Scholarship / The Stanford Medical Youth Program - Questbridge - proudest achievement [2]

Being a part of this program

"Congratulations, you have been accepted into the Stanford Medical Youth Program!" As I read the email heading, my eyes widened in shock and I was filled with ecstasy. Initially, I doubted myself tremendously on whether I would even get accepted into this program. I was astonished when the instructors told the thirty participants that we were chosen among four hundred applicants.

I made the decision to participate in the program instead of working to save money for college and I do not regret it at all. My summer consisted of everyday Zoom meetings, public health lectures, anatomy videos and working on an extensive research paper. It was exhausting but there was nothing else that I would have rather done with my summer. I was able to explore a variety of health sectors and learned more about important issues in the medical field.

The graduation was bittersweet. What I learned and accomplished through this program is awe-inspiring. Being a part of this program is my proudest achievement, the entire process from applying to graduating defined me as a person and student.

Please help me, I'm not sure how to write in a way that tells them what this shows about me. Any feedback is appreciated thank you!

Scholarship / The possibilities for the brain - Questbridge Topical Essay - curiosity [3]

Tell us about a concept, theory, or topic you have explored simply because it sparked your intellectual curiosity.

Why do you find it intriguing? How do you want to explore it further?

As I lay there with twenty metal electrodes on my scalp, my mind pondered on how powerful the brain is. It controls so many functions of our body, emotions, movement, dreams, thoughts essentially everything. My mind is blown away on how a three pound mass of muscle has the capacity to control so much of our lives.

My curiosity for this organ began when I found myself getting frequent migraines. I thought they were just bad headaches until my days consisted of laying in a dark room for hours. When I seeked medical help for my migraines, the doctors were stumped on why I had migraines at the age of thirteen. They ran tests, prescribed medicine and nothing helped. I thought it was strange for doctors to attend more than twelve years of schooling and not know much about the brain. I realized that there is only a finite amount of knowledge we know about the brain ─ this is why I find it intriguing.

Proceeding my migraines, my curiosity for the brain only grew when I started to experience sleep paralysis. Normally, I can lucid dream, meaning that I am aware of my dreams and have some sort of control over them. This one particular night, I woke up panting and sweating and I could not move my body. I saw a black shadow figure in the corner of my room and it felt so real that I could not comprehend what really happened that night. Finally I snapped from this strange form yet realistic "dream." Ever since this experience, I find myself wondering more about the concept of dreams; how are we able to learn more about them? The only thing that holds the answers to my question is the brain. Although the thought and experience of sleep paralysis is traumatizing, it furthered my curiosity for the brain.

It amazes me how people have been around for centuries yet there is still a limited amount of knowledge we know on the brain. Even with the development of new technology and research, we only know so much. I have so many questions about the brain and how the entire organ's mechanism works. How is it able to control our dreams? How is it able to induce pain? How is there a little voice in my head reading and thinking?

The possibilities for the brain are infinite. The only way I can find my answers is to pursue a career in neurology, the study of the brain and its functions. In order to further explore my curiosity, I must be well educated on the known knowledge of the brain. I plan on majoring in Neurobiology to gain a full understanding of the brain. I want to be on the front line of the developing research of the brain. The study of the brain is an continuously evolving topic that has sparked my curiosity which later matured into a passion that I want to deeply explore in my life.

I appreciate any feedback! I had another idea of comparing the brain to the ocean about how we only know so little of the vast body of ocean but that was just another direction that I could have taken this prompt but I'm not sure if this is strong enough.