LAUNCH

Ever since I attended a math and science summer program at the University of Michigan this past summer, I have been fascinated by genetics.  Genetics is a growing new field in the sciences that is producing significant and helpful results.  I want to know, however, if this could be the future that I want.  I know that I may not know for certain at this point what I want to do with my life because I might discover something new in college, but I would also like to learn, and to teach to my classmates, the role that genetics and the ongoing research with it has in the world.  For example, just recently, I read an article from my mom's Brown
University alumni magazine about a mother who initiated the collaboration of multiple groups of researchers and geneticists to determine the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome because her son, Sam Berns, was born with progeria.  As far as using the tools that we learned about last semester, I will be doing a lot of research on the internet to learn what career in genetics I may want to pursue.  I do not want this masterpiece, however, to take up too much time from reading AP books.  By the end of this year, when I take the AP test, I don't want to have any regrets about not reading some book that may have helped me on the test.  I also want the knowledge and the education that comes along with reading the classics and important works of English Literature.  Going back to genetics, I could possibly contact a professor of genetics or a genetic counselor to discuss their career or their interest in genetics, but impressing people in the field of genetics would require breakthrough research using technology that I do not have available to me at the time.