This was no ordinary Monday morning. Instead of throwing on a sweatshirt, jeans and tennis shoes, I dressed formally and arrived at Ballard High School an hour before class began.

Sixty sleepy classmates and I boarded the yellow school bus on March 5, bound for the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, location of the seventh annual Student Biotech Expo.

The Biotech Expo, hosted by Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR), is a unique science fair that requires creative expression of a concept from biotechnology or biomedicine. We had been researching and planning for it in our genetics class since last fall.

Immediately upon arriving, we were ushered into the auditorium to listen to a presentation by Hilary Kemp, our keynote speaker. A young woman in her early thirties, Hillary told us about her post-doctorate research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center where she inserted green fluorescent proteins into zebra fish to study the early events in vertebrate brain development. It was quite fascinating, and made me wonder if I might even get my doctorate in science some day like she did.

Afterward, we made our way upstairs to the conference rooms where we presented our projects. The categories for creative expression concept ranged from art and music to molecular modeling, web design, and teaching.

I set up my tri-fold poster display and waited anxiously to be judged on my project: Long QT Syndrome, a disease that effects the electrical impulses of the heart, which sometimes causes sudden death in young, healthy people.

After five months of painstaking, in-depth research, repeated contacts with my advisor from the local science community, and multiple revisions of my creative writing piece, it all boiled down to this one judging session.

It was slightly intimidating; the judges had impressive credentials, including professionals from Amgen, University of Washington, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, NW Science Writers Association and 30 others from Seattle's government and private sector.

In the huge room, over a hundred other students waited nervously beside their displays, fielding questions from judges, advisors, parents and peers.

"What is your project about?"

"What made you decide to study this topic?"

"Why did you choose to express it through writing?"

A grueling half hour later, I was free to wander the rooms and observe the incredible diversity of the 350 other students from over a dozen other King County high schools. Brightly colored posters displaying charts, images and data covered a wide range of fascinating topics: Tourrette's syndrome, bipolar disorder, cloning, forensic science, the Black Plague, biofuels, organ transplants, and much more.

One display showed a beautiful garden scene painted outside of one half of a life-sized window; the other half dramatically showed the dirty effects of pollution smudging the window an obscure gray.

Following lunch, we returned to the auditorium to watch several creative performances, including theater, music and dance. Marcus Timo and Ryan Schooley from Ballard High School even rapped about Marfan Syndrome.

Once the last group performed, we all remained seated to hear the judges' final decisions. Of the 60 Ballard students participating, 12 of us were recognized with awards, including two first place winners. Not only was Adrienne Perry's painting on synesthesia recognized by the judges, but along with Angela Meyer their works were voted first and second People's Choice by all of the 350 students in attendance.

Flushed with success and excitement after a stressful yet eventful day, we climbed back on the bus and made our way home. I couldn't wait to get out of my heels.

Kelsey Gilman won first place in the creative writing category for her piece, "Life Goes On (Long QT Syndrome)." She also writes for the Ballard High School Talisman.

Student Biotech Expo 2007 Winners from Ballard:

Katherine Acosta, Ballard High - Teaching (Honorable Mention), "Autism - An Enigma"

Jordan Berry, Ballard High - Genomics (Honorable Mention), "A Forearm for Marfan's"

Matts Calgren, Ballard High - Music (Third Place), "Fragile X Syndrome"

Octavia Graham, Ballard High - Career/Industry (Honorable Mention), "Graham and Humphrey Sickle Cell Research Center"

Shannon Humphrey, Ballard High - Career/Industry (Honorable Mention), "Graham and Humphrey Sickle Cell Research Center"

Kathryn McGillvray, Ballard High - Multimedia (Second Place), "The Miracle of Life Redefined: In-Vitro Fertilization"

Angela Meyer, Ballard High - People's Choice (Second Place), "Special Staining of Canine Tissue"

Natalie Schlappi, Ballard - Multimedia (Second Place), "The Miracle of Life Redefined: In-Vitro Fertilization"

Ryan Schooley, Ballard - Music (Second Place), "The Struggles of Marfan"

Kyle Seago, Ballard - Journalism Writing (Second Place), "Autism: The Pervasive Disorder"

Lena Takamori, Ballard - Multimedia (Second Place), "The Miracle of Life Redefined: In-Vitro Fertilization"

Marcus Timo, Ballard - Music (Second Place), "The Struggles of Marfan"

Nick Trimnell, Ballard - Music (Third Place), "Fragile X Syndrome"

Natalie Trongtham, Ballard - Web site (Third Place), "Hemophilia A: A Fatal History, a Hopeful Future"

Maya Weltens, Ballard - Multimedia (Honorable Mention), "Turner Syndrome"

Kayla Williams, Ballard - Creative Writing (Honorable Mention), "Dear Diary"