The Role of Academic and Extracurricular Activities in Achieving My Lifetime Goals

For a majority of my childhood, science and art have been predominant and powerful forces of influence on not only my current ideology but also the particular way I approach and perceive a variety of external and internal issues. Due to the fact that my mom is a nurse while my dad practices as an electrical engineer, I am constantly surrounded and stimulated by science and scientific knowledge, from the basic medications administered to patients in the ward my mother works at to the often puzzling assortment of wires in a piece of cold machinery my father is frequently tinkering with. A nebula of scientific expertise was right at my statically-charged fingertips; however, as I progressively became exposed to the art world through a series of sporadic summer art classes, painting and drawing began to permeate into my every thought and breath. Although art and science are generally perceived as polar opposites of one another, I learned that, through exposure with a wide array of vastly different perspectives, art and science have an inherent - but often overlooked - relationship with each other.

In my AP Physics class last year, we often conducted experiments that required extensive out-of-the-box thinking in order to either reach a resolution or confirm that our initial hypotheses were accurate and precise such as the time when we needed to calculate the optimal angle in which to launch a dart from a nerf gun in order to achieve the maximum vertical distance that the dart could potentially reach, utilizing only a nerf gun, a measuring tape and my group’s combined ingenuity. Subsequently, the beneficial skills that I have acquired in my rigorous AP Physics class have not only bolstered my ability to analyze complex data through imaginative thinking but has also aided me in comprehending the multilayered concepts in my current AP Biology class. Through the various innovative and challenging content I have encountered within my AP Physics class, I now know how to apply both creativity and the basic foundations of universal scientific concepts in order to reach accurate conclusions as well as employing those skills to assist me in grasping the intricate information and concepts I will soon encounter within my current AP Biology class.

Although creativity and a basic understanding of scientific concepts are needed in AP Physics and AP Biology, no other class has been designed to perfectly amalgamate the two subjects than the AP Capstone Seminar and Research classes. In the AP Capstone program, students choose topics of interest, research and explore the multifaceted issues and stakeholders within their chosen topics then, finally, spend the latter half of the year organizing their research into well-developed, scholarly papers in addition to presenting their findings in a multimedia presentation. The AP Capstone program, especially the Research course, not only requires fundamental understanding of citation formats in order to prevent plagiarism but also requires constant inventiveness throughout the research process to create previously unknown links between established scholarly resources. For instance, the topic that I am currently exploring involves a disparity between artistically-inclined Asian American students and the effects of filial piety, Confucianism and the model minority stereotype on the formation of their self-identities that would, later on, influence their chosen career paths. Conclusively, the most astounding thing about the AP Capstone program is that, by the time I graduate, I would have already written four scholarly level papers as well as a master’s thesis that I could potentially utilize later on in my college career.

From my first crudely drawn water cycle on a sheet of cheap manila paper to the immense knowledge and skills I have attained from the several rigorous AP classes I have taken, I have not only cultivated my love for art and science - which have constantly been at odds with one another - but I have also practiced the skills I require to grant me the expertise and ingenuity I will need in order to overcome any adversity that may come my way and someday achieve my dream of returning the love and devotion my parents have given me to mold the individual that I am today.