Wentao Chen
★ Lead Peer Academic Advisor
Major(s): Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Davis, CA
Extracurriculars
* ICS Student Council (2021 – present)
* Cooking
* Gaming
Why do you love UCI?
I love UCI because of how much it has to offer and how amazing the community is, as well as how beautiful the campus is and how wonderful the location is. UCI offers so much to its students, with its incredible variety of campus organizations and the wide assortment of resources and opportunities it provides. The UCI community and the people that make it up are incredibly kind and welcoming, and it’s a wonderful community that I’m so thankful to be able to be a part of. The UCI campus is also incredibly breathtaking, being a beautiful place that I love taking walks around, exploring its different areas, and with UCI’s location here in SoCal (me being someone from NorCal), I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to explore a variety of places, from different areas in Orange County to cities like Los Angeles and San Diego, which are all fairly close by.
How can you be a successful Anteater?
Personally, from my own experience, I believe that one thing that can be important to being a successful Anteater is knowing that sometimes, it can be good to step a little bit out of your comfort zone. Having personally been very shy for much of my early life, as I grew up, I realized that sometimes, stepping out of my comfort zone, being willing to try and experience new things, could be a very valuable opportunity for me to grow and gain new and meaningful experiences.
What is one fun fact about yourself?
A fun fact about myself is that growing up, I’ve lived in three different states in the US: Georgia, Michigan, and California. I’ve also actually lived in China too, but I was too young at the time to remember much of that part of my life. It might be because of this—this experience I had firsthand growing up, realizing how uniquely interesting life and perspectives on life can be for different people in different locations—that I’m interested in exploring different places.
