Ever since a young age, I have been obsessed and fascinated with modifying designs and mechanisms through my own brand of creativity. This passion provided an outlet for my energy and imagination. On my tenth birthday, my father bought me a workbench and a set of tools to satisfy my craving to tinker. But on one fateful voyage to visit a local woodworking artisan, I discovered a tiny fossil bivalve in the parking lot and from that point on I was bent on discovering the secrets of the distant past through paleontology.
To my surprise, both of my passions played a vital role in my life. I was able to combine them by making specialized stands for fossil specimens, which I turned into a modest business with a small profit. Although the business and my hobbies were very important to me, the bulk of my time was taken up by my scholarly studies. Growing up I was not academically gifted and struggled in school. My father challenged me to problem solve by using my intelligence, creativity, and perseverance to derive an answer. This learning method led me to be more independent and self-reliant.
Throughout elementary and middle school, I received a fine education by taking higher level classes and challenging myself with a rigorous schedule, even though I had to spend long nights and early mornings completing my homework. I especially struggled with reading, so much so, that I enrolled in summer school and special comprehension classes. These programs greatly assisted me in developing my reading and comprehension skills. Additionally, my parents used a rewards tactic to encourage the improvement of my reading ability. One of the most precious rewards I received was the workbench that I had mentioned earlier by jumping from a 2nd to a 5th-grade reading level. Subsequently, as my reading improved, my leisure time expanded.
Since my mother came from a musical background, I joined the orchestra. I was a cello player, though a mediocre one at best. I tried very hard. The orchestra was my first long-term commitment to a program. I devoted 5 years to it before departing from it in high school due to scheduling difficulties. Through orchestra, I developed many valuable skills and concepts that I use on a daily basis. I learned the importance of practice, perseverance, and determination. But more importantly, I learned to expand my horizons. I have come to believe that I can overcome most challenges that will be presented to me. A prime example of this can be seen in my arduous summer job.
Agriculture is the major economic generator where I live in central Nebraska and for the past eight summers, I have worked in the corn fields detasseling ears of corn for Armstrong Detasseling. Detasseling is a form of pollination control, employed to crossbreed genetically distinct varieties of corn planted in parallel rows. This very physically demanding job involves trudging through muddy irrigated fields during the hot and humid days of late summer. This employment has helped me develop many important career skills. Having to wake up at 4 AM each morning and prepare my meals has given me self-reliance. The detasseling buses depart at 5 AM so punctuality has been ingrained into me. The wages are based on personal acres picked and the thoroughness of one’s detasseling. When I first started, I set out to become the best detasseler on the crew of over 300 and I have repeatedly claimed the title of the top earner for the past 3 years. I now set the pace of the entire crew, and I was only able to accomplish this through my own determination, resilience, and pure hard work. Furthermore, adaptability was key to my success, because of varying weather and mental states that you experience while clambering through the lonely cornfields. Overall, this job has led me to become an earnest and hardworking young man, which can be reflected in my academic pursuits.
I transferred harmoniously into the high demand and stressful environment of high school. There I conquered my classes by applying myself to my studies. In high school, I also become involved in many extracurricular activities such as year-round athletics, an assortment of demanding clubs, and several rigorous jobs, which didn't leave much free time for my hobbies. Because of this limited time, I took the initiative to enroll myself in engineering classes. These classes contrasted nicely with my more formal academic curriculum, and they became my creative niche where I could experiment and explore. I enjoy the intellectual challenges of standardized courses, but utilizing my hands and creative mind to manufacture products in my engineering classes nourishes another part of my character. These classes allowed me to explore different aspects of the engineering process and different industrial applications associated with the field of engineering through various projects. One project, in particular, allowed me and a small team of other students to engage in the entire engineering process from start to finish. My team chose to design a shoe accessory that aided in lacing and unlacing a shoe, which was specifically geared towards aiding the elderly and disabled. We went on to design this product by researching local institutions that experienced shoe issues like nursing homes and mental health clinics. Additionally, we had to research previous design attempts to solve similar problems, so that our prototype was completely original and could design the best product. After many weeks of computer modeling and research, we finished the class with a working prototype and were even able to test it on several people with disabilities. The results were very promising and the experience was even more rewarding. This experience in conjunction with many other appealing aspects of the engineering process led me to a strong interest in the engineering field. At first, when I was researching potential career options, the diversity, and multitude of job opportunities and degrees available overwhelmed me, but as I continued my search of requirements, demands, and skill sets, biochemical engineering seemed to speak to me. It was then that I decided to attend college in the pursuit of obtaining a biochemical engineering degree.
