A little over a year ago, when asked what career I was planning to pursue, I would answer that I wanted to become a doctor. Now, my mindset has completely shifted and I am interested in pursuing a career in chemical engineering. For so long, though, I thought the only careers in which I could help others that involved my academic interests were found in the medical field. However, it became clear that this perception was false through my participation in a women in engineering day at a local university. Through this program, my eyes were opened as to how engineering can be used to help others, and I have been hooked on it ever since. After this event, I conducted a research project as to why women may feel like the only STEM field they should enter is in healthcare, similarly to my initial view. This research paper is currently getting published, and I hope that it encourages other women to look outside the field of healthcare into other STEM related fields, specifically those in technology. Personally, I have decided to pursue a career in chemical engineering because of the large number of ways I could make a positive difference in the world with this degree. I also know that this is a career that I will be happy in, as I will be able to combine my love for math, science, and manufacturing every day. As of now, I plan to concentrate in pharmaceutical engineering, so that I can manufacture medicines for people with rare diseases who do not often gain the focus or treatment they deserve. My interest in this concentration comes from personal experience, with my grandma passing away from an incurable disease and my cousin having an extremely rare disease (Galactosialidosis) which currently has no cure. Although theoretically it makes sense, I believe that people with rare diseases should get equal treatment to those with more common diseases; the fact that they do not is a major problem that I wish to address when I have the degree and ability to. I hope to work my way up in the chemical engineering discipline so that I can promote this idea to others and finally give people with rare diseases the help they deserve.

For 13 years of my life, though so much around me was ever changing, soccer was a constant I could always count on. After being at the same club with the same team for approximately nine years, however, a new club was formed which all of my teammates immediately jumped at. I was extremely grateful to everything my initial club had given me, and was not about to stab my coaches in the back. My coaches were the reason I have become so passionate about everything I do, and I was not about to let that go unrecognized. This simple act of staying earned me great respect from my coaches and club directors, so much so that I was offered a coaching position myself in place of playing. Though looking back at this time in my life seems almost laughable, I had felt great distress leaving a sport that had given so much to me. Fortunately, my coaches lifted me out of this rut; I was still able to be around soccer but I could still be loyal to my past club. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity gifted to me from my coaches, as I now have the ability to influence the lives of so many children. As the director of tots soccer at Erie Premier Sports and an assistant coach for the “older” gunners program, I have got to experience so much positivity within the past year that I otherwise would have missed out on. Since the children I head coach are so young, with ages ranging from two to four, I am only with them for one practice a week for at most an hour. However, through conversation with parents, I have found that this minimal amount of time has made an incredible impact on the children whom I coach. For example, I have been told that children look forward to coming to soccer each week as it gives them an opportunity to smile. Now, I am not entirely aware of these kids’ situations outside of soccer, but I do know that for an hour every week, they are able to experience fun, something that every kid should be able to do. I have also been able to watch kids fall in love with soccer, something that I once experienced thirteen years ago, and I anticipate that many of them will continue to play soccer throughout their childhood and beyond, giving them the ability to learn lessons in teamwork, passion, and determination. I fully intend to continue coaching during college and beyond; I have been greatly impacted by many coaches throughout my many years of playing, and now I want to give back by being on the other side of that trade.