Rini Parekh: Good for the World

July 11, 2007
Sara Faruno

Rini Parekh, 17 on July 27th, can enjoy some of the things others might call boring. She is about to begin her senior year at Corona del Sol High School in Phoenix, Arizona. But first, she feels she can still gain something out of a journalism class at UCSD’s Academic Connections. Here, she hopes to gain some of the fast-paced skills journalists must use every day and be able to take her writing to a faster level.

“I wanted to write faster,” Parekh said, “because I’m sort of a perfectionist.”

Parekh’s hobbies include reading, writing, and playing the piano. She loves to read, often times, anything she can really get her hands on. In class, instead of reading because she is forced to, she tries to enjoy and take something out of the texts.
“I’m really a bookworm, actually,” says Parekh.

Parekh enjoys many types of music. She has observed that many people are frequently taking piano lessons because their parents want them to. She is not, however, taking piano lessons because of this reason. She shows pride that she likes to play the piano for fun and enjoy the sounds she produces, instead of being told to do so by her parents.

Parekh also finds happiness in learning about the world. She loves to travel, and often goes to India to visit family. She is amazed by any culture she can learn about. Parekh once visited Costa Rica, and was able to use some of the Spanish she had learned from school. About a year ago, she made a trip to Europe over the summer. There, she visited places such as France, the UK, and Germany.

“The accents were awesome,” Parekh recalls.

Parekh not only enjoys learning about cultures as a hobby, but she was also able to find a way to fit it in with her academic studies as she prepared to apply for college. She took the journalism class at UCSD’s Academic Connections not only because of her love for writing, but because it was also a way to learn about the world today.

“The subject is really interesting. You get to be so exposed to the world around you,” said Parekh.

Loving the world, Parekh recycles as often as she can, and enjoys life as a vegetarian. In her high school, she joined the Anti-Genocide Club, in hopes to help the people suffering from the conflict in Darfur. She enjoys reading the newspaper, and observes that not everyone is conscious of what is occurring every day. After having taken the journalism class in UCSD’s Academic Connections, she hopes that she is able to help the people around her become more attentive with the events unfolding in society.

“I took journalism because it will help me in becoming more aware. Some people aren’t really aware, and I think it is up to journalists to make a difference in that,” Parekh said.