Interview with Annika

By: Harshini Sanjay and Sharada Kittur

Annika is one of the RAs for Calmindon floor 3. They are an environmental science and policy major. They attended Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, and are going into their second year of college. 

Harshini Sanjay: Why do you join COSMOS as an R.A? What do you enjoy about it? And are you an alum? 

Annika: I joined COSMOS because I wanted a job over the summer. I was applying to a lot of internships, and during winter quarter, I was taking Elizabeth Crook, our faculty director's ESS 40b class — that's the Earth system science, biology required for my major. She advertised COSMOS, and I was thinking for a little bit, and then I realized it was actually a program that one of my friends had graduated from. He came to the UCI Cosmos. And I think he was in cluster six in 2022. 

He'd come down from UCLA sometime during winter quarter. And he'd asked me to show him around a little bit and meet up because it had been a while.

So I said,"Yeah sure, let me come take you around," and so we walked around Irvine and he was saying, "Oh my God, I remembered like this, where this happened, and this is where this happened." He's telling me all these stories about his time as a COSMOS student.

I thought, "Oh, that sounds really cool." And then I remembered Elizabeth Crook, and the COSMOS opening as an RA. I should apply, just because I want to give you guys the same opportunities to make all these memories and make all these friends, because he says he still keeps in contact with them. And I think that's really cool, especially two years on. 

I myself did not do Cosmos as a high schooler. I didn't know about it, first of all. And I also, the first few years of high school was COVID [pandemic] for me.

Then as a junior and as a senior, I was really focused on just doing as much as I could to make up for that. I didn't do it, but it turns out a few of my friends had done it. So that's pretty cool. 

HS: What are some struggles you went through in high school or college? 

Annika: I'm from the Bay and I just feel like there's a lot of pressure on us in the Bay specifically, especially at my high school.

There was just a lot of pressure and a lot of stress and ultimately it didn't really matter that much — everyone still went to a college. And the people I know who went to community college, they're gonna transfer into UCs, and UCs all around are very, very good schools.

So I guess all the stress academically, socially and as a club — it just felt very overwhelming in the moment, I was dealing with a lot of stuff. I was also dealing with mental health and this kind of stress constantly from your peers, from your parents, from everyone around you. It puts a toll on your mental health. 

Having graduated high school and coming into college, I feel it's really put into perspective just how draining and damaging that kind of mindset and lifestyle was. So yes, we want to succeed in your cluster life, but we also want you to have fun. It's why we're holding these activities and it's why we're trying to encourage you to make friends and bond as a hall, and as a suite. I'm really glad that you girls have done that here. It makes me really happy. So that was for high school.

Talking about college, I think it was a really big jump for me. As I've mentioned, I'm from the Bay Area, around 400 miles away. It was a pretty big move for me. It was sort of a struggle to figure out how I wanted to live my life here. How was I going to take care of myself, remember to go to the dining hall to eat, remember to do my laundry, remember to clean my room? Because you don't have someone telling you, "Oh you have to do this, you have to do that." So, a lot of it is very self-driven, which I think I struggled with, and I had to  make sure I kept to a schedule for that. 

Sharada Kittur: Why did you commit to UCI? And would you recommend it to other students? 

Annika: I do recommend it.

I decided on UCI because as college decisions were coming out, I was looking at where I had gotten into. Not all these private schools had accepted me, and that was fine. I didn't really want to go out of state, anyways.

And then it came down to three, basically. As my mom and I were planning our tours of the colleges, it came down to UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and Cal Poly SLO. We said "Okay, let's drive down to SoCal, and start touring these colleges." Funnily enough, I never applied to any [colleges] in NorCal. 

And as my mom was planning it, I said, "You know what, Mom, I don't want to go to Riverside, just look at UC Irvine and [Cal Poly] SLO and then we'll decide from there." So that definitely helped to narrow it down to two choices. This was in April break. I knew I was on the waitlist for a few other schools, but I didn't want to hedge my bets on them. So when I visited Cal Poly SLO, I got a tour from one of our family friends, which was really helpful. But it was just not the kind of college I could see myself going to, if that makes sense. Whereas when I came to Irvine, I felt, "Okay, like I love this campus, it's really beautiful, and it's just so much nicer." The city sort of feels like the Bay Area itself, if a little bit more manicured. 

