by Anna Novruzyan
3.99. Not how much the price of gas will be in about a week, but a grade point average of a fifth year biology undergraduate at UCLA.
Lilit Minasyan basically sets the curve for the courses she takes. To top it off, she has gotten twelve A+ in science courses. At the top 2-3% of her class, she is an idol here at Kerckhoff.
While studying at the second floor lounge, you will most likely see other nail-biting south campus students seek her for tutoring. But, you won’t see Lilit there most of the time because she is not one to study 24/7.
Trying to balance school and life has been going well for her so far. Even in elementary and high school in Armenia she never earned one “B” or “4.” Last summer she took eighteen science units and even got an A+ in one of the courses.
She is currently in the process of being interviewed for medical schools. Although she has applied to over twenty schools, her first choice is UCLA. Winter 2007 is her last quarter as an undergraduate.
As if an almost perfect GPA is not extraordinary enough, Lilit has done this while living in the United States for only five years. She came here at the age of nineteen with no background in English. She had a settled life in Armenia, already having attended medical school for two years; she had her life and her friends.
Lilit had to drop everything, move to an unfamiliar place and pick up from scratch all over again. Once in the US, she attended Glendale Community College and traveled to Downtown LA for ESL classes to learn English. It was more convenient this way because as we all know it’s not easy to learn English in a place full of Armenians. Imagine transitioning from medical school to a community college.
Her biggest fear was being “approached and not being able to answer.”
Lilit is not just a south campus genius. She has been playing the piano for seven years.
She has also been an active member of the United Armenian Students since 2004. She can spend time doing other activities because she says, “I can afford doing well and not studying as hard because it is in my background.” As any other young woman, she loves going out with friends and just having fun. She also enjoys more active things like bowling.
After medical school, she plans to become a pediatrician as a career goal. She believes it to be “fun to spend time with kids, but harder to see kids sick.”
As a strong-willed character she weighs the outcomes: “with every good thing there is a bad thing associated and you know something is worth it when the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.” Being able to overcome the sight of ill children is a matter of getting used to it.
Of her many accomplishments, Lilit is most proud of where she is in life right now. During an interview for medical school when she was asked this very question her answer was, “Sitting here in front of you.” And she has every reason to be as she is “graduating with honors with only being here [in America] five years.”
On top of being content with her place in life, she has no regrets. “Whatever I went through, I am thankful for the experience because it shaped who I am,” Minasyan said.
She has one motto she lives by and that is to just do what makes you happy- clearly a credo she follows.
Her career is not the only thing Lilit pursues; that’s just a part of it for her. She sees herself as being a “good physician who will get a fulfillment out of her job and make a change for the community,” while having her own family and children.
She would like to be role model for anyone, particularly immigrant children, to show that success is possible.
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