 When my brother was graduating here three years ago, my parents and I went to his graduation and the university medalist She had just gotten her award and she was giving her speech And I remember my parents turned to me and they're like her parents must be so proud And I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to have my mom sit in the crowd and be like I'm so proud My brother is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met He's the type of guy when you go into a room and he's in a good mood There's not a single person in the room who is not in a good mood He has autism a hip disease and epilepsy and a lot of those can be found to be somewhat genetically linked. I Think that we not only scientifically but also more importantly socially need to be able to Advocate for them and make people understand that they're just they're just like everyone else and that we're all Different in our own ways and that's what makes us all so amazing I've been working with Best Buddies since my sophomore year and it has truly been like the most life-changing part of my time here at Berkeley It's an organization committed to creating friendships with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities My buddy Cindy is like the most amazing person I know the thing I love about Cindy the most is that whenever I ask her how her day is going she always says It's marvelous and she says marvelous every single time because life is marvelous During my time at Berkeley I was fortunate enough to be able to work in a gene therapy lab with Professor Schaefer We've used technologies developed on our very own campus in order to target a gene That's known to cause Huntington's disease so by knocking out this mutant gene We're able to alleviate a lot of the pathology that causes Huntington's disease and extend survival in mice Coming into Berkeley. I had this idea that being Extraordinary was checking off all the boxes and getting all the best grades and being published But the most extraordinary people I met were the ones when you're walking down Sproul you're rushing to your 8 a.m It's sprinkling a little bit and they like stop to like wave and smile and you barely even know them or Someone who stays up till 2 a.m. To help you study for an exam that you definitely should have prepared way earlier for Just because they really like what they're studying and they want you to enjoy what you're studying as well And because they genuinely genuinely care next year I'll be attending graduate school at the University of Cambridge and hopefully the experiences I gained there as well as what I've learned here at Berkeley What able to help me one day further develop new genome genome engineering and gene therapy strategies I remember when the director of prizes called me and he said Congratulations, you are the university medalist and I just couldn't believe it being able to Represent Berkeley in this way is something that I could have never imagined being given the opportunity to do Because I want to show people what Berkeley has taught me and what has made me me because of the opportunities and the experiences I've had here Go Bears!