High school student Saul Santiago is still learning English, but he has his sights set higher than merely the sky.
How did you fall in love with science? People often ask me that when we talk about what I want to do later in life. And I say science is something that I have loved since I was 10 years old, inspired by my dad who told me stories about science. We watched an episode of Carl Sagan’s documentary, Cosmos, called Standing Up in the Milky Way. Sagan talked about the cosmic calendar and showed how humans are so young compare to the age of the Universe.
At that moment I fell in love with science because there are a lot of discoveries to be found, a lot of mysteries, too, such as, how did the Universe begin, why are laws of physics what they are, and Is there life beyond the Earth? Those questions make the science world what it is, a world where you find some answers, but you also find more questions to answer.
Now that I am in high school I have an idea of what I want my career to be. I think my dream job is to become a particle physicist. Basically, a particle physicist studies and learns what constitute matters and radiation. Also, they do experiments, and study the mechanics of why matter reacts in a particular way.
It upsets me that there are not famous Latino particle physicists. I hope in the future there are more because we have the potential to make new discoveries and be delighted by the amazing world of physics. For me, being an English learner has been a challenge to accomplishing my goal dream. Because if you are fascinated by math or science, knowing English well is vital. Next year I’ll take English regular classes.