STEP Summer Program

I decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin Madison because it is another place I can call my home. I never actually thought about applying to the university before because I never thought about college since I was only in 7th grade. However, a wonderful women name Danielle Hadnot had come into my life and introduced a two-week residential UW-Madison Summer Program called WCATY – STEP (Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth’s summer program called STEP, meaning Summer Transitional Enrichment Program). She had introduced my 7th grade, 5th hour English class to this program. It was a pre-college program at the University of Wisconsin Madison. I heard it was a summer in Madison and since I really wanted to try something new for the summer, I told myself, “Why not?” It was free too so I took the chance to ask my parents. My dad said

I was probably just one out of the three or four students in my entire 7th grade class. Of course I was nervous because I never was away from home like this before. I had a roommate who was a year older than me named Victoria who we call Vicky. She was Russian too which was really cool because I never met a Russian before and we got along better than I thought. We became really great friends. I thought I’d enjoyed being away from home since I don’t have to do anything and do chores. However, unexpectedly I got homesick and in the middle of the program, I got to talk to my mom again through the phone for the first and only time during the two week program, I found myself missing home and even crying to my mom. It was only after I talked to her that I realize that if I left Madison, I would want to come back. And I did the next year. After studying Law 101 the first year, I studied about Viruses the second year. And I loved both course. It was only when I finished taking the Viruses class that I wanted to be in the medical