Personal Narrative: Minor Learning Disability

Growing up I had a minor learning disability that made reading and writing a major obstacle. I was taking classes before school and having tutors in the summer, but it wasn’t enough. After a few years, I was molded to be the athlete of the family and as long as I tried with school, grades weren’t the primary priority. I began to understand that this was a lowering of standards due to perceptions of my abilities, or lack thereof, and was extremely dissatisfied. I wanted to be held to the same expectations as my brother and knew that if I was going to be something it would not just be because it was a fall back. This label got to me and so I found comfort in creatures that I thought shared a false, constraining label: sharks. I had been watching
I went from a C student to a B+/A- student, then eventually to the A student that I am today. In high school I finished with a weighted 4.0 GPA and a membership in the Mark Twain Chapter of the National Honor Society. This membership meant I had demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, leadership, service, and character. With my high school academics and SAT scores, I received the highest academic scholarship that the University of Rhode Island (URI) offers, the centennial scholarship. This scholarship required a minimum SAT score of 1200, combined critical reading and math, and a ranking in the top third of one’s graduating class. Once at the university, my first semester performance in Dr. Wetherbee’s General Biology course gave me an opportunity to work in his independent research group for academic credit. This work eventually led to a paid research position and, most recently, a co-authorship of a paper examining spatial and temporal patterns of the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), in Hawaii revealed by historical fishing records. In addition to biology, I excelled in math and statistics. Currently, I hold a paid position in the statistics department as one of the few undergraduate students teaching 200 and 300 level recitations. Since starting at the university I have received Dean’s List honors every semester and am a member of the Phi Eta Sigma national honor society. It is a nationally recognized honors society for first year students receiving a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and a class rank in the upper 20% of their class. As of this semester I have an overall GPA of 3.85, a 3.91 GPA in my strictly biology courses, and a 3.88 GPA for all required science and math