Personal
Statement
I was born on November 9, 1986 in Tehran, Iran. I lived in Germany for a while when I was four
years old; I went to kindergarten there and had a lot of fun learning a bit of German. Then, my family and I traveled to England
and stayed there for a while. After that, we all moved back to Iran. I spent most of my life in Iran except for some travels
to Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai.
My elementary, junior high, and high schools were all in private schools; my father was also
an active member of PTA during all these years. He holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Southern California,
USC. My academic grades in elementary and junior high were straight A's.
After taking several tests and exams, and going through a few interviews, I was accepted by
one of the top-four high schools in Iran; therefore, my parents bought me a classical guitar to show their appreciation for
my hard work. Now, composing music, writing songs (lyrics), and singing is my favorite hobby, and I practice playing guitar
at least one hour per day.
I loved horses since I was a little kid. I enjoy being in the nature and spending my time with
such loyal animals, like horses. One day, my father came to me and said that he had found a Horse Back Riding Club next to
his warehouse which was in the suburbs of Tehran. I saw my dream come true. Five years later, I found myself in the 5th place in a nation wide horse jumping
competition.
My family and I moved to the U.S. in September 2003; we resided in New York City for the first
10 months. Last year, a huge earthquake hit the city of Bam in South Iran. Many people died; lots of houses were torn down;
almost everything was destroyed. I really felt bad for the kids who had lost their parents in that natural disaster. I could
feel how they felt because I was living without my dad during that short period of time too. So my brother, who was 11 years
old at that time, and I, made our minds and decided to pick up the phone and call our father in Tehran and ask him to donate
our 3 horses to the kids of Bam who had lost their parents and had no place to live in and no shoulder to cry on. A couple
of days after that, my father sent me an e-mail which had a copy of a newspaper attached to it. That newspaper had mentioned
my brother's name and mine for our big donation.
While attending my 11th grade in a private high school in New York City, I was asked to be in charge of sound systems
and the computer section during International Day. My job was playing the national anthems of each country. 26 nations were
represented by the students. In the same year, I also was part of our school soccer team. I played there as a defense player,
and had a few competitions with other high schools in the city. We won all the matches. I was also selected to go to a United
Nations Conference representing my school with seven other students. I became the student of the month for a couple of times.
My family and I moved to Los Angeles in late June 2004. I did not want to waste my summer time,
so I took a pre-calculus course at UCLA and earned a B grade. For my 11th grade, it became such a great experience. For the fall of 2004, I enrolled in
Beverly Hills High School, and I am glad I did. I received a wonderful education and a whole rounded experience there. My
"Teenage Problems" research started with a simple project for my English class with Dr. Ramsey, this year at Beverly Hills
High School. Later on, I thought, it would be a great idea to publish this information on a website, so all the teenagers
from all over the world could use them. This is why I designed and built www.drsobhe.com . Two weeks ago, the radio station
"670 AM, KIRN" invited me to go there and have a live show and talk about my website and teenage problems. It was such fun
and hopefully I will have more shows on the radio in the near future. Sometimes, I write poems and one of them was chosen
and published in this year's, "Voices Around The World" magazine.
I love reading books. I worked during the summer of 2003 in a bookshop back in Tehran. Now,
I work at the Beverly Hills Public Library as a homework helper. I do this with love as a service to the community, in which
I live. In addition, I work at Hawthorne school in Beverly Hills, as a math mentor for 8th graders. I love Math, Computer Science and especially
Computer Networking. When I was in Iran, as an extra curriculum activity, I took the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, (MCSE) Course. In its final exam, I received the best possible grade, 1000 out of 1000. I also
took some English classes after my regular high school classes in Tehran. Besides English, I speak two other languages; Farsi,
and Turkish.
In the fall of 2005, I will be attending California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and
my major will be Computer Science. I would like to continue my studies until I receive a Ph.D. It is my goal to have my own
company in Information Technology and Computer Security Systems. I would also like to keep working on the website and develop
it fully. I Hope it helps teenagers, as it has in the past. Most of the books, articles, and websites on teenage problems
are prepared by adults. I believe teenagers, can help themselves as well, if we open the way and prepare the ground for them
to communicate with one another. The teenagers of today, will be the leaders of tomorrow. We should believe in them and give
them the opportunity to prove themselves.
Ashkan Sobhe
ashkan@drsobhe.com
06/15/05