“C-I-R-S-U-S… that’s simple,” I confidently thought to myself. I spelled my first word of the class spelling bee aloud to my first grade teacher. Next thing I knew, a dreadful "ting" rang out: the sound of elimination. She seemed amused by my misstep: “Circus is spelled with a ‘c,’ not an ‘s’.” Channeling my frustration into an icy determination to win next year’s bee, I studied obsessively. Armed with each one of Merriam-Webster’s 1557 pages, I fought for...

My love for science and fast-paced competitions led me to Science Bowl. But there was one caveat: I had teammates. We all memorized as much as we could about every subject without communicating. However, our first tournament soon revealed the flaw in our approach: rather than deferring to other teammates, who were more knowledgeable on the topic, we all raced to slam down on the red button. This strategy cost us many matches and, initially, our team grew apart. However,...

I view humor as one of my greatest talents -- not because I’m that hilarious, but because of how it connects me with others. I employ humor to build upon existing relationships and forge new ones. It is my way of bringing out the best in myself and others is through humor. Humor has even found its way into my Organic Chemistry class, where our primary language isn’t English or chemical nomenclature -- it’s nonsensical inside jokes....

The two staples of our AP Physics C class were the deep baritone voice of our beloved teacher, Mr. Mac and a poster that read, “Formulas are for babies.” Before AP Physics C, I viewed physics as just another subject -- another class where I had to do some practice problems, read the textbook, and take tests. I enjoyed solving problems, but I studied superficially by memorizing solutions instead of understanding how to approach any problem. I developed my ability...

The taste of Evanston from my summer visit left me craving more — the collaborative, hands-on approach to engineering at McCormick, the shared passion for designing technology to help others and, of course, Buffalo Joe’s famous wings. What I love about Northwestern is its whole-brain approach to engineering and the opportunity to directly pursue a career in medicine with HPME. Through the quarter system and holistic curriculum, I can discover everything — from computer science to biotechnology — as a BME major....

The taste of Evanston from my summer visit left me craving more — the collaborative, hands-on approach to engineering at McCormick, the shared passion for designing technology to help others and, of course, Buffalo Joe’s famous wings. What I love about Northwestern is its whole-brain approach to engineering and the opportunity to directly pursue a career in medicine with HPME. Through the quarter system and holistic curriculum, I can discover everything — from computer science to biotechnology — as a BME major....

My AP Seminar group: the definition of uncomfortable. Random chance placed me with unfamiliar, shy classmates. Somehow, I convinced them to research fantasy-football leagues’ legality, which only appealed to me. Awkward pauses filled out-of-sync Google Hangouts. Only my voice echoed through otherwise silent calls, and my perspective dominated our paper. After our teacher identified our argument’s flaws, we realized the integral flaw was our group. To succeed, listening and trusting became my priority; I resisted the urge to interject,...