Undergraduate / Stanford- FACEBOOK MATTERS TO ME! [3]

What matters to you and why? (250 words)

*my name*

I use you. I use you for so many things. I wake up, look at you, go back to sleep, wake up again, and check you again. I write all over you, but you still seem to have so much space. How do you keep track of 500,000,000 other people like me? You let me see Gabi, my best friend from 12 years ago, or Nigel, my French pen-pal from 7th grade. You show me that long-lost cousin, who eerily looks like my doppelganger, and even tell me which new flavors are coming to Krispy Kreme Bangalore. Through you, I can interact with my online classmates from Seoul to Virginia, or maybe even my brother sitting next to me.

You are the window, the glimpse into people's lives, that lets us learn something new about someone every day. You not only virtually bring us together to a community, but also are something which all of us have in common. You came to came to Stanford as an innocent infant, but now have grown effortlessly to places from the Australian Outback, to metropolitan Hong Kong. Wrapping your arms around this globe, somehow you've managed to change it and the way its people think, all while making it smaller. Sharing with the world what we share with you, you've become an addiction to many. But to me, Facebook, you've just become a part of me. - feeling proud.

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Undergraduate / THE DA VINCI - Johns Hopkins Supplement! [4]

Johns Hopkins University was founded in 1876 on a spirit of exploration and discovery. As a result, students can pursue a multi-dimensional undergraduate experience both in and outside of the classroom. Given the opportunities at Hopkins, please discuss your current interests-academic or extracurricular pursuits, personal passions, summer experiences, etc.-and how you will build upon them here. (300-500 Word limit).

June 17th, 2013
Baltimore, Maryland

"This is the da Vinci."

In the dimly-lit room behind the glass pane, I saw a monstrous device, with its massive arms and intricate finger-like projections, obediently following the surgeon operating from the master controller. It was truly an engineering marvel, the "Mona Lisa" of biomedical engineering (BME). With this, one could literally perform surgeries around the world sitting in one place. Unshackling the best surgeons from their location constraints, training the future generation of doctors; my mind began to race, flooding with limitless ideas and possibilities for a device that epitomizes the best of engineering, computer science, and medicine - could cross-disciplinary research get any better?

July 8th, 2013
SriRaghavendra Biotechnologies

"We develop what doctors use. We are the inventors - the people behind the scenes" said Dr. **** **** , my research advisor.

I worked as a research assistant over the summer of 2013. I designed a project to develop a standard for gossypol, cotton-seed extract, investigating its anti-cancer properties on MCF-7 cells (breast cancer cells), and finally testing its rate of diffusion to develop a transdermal patch for cancer patients. The initial results from the experiment are promising and show that gossypol can be used effectively to fight cancer. The practical workings in the lab and the opportunity to make an impact on people's lives beckoned me to further pursue my dream of exploring the world of BME with the Green Group at JHU.

September 5th, 2013
*** * *** *** ** School

"... and that's why I stayed in school, thanks to my teacher and my LifeSkills mentors who helped bring out the 'Me' in me."

*applause*

Driven by the need to make a difference, I co-founded the LifeSkills program, for underprivileged students at a government school in Bangalore. Little did I know at the time that I would be part of a girl's transformation, who would have otherwise dropped out of school because of pressure from her family. The program involves interacting with students about life-skills which they can't learn in school, like communication, critical thinking, and world-values.

January 3rd, 2022
Baltimore, Maryland
"With this breakthrough in affordable targeted drug-delivery, we hope to save several lives from cancer" announced Dr. Sanat ********, PhD, co-founder and Chief Scientist of the biotech start-up Nanobotics. He was speaking at the commercial launch of their Medical Nanobots developed in partnership with Johns Hopkins University.

Sanat co-founded Nanobots, the first commercial-scale Nanofactory developer to produce specialized Medical Nanorobots, with help from the Kairos Society at JHU. He is on a mission to leverage advancements in BME to improve lives of people around the globe. He is also involved in community health projects in Baltimore.

As part of a JHU study-abroad program, he traveled to Congo on a Public Health project. He was part of the team that successfully installed the first da-Vinci surgical system in rural Africa. At JHU, he was an active member of Kranti, their South Asian acapella group, as well as the college Quidditch team.

Undergraduate / I was surrounded by ever-changing views; Common App Prompt 4 [3]

Four more hours to the hospital. Not with this fresh, glistening, red gash across my side. I couldn't. It was scorching through my skin. I attempted to cry out in agony, but the opposite came out. Laughter. I don't know why but these were the moments I loved. The moments when I am challenged. The moments where I am perfectly content.

Rewind about 45 minutes:

The cool Nilgiri air whisked through the slim grooves of my helmet, while the gears in my road-bike seamlessly switched from six to seven allowing me to speed up and glide down the hills of the Nilgiri Mountains. I was surrounded by ever-changing views, from water trickling down the crevices of cliffs to kids in the colorful villages of Tamil Nadu. The terrain was a smooth downhill; no effort, no difficulty; nothing was needed to surpass this part of the trail. It was all too easy.

But I spoke too soon. I was thrown into the main part of the trip, the forty-kilometer ascent. Brute leg strength couldn't even get me up this mountain. I had to wipe the droplets of sweat pouring down my chin, and start pushing my bike all the way to the peak. As excruciating as it was, this was what I was looking forward to. This was my favorite part of the trip; the part when I'm forced to just stop and take the world in, enjoying the small things in life. As I looked around, although I did see the towering climb in front of me, I also scanned the breathtaking panorama. "Life isn't measured by the number of breaths you take, but by every moment that takes your breath away." This was one of them.

"Go ahead, cross the finish line, I'll catch up" said my twin brother. The uphill was over, now it was just a smooth downhill to the finish. Or was it? I felt a bump just as I crossed the finish line, and woke up to myself lying helplessly on the asphalt, with my bike twenty feet in front of me. Just when I thought I had overcome the 160km bike ride challenge, I was flung into another one. I couldn't help but think that whether I sought challenge or not, it will always seek me. My whole family caught up and rushed me to the car.

Four more hours to the hospital.

We live life like it's a race. We're robots getting, as much as we can, done as fast as we can. We wake up, go to school, come home and sleep. And repeat. Challenges force me to stop for a second, and make me aware of my surroundings. They impel me to hone my senses, focus, and transform a weakness into a strength.

Challenge is a part of me, whether it is moving across the globe in the middle of freshmen year, to a completely different land, culture, and education system, or persuading the parents of a young girl in my LifeSkills program to let their daughter continue her education against the "norm" in rural India. Through maintaining my academics alongside a rigorous Stanford Online course requiring me to wake up at 5 a.m. every Sunday morning, or even rafting in the Class 5 rapids of the Ganges, I've come to realize that I, myself, seek challenge. Most may be happy once they've overcome the challenge; to me, the greatest contentment is during the challenge itself.