I live in Nesconset, NY, which is part of the
town of Smithtown. I attended Smithtown High School and took numerous AP
classes, including AP Physics B, AP Physics C, AP Calculus, AP Biology,
and AP Psychology, which have all given me a solid foundation for my
current college studies. I became fascinated with physics in my junior
year, and one of the highlights of that year was creating a physics
instructional video about the centripetal force acting on nunchakus. As a
high school student I participated in the Forensics Science Club. I have
also been involved in Kempo Martial Arts for nine years, where I not only
learned self-defense, but a plethora of life and social skills due to my
training in class, participation on the tournament team, and work as an
assistant instructor.
I am a freshman student at Stony Brook University in the Women in Science
and Engineering (WISE) program. I entered as an Electrical Engineering
student, but followed an Engineering Science course sequence for my first
semester because I wanted to enter a broader engineering field and
specialize later. I was initially interested in engineering because it is
a field that incorporates mathematics and physics, my two favorite
subjects, and applies theoretical concepts with hopes of helping
people. After my first semester as an engineering student, I decided to
switch my major to Psychology/Pre-Med. Although I felt capable of the
work required of an engineering student, I realized that I wasn�t
interested in engineering as a profession. I wanted to be able to more
directly impact and help people, which is part of the reason I chose
Pre-Med. I see Psychology as an opportunity to explore a variety of
different careers because it requires me to know mathematics and science
in addition to cognition, perception, and learning. The study of the mind
is so complex and extensive, thus my knowledge should be the
same. Although I am currently not sure precisely which career I hope t
obtain upon graduation, I do have an interest in psychiatry because it
combines both social and scientific aspects of psychology.
I also plan to minor in Music because it is something I have been
interested in since elementary school�I began playing viola in 5th grade
and participated in the school orchestra as well as the Chamber Orchestra
during middle school and high school. I like that music relates to fields
such as physics, history, and psychology, and the knowledge I obtain has
the potential to help me in psychology or medicine.
At Stony Brook I started out taking PHY 131 (Classical Physics I) and AMS
161 (Applied Calculus II), classes geared towards engineers, but this
semester I am taking PHY 122 (Physics for Life Sciences II) and PSY 201
(Statistical Methods in Psychology) because they more directly relate to
psychology and medicine. My extracurricular activities consist primarily
of my participation on the fencing team, where I fence sabre, which
compliments my training in martial arts.
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