Xiwen "Wen Wen" Wang

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“I hope to show others that even a soft-spoken woman can find courage to seek her individuality.”

  • Alumni of: 2009 Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Program
  • Resides: West Covina, CA
  • Hometown: Walnut, CA
  • Age: 23

Biography

PROFILE: Xiwen Wang was five when her family came to California from Chengdu, a city of over 11 million people in China. An only child, thanks to her parents and grandparents, she knew at that early age the value and importance of education. Her grandfather, a Geography professor, led the first Chinese scientific expedition to the Himalayas. That love of education became a love for her first college alma mater, Mount San Antonio College (Mt. SAC), and no doubt University of California, Berkeley will benefit as well. “From the first moment I arrived at Mount San Antonio I felt accepted.  It was because I had fallen in love…in love with all the smiles, with all the people, and with all the passion that thrives at this college. Through this, I found my role in the world.” Xiwen, who only spoke Chinese when she came to America, devoted every free hour that she wasn’t studying or working to service projects at Mt. SAC. As one of her advisors said, “Xiwen truly sees service and leadership as part of her being, not a requirement to fulfill.”


INSPIRATION: The Honor’s Program Director at Mt. SAC, Carolyn Inmon, had a profound impact on Xiwen. During a brief meeting Xiwen’s first week in school, “she forever changed my mindset about life and about the paths we walk to reach our goal.”

ASPIRATION: When asked what she hopes to do when college is behind her, Xiwen did not hesitate to say: “I want to work for a corporation that is focused on helping society.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Give Xiwen a mission to accomplish, and she’ll accomplish it, no matter the sacrifice of time and effort. “My college needed a local bond measure that would help allocate $350 million to the school’s growth for two decades to come. I joined in the campaign. I interviewed and was selected as a Volunteer Organizer.  With time a critical element, I quickly began working with 17 local communities. I went to city council meetings to present the long-term benefits of the measure, attended Chinese Moon festivals to advocate, sat at business and political dinners to distribute buttons, and visited multiple houses to put up lawn signs. For me, this was an experience of having a vision and using everything that I was given to make that vision a reality.”

ACCOLADES: Xiwen earned the Exceptional Award Scholarship in the Honor’s Transfer Council at the California Undergraduate Research Conference at University of California, Irvine and was named a “Student of Distinction” for her community service at Mt. SAC.

INTERESTING FACT: While advocating for the passage of the local bond measure to help Mt. SAC, last Halloween night Xiwen, dressed in a firewoman’s costume, stood in the median of two busy intersections and waved a huge poster supporting the bond issue.

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