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My name is Avinash Ganapathi, as the heading of this webpage obviously tells. I am a student attending a high school in Raleigh. I am currently part of the Shodor apprenticeship program. In my free time, I usually like to spend time with friends, or play videogames. Now that I'm in high school however, I don't have nearly as much free time as I used to. Now, after school, I have to practice for clubs like Science Bowl and Science Olympiad. Also, I have to study information for them before and after practice. If I had more free time I would probably play videogames far more often, but personally I would rather have fun with other people than sit by myself. In the future, I plan to enter the field of genetics and/or biotechnology. I have been interested in biotechnology since late elementary school, or about fourth grade. Biotechnology has captured my attention for so long because it is so fascinating. I, personally, find it amazing that we as humans now have the ability to engineer organisms that act as manufactories of semi-processed goods. Even if we can't do something ourselves, we can now engineer bacteria that produce specific things for us. As an example, there are the bacteria that produce human insulin in large quantities for those with diabetes. Without breakthroughs like this, medicine would be very different, because things like human growth hormones and insulin would be extremely rare, and thus extremely costly. To join such a revolutionary field as biotechnology would be a great honor, as I would know that my work could lead to massive technological revolutions. By coming to Shodor, I think that I will get a good head start at becoming a geneticist. Shodor will help me in that genetics is a very technology-intensive field, and by knowing how to effectively work with computers in a real work environment, I will become a more effective researcher.