Scholar

Scholar is a book that describes a young man's journey of how he went from playing on the playground in school to wearing the lab coat he always aspired to wear when he grows up. His story is one that may have commonality with many members of his community, but few ever seem to have reason to write about it. The majority of this book talks about a young man's exposure to science from a young age, and of his experience going through different stages of his life from elementary, middle, and high school, to and through university, and into the professional world. Quintanilla goes into detail about how he'd watched cartoons and shows that had a science theme; learned about science in elementary school; how he discovered his passion for history in addition to biology; the connections and friendships formed in university with people whom he considers his extended family; his own family dynamics; and how he's never given up his dream on pursuing his medical studies. Scholar teaches us lessons on the meaning of success and what is means to be successful. He also talks about his teachers and gives credit to them for the support they've given to him, and he even shared briefly about his experience as a teacher himself and how he gives credit to his students for pushing him to greater heights. Most of all, Scholar teaches us that it IS possible to do many things at the same time and that we shouldn't concede to the negative criticism of other people who envy our ambitions to keep moving forward.