Annie Hu: Busy Bee and Social Butterfly in One

Coming off of an intensive karate practice at the ARC, Annie Hu still had energy for more.  While the rest of the class felt drained and dazed, she was joyously cracking jokes and bouncing effortlessly from one conversation to the next as if the last hour and a half of tumbling and nonstop movement never happened.  The exhausting verbal demands of karate had no effect on the pep in her voice, which seemed just as enthusiastic as when practice started.  She complained about fatigue from a hectic day, but her hyperactive hopping around said otherwise.  It should be no surprise, however, that a tough workout failed to diminish any of Annie’s spirits.  Her wide range of campus involvements and academic life has conditioned her to take on new and challenging adventures with positivity and the strength to keep pushing forward.  With every one of her activities, all include plenty of smiles and a willingness to go above and beyond to help others.   

A major factor in Annie’s decision to enroll at UCI was her acceptance to the selective Campus-wide Honors Program with admittance to the school.  Priority enrollment that allows her to easily register for classes and graduate on time among other features of the school drew her down from the Sacramento area to Southern California.  Despite never having visited the campus before accepting the offer, she found her love for UCI at SPOP in it’s supportive students and laid back atmosphere, which were a welcoming change compared to her high school’s competitive environment.       

Beginning in her first year, Annie started off as an active CHP community member.  With persuasion from CHP student leaders early on, she stepped onto the Campus-wide Honors Student Council during the planning for Battle of the Brains, in which CHP students and faculty face off in a trivia bowl.  The team effort of organizing this event exposed her to how CHP and other campus communities and alumni can be brought together for an enjoyable night, inspiring her to become CHP social chair.  “You can’t throw events by yourself,” she says, “and [Campus Honors Student Council] showed me that.”  While getting into her role in CHSC, Annie realized her potential to do more on campus.  “I have nothing to lose,” she remembers reasoning to herself, “I might as well join as many things as possible.”     

Annie’s curiosity then took her to opposite ends of campus to try new activities.  Amazed by fellow hall mates practicing techniques in the common room for the Karate Club, she tagged along with them to ARC classes and immediately joined.  She currently serves as vice-president, following her passion in event planning and bringing members closer together, and dedicates a few nights out of her week to practice.  Annie has also been recommended to the Student Anteaters Ambassadors Network and served as an ASUCI Academic Senator, attending faculty meetings to represent student views on academic policies.  “I really wanted to have that student government experience,” she says, “I didn’t have time in high school, so I was like alright, I’m in college.  Might as well.”

In addition to her co-curricular life, Annie can be found zipping around campus to classes, lab, and research.  Although she “liked science in general,” Annie chose to major in biology because it “involved the least amount of numbers.”  Now in her third year, she assists in research – a CHP graduation requirement – on spinal chord therapy under Aileen Anderson, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and anatomy and neurobiology who liked Annie’s enthusiasm when she first reached out to her.  “A lot of this is not general coursework,” she explains, “this is like stem cells, and inflammatory mechanisms.  This is like grad school work.”  Though overwhelming at times trying to grasp complex concepts, learning advanced material has broken the monotony of the biology curriculum in the classroom, and has allowed her to put certain techniques from class into practice in the lab.  “We learned about [the Western blot] in Bio 98 and we got use it!” she cheerfully shares.

Research and working under a physician off campus have also helped Annie determine her career goals in therapy and medicine by surrounding herself with graduate students, post-doctorates, and professionals and asking how they got to where they are.  “I got really lucky,” she says of all of her connections and mentors she has met that have pulled her into unfamiliar and exciting ventures and given sound advice.  Just as upperclassmen have provided guidance to her, Annie uses her inclusive nature to motivate and pass on her knowledge about classes, jobs, and research to freshmen in her activities and through CHP’s peer mentorship program.  “If I got this lucky, might as well spread the luck around,” she says.    

As for balancing this work, research, biology course load, and social life schedule, she trusts technology to keep her on track.  Telling her what to do by the hour, Annie’s phone consolidates every aspect of her college life into one place for her to move from one deadline and meeting to the next.  Otherwise, “everything just collapses.”  “I live and die by my phone calendar,” she laughs, “it even has when I have to do laundry.”

Annie’s advice for freshmen is to “join something, join anything, just do something because you’ll meet people and you’ll know more about anything.”  She warns to not “expect things to just come to you.”  From her experiences in honors, she stresses that teamwork on top of time management are essential in not only coordinating and putting on events in clubs, but also succeeding in difficult classes as well.  “You don’t get very far on your own,” she says, “you need everyone.” 

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