Sample Biology Personal Statement

My interest in Biology began at a young age, when I enrolled in a marine biology summer camp. My parents were shocked to discover that several of the hands on demonstrations involved dissections, something that I discovered I had a proven talent for. What fascinated me the most, however, was learning about the strange and diverse forms of life found within deep sea environments and the constant discoveries researchers were making simply by exploring this new region of earth. Following my interests eventually led me to Technology High School, which offered me a project based learning curriculum with four years of integrated science and engineering programs. I then moved on to the Santa Rosa Junior College, where I studied zoology and entomology,

Fortunately, the general biology program at UC Davis gave me the freedom to actively explore all avenues of biology, and my first internship as a Fecal Analysis Intern at the Center for Vector Borne Disease gave me a good idea of what biological research entails. While I found the findings of this project fascinating enough to continue with this internship through the rest of my time at Davis, I realized that working with an animal model system was not the best fit for me.

Ironically, I was the least interested in plant biology, so when the time came to fulfill this requirement, I begrudgingly enrolled in California Floristics. My time as a backpacker had previously introduced me to the identification of many edible plants, so I knew that furthering my knowledge of plant identification would be useful in future backpacking trips. The class introduced me to the wide variety of plant species and morphologies present in my own backyard, and I was immediately brought back to my appreciation for the diversity of life that first attracted me to biology many years

I was familiar with the plant breeding program and it’s reputation for excellence, however I hadn’t previously envisioned myself living on the east coast. I then came into contact with Dr. Chelsea Specht, whose previous research at UC Berkeley perfectly combined the elements of plant morphology and evolution that I am most fascinated with. When she informed me of her move to Cornell, and the research on plant systematics in this department, I was smitten. Further research of the Plant Biology Ph.D at Cornell has shown me a department that emphasizes plant evolution and systematics like no other, and through the facilities provided at Cornell such as the L. H. Bailey Hortorium Herbarium, I believe that this program would give me the greatest amount of freedom and resources to conduct research in plant