A Wannabe Leonardo da Vinci

I became interested in medicine during my sophomore year of high school, when I took Honors Biology. At the time, I noticed I had an affinity towards the subject matter within the study of Biology. I became particularly fascinated with genetics and the process by which out genes affect protein synthesis, in turn affecting genomic expression. I became so intrigued by this concept that I went on to create my own medical experiment to discover, on a genetic level, what causes trisomy 21, which causes a genetic condition known as Down Syndrome. I became interested in engineering during my senior year of high school, during the college application process. When considering what major to adopt, I know I wanted to studying something in the realm of Biology, but with a more diverse application. I sought this diversity of application because of a principle that my grandparents raised me with. My grandparents attempted to mold me into what they called a "Renaissance man" by diversifying my knowledge into as many fields as possible. They attempted to do this by exposing me to as many world cultures through traveling. At the age of 19, I have visited every continent on the Earth and have seen about 35% of the world. As my grandmother once said, "Knowledge breeds tolerance through the awareness of the riches that exist in cultural differences. Ignorance breeds intolerance through a lack of willingness to acknowledge cultural differences. Therefore, the answer to absolving the world of ignorance and intolerance is exposure to different cultures."