I agree about making the PIQ your summer project. You state that communication is one of your strengths. @7by11 gave some great insight into her daughter’s approach to the UC PIQ.
Please spend time on your PIQs. For my daughter you truly felt like you knew her after reading them ( per her AP Lit teacher). Btw she started working on them late summer and had everyone she knows read them- Friends, teachers, counselor, parents. She made amendments from feedback ( or sometimes she ignored the feedback). I think coming back to the PIQs multiple times helped her guarantee she was conveying her intended message. DO NOT rush the PIQs. The PIQs are an interview. Get the admissions officer to like you. Be humble but use numbers and facts to support what you did. Also remember they read a ton and likely have 8-10 minutes to spend on your application so don’t be boring. Make them want to spend all 8 minutes. She formatted each PIQ with a hook to get attention. Her passion for stem showed in her essays. For the common app schools she researched the school and wrote about what she could bring to the school using the info from the school to help her show that she would fit in and be a positive influence there.