Personal Statement

I grew up in a household where education was seen as a form of self-improvement and empowerment. Being raised in rural Central California by two Filipino immigrants who had nothing more than a high school education, my family did not have an educated or intellectual history I could look up to. That is, until my mother decided to get a college education at the age of 45. I must have been in middle school at the time, before which the word “college” was never really spoken or talked about and I could honestly say I only had a vague idea of what it even was. Rather than having the traditional sit down talk with my parents about higher education, my mom clearly spoke to me through example. I distinctly remember times where I would be her study buddy, and while doing so, I found myself leisurely enjoying the pages of her science textbooks. Instead of asking her questions related to her upcoming text, I inquisitively asked juvenile questions like, “How do the genes make us?” Today I know that this is a very big and complex question that we are still trying to answer. Yet at that moment, I wanted an answer, but mother did not have the solution, nor did the textbook. That was the birth of my pursuit of scientific career.
My small and humble town did not afford me the opportunities to investigate the many questions I had. It was when I had received acceptance into UCLA, I knew I held a golden key. I saw my first laboratory here at UCLA and it was not long before I applied for the Biomedical Research Minor in an effort to dive headfirst and start working in one. Last year, I worked under Professor Utpal Banerjee in the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology studying and elucidating a novel immunity independent inflammatory...

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...rt of my undergraduate preparation. I hope to make some substantial progress on my project with Dr. Pellegrini and have presentable data by the end of the program and contribute to the scientific community. I also look forward to networking with fellow SPUR-LABS students and faculty. In my time at UCLA, I have realized that research is all but a solo act. It is a cooperative endeavor, and being in the program will provide a collaborative and supportive environment for me to succeed. Ideally, I would like to have at least one paper published during my undergraduate career. C.S. Lewis once said, “Experience: the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God, do you learn.” Such experiences, especially SPUR-LABS will hopefully aid my journey to graduate school and my pursuit of a Ph.D. and work in academia and work alongside of the professors and mentors I have today.