Prompt: Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community. Excitement rushed through me as I gazed at dinosaur skeletons and an enormous three-dimensional periodic table during my first visit to my local museum of natural science. Slowly, my fifth-grade self entered a lab where a teen in a blue shirt eagerly helped me conduct my first organ dissection. Hours later, I left the museum overflowing with delight: it had been a great day for my ever inquisitive...

I see the world through a camera. Since I first held my parent’s camera at 8, photography has been the way I preserve and process life. Through online forums and YouTube, I’ve taught myself photography techniques and how to use Adobe Lightroom and Illustrator. With my camera, I’ve chased sunsets, sunrises, and clouds for the best lighting to photograph friends and food. As an art based on experimentation, I’ve developed a signature style, “sunset meets spontaneous,” which...

In the 24 hours I spent with a Rice undergrad, I was taken into a new world as I participated in her the Chemistry of Cooking course. It merged two of my favorite interests: science and cooking. We observed how the guest speaker Rory Pall browned the rice dumplings on the sizzling oil, we smelled the fish sauce, and we tasted the Korean Braised Goat and Dumplings dish. We learned how and where the bacteria thrive in the fermented chili sauce...

A four-year-old boy sat across from me in the hospital waiting room, about to have his thyroid removed, leaning on his father’s shoulder with a face of fear and desperation. At Trinity College, specifically as a chemistry major concentrating in biochemistry, I would interact with and contribute to a diverse group, unified by the goal to solve pressing problems. Since Trinity College fosters undergraduate research opportunities and programs, I’m excited to take classes like Biophysical Chemistry (CHEM 302) and...