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My education
My academic passion is learning. Learning changes my view of the world. During my freshman year of high school I was "academically confused". Although I was admitted to a good high school with a concentration in Mathematics, Informatics and English, (we have had 5 hours of Informatics, 5 hours of Mathematics, 4 hours of English and 3 hours of Physics every week for almost four years now), I was unsure if science could offer me a career. In my first year of high school I struggled to maintain the best GPA and nothing more. In my summer holiday my plans for future began to take a new path. My "guides" were two of my best friends, Ruxandra and Mihai Bondarescu. They are studying Physics and Mathematics and they have honeycombed me. Since then I do not only have the best GPA from my class (in the last 2 years I have received Merit Scholarship from Theoretical High School Jean Louis Calderon), but I also imply myself in many activities related to my new passions: Physics and Mathematics. In August 2003, Mihai came in Romania and organized a "Summer School in General Relativity". I was impressed by his informal, yet very clear style of teaching. It was the first time I was exposed to research and to college level tests; (he gave us several quizzes at the level of the first physics course -Physics 1- he teaches at Caltech; and Mathematics and Computer Science GRE Subject Tests). He taught several lectures on modern physics, special and general relativity and also described his work in numerical relativity (black hole embeddings). After participating in Mihai's lectures I realized I want to pursue an academic career and become a physicist or a mathematician myself. In 2004 he organized another summer school, but this time I was his "teacher assistant": I helped him grade the tests. This "job" didn't prove to be too difficult because every summer since 2000, I have devoted a portion of my time to volunteer opportunities: I tutored Math, Literature, Informatics and English for gymnasium and high school students from my neighborhood. Although Mihai was very busy and he spent only a brief period of time in Romania (about 3 weeks each time) he has always found time to talk with me and encourage me. He recommended me some science popularization books, related to modern physics, which I found very useful: "Black Holes and Time Warps" by Kip S. Thorne, "The future of space time" by Stephen W. Hawking, Kip S. Thorne…, "Six easy pieces: essentials of physics explained by its most brilliant teacher" by Richard P. Feynman, "The Theory of Relativity in images" by Lewis C. Epstein. Mihai's influence and advice does not stop here. Our families have been close for many years and I have always admired Mihai because he was older and I have considered his opinion important. Together with Ruxandra, they have encouraged me to participate in various contests and to love science. All my honorable mentions from Mathematics County(2005) and Local Olympiad(2004), and Physics County Olympiad (2005- 3rd place and 2004- 7th place) are owed to them, (every year I won the 1st place at the High school Olympiad for mathematics, physics and literature). Being among the best students in my year I was selected to participate in mathematics and physics sessions organized by the County Center of Excellence during the 2002-2003, 2003-2004, and 2004-2005 academic years. These sessions are organized for talented students in the Timis County and involve solving hard mathematics and physics problems and performing challenging experiments under the supervision of a professor. The participation to the nationwide "Best Problem Solvers Contest -2003-2004" ("Topul rezolvitorilor") organized by the "Evrika!" Magazine, placed me on the 15th position from the top 50 students in the country, with 541 problems solved from a variety of fields including mechanics, electro-magnetism, thermodynamics and optics (9th place in the same competition, with 325 problems in the April edition, 2005 of "Evrika!" Magazine). My collaboration with this very popular magazine among students from gymnasiums and high schools didn't stop here. I composed my own problems and three of them were published in the April, 2004 edition.Togheter with Mihai and Iulia Vatui, we had written a small paper and submitted it to the supplement of the "Evrika" magazine, "Cygnus". These experiences taught me to love solving problems and physics in general. In April of 2004 I had also participated in the Regional Competition "Constantin Salceanu" organized by the Physics Department, West University, Timisoara. Achieving a good result, I was granted admission to this university for Fall 2005. Every year I have participated in communication sessions organized in my highschool. I had presented papers in front of two or more professors and students interested in the same topic. After each oral presentation a short debate was held. My presentations for Physics were: "The Travel of a Spaceman Towards a Black Hole" (March 2004) and "The Sun-Generalities" (March 2002). In December, 2004 I went to an interesting seminar at the West University presented by Ruxandra Bondarescu. She told us about her research in numerical relativity and about boson stars. When I saw her enthusiast and passion for physics, I knew I wish become as good as her, a successful woman scientist and a person who help other students fulfill their dreams. My parents taught me to never take anything for granted and value integrity and hard work. My father was the first who inspired my thirst for knowledge, and my mother told me when I was ready to give up, that goals never die. In order to achieve them I must be strong, perseverant, ambitious and hard working. My goal for the next years is get involved in a research group as an undergraduate. (This is one of my dearest dreams). And now to conclude I want to use one
of my favorite quote: "All things are possible to him who believes.
They are less difficult to him who hopes. They are easier to him who loves,
and still more to him who perseveres in the practice of the three virtues: love, faith and hope."
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