PERSONAL STATEMENT
My current up-to-date Personal Statement:
I’ve wanted to be a scientist since I was little. I remember wanting to be a paleontologist, a doctor, an astronaut, a biologist, a chemist, a psychologist… Of course, being a kid, I wouldn’t have been able to explain, in any gross detail, what their work actually entailed.
This changed when I joined my lab in the fall of my sophomore year and became a scientist. Sure, I’d done scientific experiments before, but that was learning science‒ the experiments performed and the data collected were for our benefit as students. But this, the work I was doing for my lab? I had graduated to real biochemical research: for eventual publication, for expanding the bounds of human knowledge. I spent this first year assisting my mentor with anything and everything, in order to learn as much as possible about research.
My second year, I started to work on the GlpG Integral Membrane Protein project. I’ve been working on this project for the past two years, and just recently, I submitted my University Research Scholars Thesis‒ my first proper scientific research paper! And even better, it’s going to get published— into Texas A&M’s OAKTrust Digital Repository. This, combined with the poster symposiums I’ve participated in, truly make me feel like the scientist I’ve always wanted to be.
During the Spring of 2024 I came out as transgender, and found the thing within myself that had always been missing. It’s caused me to put my entire life into perspective, and I’ve realized that biochemistry is the first stop of many in my scientific journey. I will forever be grateful for the analytical and interdisciplinary skills I’ve developed during my time in the Bio/Bio Department here at A&M, and I can’t wait to apply these skills in my future.
Currently, I’m seeking research positions in the humanities‒ including political science, public health, social psychology, and more‒ before I apply to a PhD program this fall. Regardless of the discipline I choose, my undergraduate experience has made it clear to me that a career in research is the direction I’m headed, and I couldn’t be more excited.
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My Personal Statement at the End of Sophomore Year:
I'm a biochemistry major from Carson City, Nevada (pictured above, about where "personal" is positioned is where Carson is. This picture was taken from the Olympic Lift at Heavenly Ski Resort in Nevada). I am minoring in neuroscience and German. I'm minoring in neuroscience because I think neuroscience is really interesting, and because I needed two minors to graduate normally (as opposed to a semester early). I also really like how neuroscience uses biochemistry but at the same time is a broader field of study. The reason I'm minoring in German is because I'm a German-US dual citizen (my dad is from Germany) but my dad never taught me German, so I taught myself German in high school. Minoring in German was (and is) a good way to practice my language and vocabulary. And as for my major, I sort of picked biochemistry arbitrarily-- I liked biology and chemistry more than physics in high school, but wanted to major in something more specific than just general chemistry or biology, biochem was a compromise really. I hoped that in picking a field with more questions unanswered than answered that even once I've earned my degree(s) I'm still going to have lots to learn through research. I'm actually really glad I picked biochemistry because I've really enjoyed taking organic chemistry during my first two semesters at A&M.
I am also now especially glad I'm majoring in biochemistry because over the past year of researching in lab I've really been enjoying myself. Now that I'm in my junior year, and am finally taking my first actual biochemistry class, I'm really enjoying it and am excited to continue learning about biochemistry and in the future applying it to my career. Now that I'm done with my junior year, and have taken both of the major biochemistry courses that I need to graduate (BICH 440 and 441) I'm especially glad I picked this major. I realized over the past semester that I want to get a master's degree in neuroscience, and I think this biochemical background will give me a unique perspective in neuroscience research, and I hope to use this perspective to research which ever are of neuroscience I end up researching.