Nicole Pownall

At the moment, I do not have a concrete idea of what I would like to pursue, so I am trying to do many different things that work with many different fields to see what I do and do not like. I have noticed that I do have a particular appreciation for studies involving the human bodies and diseases, particularly cancer. Ever since I was a little girl, as young as in kindergarten, I was always interested in finding out as much as I could about my body and how it all works. I had many books dealing with anatomy and systems of the body, and found everything about human structure fascinating. When I was a little older, probably around 8 or 9, I started to try to learn more about how diseases work and some cures and remedies. The interaction between the body, the disease, and treatments captured my interests. At that time, I decided I wanted to be a clinical laboratory scientist, working on beating illnesses with medications. At 12 years old, my father was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a type of blood plasma cancer. After a year of staying at M.D. Anderson (the place where I aspired to work one day), going in and out of other hospitals, and trying to be comfortable at home, my father passed away on November 11, 2011. Since then, I have still had an interest in oncology, but have opened up to other prospective careers and tried to further investigate what I enjoy and programs for other majors.

I am an avid hockey fan, and love to keep up with everything about the sport, especially the Philadelphia Flyers. I went to every home game when I lived up in Philadelphia, and now I try to watch every game I can get. I have been offered to write for some sports websites about the games, but I do not have the time to be able to thoroughly research topics to be able to write a solid article. I am also a big fan of baking, and hope either start a chapter with birthdaycakes4free.com, a non-profit organization that makes cakes for financially and socially disadvantaged children and seniors, or do something similar to that for a shelter or other place where people's birthdays are not often celebrated.