Hello!

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From a very young age, I have had a fascination with math. It was the one subject that I was always eager to learn more about and enjoyed studying. However, my interest in math does not necessarily mean that I was always good at it. Throughout elementary school, I had years where I struggled to pass math and I had a rough start in my honors math classes in high school. It wasn't until my second semester of my sophomore year of high school that I was able to finally realize that I needed to not only know what to do to solve a problem, but I also had to understand why I was doing the steps that I was doing. After this realization, I was able to thrive in math. Math isn't simply memorization. Math is its own world. By the time I graduated high school, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career that allowed me to further explore the world of mathematics. Thus, I decided that I wanted to become a high school math teacher so that I can obtain a deeper understanding of math as well as help students realize that math has a fundamental role in our lives and it is not as dull as it seems.

I applied for the NSF-EXPLORE Summer Research program because I am hoping to enrich my understanding of math along with enhancing my critical thinking skills by learning how to do research. In addition, I saw this as an opportunity to grow not only academically but also on a personal level as I hope to be challenged. Therefore, this summer, I will be using my knowledge in calculus that I obtained in my first two years of college and I will explore minimal surfaces and soap bubbles while using 3D printing.

Back in Calculus III, I built my nameplate in Tinkercad.

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