HS: What's your favorite part of UCLA? 

Annika: I guess the friends I've made. I really do enjoy meeting new people, especially coming to SoCal. I do feel like there's a difference between NorCal and SoCal, and I think just meeting new people, making all these connections, as well as connecting with people through the university organizations. Through Cosmos as well, I've made a lot of friends here and that's been really great. That's kind of been my favorite part. I also like the park. It's really nice place to hang out. And I will say, I am a very big fan of the Petr culture we have here. 

SK: So what was the behind the scenes planning like for the program, and what's it like currently for the events and field trips?

Annika: Behind the scenes, it was sort of just planning to get all these dorm decorations set up before everything all started. We had to do our own UCLC [UCI-affiliated course platform] trainings, for example, this is what to do in an emergency situation. So it was just online training for that.

We came back to Irvine after I moved out from the dorms, to talk about what COSMOS as a whole would look like. Like these were our responsibilities, that's what we have to do on a day-to-day basis, this is what the schedule looks like. All that kind of stuff. Basically it was a briefing on what we could expect from the program. Then once we moved in [because we moved in on Friday, you all moved in on Sunday, right? So we moved in a few days before you did.] Friday and Saturday was our crunch time to get dorm decorations up.

So for all of these dorm decorations, we did them over those two days. Friday was a little bit more relaxed. We still had a refresher orientation. And then from there, we just had to do whatever we needed to do, to get our dorms set up.

Andrea [the other Calmindon floor 3 RA] was really helpful with having some of the posters done prior to that time. Before I flew down, I was also making things like the door tags, and then we were doing the RA posters.

But Andrea was really helpful in making the posters. There's one of the Totoro, and then there's one down in the boy's suite, with the ramen. That was all Andrea; she did it before we even moved in. Then when we got here we felt, "Oh my God, everyone else is doing so much." Because Andrea and I are new with RAs, it was a little difficult to figure out what the acceptable level of decoration would be.

We were struggling with that. So when Saturday rolled around, we said, "Okay, we need to do more posters." We came up with all these clouds, more of the Totoro, the set Sprites down in the girls' suite, and then the Ponyo poster down the boys' suite. 

Now, every day that I'm on, we have a team meeting. We talk about what we can work on, and events that are coming up. For every event, you sign up if you want to help and be on the planning committee.

And a week or so in advance, we start getting things together. Like for the Y2K [event], I wasn't on it — but Liam, Chloe, and Cherish were talking about how they had to plan which activities they wanted to do, figure out what they needed to get, figure out what music to do and the room to book.All these kinds of things going on about the logistical parts.

SK: How are floor themes decided in general? 

Annika: It was between the RA bodies. So we were assigned [to] each other. Sam, before he took a break, was part of the head RAs. He helped to assign RA teams.

We realized Andrea is really into Studio Ghibli, and we were pretty sure that everyone loves Studio Ghibli. We might as well just make our theme Studio Ghibli. That way we can also do posters from specific movies for every suite, since we didn't want to just have it just be a mishmash of everything.

We just had to decide, what are the more popular movies? Let's figure out where we want to put them, and then figure out what kind of designs we wanted to do. 

SK: What are your future plans after college? 

Annika: Oh my God. Don't talk to me about after college.

Hopefully, I will get a job. The job market is really bad right now. I've seen my brother, he'd graduated this past year. He's kind of struggling to find a job right now, but fingers crossed, he'll get one. I do think I would want to do a master's degree somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure where, or in what fields. Again, I'm pretty young and pretty early in my college journey, so I don't really have a fully formed idea of where I want to go.