The reason for this selection was based on several factors, including my strong interest in medical science, exposure to genetic engineering in my summer job, and the many special Ed students, I have befriended through my volunteering activities like the Special Olympics and Make a Wish Foundation. I believe that modern technology is progressing towards the cure to many crippling disabilities, and as I saw some of them struggle with simple tasks or thoughts, I realized I wanted to be a part of this advancement in medical treatment. My chemistry and biology classes educated me on the human DNA sequence and the various problems associated with it. Armed with this knowledge, I felt I could make a difference, and I saw my means of aiding the scientific community by pursuing a biochemical engineering career. I plan to procure this job title by honing my scientific mind to conquer college and eventually enroll in graduate school. There I hope to specify my skill set and start researching genetic coding. Even though I know funding my secondary education will be problematic, I believe I have been taught the lessons to conquer any issue that will arise in my future.

Essay: Psychotherapy (Talk Therapy)

There are countless devices and technologies that impact the disabled population on a daily basis. For most of these technologies, the aim has been to counteract physical and sensory debilitations. These technologies have truly been a revelation to many people around the globe and are a wonderful product of human altruism. But with that being said, the physically disabled only represent a small fraction of the disabled population. Mental illness is far more prevalent and can have far greater debilitating effects on a person.
This horrible disability can take on many forms and affect large populations without discrimination. In fact, the United States Census Bureau reports that 20 percent of the US population possesses a mental disorder and that nearly 50 percent of those with physical disabilities suffer from a mental illness. The most common varieties of these illnesses include anxiety, mood, psychotic, eating, and impulse control disorders. Across the wide spectrum of mental disorders, one of the simplest and most effective treatments has been talk therapy or psychotherapy. This treatment has proven to be an effective and efficient technique to remedy mental illness. Moreover, this copious therapy treatment has been in circulation since antiquity, an article entitled “History of Psychotherapy” by Jim Haggarty even traces it back to ancient Greece where philosophers first realized that physiological and behavioral problems were actual medical conditions. As the greeks first investigated these mental disorders by simply talking with mental health patients, they recognized the benefits of comforting and encouraging words. Since then, psychotherapy has spread across the globe and become a commonly practiced therapeutic technique. In fact, there is one defining feature of psychotherapy that has made it so prolific, its ability to be tailored to fit the needs of individual patients. Depending on the patient and their specific mental illness, psychiatrists are able to change the aim of individual discussion sessions to meet the needs of their patients. Furthermore, psychotherapy is a repeatable and noninvasive treatment. It can be performed multiple times on a patient without physical harm, and usually, results in psychological insight that can be used to create a beneficial treatment plan. But this therapy’s benefits don’t stop at just revealing clues behind the root cause of a person’s mental illness, it can also vastly improve a patient’s mood and even dissipate some of their symptoms. In fact, the American Psychological Association has shown that by allowing a person to talk through their problems in a constructive manner, the brain can make unconscious neural connects that may result in a process termed “cognitive reorganization.” In this process, the brain alters its neural pathways that control sensory processing and steroid release, which can alleviate some forms of mental illness that are caused by chemical imbalances.
In my view, talk therapy has had the biggest impact on the global population of disabled people out of any therapeutic technique, technology, or device. It has made a huge difference and improvement in the lives of both disabled children and adults. The opportunity for a mental health sufferer to talk with someone and explain their thoughts and feelings can be very comforting and soothing. When a psychiatrist, relative, or even a friend engages in talk therapy with a disabled person, they form a relationship with them. Then this relationship can arguably provide comfort and warmth to their lives, which might not cure their condition but it can at least improve their day.