associate with, as far as ethnicity, age cohort, hometown, etc?

I was always the "Asian kid" no matter where I went. No matter what community I was in, Asians sort of magnetize towards each other unless you're literally the only one. I really enjoy the diversity though, so I made a lot of effort to have diverse friends. They have all sorts of different perspectives. But in the end, your culture is still your culture. Even on campus now, I have my international friends, my Asian American friends, and all these different groups of people I hang out with.

Do you consider yourself a native of any particular country, or are do you think of yourself on a global scale?

I guess I am a "world citizen". I adapt pretty easily into any given environment, so I sometimes worry that I will lose my origins. When I was in Shanghai, I blended in really well. No one knew I was an Americanized Chinese unless I was writing — then I got exposed. I feel comfortable wherever I am. In the US, I spend time with lots of different people and feel very comfortable.

With regards to age groups, I am more comfortable with people older than me. Most of my friends are 2-3 years older than me. It started in high school, when people used to always confuse me for this older guy who everyone thought I was my brother. In the end, I made an effort to find him and just say hi. He was cool to hang out with so we became friends. They liked me and let me hang around. At the time, we had more of a mentor-mentee relationship. Now that I'm in college, I realize age is just a number and everyone has experiences in different areas. You can be 28 or 29 and still have the same mental age as someone who just turned 20. In your twenties, I think people have a very wide range in terms of their backgrounds and what they've had exposure to.

Many people go through identity transformations or "self-discoveries" during college. Do you feel like you've gotten a stronger sense of identity from college? What caused it?

The biggest identity change I had was probably this past summer, when I worked in China. I also visited Burma, where my girlfriend is from. It's a country with a socio-economic situation vastly different from what I was used to. Seeing my girlfriend's family background there made me realize life wasn't so simple. In college, you might like someone and start dating. After college, you have to think about socioeconomic backgrounds, whether it's sustainable, what you want to do 5-10 years from now, whether that's making you happy, etc. Visiting her family in Burma made me think about what I really valued and what I wanted to have for myself 5-10 years from now. It opened my eyes and made me more mature, I think.

I also realized that my family back in China is not wealthy at all, especially my grandma. She's taking care of 5 people in our family, even though she's 80 years old. Among them is my cousin, who wasn't as fortunate as I was to be exposed to the different kinds of people I met when I was younger. It made me realize as an older cousin how fortunate I was, and how much I should contribute to my family and society. Also, when you start working, you start realizing how little money matters in your happiness. Is it really necessary to be in the top 1% of society? I started wondering whether it was worth it to work in a job you really disliked for 100 hours a week.

In terms of careers, I realized during my internship that the things I was doing were only fascinating to a certain level. I still don't really know what I want to do after graduation because I don't have anything to compare it to. I guess I'm still looking.

What do you think your future self 10 years from now will say to yourself now?

Don't stress as much about the things you can't change or do anything about. Also, ten years from now, I know I'm going to say, "Cory, you shouldn't have wasted all this time in college. You probably should've been more productive with your time." I'm sure I've taken certain things for granted in college. There's so many people around you in college that you have easy access to and you can walk to in 5 minutes. I know I'll miss that after college. What other setting will you be in that constantly has ten events going on all at once? There are always all sorts of talks going on, instructors to talk to, etc. It seems like there's an infinite amount of knowledge on campus you can absorb.

What three things do you value most in life?

1. Family, definitely. Even though I'm not as close to them as I want to be, family is always family. They're always there for you.

2. I'm grateful for friends. It gets you through a lot. Some friends are family.

3. I guess the last thing would be life in general. You're not obligated to do anything in life, and many people that that for granted. A lot of people feel entitled. We often forget how fortunate we are. That's what travel does for you. You sometimes think about, "Why was I not born into circumstances as good as some other person?" But a lot of people don't realize that you're alive, and that your luck can always change. Every day, you have the opportunity to change. That helps to get over the small things.

What sources have your life philosophies come from?

Mostly from talking to people, partly from own experiences. When you listen to other people's views, you end up internalizing what they say. It's up to you to decide which recommendations you want to pick up for yourself. Without having people to mention the idea in the first place, it's hard to get inspiration yourself.

What's the best lesson you've learned from someone?

I've learned a lot from my roommate — he always says, "It's going great!" whenever anyone asks him how his day went. I admire that positive attitude. And your day can always get better.

Also, this is corny, but love in general. Having someone there for me whenever I need to talk has been so amazing. I'm so lucky that I met my girlfriend freshman year. One of my older cousins has been trying to find someone to spend the rest of her life with. She's turning 28 and her mom is really worried. A lot of my coworkers this past summer were in their late twenties and were all really stressed about the idea of love. I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced that so early on. I really hope all my mentors find the right one. Once you do, it's incredible - after the honeymoon phase goes away, a new feeling comes up where it's nice to just have someone to come home to. After being with someone for so long, she'll know when you've been having a bad day and she'll help clean up your room. Having someone to come home to who really knows you like that is so great. That's probably one of my favorite things in life.