Dear Franceswang,

I have uploaded your corrected essay with tracking and comments. Please find the "clean" version pasted below.

Best,

History Editor

Autobiographical Sketch (Limit 6000 characters): Shortly after my birth in San Francisco, when I was still a toothless infant, I moved with my family to Taipei. My family lived in a house adjoining my grandfather's clinic, where both he and my father worked as physicians, and my mother as the charge nurse. I remember my grandfather said to always treat a patient as you would your family. Most of all, I remember he loved and he healed. I was truly inspired. 
After I immigrated to New Zealand from Taiwan, my initial excitement turned into culture shock, a language barrier, and feelings of being uprooted from my heritage. Feeling out of place in a foreign land, I found that the anxiety, insecurity and loneliness were, at times, overpowering. To me, moving away from home meant a loss of friends, family and even my cultural roots. Seeking help from my teachers and enrolling in additional English tutoring, I began to excel both academically and socially. After I acquired adequate language skills, I volunteered as an ESL tutor to give new immigrants the support I so desperately had needed. Slowly, I came to see the beauty of the local culture and to love my new home. 
Little did I know that this was only the beginning of my colorful journey. My life and education spanned four countries with uniquely different cultures. My Taiwanese school emphasized Confucian ethics with a strict code of conduct and commitment, even requiring us to attend class during a typhoon - with flooded classrooms. My radically different schooling in New Zealand saw us sitting barefoot on the classroom floor, studying bi-cultural Maori and European values. Hoping to explore our neighbors, we moved to Queensland, Australia, where I finished high school. Later, I completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney, in preparation for taking Medicine. 
While living in Australia, I cared for a feverish elderly woman in a community home who suffered from severe arthritis. I checked on her daily, brought her meals, and was rewarded by her gradual return to good health. Unexpectedly, she told me that she was surprised to have received such careful treatment despite her ethnic background. Realizing that members of minority communities often have concerns regarding health care, I have learned that the key to building trust, confidence and rapport with the people for whom we care is cultural sensitivity. 
After completing my undergraduate degree in Pharmacy at the University of Sydney, I relocated to the United States, focusing initially on helping my family settle in, as well on planning my own studies in American institutions. Many American medical schools, after considering my Australian coursework, strongly recommended that I take additional undergraduate study, which explains my current pursuit of a second degree. None of my pharmacy coursework, however, was transferable for fulfilling this degree's requirements. Undeterred, I began my second four-year degree as a freshman at Washington University In St. Louis. 
Thus, I have been fortunate to benefit from different university education systems in Australia and the U.S., which value specialized fields of study and a liberal arts education, respectively. For me, moving across national boundaries no longer means loss but, rather, discovering the many ways to live a human life with a sense of curiosity. While living in New Zealand, I visited a Maori festival where I heard prayers punctuated with shouts and clashing cymbals. The guests were provided bread and water, which I assumed to be symbols of life. To my surprise, these were actually part of a cleansing ritual intended to remove malevolent spirits. 
Even in countries that share the same language, I still found myself learning new local dialects. For example, I did not understand my Aussie neighbor when she asked me to come over in the arvo, to have a cuppa, or to fire up a barbie. When my Kiwi teacher asked us to bring a vivid, a twink, a rubber, and a pacer to class, I was equally perplexed. Moving to the United States, I found that cultural etiquette again differed greatly. How embarrassed I was when called back to a restaurant to learn that leaving a gratuity was customary--a very valuable lesson if one is to live in the U.S. 
Through these life transitions, I have learned that the key to personal growth is a continual readjustment of perspective. During my detour into medicine, I learned to cherish life with an open mind, to set aside all prejudices, to be curious, and, in the face of uncertainty, to approach the new and the unknown fearlessly. Moving across cultural boundaries, I have enjoyed building lasting friendships with people of different cultures, ethnicities and origins. 
On campus, I will organize student social support groups so that peers can assist each other in working through heavy academic demands. Also, using knowledge built on direct experience with social values, education systems, and health care systems rooted in a wide range of cultures, I can contribute to discussions and comparisons of the daily realities of health care policies in different countries. Mahatma K. Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." To see an improvement in health care, I intend my career to be involved heavily in working with interdisciplinary teams to promote an increased emphasis on primary care. In so doing, I look forward to collaborating with our class of medical students. At the University, I will utilize my experiences from different parts of the world and dedicate myself in service to this vibrant and extremely diversified community.