Priscilla Shireen Luke Scholarship

From elementary school, I excelled in my math and science classes, knowing I wanted to pursue a STEM field. However, it was hard for me to find engineering related experiences outside of the classroom. When I began high school, I wanted to give opportunities to younger students who also have a passion for STEM, so I started my own organization, STEM With Audrey, to offer knowledge and resources surrounding science, technology, and innovation. I learned engineering and problem-solving principles from my Project Lead the Way classes that helped me brainstorm ideas for my organization’s curriculum. I developed my first online course, Intro to Engineering, which explained several science and engineering fields and showed students how STEM is used everywhere. Preparing students for higher thinking, I included a project where they would choose one of their favorite items and discover a way to improve it. I walked them through the design process, having them revise their design, learn about accessibility, and build a prototype. Solving these underlying problems exposes students to the creativity and innovation behind engineering. I shared the course with my previous private school and it was used with over 150 students in the STEM classroom. I felt delighted knowing students were learning from my resources. I am currently creating a Girls in STEM virtual camp for middle school students. It will allow young engineers to share their experiences with each other. Throughout the camp, I will prepare the girls for high school, informing them about the Project Lead the Way program and Society of Women Engineers clubs. I will share my own experiences as a member of these groups and especially communicate the importance of persevering through hardships to represent the small percentage of women in STEM. I will expand STEM With Audrey in the future, offering in-person camps and opening a summer program. I will branch out to students around the globe without access to STEM programs and with limited educational opportunities. I hope to invite undergraduates and professionals to join my program, helping me build foundations for STEM students and prepare them for their successful futures. I developed an interest in the aerospace industry and spacecraft development through my Project Lead the Way Aerospace Engineering class. Through a research project, I learned about the presence of “space junk,” or debris from satellites, rockets, and other spacecraft, in our atmosphere. If the trash continues to accumulate, there is a possibility of an entire orbital path made of space junk surrounding Earth. I am passionate about sustainability on Earth and I believe the pollution habits of humans should not be transported to space. I am pursuing an astronautical engineering degree at the University of Southern California, following my aspiration to develop spacecraft that can collect the debris left in space from previous missions. I believe I can assist with developing a method for bringing the space junk back to Earth and recycling it in an innovative way, such as compressing it and creating a sustainable material for new spacecraft. Then, I want to engineer future spacecraft with this sustainability in mind so that they will produce less space debris as they exit our atmosphere. I want to make a difference outside of Earth, protecting our surrounding environment and encouraging exploration for years to come.

During the last few years of my life, tremendous personal and spiritual changes have taken place within my heart, concerning both how I view God and how I view my place within the world and my responsibility toward those who inhabit it. Of the shifting priorities and values that have occurred, none has been greater than the supernatural implantation of a soul-based hunger to serve those who have not had access to resources that should be available to all. As a result of my time spent volunteering at Holland Hospital and at Puente del Pueblo, God has implanted within me a deep yearning to serve those in underserved and under-resourced communities, whether that be domestically or abroad. In the first place, my experience as a volunteer at Holland Hospital forced me to reexamine the lenses through which I had, for so long, viewed the world and pushed me towards becoming a physician. My three years spent in this hospital allowed me to see the pain of others, opened and filled my heart with a compassion that I had never known, and forever changed the way that I saw others, particularly those who looked different from I did. The nature of the hospital surroundings allowed me to serve the local Latinx community and, for the first time in my life, I saw hurting people behind the once-foreign language and culture. Whereas my time before volunteering was characterized by a superiority complex and lack of compassion, my work forced me to not only think about the experiences of others but also share in the pain that has been a part of their culture for centuries as well as ask myself what I could do to walk alongside and accompany that community. As I saw how much I had been given by God as a citizen of this country in comparison to how few freedoms many citizens of other countries enjoy, I was moved to show my gratitude by way of compassion that costs me something. In addition to my time spent volunteering at Holland Hospital, I have also been a part of Wheaton Bible Church’s after-school program, Puente del Pueblo, over the past two years. Initially brought to my attention shortly after enrolling at Wheaton College, my participation in this program has allowed me to be an older role model and speak into the lives of middle and high school students who are experiencing difficult things. Primarily as a result of my own struggles with depression and the support that has been offered to me by older mentors both inside and outside of Wheaton College, including an older Hispanic couple at Wheaton Bible Church, I am devoted to providing someone else with the same support that was given to me. From my own experiences, I know and recognize that reaching out to receive such desperately needed help can often be incredibly difficult, especially since this affliction affects every moment of one’s life. Since serving at Puente del Pueblo, I have grown in my awareness of the difficulties encountered by students of minority cultures. More specifically, I have grown in my recognition that many minority groups typically do not have access to many of the resources that were available to me, being something who comes from a largely white, suburban community in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. Coupled with my experience serving the underserved Latinx community in Holland, Michigan, my time spent at Puente del Pueblo in West Chicago has furthered my desire to serve those in under-resourced communities, both in the United States and abroad.