1. My favorite unit was the cells unit because it was the hardest.

I took the time to really

understand it made me feel accomplished. This reflects me because I am determined and
disciplined. It was when I connected the unit to a topic that I already enjoyed that I began to truly
embrace the topic.
2. Two words that describe me in your class are hard-working and naturally curious. I love
learning new things especially when its applicable to real life. Almost everything in HAP was
applicable and I made many connections with what I already enjoy doing and the topics in the
class.
3. First Semester: A

Second Semester: B+

5. When I am passionate for a project or topic, I will learn everything I can about it. One
example would be when we learned about cells. I like to read about innovation and the future.
One thing that stood out to me was meiosis. After learning about the process, I realized that
meiosis is a major factor in aging and death. I looked into it and found that it is the telomeres on
the ends of chromosomes that cause aging. As cells divide, the telomeres get a little shorter
each time. Its when the telomeres become too short that the cells stop dividing and begin to die.
I became extremely interested in this and how increasing the length of the telomeres or stopping
them from losing length each time cells divide could help. This led me to the reason why the
body reaches cellular senescence in the first place. Cells that stop dividing also help suppress
cancer. I like to make connections in the world between topics because in some way, everything
that we know is connected to each other.
My weakness would be losing motivation when I feel like a topic or assignment isnt helping me
learn anything new or connect new pathways in my head.
6. Ive been able to manage groups more effectively with what Ive learned from labs.
7. One of the biggest lessons that I learned from this class was managing time. Lab Reports
were difficult because it was hard to split up the work and communicate with my group. Many
times in the beginning, I would find myself finishing a lab the night before it was due by myself.
The difficulty with labs was when I pulled out a paper and listed everything that needed to be
done for a lab. I would then assign each person to a couple of tasks. This is also a skill that my
parents have tried to instill in me. I realize now that I cant remember everything in my head and
if I dont write it down, then there will be steps that are missed.
8. The major that I want to enter is Cognitive science. Its an interdisciplinary field that includes
anthropology, psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, linguistics and neuroscience. This
field would allow me to continue making connections and create a better understanding of the
human mind and behavior for myself. My overarching goal is to advance society and not get
stuck in today. By understanding the world today, I hope to be able to envision a possible future
and shape my work around making it reality.
One of the major programs that I have participated in was an entrepreneurship program. I
formed a group with people from around America and created a product that we believed would
push us into the future. One major problem that I see today is how we get our energy. Most
sources harm the planet in the process and arent sustainable in the long term. My group
focused on this for our product and came up with Walktech. We would create a shoe that
generated electricity from the kinetic energy we generated from walking.