"How have the principles of mathematics shaped your understanding of the world?" This is a great question, and it has a great answer. Math IS understanding the world! As I quote almost all advanced math textbooks in existence, "nearly all data falls within only 3 standard deviations of a mean." It is simply remarkable how much information is obtainable by numbers. This is the forever growing root of my passion for math, specifically statistics. Furthermore, how it has lead me to understand the world more deeply. I took AP Statistics in my senior year of high school. I will admit it proved quite the challenge for multiple reasons. First of all, hybrid learning was very difficult. Second of all, the entire statistics portion of my trigonometry class did not exist due to Covid-19 cutting my junior year short. However, it was in this same class where I vividly remember a piece of advice our teacher gave us, and it stuck with me into my senior year. She suggested that students who are interested in medical-related fields such as me should research statistics. This advice was what led to me taking AP statistics as my final math course in high school. This class, and math in general, did more than teach me how to understand its course work. It taught me how to understand the world. A quick example; in my medical anatomy and physiology course I conducted a research project on "Efficiency and Safety of Hyaluronic Acid Gel on making the Upper Lip Fuller." Due to my knowledge and understanding of statistics, I constructed a graph that showed statistically significant differences to the class. A year prior, I would not have even been able to fathom an idea of what "statistically significant differences" are. This story was just one of many research projects I conducted in my senior year that my knowledge of statistics helped me with. My last research project in high school was researching the relationship between the GPA of students and the acceptance rate of the universities they were attending. Again, my understanding of statistics was able to help me conduct a Chi-Square chart to show the relationship. The principles of math have helped me understand various parts of the world by helping me conduct many kinds of research, and that was only in high school! As I continue in life, I plan to keep my knowledge of math by my side and also further advance it. I still have so much more to learn. It will help with decision making, diving into research-intensive parts of my major, and just overall make me a better person. I truly believe that that math has that power.

Relatable, beau ideal, and talented. Three words that come to mind when describing the new-to-fame Olivia Rodrigo. While I am a student pursuing a major in STEM, I am more passionate about my favorite artist than scientist. I have always felt that ever since Avril Lavigne, teenagers such as myself haven't had someone who writes catchy, relatable lyrics to idolize; Olivia Rodrigo is the new that.

I'll be truthful, for the majority of my life I was apathetic towards my curriculum. A failing grade or low community service hours never bothered me. I believe I had this attitude due to a lack of "education is important!" being installed in my head as I aged. My Caribbean and Mexican parents would rather have me home instead of pursuing postsecondary education. Honestly, with the path I was going it appeared that was my destiny. I cannot explain what caused my sudden shift in attitude. It may have been the letters I was receiving from colleges, the desire to start a new chapter of life, opportunities to meet new people, or I just had nothing else to do with all the free time in the pandemic. I do not know. Regardless, I took the opportunity to research universities and scholarships. I adjusted my schedule to include more advanced courses. I decided an education in Psychology and Medicine was my path, and I wanted to give back to my community by volunteering to assist the disabled. New me is unrecognizable compared to old me. The pandemic was a blessing in disguise for me in that sense, and I'm so thankful.