A Look into Matt’s Life! By Matt Tang

Hey everybody! My name is Matt Tang, and I am currently a junior at Methacton High School. Through my school, I am an active leader and participant in the Medicine and Science Club, the Save-A-Life Club, Multicultural Club, and HOSA Future Health Professionals (clearly I really like science). I am specifically interested in how the mind works, and am currently studying behavioral health for an upcoming competition for HOSA. As for sports, I am a part of the Unified Track and Field team and enjoy running in my free time. Running 4 x 100 baton relays during meets and seeing students from a variety of backgrounds join together in a common passion is and will always be an extremely meaningful part of my high school life. 

Apart from my activities in school, I am also extremely committed to playing the Chinese violin (yes this does exist), otherwise known as the erhu. I have been playing the instrument since I was 5 and ever since then, I’ve grown an appreciation for the instrument that I never truly understood as a child. Aside from connecting with my culture, playing the erhu acts as a stress reliever for me and I’ve even gotten the chance to participate in competitions with it! Another interest I spend outside of school is babysitting. Growing up, whenever my relatives were out, they would entrust me with watching over their children and even pay me money in the process. Babysitting was the ultimate pleasure growing up; I felt like I held accountability and trust whenever I was given the chance. Spending time with my younger cousins was a major trigger to my future goal of becoming a pediatrician. 

With my love for science along with my deep desire to explore social interactions, what could be a more perfect opportunity than the TRIP Initiative! I’m interested in studying behavioral health in college, so what better way to prepare for that than working with fruit flies. In the future, I aspire to pursue a career in pediatrics, despite not settling on a specialty, so being a part of the TRIP community will give me insight into the research side of science as well giving me exposure to what it means to be a leader in the scientific community. Within the last few weeks, we’ve learned how to micropipette, observe the fruit fly life cycle personally from our homes, sort male and female flies, and have even performed our own behavioral assays! Although it’s only been 3 weeks of TRIP, I have met new friends that share similar passions, been mentored by 2 of the best instructors, and have even worked through some failures that come naturally with experimentation. It’s only been a few weeks, but I can’t wait to see what’s next!