I've played softball for 14 years of my life. The last four of those years were with my varsity school team where I earned Most Improved Player my sophomore year, 2nd Team All-Conference Award junior year, Little Miami Academic Award, All-Conference Academic Award, and All Ohio Academic Award. Outside of the school season, I have played Club Softball for the past 6 years. I have also volunteered at our youth softball camp and I give pitching instruction lessons to young players in the community. I volunteered my time for 3 years at the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati where I passed out refreshments and gave encouragement to runners from my booth. I serve as a Spanish tutor at my high school where I tutor many of my classmates that require help. I've worked at Target since November of 2022 as a retail associate. The past 2 summers I have worked as an umpire at youth softball games in multiple communities, working with players ages 8-14. I would like to pursue a degree in Biology so that I can specialize in Molecular Genetics and eventually earn my master's in Genetic Counseling. I came into high school without much experience with STEM topics or possible careers, but freshman year I took an online college course in Biology and fell in love with the subject. I was able to experience labs and interactive lectures despite the restrictions of COVID-19 at the time. I've since taken many STEM classes in my high school career. As most of my classes are male-dominated, I enjoy bonding with my other female students over our love for the subject. During my junior year, taking AP Biology reinforced my conviction that this path is one I would like to follow. The teacher for this course was a positive role model in my life and pushed me further into this field by encouraging my pursuit and writing me a letter of recommendation. I have continued my interest in Biology, narrowing it down to the field of genetics. Through volunteer work hosted by my softball program, I have been able to meet many individuals who have different types of conditions and require different types of help and that sparked my interest in researching further in my career. In the future, I hope to aid others in the field that I’m passionate about. I want to spread information in a world that is often censored and slandered by the opinions of others. It is my goal to help my patients create a better life for themselves and their children by being properly informed of their genetic history and future.

During the scheduling for my online semester freshman year, there was no option to take Honors Biology like the in-person students; it was either a College Credit Course or regular freshman Biology. I really wanted to challenge myself via an equivalent to the honors level. Therefore, I enrolled in my first college course before I had even started high school. It was a very different experience, and admittedly, I struggled a lot with the course at first. I had never taken any online courses and had not learned yet to deal well with a tendency for procrastination. The two combined led me to my first ever ‘F’ on a test in my life on the first exam. I initially felt overwhelmed and embarrassed, but this test actually gave me the reality check that I desperately needed to eventually succeed in this class. After checking the syllabus I discovered that the lowest test score would be dropped for the semester, and that gave me a newfound hope to succeed. From that point forward, I was determined to find out what I needed to succeed. I asked for help and studied with my father every single day. I would go over our assigned readings before having him test me on the material to make sure I fully understood what I learned. Additionally, I reached out to my professor via email and set up regularly scheduled meetings to discuss what I did wrong on each test we took. We would have Zoom meetings where we went question by question and discussed the content I did not fully comprehend. Through this experience, I improved my study skills in so many ways. It taught me how to properly annotate and comprehend readings for complex STEM topics and the importance of being willing to ask for help. This class really increased my interest and led me to do more research about Biology. After a lab over genetics, we completed as a class, I knew that I needed to learn more. During one of our scheduled meetings, I asked my professor if there were any careers that were related to the lab we just completed. I then listened to my professor list all types of jobs that I could pursue in the future and discussed these with her. I would like to pursue a degree in Biology so that I can specialize in Molecular Genetics and eventually earn my master's in Genetic Counseling. I came into high school without much experience with STEM topics or possible careers, but freshman year I took an online college course in Biology and fell in love with the subject. I was able to experience labs and interactive lectures despite the restrictions of COVID-19 at the time. I've since taken many STEM classes in my high school career. As most of my classes are male-dominated, I enjoy bonding with my other female students over our love for the subject. During my junior year, taking AP Biology reinforced my conviction that this path is one I would like to follow. The teacher for this course was a positive role model in my life and pushed me further into this field by encouraging my pursuit and writing me a letter of recommendation. I have continued my interest in Biology, narrowing it down to the field of genetics. Through volunteer work hosted by my softball program, I have been able to meet many individuals who have different types of conditions and require different types of help and that sparked my interest in researching further in my career.