I grew up in Taiwan, a beautiful island in the broad Pacific
Ocean. I was born in the capital, Taipei, where I spent three forths
of my life growing and learning. I came to America 4 years ago with
my family, and that's when I started to learn English and living in
an English environment. Like every other new immigrant, it was very
difficult for me to be adapted in this whole new culture. The
educational system are different, the custom are different, even the
food is different. In the schools in Taiwan, the only thing the
students have to take care of is studying, and passing the high
school entrance exam and college entrance exam. The school system
will take care of other things, like clubs, organizations, and
extracurricular activities.
        
     As I grew up, I went to regular public high schools. There
weren't anything special about the schools I went to. However, the
educational system did require the students to take all subjects.
Therefore, we took science courses every day, every year in order to
gain the introductive knowledge about science. In my country,
physics and chemistry were combined together when the students learn
about them. We learn biology, chemistry, physics and earth science
at the same time until college. However, even though the courses
were combined, we didn't learn any less than the students in
America. We learned more into details while we were still in high
school, the same thing with math. The schools I went to, we did have
activities like science fair, and science contests. I joined the
team in science fair in junior high school and elementary school,
but not in the high school, because the workload was very heavy when
I just entered the high school, and I didn't have extra time to join
other activities. In addition, as I grew up, I was more interested
in Chinese culture studying, and I was more into writing and being a
journalist. However, after I came here in my sophomore year in high
school, everything was changed.
  
     The first semester I came here as a sophomore student, I didn't
take any science course, because my English was poor at that time.
The only thing I focused on was catching up with the kids in America
in reading, writing, comprehension and speaking. Starting the second
semester, I took biology, and I did really well in it, so I stared
to be interested in science. I took AP biology in the following
year, but I didn't do well in that because of the vocabularies in
biological terms. However, I found out that I am strongly interested
in genetics in biological field. I took AP physics the next year,
which I found it every interesting, so I decided to learn more about
it in college. At the same time, I was learning about computers, and
that was the time I changed my interest to science and computers.

     The interesting thing I found in science, especially about
physics, is that it's everywhere. We can see the applied physics
ideas working everywhere in our real life, and there is more to
extend in each topic in the textbook. I found it so fascinating. I'm
also fascinated with math. Like the things we learned in calculus,
and in linear algebra: how to solve a problem with matrices and the
integrations or the derivations in calculus. Those are very
interesting to me. Same thing with computer technology, I think to
write a program so people can use it or to build a circuit with the
chips, it's very amazing that the technology is good that helps
people. Those fields are very interesting field that I want to learn
more about those, and be very informed about those, so I can find a
way to improve people's lives. Furthermore, that's why I want to be
a computer engineer and (if possible) a science engineer, too. I
want to be a computer engineer and programmer, yet I just started to
gain some knowledge of it; I also want to be a genetic engineer if I
can apply my engineering knowledge in it. Besides, I always want to
be an astronaut, but I think it's just a dream that I would always
have, but yet might not achieve.

        Other than academics, I also like to play sports, any kind
of sport that related to balls, I always wanted to join a team, but
due to many reasons, I still couldn't. Therefore, I only play with
my family and friends during the breaks or days off. The interesting
thing about sports is that physics is involved, too. (Actually,
"physics is everywhere" is said by my high school AP physics
teacher, and I think it's very true.) When I play sports, I also
think about the reasoning and how to apply my physics knowledge to
win that game. My father once told me "you play smart games" because
I don't just use my energy, but also my brain. I am glad to hear
that though, that means I am not wasting my day in daydreaming
(well, sometimes, I still do, though).
       
     I hope I could learn more about science and apply my knowledge
everywhere, whether it is physics or computer or biological or
engineering; and also am able to talk about the knowledge I have
learned intelligently with my colleague or my friends in the near
future.

- Jill Chen