How have your interests and related experiences influuenced the major you have selected in the College of Agriculture and Life Science?
Its 505 words and the suggested limit is 500...probably not a big deal but it still bothers me. Any suggestions on where I could cut off 5 words?
One morning, years ago, an ecstatic six year-old version of myself was hurriedly preparing for the school day ahead. I threw on an Indiana Jones-inspired hat and grabbed a trowel and toothbrush. I was ready to go. It was kindergarten career day, and I couldn't wait to tell my class that I was going to be a paleontologist someday. Today, I am just as excited about my professional future, although my ambitions and interests have changed slightly. I maintained a love of dinosaurs throughout my childhood. While my friends watched cartoons, I found more entertainment in documentaries; while they played with Barbies and Transformers, I amused myself with plastic Pachycephalosauruses and Troodons. It wasn't until I took action in pursuit of paleontology that I discovered what I really wanted to do.
During the summer before my junior year of high school, I spent a week in Utah at a paleontology camp. Despite the amazing experiences I had camping in the desert, I realized that I did not want to study fossils for the rest of my life. What I had been truly interested in was the behavioral patterns of and interactions between the prehistoric beasts. At camp, I realized that, as a paleontologist, I would be working with fossils rather than living organisms. This realization led me to consider studying something that I had never thought could rival the ancient lizards that had so deeply fascinated me: current-day creatures.
How could a tiny lizard on my porch measure up to the colossal dinosaurs that ruled the earth so long ago? I previously thought this impossible; however, through high school biology and environmental science classes, I learned about a phenomenon that both linked today's animals with those of the past and made them superior: evolution. The study of evolution would allow me to apply knowledge about ancient creatures to research of those living today. The chance to explore the behaviors and niches of these animals within their environments is something I could not pass up. After all, it is about as close as I could get to studying Utahraptors in the Creataceous period.
Now that I was prepared to pursue a modified set of interests, the only question was where to do so. During the long, daunting process of college searching, I discovered the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program at Cornell's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. I knew at once that it was an academic fit. I would not have to make the difficult decision between evolution and ecology, and the field research opportunities seemed abundant; admittedly, the idea of having class in the forest enthralls me. It is my hope that this major will involve me in research that is both interesting and extremely relevant in modern biology.
Although paleontology is no longer the goal, the child in me still gets the urge to put on that Indiana Jones hat and "play" outside. That same child remains proud of her ambitions; however, nowadays, she says, "I am going to be a biologist someday."
