Here is my first draft of a personal statement for a fellowship application. I wrote it, and it drifted a bit away from what they asked for, but I really like it:
Ten years ago, I was packing my luggage in China on the last night before my flight to the United States for college. I was going to study Integrative Biology, a major I didn’t really understand at the time. I only knew it was different from molecular and cellular biology, which was essentially the only biology track I could study in college in China. That night, my father came into my room visibly upset. He asked me to take out a bag of traditional Chinese medicine my mother had packed, because he worried it might cause complications at customs when I entered the U.S. My mom argued it would be fine, since other people had done it before. In the end, I took the bag out, and I cried. It wasn’t really about the medicine. It was that all of us, my parents and me, felt nervous, uncertain, and sad about me leaving home for a country that was still full of unknowns to us.
That memory still feels vivid because it echoes the question that now drives my research: how animals make decisions under environmental stress and uncertainty. Today, as a postdoctoral researcher, I study how decision-making and behavior adapt as environments become hotter and drier. Sometimes I imagine how I would have felt ten years ago if I had known this is what I’d be doing today. Back then, I didn’t even know this kind of science existed, but I think my ten-years-ago self would immediately recognize it as exactly what she wanted, and she would feel genuinely excited for the future version of me.
I’m also proud of the ways I’ve learned to belong and contribute here: communicating science through outreach, including at the Philadelphia Zoo, speaking up against anti-Asian hate in my department, and advocating as part of the student-worker union. I study collective behavior in ants because I’m fascinated by how individuals interact to build networks and how those networks, in turn, shape individuals. That is what it has meant to me to grow into a woman scientist in the U.S. over the past decade. When I look back at myself, I want to give her a hug and say thank you. And I want to support more young women who feel like I did ten years ago to help them learn science and to imagine who they want to become.
This is why this award would matter for both my research and my career. I need funding to continue my current ant project, which aims to understand how animals adapt and regulate behavior to survive in a rapidly changing environment. I believe this work addresses a meaningful problem in neuroethology under environmental stress. This award would help me sustain the momentum of my postdoctoral research, strengthen my path toward independence, and ultimately enable me to mentor and support more women as they enter science and build their own futures.
Krisa Mie 