Biology Through a New Lens by Lyla

Biology Through a New Lens by Lyla - May 2026 Scholarship Essay

I jolted awake as my bus stopped at the station of Nantes. My body was exhausted, but my brain was buzzing with anticipation. Nervous, I tucked my hair behind my ears, grabbed my suitcase, and stepped off the bus into my new city. I was immediately enveloped by intricate French buildings and cobblestone streets, a far cry from my neighborhood in Portland. With a deep breath, I took in my surroundings and filled my lungs with French air.

It was a complete leap of faith; I arrived knowing no one, and the extent of my French ended at “bonjour.” Spending the entire school year in France through a Rotary scholarship became my most significant period of personal growth within my lifetime.

At first, my experience in the French classroom was drastically different than my classmates'. While the other students understood the teachers' words, I understood only their emotions. I read facial expressions while other students read textbooks. I struggled to keep up, slowed down by my efforts to translate the teachers’ lessons. The language barrier made taking notes and studying new material a more significant challenge than ever before. In the balancing act between academics and my new environment outside of the classroom, completing each assignment perfectly became unrealistic. This is when the word “learning” took on a new meaning.

At home, “learning” had a competitive nature, with success defined as straight A’s and scoring higher than your classmates. However, in France, I was put on a pass/fail system, allowing me to redefine my relationship with academics. This approach allowed me to enter the French classroom with a new perspective, deciding to prioritize what made me curious instead of perfecting practice questions. Language became less of an obstacle and learning felt more like an exciting investigation.

Biology was the hardest subject I faced in France. Unlike my other classes, where words were translatable, in Biology, we learned terms that I didn't even know in English. My instructor exclusively lectured, so there was nothing to copy down from the board. For a few months, I had almost no class notes for Biology.

Then one day, a shift: I was sitting in the back of my Biology class, listening to our daily lecture, when my teacher asked a student to explain why type-A fish have two fins while type-B fish have only one. To my shock, my own hand shot up. The entire class turned around and watched in astonishment as I, in detail, thoroughly explained the manipulated genetic processes in French. This was a huge turning point for me. I not only understood when a question was being asked, but I knew what the question was, and how to answer it, in depth, in French.

I had spent hours translating just words, feeling defeated by the language difficulties. Yet, this moment helped me realize that my efforts were working.

Although I had a multi-subject notebook for all my other classes, I kept Biology separate. I got so much satisfaction from understanding the systems of our bodies and how our planet works. I was opened to a whole new realm of curiosity, and every new fact that I learned only made me hungry to learn more. My Biology notebook was filled with wonderings, sketches, answers, and notes, eventually turning into a meaningful journal. At a certain point, I realized I wasn't bothered by spending so much time pouring over the material because I enjoyed the subject. This was the moment I began to fall in love with Biology.