After getting to know each other a bit, we finally had our first day of judging! I woke up a bit before my alarm yet again and went down to breakfast to eat with the other finalists. The food was amazing again; the Conrad Hotel had the best breakfast sausage that I’d ever eaten. Shortly after I’d finished my food, the judges came up to introduce themselves. There were 18 of them, all from different disciplines — spanning from astrophysics to business.
When the judges had finished introducing themselves, it was still 8:45 am and judging interviews didn’t start until 9:30. Many people remained in the dining room, nervously trying to anticipate the types of questions the judges would ask. My first interview was at 10:15, but I left the table about half an hour early and went to my room so I could mentally prepare for the first interview. I arrived at the waiting room about 10 minutes early and noticed that there were Gushers, one of my favorite candies, there. I had requested it in one of the forms the Society for Science had sent us before the event, and I was excited to eat one after my interview.
I am not going to say what questions I was asked during the interview because I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share them, but I will say that they were very difficult. Throughout the day, I had two more interviews, each spaced about 2 hours apart. In between, I hung out in the finalist lounge with others. It was especially fun to discuss the questions with the other finalists! I realized that for many of them there was no right answer, or we all answered partially correctly and altogether we had enough knowledge to fully answer it. Nobody seemed confident in their answers to all of the questions.
When judging had concluded, we had a special Alumni dinner. We ate with the judges, Maya Ajmera, and Rajen Sheth, an STS alumnus that founded a company for AI education. I was lucky that both Maya and Rajen sat at my table so I was able to ask them questions outside of their formal speeches to everyone. Both talked about how important it was for them to take a nonlinear path and how fulfilling it is to do work that helps other. Also at my table was one of the judges, Dr. Jennifer Kalish. She is one of the only experts in the world on a rare disorder called Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome, which causes enlarged cells and organs. She’d recently published a paper that shows how cells can be collected from patients afflicted with the syndrome and turned into stem cells before being turned into cells from organs like the liver and heart, which are normally difficult to collect.
After most of us had finished eating, Rajen came up to the stage and was interviewed by Allie. He talked about how participating in the Science Talent Search taught him so many skills that were valuable in his adult life. He also mentioned the importance of failing, explaining that failures are just as important as successes. When Allie had finished her questions, a few finalists got to ask their own questions. He discussed how working at a startup means that it’s easy to develop new features, but it’s also harder to get them out to the public compared to a company like Google, where as soon as a feature is released millions of people start using it immediately. After he had finished asking questions, we took a group picture with him and dispersed to talk amongst ourselves. I continued talking to Dr. Kalish about her research because I had recently read about Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and was wondering if Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome could be prevented in the same way. I learned that while TSC is related to mTOR, BWS is not which makes it significantly more complex to treat, in fact, there is still no treatment today.
Eventually, I realized that it was getting late and I needed to get to bed, and I also wrote this blog post. Check back tomorrow for more!
