Tyler DeFriece 8 October 2013 Honors Assignment #1 As a transfer student, my personal path to the UW came after my personal path

to Honors. In Fall 2011, I entered the Honors freshmen class at the University of Delaware. I am a native Delawarean, so attending school in-state was an easy, financially responsible decision for me. Education had been a top priority of mine since I was in middle school. From my perspective, learning is more than just a tool one uses in order to achieve future career goals; I think learning is fundamental to the human experience. As a result, I had always pursued Honors and Advanced Placement courses in High School. Continuing an Honors experience at the University of Delaware was not even a question I asked myself. Rather, as the college transition flashed before me, I watched myself dive right in to the UD Honors experience, and when my sophomore year came around, I became a Resident Assistant for thirty-three of the next wave of UD Honors Freshmen. Coming in to the University of Delaware, I was stuck between pursuing a major in either Biology or Psychology. As I made connections and started to develop interests in things like Buddhism, the right field of study quickly came into focus: Neuroscience! Brain science is a biological approach towards understanding the physical machinery that gives rise to human psychology. Additionally, an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience would most definitely prepare me for my aspirations of attending medical school. So, I entered the Neuroscience, B.S. program at the University of Delaware. Sophomore year was a highly transformative year for me, as I realized that UD may not be the best place for me. The Neuroscience program there was in its infancy, and it consisted of a motley amalgamation of courses thrown together from the Biology and Psychology departments. On top of this, the small-town, apathetic culture that dominated at the University of Delaware was proving to be toxic to me. As a vegan, environmentalist, Buddhist, Neuroscience student, I was having trouble connecting to my peers, and I craved a larger, more urban environment. After much thought, I decided that transferring would be an excellent decision for meboth academically and personallyand it so happens that the University of Washington has everything I was craving! Now that I am here, I intend to immerse myself in the active Neurobiology community in the surrounding area, and I also hope to explore areas of interest that broaden my horizons. For starters, I am applying to the Neurobiology major this quarter. Research is a significant interest of mine, and luckily I am now attending one of the greatest research institutions in the country. The research topic of my dreams would be to explore the neurobiology unique to LGBTQ brains. I plan to apply to be a student intern at the Q Center in the HUB, and hopefully my connections in the Neurobiology and LGBTQ communities at the UW will soon overlap. Now that I am a member of the UW Honors community as well, I am excited to meet other students who share my love of learning, and I foresee tremendous potential for generating positive social change in regard to diversity awareness, the environment, or both.