More About Me

A Personal Essay about me

I never thought I would become so passionate about research; as a matter of fact, not even a year ago did I think I would be applying for a graduate education. I believe graduate school is the next step for me—even though I have faced multiple obstacles and have gone through ups and downs. I would like to give a little personal background, and since I am a statistics major, I thought it would make sense to categorize my life with one single function: $f(x) = x2(1 + x)$ (you can see the graph in the last page). You may be wondering why I picked that simple and boring equation—that you learn in algebra in middle school, when I could have picked a more flavorful and cooler formula such as the Euler’s Identity—which is considered by many to be the most beautiful equation in mathematics. However, my life has behaved in some similar way to the y values of the formula mentioned. Allow me to walk you through it.

$f(x) = x2(1 + x)$ for $x \le – \frac{2}{3}$. My parents, running away from violence in Colombia, tried to establish in Miami where I was born. Shortly, after not having any luck finding career opportunities, we moved back to South America. I lived my first five years in a very small town in the east of Colombia, and I shall consider this to be my lower bound, $ \lim\below{x\rightarrow-\infty}{x^2(x+1)} $. I grew up playing multiple instruments, learning different languages, playing varsity sports (including fútbol, not soccer), but somehow, my parents, my brother and I knew that we were preparing ourselves to go out and be someone that could change the world—not at a micro level but at a macro level.

After I graduated from high school in Colombia, I embarked on a journey by myself and traveled to Rhode Island to finish my 12th grade in a performing arts school. I lived with my step-aunt there and my desire to learn more about numbers and statistics drove me to Penn State, place where I found my local maxima.

$f(x) = x2(1 + x)$ for $ – \frac{2}{3} \lt x \l – \frac{1}{3} $. Leaving my family behind in Colombia to become a first-generation college student was tough. I often struggled with imposter syndrome. There were moments during my first two years in college where I would think that I wasn’t meant to be there—and those thoughts became stronger with COVID-19, when I felt that school and academia weren’t my place—and I should have gone back home to the country where I grew up. The sudden passing of my grandmother, not being able to go back to say a goodbye, and the feeling of constant anxiety at the possibility of losing either of my parents because of COVID-19 while I was in Pennsylvania, took a toll on me.

$f(x) = x2(1 + x)$ for $ – \frac{1}{3} \lt x$. I believe that I found my inflection point $(x = – \frac{1}{3})$ once I realized that people like me deserved to have opportunities as much as anyone else, and that I was a statistics student at Penn State for a reason. Therefore, “cogí al toro por los cuernos”, which means in Spanish “to take the bull by the horns,” and threw myself out of the negative trend I was heading in.

I applied and was admitted to the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program at Penn State University—a program that helps minority students prepare for pursuing a doctoral degree. This empowered me and after reaching my minima at $x = 0$, my life started to get new y values. There was a flare that lit, and I felt that I was capable of doing things for my future. A passion for research was born.

Dr. Ephraim Hanks took me under his wing and gave me the chance to prove myself. I had insecurities because of my GPA; nonetheless, I took that as a pretext to prove that my grades didn’t reflect my full capabilities. His trust in me was the flame that I needed to change my academic career drastically, and adventure into academia. I worked doing archetype analysis on golden eagle and bald eagle migration data using Bayesian Methods. We developed a novel Bayesian Hierarchical Model to provide a data-driven classification of these animals, and to explain how birds change migratory behavior as they age. I enjoyed it so much that I worked on it nonstop (including spring break and holidays).

I have decided that my interests are Spatio-Temporal Statistics, Environmental Statistics, and Bayesian Statistics. I want to become an expert in the field and keep working towards the development of new Bayesian Hierarchical Models that can enhance interesting areas such as the ones I mentioned before.