Golf is a sport rooted in tradition and a legacy sport for my family. The sport of golf is as old as the 15th century, but the official game was played first at the historic St. Andrews in 1744 and has seldom changed since, only improved as the times changed. Golf in my family goes all the way back to my great grandfather and has been taught and enjoyed from father to son all the way through. Golf has taught me the value of legacies and tradition and upholding those traditions. When it comes to my college experience, I want to build my own legacy there and continue the traditions of the former alumni and allow those traditions to pass on but still try to improve those traditions as the times call for it. Golf is one of the most challenging sports I have played. Often the smallest details such as the firmness of the ground, the wind, the spot you hit ball on the club, all can cause drastic differences in the result of the shot. When you do hit one just right, it makes it worth it. That feeling of overcoming a challenging shot and getting the result desired is one of the best. As in golf, college, and life will be the same; I will have to consider the small details, trust my training and experience to get the results that I want and determine my success. College will challenge me, but I know through focusing on the details will help me succeed. At times, like in golf, we may not hit the perfect shot, but you have to hit again. One of the things that can have a great impact on your life is the people you meet, the conversations you have, and the opportunities they both can give you. Golf is a social sport, many use it to hang out, have fun, make connections, or grow their business. Golf has helped put my foot in the door for a lot of opportunities, meet some of my closest friends, and just have a good time with strangers out on the course. Golf is also a conversation starter, I have had conversations that have lasted hours with people from other countries because we both understood one thing, golf. I believe that just as golf has done for me college will help me make those social and business connections. I am excited to meet with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds to go through our college years together and learn from one another Golf has taught me a lot of valuable lessons, been a legacy of my family, a tradition for the ages and a challenge that I will always continue to try to perfect. It has allowed me to meet people from all over the world of all ages. As I prepare for this next step, I know that will my life much like the game of golf has.

I am Alden Frederick, I played Junior Varsity and Varsity golf, and am currently a member of the Boy Scouts of America only waiting for paperwork to complete my final rank, Eagle Scout, and an active member of my church. Through both of these organizations, I have volunteered for food banks, homeless shelters, and many other places of my own volition. I also participate in an internship with a home inspector that allows me to grow my experience around real estate and construction, a field closely related to my desired major, civil engineering or construction engineering, with a minor in business. While I have not decided which institution I will be attending, at both institutions I will be attending as a member of the respective honors colleges, and as a member of their respective engineering colleges. At each university, I plan to take full advantage of the opportunities I am offered. I plan to travel abroad and take classes exploring engineering and learning more about my field. In my time in college, I hope to continue playing golf while still making sure that I stay on top of my grades, and use my summers, and breaks to participate in internships that give me better opportunities when entering the workforce. I also plan to use my status as a member of the honors college to make connections with those who have graduated at the honors level as well as prominent members of the alumni community. As a member of an honors college, I will have access to the alum that are brought in to speak and interact with us. Having this scholarship will help contribute to the affordability of my college experience as well as offer me flexibility when it comes to doing things such as studying abroad or going and taking internships instead of using that time to work to pay for my college. My ultimate professional goal is to eventually use my degree in civil or construction engineering with a minor in business, experience as an engineer, minor in business and experience with personal finance and business to eventually be able to start my own business in real estate development. I plan to attain a certain level of financial stability within this company to one day create an affordable living situation that I manage. It would be an apartment-style building with free residences for the homeless population, where they would have access to many resources that will help them get a job, learn how to manage their finances and eventually with hopefully a few short months of turnaround time, not only be able to survive on their own but thrive as functioning members of society that will not return to homelessness. Although I know many of the issues faced by the homeless are not just monetary, I believe helping the ones who can be helped in this area could make a difference in the lives of many over my lifetime.