It would be nice to get a few years of working experience before going to grad school. But I also know that it's kind of hard for your professors to remember you, and then write you letters of recommendation to get into grad school. Hopefully by the end of my fourth year. I'm not burnt out by like 16 straight years of schooling, so I could go straight into a grad school. But, again, I think I'm just interested in getting a master's degree so that I could go on to get better work in the future. 

As an environmental science and policy major, there are a few options available to me. Because we have to take Urban farming classes as well as Earth system science classes, there is the route available for me to, for example, do more urban planning, or work with the city, or even governments. I can also do Consulting work with corporations and figure out if they're compliant with environmental regulations, and that kind of stuff.

HS: If you could attend one cluster of your choice, what would it be? And if not, which one would you add? 

Annika: See, I don't know the clusters. I do know that cluster 10 is sustainable engineering. So as an environmental science and policy major, that'd probably be my choice.

My friend at UCSD is a cluster assistant, for something with computers and art, which is his major. That would be interesting to attend, because I know that different UCs have different clusters available.

SK: What's next for the program? Like what can we expect in the next two weeks?

Annika: I have a whole list of the activities. I'm not sure if you want it. I don't think I'm allowed to show you that yet, but tomorrow, you might have seen on the "This week at Cosmos", there will be the Hike at Bommer Canyon. That's gonna be hopefully pretty fun. You can earn some Hall points.

And then, we have karaoke tonight. You should go. Andrea is part of the planning committee, and some of the RAs will be singing, and it will be fun. I will not, but I might if I'm sufficiently convinced. Next week, I know we have funny presentations, trivia night, and then there should be a talent show in either the third week or the fourth week. You guys can look forward to your Campus Plaza run. That's going to be pretty fun, I think. UTC kind of gets boring after a while, so it'd be nice to get out. 

And there's pretty good food over there. I highly recommend the ice cream. And if you're feeling very, very brave, the Yupdduk, that tteokbokki place. It's incredibly spicy, and we got the extra mild option and both my friend and I died.

HS: Do you have any advice for high schoolers, COSMOS attendees, or students in general? 

Annika: I can tailor it by grade level. I guess for incoming seniors, don't stress about college too much. I know it's this really big scary thing, but I promise you it's not that bad once you get through the gauntlet of college apps. I'd say, start early, first of all. I think I had a draft of all my UC questions done by the end of the summer. You, in no way, shape, or form, have to follow this schedule. And then in like August, by the time the first month of school had finished, I finished my common app. Then it was just grinding edits for those, as well as working on the supplementals. So I definitely recommend starting early. Um if you know you're gonna apply to UC just start the questions, look at them, get an idea of what you think you might be writing about. I know that was really helpful. Also figure out where you can really reuse some parts of your essays. 

For incoming juniors, or I guess students in general, genuinely don't stress about it too much. You guys are kids, take the time off. I know it's really, really hard, and kind of preachy of me to say this, but really take the time off. Take breaks, basically. You don't want to be putting too much work on yourself, especially at this age. I didn't realize how unsustainable my high school lifestyle was until I got into college.

I felt, "Oh my God, I need so much more sleep than I had gotten in the past." And I think it was partially because college classes are a little bit more demanding. And you also have to take the energy to take care of yourself. Am I going to class on time? What time do I need to leave? Because your schedule can be all over the place and it's a pretty big campus. You have to take into account travel time as well. All that extra energy, it really takes a toll on you, and you'll realize that your diet and your sleep schedule might change once you get into college.

Just try to take care of yourself in high school, especially college application season, and college admission season. I know it can get really, really competitive, and I really encourage you to just block it out, because it can be really draining to hear "Oh, I got X, I didn't get into Y place and I didn't get into Z place. I had XYZ extracurriculars and I've had like a whatever GPA." It can be really, really draining to hear that, and then get to the mindset of, "Oh my God, am I gonna go into college?" I promise you, everything will work out fine, you'll be able to get into very good colleges. Especially now, since you're doing COSMOS, it gives you a huge leg-up in admissions. So really try to take it easy. Remember that everything is gonna be okay, and you'll get through it.