COSMOS Application

I can still picture my grandpa gently yet deftly catching me a blue dragonfly by hand. Although normally rambunctious, I sat still in order to observe the foreign critter. Peering into the captive dragonfly’s multifaceted, slightly metallic eyes filled me with a sense of wonder. I sat mesmerized for what felt like hours until my grandpa released it and it zoomed away. The scene described above is my earliest memory. I must have only been three at the time. Yet the fascination of the natural world that that moment kindled in me has only grown through the years. As I learned more aspects of biology through books, museums, school classes, and personal observations, I fell in love with the diversity of this subject. The biological principles I learned could be applied to almost anything. For example, while making chocolate covered strawberries I realized the reason my melted chocolate would “seize,” or form clumps, with the addition of even a drop of water was due to the hydrophobic/hydrophilic interactions between the fat molecules in chocolate and the water molecules. That I could make connections between what I study in textbooks and observe in daily life enthralled me the most. Yet biology usually doesn’t interest my peers the way it intrigues me. Sadly I can’t talk about my chocolate discovery in normal conversation, though I would love to. So simply spending a month with students that share my curiosity and passion would be a blessing in itself. Getting hands on experience and teaching from university professors would be a dream. With the opportunity COSMOS would provide for me, I would really immerse myself in the learning experience so I that could be reminded just why I love what I love.