Tips For Improving The Style Of Your College Essay

Tips For Improving The Style Of Your College Essay Several of my family members left this world in one last beating symphony; heart attacks seem to be a trend in my family. They left like birds; laughing one minute and in a better place the next. I was never fully aware of how closely humans rely upon each other until I read The Fall of Freddy the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia in freshman year. The allegory is about a leaf that changes with the seasons, finally dying in the winter, realizing that his purpose was to help the tree thrive. So, I will forgive and forget, love and inspire, experience and satire, laugh and cry, accomplish and fail, live and die. This is how I want to live my life, with this optimistic attitude that every day is a second chance. All the time, we have the opportunity to renew our perspective on life, to correct our mistakes, and to simply move on. Like the phoenix I will continue to rise from the ashes, experienced and renewed. From growing HeLa cells to trying to kill them with different compounds, I was able to gain the hands-on experience necessary for me to realize once again why I love science. This past summer, I had the privilege of participating in the University of Notre Dame’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program . On average for a five-paragraph essay, I write around 1, words. After reading it, I was enlightened on the cycle of life and realized the tremendous impact my actions had on others. The exploration led me to the African Disease Prevention Project , a non-profit organization associated with several universities. For an eight paragraph essay, I write around 2,000-2,600 words on the document. Keep in mind your quotes too, you should have one quote per paragraph or two . I’ve learned how to encourage my peers to meet deadlines, to work around 30 different schedules at once, and to give presentations convincing people why my organization is worth their donation. But overall, ADPP has taught me that small changes can have immense impacts. My branch has helped raise almost $3,000 to build water sanitation plants, construct medical clinics, and develop health education programs in the small village of Zwedru. The difference between ADPP and most other organizations is its emphasis on the basics and making changes that last. Working towards those changes to solve real life problems is what excites me. I will not waste time for my life is already in flux. Yet I've realized that life is fickler than I had imagined; it can disappear or change at any time. Using equipment that a high school student could only dream of using, I was able to map apoptosis versus necrosis in HeLa cells, a cervical cancer line, after treating them with curcumin-bound nanoparticles. Using flow cytometry to excite each individually suspended cell with a laser, the scattered light from the cells helped to determine which cells were living, had died from apoptosis or had died from necrosis. Using this collected data, it was possible to determine if the curcumin and/or the nanoparticles had played any significant role on the cervical cancer cells. Later, I was able to image cells in 4D through con-focal microscopy. It really is up to the person though, I have a buddy who writes considerably less than I do, but is able to get his point across. What you’re taught is often a general rule to shoot for, not a rule set in concrete. I decided to create the first high school branch of the organization; I liked its unique way of approaching health and social issues. Rather than just raising money and channeling it through third parties, each branch “adopts” one village and travels there to provide for its basic needs. As branch president, I organize events from small stands at public gatherings to 60-person dinner fundraisers in order to raise both money and awareness.