Embarking On My TRIP by Akram Aboras

Hello everyone! My name is Akram Aboras, and I’m a sophomore at William Tennent High School. After hearing about TRIP from my AP Seminar and Anatomy teacher, I was instantly drawn to the program and extremely enthusiastic to apply. I joined TRIP because I’ve always been very interested in science- biology, neurology, and psychology being my favorite branches- and I’ve always loved learning more about the field. Additionally, I’d love to someday pursue a career in healthcare where I can not only treat patients but also conduct my own research and discover new findings in a lab; I knew that TRIP would be a great opportunity to develop my laboratory skills and techniques early on, which is an opportunity I haven’t had before. It’s such a great opportunity to be a part of a program like this, where I can not only learn more about science and experience what it’s like in a lab setting, but also collaborate with other like-minded peers that share similar interests.

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I enjoy spending time involving myself in my school and community through my extracurricular activities. At my school, I’m a member of Key Club, Student Government, and I’m the vice president of our school’s Muslim Student Association. I’m very passionate about my extracurricular activities and using them to give back to my community in meaningful ways. It feels great to engage in community service activities and help others because we’ve all been in positions where we needed a helping hand from someone else; it’s such a privilege to be able to extend that hand to someone else as others have for me.

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I also love dedicating myself to my many hobbies. One of my favorites is baking desserts with my twin sister, as I find spending time in the kitchen endlessly fun- experimenting with new ideas and concepts like I hope to do in TRIP. Some of my other favorite hobbies are also artistic such as doodling, painting, and writing poetry. I think art is such a fun way to unwind; I love taking my thoughts and feelings and expressing them through my art and writing. Furthermore, I feel that art is such a strong way to convey not only emotions and feelings, but powerful and meaningful messages about important topics such as the environment.

Yesterday was my first day of TRIP, and so far it’s been a really good experience! Everyone there was very nice and it was really neat learning how to micropipette and make food for the fruit flies. There were definitely times I got confused along the way and made mistakes, but I’m enthusiastic for the next sessions as I learn more and get better at the techniques. I’m very excited for my kickoff experiment, centered around how disrupted circadian rhythms affect fly sociability and the impact of Melatonin in their diet, and I can’t wait to learn more and eventually analyze and observe the results of my experiment! So far, TRIP seems like the start of a long journey filled with science and collaboration, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me!