As a 6-year-old, I would get so incredibly angry when my brother would beat me in a game, to the point where I would start crying. Whether it was Mortal Kombat or Soul Caliber, I would spiral and start complaining that he wasn't being fair. One time, I got so upset that I slammed the controller onto the floor. It shattered open, revealing its beautiful but now damaged motherboard.  As a tech person, my brother was furious. He didn't want to speak to me at all for the next few days, and as a kid, I was confused why he couldn't just fix it. Still upset, he explained how the controller functioned and why damage to the motherboard was almost irreversible for someone as inexperienced as him. I was intrigued but still confused.  My love for technology started there. When I was in elementary school, I joined a coding/robotics after-school club. I also joined a Future Problem Solvers club in middle school, where we discussed how technology could be a game changer for many global problems. I loved learning how machines functioned and why they were built the way they were, but my love for Biology grew stronger. When I became a freshman in high school, I was conflicted about which one to choose: Science or Technology.  Diseases are devastating yet fascinating, and all the people around me (and myself) know how stubborn of a person I am, which is why studying virology and pathology to create effective treatments with little to no fatalities from them, no matter how long it takes, is the perfect path for me. I then discovered I could do both through Biotechnology. To be able to study how technology could potentially transform human life is what I wanted and still want to do. Making it as a Georgia Governor's Honors Program finalist in Biology gave me that starting position to dive into the field, and those 4 weeks made me sure of my decision to look into a career in that field.  If time were no object, I would love to learn martial arts. Martial arts require perfect physique, patience, and lots of time to learn. Protecting myself from danger through the hardest martial arts moves would be entertaining and worth gloating about.

My name is Laura Jones, and I aim to make college my canvas so that I can paint freely and create in a world of my own in which I thrive in the biomedical field. I love all things research and science; I love my family, and biomedical research helps me focus on both. I am an immigrant from West Africa, Ghana specifically, and my parents moved here to the U.S. to grant me access to a better life through education. Their efforts were not and will not be wasted, as I attended Georgia's Governor's Honors Program in 2024, where under 15% of Georgia's sophomores and juniors are chosen to attend a 4-week residential summer program. I graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA and was #5 in my graduating class, and I will go on to become a biomedical researcher. Diseases are devastating yet fascinating, and all the people around me (and myself) know how stubborn of a person I am, which is why studying virology to create effective treatments with little to no fatalities from them, no matter how long it takes, is the perfect path for me. Millions of people have died from diseases, whether those diseases were said to have effective treatments or none. In 2021, 17.9 million people died from Heart disease, 12.6 million from strokes, 11.3 million from lower respiratory infections, 6.8 million from COVID-19, and 6.4 million from cancers (Statistics from World Health Organization). The passing of all these people has affected their loved ones heavily and has the chance of affecting mine, which is why I want to create treatments before that happens. While my reasons seem selfish, accomplishing these goals will ultimately help many families beyond mine, which is why this path is perfect for me. It helps me while it helps others. No matter how unrealistic this seems, it won't stop me from chasing my dreams, so I am applying for this scholarship. Money seems to be the only thing in my way, as I come from a low-income household, and supporting myself through college seems impossible without the help of scholarship money, even if I work a full-time job and rely on my family through undergrad and medical school. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story and listen to my reasonings. I hope I helped convince you that I have the drive and the ability to achieve my dreams.