Making the Mundane Magnificent by Joseph

Making the Mundane Magnificent by Joseph - August 2017 Scholarship Essay

I abhorred the primordial years of piano lessons. As an ADHD adolescent, I was bored by the musical theory and techniques I was forced to learn. Without interest or engagement, I failed to see the beauty this information could be used to create. I only continued lessons because of the coercion of my parents; I thought it was simply what I had to do. My transformation into a passionate student dedicated to entering the STEM fields mirrors my journey as a piano student. During educational endeavours, our sights usually rest on learning information that instructors deem important, blinding us to the entire story of that material; the tale of its discovery, its applications, and its future. This disconnect dampens intellectual excitement and interest, bolstering the abandonment of challenging fields in favor of easier paths to a stable career. While I once failed to see the wonders of even the most seemingly trivial pieces of life’s puzzles, biology teachers that introduced me to the world beyond the textbook information transformed my perspective in the classroom and in life. In academia, I would choose to teach biology, for not only is it a fascinating tale of the origins and workings of human life, it is a subject that needs professors willing and able to unmask its beauty.
In cancer biology labs, I tapped into reservoirs of knowledge gathered in earlier STEM courses. I learned that every textbook proclamation was born in the lab, uncovered by pioneers driven by the thrill of illuminating life’s secrets. I understood the importance of dissecting the microscopic workings of diseases that plague our macroscopic realities. The beauty of research, unlike traditional study, is that failure is unavoidable, but still presents an opportunity to charge forward. Such realizations drove me to attack my studies with an enhanced fervor, not solely to obtain certain grades, but to pay tribute to the scientific efforts, and to learn what was necessary to contribute to humanity. Instead of closing my mind once I adequately mastered the material, I pondered what would follow. Mundane academic burdens became exhilarating opportunities to challenge how I viewed the world.
As a professor, I would focus on introducing students to STEM-related research, regardless of their background, experience, or career goals. Lab courses are often disenchanting, as each lesson includes a pre-written experiment with a pre-determined outcome. Students may coast through practicing provided protocols, knowing what to expect if directions are followed. Instead, I would aim to allow students to choose a variety of questions related to the curricular content and that require methods I wish to cover. Students would craft their own roadmap for answering the question they wish to tackle. They would analyze their results by either deciphering its implications and what steps may follow, or what went wrong along the way. With this hands-on, student-centered style of teaching, I would be able to introduce students to the journey of discovery that results in the information we now know. Upon increasing student engagement in their work, I would be more able to press them to consider how this knowledge may be used to impact biomedicine. I would be able to not only display the thrill of the hunt for mother nature’s secrets, but the extraordinary importance of being able to do so.
My interest in the piano only began to spike whenever I spent more time dabbling in the art. Whenever I switched to a teacher willing to challenge me to do more than I thought I could do behind the keys and who broke down the unique emotional colors that radiated from each individual piece, an instrument that I initially detested became one that I adored. I believe that every individual deserves an opportunity to pursue the illness-free happiness that they deserve. However, nothing plagues that path to happiness more profoundly than physical ailment. The human condition has been continuously improved through medical discovery, making the physical sciences as important as they are intellectual exciting. Dampening the wonders of science is a crime that should never be committed in a classroom, and I would aim to be a biology professor that reveals the subject to be more remarkably fascinating than students ever realized it to be.