If you would have asked me what I would’ve ended up studying Math four years ago I would’ve called you crazy. Here we are four years into my math degree and I’m more than happy to call myself a mathematics major. Although my appreciation for math didn’t come until later on in my college career, when it did, it opened up several new doors for me. As I’ve worked towards earning my degree, I’ve developed skills that I consider to be invaluable. Some of these skills include complex problem solving, analyzing and interpreting data, critical thinking, logical thinking, and team skills, as well as others. Understanding mathematics is one of the most important skills an individual can have. There is more to math than simply addition and subtraction; it is a science that deals with the logic of quantities, certain arrangements, and interpreting shapes. As society advances, so does technology. Since the beginning of society, math has been at the foundation of almost everything that’s been done. Today’s society relies heavily on computers. With my father having an I.T. based background, I have come to appreciate that subsection of math. This is a computer dominant era that we live in, but have you ever stopped to think about how they work and the math behind them? An example of this type of math is called automated theorem proving. This area of math combines both mathematics and logic, and incorporates the formal proof system. Ideas include proof, model, recursion, and set theory. When you really get down to the core of I.T. and how computers operate, it is really just binary code. Binary code is a series of 1’s and 0’s that construct long strings of numbers that represent messages. In binary, the letter “b” would be represented by (01100010 00001101 00001010). Mathematics is also present in something I am very passionate about, which is music. Music can be described mathematically. Strings vibrate to make specific frequencies which can be dissected using equations. Mathematical functions, set theory, domain and range, and even modular arithmetic can be incorporated when one is trying to dissect music. Another area that has come to interest me is finance. More specifically Mathematical Finance. It is also called Qualitative finance. It’s a field of applied mathematics that is concerned with mathematical modeling of financial market. I was fortunate enough to take a course in this field and I was surprised to learn about the amount of calculus that lies dormant in finance. The concept of calculus, in a sense, is the study of change and motion. Calculus largely makes up many of the theories and models that are used in finance. Many of us can apply these theories and models to our own personal life, especially towards practices such as taking out loans. One of the areas about mathematics that stood out to me the most is how it is applied in a practical sense, specifically how it’s applied in a science oriented environment. During the second semester of my junior year, I was fortunate enough to have an internship at an analytical chemistry lab. During my time there, it wasn’t exactly what I expected to be. There was a lot of math involved in many of the processes that I had to do there. I completed mostly analytical tasks such as performing turbidity readings. This meant that I would test the clarity of various water samples with a special machine. Turbidites are measured using NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units). You would use a nephelometer or turbidimeter to measure the amount of particles in a sample and they measure the intensity of light scattered at 90 degrees as a beam of light passes through that sample. In certain instances, you would have to create your own chemical solutions by mixing different ratios of different chemical compounds. For an example, if a 10% concentration of HCl was needed, than you would have to know how to dilute it in solution so that it could be used. This was done using precise instruments to record measurements. I got to work in a comfortable environment and bond with my fellow employees over science based mathematics. In the future, I would like to be exposed to more opportunities like this one if given the chance. Holding a degree in mathematics is special to me because it opens up various career paths and gives you an opportunity to experience many different things. I am more than proud to call myself a mathematics major.