My name is Andrew, and two hobbies I have are playing tennis and playing video games. Something I am planning on doing this summer is going to Columbia University in New York and studying at the pre-college summer immersion program there.
A goal I want to achieve at Teens in Health is to be able to learn more about different topics in biomedicine and hopefully learn about some treatments that can help benefit people who are suffering from medical conditions. Many people around the world suffer from serious medical conditions, and I hope to be able to help them in the future, even if I only help as little as one person.
My younger brother was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and my family sought treatment for him that involved stem cells. That was the first time I learned of stem cells, and ever since then, I became interested in this topic because it was fascinating to me how raw human cells are able to transform and help benefit the human body. Stem cells can help people in ways that no other current alternatives can, so I would like to learn more about this life-saving technology.
Stem cell therapy that can potentially help cure terminal illnesses like Alzheimer’s is a specific area of stem cell research that I am interested in. Although modern medicine and science have made many advancements that cure many different diseases like the common cold and stomachaches, there are still some major illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s that have no cures. Through researching stem cells and stem cell therapy, there could be many potential breakthroughs that will help people that have to suffer through these conditions recover and be able to live a normal life. Also, stem cells could also be part of solutions that cure many other fatal diseases, which could help prevent a lot of deaths in the future.
My parents are subscribed to The Economist magazine, and from time to time I read some articles in the science section. This magazine publishes articles weekly about various scientific topics, and the articles I like the most from them are about bacteria/viruses and neuroscience. Recently, an article I read that I found interesting was about short-sightedness and myopia in Asia. This article was interesting to me because I learned how short-sightedness was growing at a rapid pace in East Asia, and I also learned about the potential effects of severe myopia. While I used to think that short-sightedness only hampers your eyesight, now I know that it could result in untreatable blindness, and this showed me the dangerous effects that poor eyesight could have. This article was written in a straightforward and concise way, and it was able to convey all the information without digressing too much, leading to a short but interesting read.
