Natali Shumlak

Honors 100 B/BH

6 October 2014
Assignment 1: Who are you?
I got to where I am now through perseverance, luck, and circumstance. My
younger brother is severely autistic, and while growing up with him was sometimes
difficult, he taught me how to be strong, which helped me when I faced my own
health challenges in high school. I was diagnosed with a rare genetic connective
tissue disorder in my junior year. I was lucky. I had been seen by some of the best
doctors and got diagnosed three years after the symptoms appeared, when most
people wait over fifteen years for a correct diagnosis. My circumstances required me
to be strong and persevere, and my brother showed me that I had the strength to do
so.
My personal path to the University of Washington and to the Honors
Program was shaped by experiences that I have been fortunate to have. Having a
father who is a UW professor gave me a head start when it comes to thinking about
colleges and helping me find what qualities I valued in a university. From an early
age, my father showed me the enormous amount of opportunities and resources
that are available at UW and that I could find a way to pursue any interest of mine.
As I gained a greater focus on what I wanted to study and do after college, I began to
understand how larger sized urban universities would not only provide me with
amazing resources and opportunities, but they would also thoroughly prepare me
for the next steps in my career (especially UW). My experiences in the International
Baccalaureate Diploma Program taught me to deeply value interdisciplinary
learning, especially the literature and philosophy classes. During one discussion that
I had with my father in my junior year of high school, I expressed my concern about
the potential lack of interdisciplinary learning in college, to which he reassured me
that at UW the Honors Program was designed to address this concern. After
researching the UW Honors Program, I became determined to work toward being in
it. Now that I am here, I cannot express how excited I am to be apart of a community
that shares many of my values, while still maintaining diversity.
There are many things that I want to learn and explore while I am a student
at UW. In high school, I really enjoyed working in one of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center labs, and I want to get involved in research as soon as I can. I am
hoping that I will be able to conduct some of my own research and even get
published. I am interested in learning about physiology and philosophy, especially
about how these two areas of knowledge interact and help answer questions
regarding ethical duties, meaning, and significance. UW also gives me the
opportunity to fully explore my cultural identity, something that I wasnt able to do
until now. I have already started to embrace this opportunity by joining student
organizations like the Latino Student Union and Chicanos/Latinos for Community
Medicine. After UW, I plan on going on to medical school. I am already extremely
interested in pediatric anesthesiology and orthopedic surgery. Eventually, I want to
work for Doctors Without Borders, helping bring medical services to populations in
need.