The two consistent fascinations that I have held for as long as I can remember are science and the arts. My days as a child were spent exploring the biodiversity of my backyard and the forest right behind it, and at night I marveled at the stars, imagining all the possibilities of worlds beyond our own. When I had to be inside, I would draw scenes of nature– sometimes witnessed by my own eyes and sometimes fabricated from stories of long-extinct creatures or animals I saw in books and television. I would also draw monsters and aliens of all sorts, trying to account for as much ‘science’ as possible when designing them. This is a fairly universal experience for children, which we associate with a flexible imagination and ability to easily be amazed. However, as I moved into adolescence, I did not find myself growing out of this childlike wonder. I retained my ability to feel overwhelming emotion at things as simple as veins on a leaf or the sensation of my own heartbeat. I continued to design and write about possible alien worlds, carefully designing their ecology, biology, and phylogenetics to ‘make sense’ as I learned more. I began to write prose and poetry informed by my passion for nature. My interests made it harder to relate to my peers, but I knew that my calling was to be an artist and a scientist; in fact, I believe that these labels are highly intertwined. Art and science, broadly, are the most noble, universal, and unique endeavors undertaken by humanity. Art brings people together, and science improves our world in tangible ways. Both disciplines increase our awareness of self, others, and our physical world. I am certain that my calling in life is to participate in their intersection. I am confident that I can apply my creativity combined with my ability to grasp the complexities of molecular biology to study evolutionary developmental biology, furthering humanity’s understanding of our planet’s awe-inspiring biodiversity, as well as our place within it. I have a strong belief that the more we learn about our own origins, whether it be on a cosmic or species-level scale, the more likely we will be to respect our fellow humans and our beautiful planet. The first scientific concept I truly fell in love with was evolution from common descent. I first heard about it in my strictly religious middle school in Alabama, which was required at the time to teach us about evolution– however, my teacher made sure to express her disdain with the requirement to teach it, and assured us that it was not true. My interest was piqued, though, and in the following years I went on to read all sorts of books and watch every publicly available documentary I could find on the topic. Sean B. Carroll’s "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" was particularly poignant. When I took my first developmental biology class in college, I was hooked. The grandiosity of it; the way it made sense, but the scale was incomprehensible to the human mind; the implication that every single tree, insect, and microbe I crossed paths with was intimately connected to me through common ancestry and developmental patterns– the only phrase I can use to describe my experience is that I fell in love. The most incredible blessing of my life has been to study molecular biology and actively participate in research toward understanding it. But in my eyes, my personal ambitions to be a successful researcher and artist are secondary. My first obligation is to use my gifts to help others experience the enrichment of learning science. There is a science literacy crisis in America. This fact is especially true in my home, the American South. The crisis is exacerbated by a general distrust of science encouraged by some of my home’s most popular political and social leaders. Every day, I witness people in my generation flippantly dismiss the words of scientists. This is not inconsequential. Effective science communication is absolutely essential for public health, curbing the climate crisis, racial and gender equality, and reducing anti-LGBTQ sentiments. It is no coincidence that the South, especially the rural South, has problems in all of these areas. I believe that the root of these issues is low-quality education– a consequence of culture and lack (or misuse of) financial resources. I know that my community is not inherently less intelligent. Low-income farmers and blue-collar workers from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are the origin of my academically-inclined brain. I believe in the people of my community, and my true calling, alongside evo-devo research, is to make science more accessible and trusted in my home. This starts with making science engaging to young students! This is where the big picture comes in. In my second semester of college, I began working as a learning assistant in my university’s introductory biology course, and swiftly came to a conclusion, inspired by the sentiments of the professor I worked for: it is ineffective and boring to teach science as a collection of facts. I believe we need to re-frame the way that we teach science to emphasize its status as a logical and creative endeavor, and we need to teach it in the context of the big picture. Physics, chemistry, and biology are not abstract collections of facts and equations– they are present in every aspect of our lives, in every breath and heartbeat. My goal is to one day teach biology in a southeastern university, and when I teach introductory courses, I hope to intertwine creativity, philosophy, and art into my lectures and course content. I plan on incorporating small assignments for my students–whether it be prose, poetry, or visual art–to connect the content we cover back to the big picture, and induce them to ponder the broader implications of what they learned. I hope to assign readings from excerpts of inspiring literature and philosophy that are informed by science, and prompt my students to ask questions, construct their own hypotheses, and design theoretical experiments to test them– all tasks that require creative thinking. It is a fact that not everyone will be interested in science, but I am certain that this method of teaching will pique the interest of at least some talented minds that otherwise would have overlooked it as ‘boring’ or ‘too hard’. Although I plan to teach at the university level, I believe this method would be best employed in grade and high school. Hopefully, with hard work and dedication, I can gain the credentials and influence to share this strategy with school teachers from all over the country. With more accessible and high-quality science education, it can be expected that higher levels of open-mindedness, critical thinking, and self awareness will follow. These traits are the precursors to societal change for the better. Of course, I believe all knowledge is inherently valuable, even outside of how it can improve our connections to our place in the universe and each other. It is just cool to learn how everything works. It gives one a sense of gratefulness that is sometimes hard to find elsewhere. I am grateful every day that I get to be a human– the one animal on this planet that can comprehend molecular biology, astronomy, and organic chemistry. I know my life’s mission is to catalyze this realization in as many people as possible, so that their lives may benefit from it as mine has.