[dubious elise]

1) Well, this may sound a little selfish, but I was seriously jealous of Ricky Quinones for missing so much class when we took Honors Chem together (I was a freshman, he was a junior). I had missed the signup date as a freshman, but vowed to get involved as a sophomore. I had heard about the team in a number of other ways - namely presentations at my grade school (which was not part of the Oconomowoc school district, persay) and friends on the chess team that were also in robotics. Additionally, it was an outlet for all of the things that I had wanted to try like 3D animation and machining, but never really would have had a chance to do otherwise. I've stuck with it because it simply is an amazing program on all levels.

2) This is my 3rd year - hopefully I'll have time next year to volunteer at BMR and WI or maybe help out another Indiana team - time will tell.

3)I applied to: UW-Madison, Saint Mary's (IN), Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia (NYC)
I was accepted at: UW-Madison, Saint Mary's, Notre Dame!!!, and waitlisted at Columbia (I have not heard from Yale yet, but Harvard and Stanford were both rejections)

4)I actually am not going to major in an engineering field. I plan on majoring in biology or microbiology and heading out to medical school after college. I am predicting that my robotics experience will come into play in medicine considering that many of the most recent developments have been in robotic surgery.

5) I think that it is important for women to at least explore careers in engineering because (I hate do delve into the gender issue, but...) I think that they may have a different outlook on a problem than a man might. My oldest sister, a chem. engineer herself, stuck with engineering because it offered her problem-solving challenges that she may not have otherwise been faced with in a "normal desk job".