Give me science or give me death. Dramatic, I know, but it’s true. It’s what I love most, especially biology and computer science. They’re like candy. I don’t always see the point of other subjects in high school but at least I show up to class! I’ve been obsessed with biohacking for a while and do it in my free time. Right now I’m building, remotely, nano-architecture and biotic creatures. My dad tries to be cool, bond over my interests, and get me to do Minecraft with him. It’s sweet and a little pathetic. I kiss his forehead while I tell him he can put on his Drake t-shirt, blast his trendy nostalgia music, and Minecraft by himself.
Besides biohacking, I’m also getting really interested in food, which Alaskans fixate on. My relatives in the lower 48 are so confused by how much we talk about it—how expensive food is, how everything has to be imported.
I’m pretty reclusive and tend to be contrarian. When I discovered punk it was like the sky opened and grumpy angels sang. Even though I like troublemakers, I’m not one. Except that one time I got caught breaking into the school lab on the weekend so I could use the new equipment. My older brother is just like me. Same personality. But when he went to UA, he made good friends, friends for life. So maybe I’ll be like him one day too, bringing friends home for the holidays rather than bringing home beakers.
A couple of years ago I secretly researched boarding schools in California and Oregon, where my relatives live. And now I’m thinking about leaving Alaska for college. Even though the lower 48 is appealing, I do really like the idea of UA’s four-year internship program because I think my college experience would be better spent in real-world labs. Classrooms don’t do it for me. I get A’s without trying but am bored in class—the pace is too slow.
In UA’s internship program, the only one in the United States, I’d pick a new internship each semester, all four years, without needing any traditional coursework. Instead of taking a generic class on agriculture, for example, I could work at a polar agriculture station through the School for Arctic Agriculture. I’d come to Fairbanks campus twice a year to meet with my advisors and could do an individualized research project that I design, staying in touch with professors virtually.
Sometimes I watch UA’s mixed reality lectures from my bedroom. Last week a researcher from their FabX Lab simulated how small modifications to a bee's genome can impact the entire Alaskan landscape. It was way up my alley. There are so many new things I’m interested in right now: agricultural engineering in the Arctic, genetics law, and ideas I haven’t even discovered. It seems like it all relates to biohacking but I don’t know yet how it might all come together. But UA’s self-built curriculum could let me figure it out.