Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.
Curiosity swelled through my veins as I stared intensely at the pellet on my desk. It was my first day of fourth grade biology and though we had learned some aspects of biology before, it was never as “hands on” as this.
“You may begin to dissect the owl pellet; gather all the bones in cup so we can assemble the skeleton later,” my teacher announced. From the moment she said go, I was ready to delve into the world of biology, finding every last piece of the rat skeleton in my pellet. Since then I likewise clung on to every last word my biology teachers spoke, as the subject continued to fuel my curiosity through my experiences in class.
My innate love for biology continued with me to high school as I decided to take an Honors course my freshmen year. Through this class I garnered an interest for genetics, human anatomy, and the rapidly progressing field of stem cells. Since that initial honors biology course, I’ve broadened my knowledge of biology by taking on these topics when assigned projects and essays. It inspired me to enroll in more advanced courses where I’ve gotten to do various dissections such as on heart, brain, and fetal pig. It even pushed me to volunteer at the Long Beach Memorial hospital in the Biomedical Engineering department. This program gave me an alternative perspective on human biology as I got to learn about how each machine in the hospital operates in accordance to the human body, while inspiring me to pursue a future major in genetics and medicine.
Biology has turned me into to a more daring individual by making me test my own boundaries and question the world around me. It has continued to amaze me how every system, cell, and organelle has its own function, yet simultaneously works together in order for the body to work. The amount of knowledge we have on the subject is mind-boggling, yet there is still so many details to uncover, and I want to be a part of that journey.