Well basically I have always loved math. Since my college is a small liberal arts school, the mathematics department is very small and has limited options. While I both enjoyed and excelled in all of my math courses, I was really only ever told about using my math to go on and teach. Because I do not want to become a teacher, I oftentimes found my major very frustrating and confusing. I did not know what I was going to do with my degree after graduation. To help my nerves, I began to pursue a minor in political science and enrolled in a few courses that utilizied statistics to form different theories. In addition to my love of computation, I also greatly enjoy helping people. In the past few years, I have done a lot of work with mentally challenged individuals. I have worked at summer camps for mentally disabled children/young adults and currently participate in programs at my college that allow me to teach mentally challenged adults how to read, write, and do math. Last summer, however, I had an experience that helped me find a focused track to my academic goals. Everyday I worked with a little autistic boy named Jacob. At the age of three, he still wore diapers, drank from bottles, and had very little social skills. At the same time, however, he was amazing with numbers. He could count past one hundred by tens, fives, twos, and even nines. He could also count backwards and was even showing signs of understanding addition. He understood everything mathematically, and for Jacob, the entire world was organized like a number line. It was through this experience that I realized I could also apply my own love of math to any fields that interest me. RUSIS has confirmed this realization and I am very happy to have been exposed to the extensive amount of careers that are just out there awaiting me. I will be graduating this spring and know that I definitly want to continue on in school. After this program, I am certain that I will be pursuing some aspect of statistics.