Kimberly's Blog

  Dungeons and Dragons? Or Do not Disturb A Narrative on Overcoming Failure I take a deep inhale as I rattle the twenty-sided dice in between my hands. The plastic edges bounced between my palms and fingers. With one final exhale, I release the dice onto the laminated playing mat. My face falls in disappointment as my eyes focus on the gold-painted “4” on the top side of the dice.  “I don’t think I rolled high enough.” I cursed under my breath. Ayden, who served as our friend group's dungeon master, nodded, confirming that my low-scoring roll resulted in my attack missing the boss entirely.  “This is gonna take forever!” My friend Hunter groans from the bed. We all nodded in agreement but continued our turns nonetheless.  As I stare at our miniature character figures, which were just drawings of our characters glued onto thin cardboard, my mind slowly drifts to the day I had first seen these make-shift figures. My first day ever playing Dungeons and Dragons, and the day I experienc

    

       Kimberly Tran graduated from Verdugo Hills High School with a 4.2 GPA and is currently enrolled at California State University, Northridge as a full-time student. As a biotechnology major, Kimberly aspires to pursue a career in optometry and is actively taking steps to search for opportunities for hands-on experience.       During her high school career, she served as a Teenage Volunteer at the Los Angeles Public Library, Sunland-Tujunga Branch. Additionally, Kimberly was an involved student in the community, managing her school's tennis and volleyball teams and being a founding member of an Asian American and Pacific Islander Student Association. Her four semesters of dedicated studies to Spanish have also granted her membership in La Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica. Ms. Tran’s accomplishments include the AP Scholar Award in 2021, and Principal's Honor Roll in 2022 and 2023. She also excelled in biliteracy, earning both the Seal of Biliteracy for Spanish and Certificado de