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Personal Statement |
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 I have always been interested in biology, even before I knew to call it that.
As a child, I owned just about every pet allowable inside Chicago city limits, filled my room with plants, combed the shores of Lake Michigan for fossils, and read everything about plants and animals that I could get my hands on. In seventh grade, just for fun, I set up a genetics experiment with mice, mapping such traits as color, size and body shape through several generations. Despite my obvious affinity for science, I was encouraged instead to pursue writing, an area in which I was also showing promise. Eventually, I found journalism to be a good way to blend writing with my interest in how the world works. I spent nearly nine years in the newsroom, covering issues as diverse as health care, local politics, and the environment, first in Los Angeles and then in the Monterey Bay area. After a while, however, I began chafing against the parameters of the news business. I wanted to be able to study issues in greater depth and reflect longer on their meaning. Life in Santa Cruz was reopening the doors to my childhood passion. I became an avid hiker, surfer, and scuba diver. Monterey Bay is a major hub of marine research. I started attending lectures and symposiums. It wasn’t long before the world of biology again became my main source of intellectual inspiration. Out of that interest, I began covering local marine research. Scientists and the general public praised the articles, but as time went by, I became increasingly jealous of my subjects. I wanted to do what they were doing, not just write about it! In 1995, I returned to school to complete my undergraduate degree. In 1998, I moved to Honolulu to attend the University of Hawaii-Manoa. My pursuit of a graduate degree is a continuation of the dream of one day becoming a researcher myself. |
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