I hope to be awarded this scholarship because of my aspirations for the future. I wish to help many people in my lifetime and through this scholarship, I'll be one step closer to assisting more of those around me. Through my commitment to both my academics as well as community service, I've constantly demonstrated a strong work ethic and dedication to making a positive impact. Through my further education, I wish to be in a position where I can help as many people as possible. Although pursuing a career in neuroscience is my biggest dream, my aspirations go further into providing as much service to those in my community as I possibly can. As someone who plays varsity basketball and soccer, is a neuroscience club co-founder, and is on the board for Bergen Sci Challenge, I strongly demonstrate my passion for my interests. I've also contributed to 2 students getting 3rd place at the BergenSciChallenge. My other accomplishments include performing at Carnegie Hall with chamber choir, getting 3rd at HOSA regionals for Medical Law and Ethics, being a Founding Board Member of Literary Research at UpNext Scientists and qualifying for Internationals in Future Problem Solving. I also volunteer at Hackensack University Medical Center in the Neuroscience Unit 3LN, volunteer at Camp Sunshine (people with autism), have tutored more than 50 hours, and am working towards starting a food pantry for my Girl Scout Gold Award, displaying how eager I would be to use the opportunities this scholarship provides to drive positive change and support others. I want to pursue amazing things through better education and want access to better colleges than my current finances allow for me. This is why I wish to apply for this scholarship so I can help as many people as I can through the best education I can get, without the restrictions of financial barriers. In the future, I envision myself making enough money to support myself so I can then go on and work with charities and foundations to help provide support to others and to really benefit my community in the best ways I really can. After volunteering at the hospital, I realized that whether I'm helping people in the hospital, or handing out food at a food pantry, my biggest goals in life are to provide a helping hand to anyone and everyone I possible can. I wish to help people through a career in the medical field and particularly want to discover the pathways of the brain and this scholarship would be a crucial step towards achieving my goals and serving those in need. Thank you for considering my application.

The Summer I Turned Pretty was a really good one for me and was really quite special to me for many reasons. It’s not just about the drama or the love triangles, although I must admit those played a significant role. As someone who shares Belly's love of the ocean and the water and as someone who loves the drama in the story even more, it's easy to see why I loved this book so much with its nonstop twists and turns coming out of nowhere. Starting off with just walking into my public library and grabbing the books to read when I got home, I never even knew they'd come out with a tv-show on it. I was in love with the books and switched sides from Conrad to Jeremiah and back to Conrad during the books. Yet when the tv-show came out while I was away at a summer program, me and my friend sat in our dorm room with a bag of popcorn and binge-watched the entire first season. For me, I turned into a die-hard Jeremiah fan and switched up from Conrad (in the book) to Jeremiah. While I expected Jeremiah to seem unfit for Belly and Conrad to seem a lot more mature for Belly, it seemed to be that Belly looked happier whenever she was around Jeremiah and that immediately made me switch up from a Conrad to Jeremiah fan. It was special to me because I saw differences in the book than in the tv-show. What struck me even more was the portrayal of Belly. For starters, in the book, I pictured Belly as the pretty white brunette that is seen in every movie yet when I watched the tv-show, she looked so much different than I had imagined. Seeing her as an Asian-American character, though different from my specific background, felt like a personal connection as an Asian-American myself. Either ways, seeing my favorite series turned into a tv-show was quite an experience for me as I felt that I was an OG fan of the books, loving the books myself before the show even came out. I was a huge fan of the books before even the books became popular and that's pretty special to me. That's why The Summer I Turned Pretty's book-to-film adaptation is quite special to me and bridged the gap between reading and viewing experiences in more than one way for me.

As a current junior at Bergen County Academies, I've always been interested in pursuing science, my reason for being in the academy for the advancement of science and technology at my high school. Through my rigorous coursework, I've further discovered my passion for neuroscience and research as a whole through the research in cell biology elective I took. Through my research at school, I'm currently working on the impact of downregulating c-Jun protein in Schwann cells to see the impact the proliferation, migration, and induction of pancreatic cancer cells within the Schwann cell condition media. While attending the UPENN summer academies for biomedical research, I talked to other students in the neuroscience program and found myself reading through their pages and pages of neuroscience notes in my dorm room after finishing my own work. I realized that I'm someone who's passionate about discovering the intricacies of the brain and using it to assist as many people as possible in my future. I want to pursue neuroscience and work on discovering things like markers for autism considering there is no current definitive genetic markers for autism before being born. From a young age, I've always been big into giving back to my community, whether it was just participating in girl scouts or helping out at food drives or helping special needs kids play sports. Just this summer, I've volunteered at a summer camp for people with autism and I've volunteered at the Hackensack University Medical Center in the neuroscience unit 3LN. I'm a founding board member of literary research for UpNextScientists, a program which helps give easy access research experience to students who may not be financially stable. I am also on my way to receiving the gold presidential volunteer service award through LearnToBe (a tutoring program for students who may not be able to access easy tutoring) and am working on creating a food pantry in my town, Mahwah, for my gold award for girl scouts. I am also passionate about advocating for greater inclusivity and support for neurodivergent individuals which is why I'm working on creating a club for autism awareness. My passion for neuroscience can be seen through me co-founding a neuroscience club at my high school. Pursuing the research I wish to would mean going to a good college which is very costly. By securing this scholarship, I would be able to focus on my studies and research, empowering me to continue giving back to the community in even more meaningful ways.