Stephen LeCornu Routh Memorial Scholarship

I am a young woman who wants to see the world become better each and every day. I want to be a part of that change. I want to contribute to the improvement of the world. I want my skills to impact the world. As I choose my major for college, I looked at what I was good at. I was skilled in math and science. I had enjoyed the engineering clubs I had been a part of. I liked the logic and critical thinking behind programming. These interested caused me to pursue Computer Engineering. Once my decision was made, I looked at what I could do to make a difference with the skills I would gain from this path. I aspire to pursue a career that has the potential to improve people's lives. Everyone can make a difference once they find their niche. Whether someone makes a big difference by making breakthroughs in technology that can be used in medical devices or by making something that improves people's capabilities to navigate through the world better. Both big changes that have the power to save lives and small changes to improve everyone's quality of life can have larger reach than any single person might expect to make. I want to be the reason for positive changes in the world, even if it is in more unconventional ways. I hope to develop technology that causes further development in other fields. Whether it be by developing more efficient processing software that allows for quicker computations or designing new logic designs in systems to make more informed decisions, I want to improve lives and have an impact. Designing different software and hardware implementations to improve technology can cause unimaginable changes to the world. Any technology has the potential to have immeasurable impacts. There are so many different fields of study within the realm of technology that can have an impact on people that the programmer might not even see. I plan to do good in whatever way possible. Through internships, I learned how to make things work faster and how to do my work faster. I learned how to find ways to make trivial, time-consuming tasks take less time. I want to do this with technology I develop. It is the most valuable resource we have. We can waste it, but we cannot gain any back. Once it is gone, you cannot get it back. Saving time is one of the most impactful things a person can do. If I can give people more time back, they can use it to make their own impact. If people have more times, they can pursue more opportunities. If done right, new software can be used to provide not only time but also new opportunities. New things to explore and study. New things that can help people. Of course, there are so many other careers as well. Giving people time back, can help them make new discoveries in their own fields as well. It brings change, but I want to make the changes allow for further growth in the world. I want to work in a field that is constantly evolving despite the challenge. I know that those kinds of fields are what bring change to the world. I want to be on the forefront of that change. I want to steer it towards the most positive outcome. I want something with the potential to improve and change so many other fields of study in countless ways. It is what I look forward to doing once I graduate and enter the workforce.

When I was a kid, my parents always argued about what I was destined to do with my life: my dad told me I was made for engineering, while my mom told me I was born to go into the medical field. Growing up, I spent my childhood working on cars and machinery with my dad, admiring how much he enjoyed working with me. People would drive by us looking at me funny because a seven-year-old girl was outside working on cars and learning about them instead of being inside playing with her barbie dolls. I have known I was made for the engineering field since I was five. I am currently a freshman in college, seeking aid for my sophomore year. I have lived in a small town in Tennessee for almost 11 years. Growing up, and currently, I enjoyed everything that involved math and science. I attended many quiz bowls and competed in the state of Tennessee's Beta Convention for math and science, as well. In high school, I also competed in the All-State Honor Choir, All-Northwest Honor Choir, Solo and Ensemble, and Quad-State. I also enjoyed volunteering at events in my town. I volunteered at my local humane society, "Feed the Need" operations, and was openly involved in the daycare that my church provided. When it came time for me to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I considered many factors: my love for helping people and the love I have for math and science. With these things considered, I knew that I would go into the engineering field. To please both my mom and dad, I thought, what better than to put both of their desires into my career choice? This is why I decided to go into biomedical engineering with a focus on designing prosthetic limbs. My goal with this degree is to eventually be able to work with lower-income families who are unable to purchase the costly prosthetics that are sold today. Right now, prosthetics are one of the most expensive entities in the healthcare system, and in the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, most families are unable to purchase the prosthetic limbs that their loved ones require in order to live a functional life. I hope to be able to change this with my future work by providing a more cost-efficient limb for families that need these limb replacements.