Latest news with #Langsdorf
CNBC
31-07-2025
- General
- CNBC
I got accepted to Harvard, Stanford and Princeton—3 things my parents did at an early age: It 'made all the difference'
For every high schooler, the college admissions process is incredibly daunting. Thankfully, for me, the years of hard work all paid off. I recently graduated from PCTI STEM Academy in Wayne, New Jersey. This spring, I was accepted into 10 of the top 25 universities in the U.S., including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania. This fall, I'll be attending Harvard University. Among my acceptances, I was offered a merit-based full ride from Washington University as a Langsdorf Scholar and a direct phone call from their Dean of Engineering, along with a Likely Scholar Designation through Columbia University's C.P. Davis Scholar program. What made all the difference? It started long before high school, with the way my parents raised me. We couldn't afford college consultants or expensive enrichment programs, so they focused on simple, consistent routines that laid the foundation for my success. Research consistently shows that good sleep and proper nutrition lead to better academic performance. My parents took this seriously. To make sure I got enough rest, my dad would wake up early so that he could drive me to school every morning before heading into work. Not having to catch the bus gave me an extra hour of sleep. My mom would similarly get up before sunrise, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m., so that she could make me a nutritious breakfast — usually a couple of eggs, some protein, and garlic toast. My parents also arranged their schedules so that I'd never come home to an empty house. As soon as I was done with school, they'd be home from work. In Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," he talks about how success requires not just talent and hard work, but also finding opportunities to develop our own interests. That really stuck with me. At the start of high school, I was too focused on academics. Yet, my parents encouraged me to join clubs. If I didn't like it, I didn't have to commit. Growing up, my immigrant parents didn't have access to extracurricular activities. I was reminded of how lucky I am. I became one of the most involved students in my district, and surprisingly ended up having a lot of fun. I participated in Robotics, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and SkillsUSA. I even worked on real-world engineering projects, like optimizing math models for school-based initiatives. My proudest accomplishment? Leading a NASA HUNCH team that designed a lunar rover built to survive the moon's harsh terrain. We were invited to present our design at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, directly to NASA engineers and astronauts. My parents taught me that you can become talented through skill development, but you need opportunities to put that talent to good use. My parents, who immigrated to the U.S. without a formal American education, taught me that success means more than grades. It's also about character. They instilled in me values rooted in our Islamic faith: curiosity about the world, honesty, gratitude, and perseverance. Our faith also encourages us to observe and appreciate the beauty of the world, which is initially what got me interested in science! Those values shaped how I approached everything, from academics to relationships with teachers and classmates. When it came time for recommendation letters, my teachers didn't just write about my grades. They spoke about who I am as a person, and that came from how my parents raised me. What matters most to me is giving back — to my parents, my community, and everyone who helped me along the way. I believe that's how I'll truly make the most out of my Harvard education.
Irish Examiner
26-06-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Richard Collins: Baboons walk in line to be close to their friends
'Crossing the T' was a naval-warfare strategy. A commander would manoeuver his ships into a line at right angles to, and in front of, his opponent's. By doing so, he could deploy both his fore and aft guns, while his adversary could use only the forward ones. At the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the British 'crossed' the German fleet twice, but the tactic failed in poor visibility. The British lost 6,093 sailors, the Germans lost 2,551. Eels, feeding on the corpses that autumn, were said to have grown as fat as human limbs. Sixteen years later, Captain Langsdorf scuttled the Graf Spee, just inside Uruguay's territorial waters, to avoid British cruisers waiting, in crossed T position, beyond the mouth of the River Plate. For wild creatures, moving in a particular order can be just as important. Migrating geese and swans travel in V-formation. The leading birds cut through the air, creating eddies which reduce the energy demands of those following. Elephants often travel in line, one behind the other; hungry big cats may be on the prowl, ready to attack a vulnerable member of the troop. By keeping strong individuals to front and rear, and the weaker ones in between, security is maximised. Musk-oxen, likewise, 'encircle the wagons' to protect their calves from marauding wolf-packs. So-called 'stoat funerals' are sometimes reported. These aggressive little carnivores are highly territorial, so the processions, if they really do occur, must be family-based in structure, a mother moving house, for example, with her youngsters trailing her. Baboons also walk in line, in what researchers call 'progressions'. But why these endearing African primates do so has been much debated. The 'risk hypothesis' suggests that, somehow, being in a line shields the vulnerable from predators. But how does it do so? Another suggestion is that dominant individuals are trying to 'seize the day', by installing themselves as leaders within the troop... the 'competition hypothesis'. Some studies suggested that, when forming processions, baboons follow Lady Macbeth's entreaty 'stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once'. Other researchers, however, maintained that the behaviour can't be random. There must, they suggested, be some underlying structure to a procession. They couldn't, however, suggest what it might be. Now, scientists from Swansea University have come up with a plausible explanation. The Swansea team fitted GPS tracking devices to members of a chacma baboon troop on South Africa's Cape Peninsula. Seventy-eight processions were recorded. The GPS data revealed an underlying order in what had appeared previously to be chaotic. Neither security nor feeding advantages seemed responsible for it. The key to the behaviour is family ties: a procession is not sequence of individuals but of groups. "Baboons show repeatability in their social order, which is best explained by patterns of social affiliation rather than adaptive responses to risk, access to resources, or decision making." As Vladimir says to Estragon in Waiting for Godot 'it's not what you do but the way you do it', that matters. This, it seems, is often the case also in the natural world.