Growing up, I would always enjoy watching shows about homes and real estate such as Love it or List It, House Hunters, Luxury Listings, and others. I always had an interest in real estate and all that comes with it. At first, I was sold on the idea that I would be designing homes or any of the other architecture-related disciplines. However, I was convinced to attend a camp for Civil Engineering called Camp Build at Texas A&M University. In this camp I was introduced to the technical aspects of buildings, infrastructure, and planning. Although I had fun designing homes in games, on paper and in my architecture classes, the engineering side of homes intrigued me more than the design side did. I still have much interest in the residential sector. That led me to my goal, to become a residential real estate developer. Currently, I have an internship with a home inspector that allows me to learn about building safety codes and even get the chance to meet real estate developers and other people from the real estate industry. The two things I have learned that are key to becoming a real estate developer are the ability to understand how a building gets built, and the ability to understand the cost analysis, accounting, and overall business perspective on developing real estate. Through my internship, I have been able to understand a lot about the construction and maintenance of homes as I have helped to inspect homes that are still in the process of being built all the way to homes upwards of forty years old. However, I still know very little about the whole building process, hence my desire to study civil or construction engineering. I believe this will help me understand most of what I need to know as well as get my feet wet in the industry and make important connections. The other part of real estate development would be the business aspect. As a teenager I became super interested in business and investments and the fervent desire to start my own business. With investments of my own and constantly checking stock market prices, checking my local real estate markets, and trying to understand cost management and other aspects of business management. Even for one of my birthdays I asked one of my friends for an accounting textbook to learn many of the skills that all business owners need to understand. So far in my life although I have not always had the same plan to go about it my goal has always stayed consistent, and in pursuing my college education, I will be pursuing my goals and taking what I believe to be the best path forward to my success.

My future plans include pursuing an engineering degree, getting a well-paying job and saving and investing until I can obtain a certain lifestyle and own a few of my dream cars. In my career specifically,I have goals of working as a civil engineer and being in and around real estate development, as someone who helps participate in the designing of homes from a more technical perspective. This would allow me to have a great understanding of the distinct parts of buildings, building codes and all the ins and outs of the building process from a conceptual point to the construction. This will allow me to earn a nice living while still putting my foot in the door for construction, architecture, and other important real estate connections. At some point, I would like to branch out and either start my own civil engineering firm or real estate development company with the capital and experience I gather as an employed civil engineer. Although I have some experience with smaller long-term investments such as Roth IRAs and long-term stock picks, my goal is to have my portfolio mostly be in real estate, a tangible investment. With real estate experience and the capital that I have started saving now, I hope to be able to buy my first property by the age of twenty-five and grow my portfolio from there.

As an African American male, one place I always stick out is pursuing my sport and favorite pastime, golf. Although I know I am not the only black golfer, it was always a rarity to see someone else who was not related to me or over the age of forty-five. In all four years of my high school golf career, I was the only African American male on the golf team. However, in this experience I had a lot of doors, opportunities and unique friendships opened to me. I think most of us know the experience of being a minority in some regard in a group, whether it be through interests, ethnicity, race, or something else. When you find one or two other people that fall into your group and form some sort of bond or friendship, that feeling of belonging and acceptance in that group can form some of the strongest relationships. The other part of this is the opportunities it has given me. Some of the people I have met have given me opportunities just because we shared one interest in common, golf. As a huge car guy, I dream of owning and driving many different vehicles. I got my greatest experience from a guy at a country club I met playing with a friend, this older African American man took me for a joyride in his Ferrari 488, one of my dream cars, an experience that only pushed me to work harder. I was also able to meet and work under a man who played college golf and is a lower-level golf professional that has helped shape and elevate my golf game. All experiences that came from the bond formed from being one of the few in a large group. While looking at other schools, and the overall popularity of golf the number of African Americans participating is increasing, however there is still room to go. One of my goals in the future is to increase the amount of African American people who get exposed to the sport of golf. Not only exposing them to the sport but be able to help contribute to the network that helps people like me stay in golf, excel at golf, and play at the level they desire. It is an expensive sport that many people cannot afford to play, meaning some kids, no matter how much they want to, cannot play the way they want to. Although it would be difficult to reduce the cost of golf as a sport, I believe that I can make a difference in a few people's lives by contributing monetarily to their pursuit of golf. So that one day in the game of golf, African Americans will not be so much the minority, and so golf, the game I live can be shared by many.