One could say I was born with an interest in computer science. As a child, I've always had a love for video games, and felt as though I wanted to make them for a living. However, it wasn't until middle school when I learned about the basics ins and out to creating a video game using Scratch. I spent hours making games and updating them with fun little features and easter eggs, and this little hobby went on for years. Afterwards, I sadly learned that there was a limit to what I could create using Scratch, and decided to make the switch to Unity; safe to say, I wasn't ready for how complex a real game engine was. I decided to tackle the unknown and teach myself C# as well as how to use the Unity engine to suit my needs. I succeeded in porting one of my Scratch games to Unity, but it didn't do so well when I made it publicly available. This put a damper in my game dev energy, and I went a while without knowing what I wanted to do with my future. Funnily enough, my interest in cybersecurity grew from playing a video game; one of my all-time favorites, Cyberpunk 2077. In the game, you're able to hack into physical systems, networks, and even people. I thought it was cool being able to use a chip in my head to change the world around me. Of course, this all sounds like a horrific breach of ethics and privacy if made real, but I learned that there is a legal method to hack into things while being able to make money, pentesting and bug bounty hunting. I took to the first cybersecurity website I could find, TryHackMe, and began completing exercises while taking detailed notes. What began in November 2023 has gone on even up to today, as I'm now learning how to establish persistence on a Windows system using Active Directory. As a student at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, I'm planning on obtaining a Bachelors' in Computer Science and completing the cybersecurity certificate track. After graducating, I hope to be able to work as a penetration tester or SOC analyst. Although I find breaching systems more fun, I believe that I can also use the skills that I've learned to protect sensitive information from malicious actors. I believe that I'm the best candidate to receive this scholarship because I've not only put a lot of hours into earning my degree, but I've spent a lot of personal time that I could've spent having fun to study cybersecurity. I wish to be able to see the fruits of my labor since, so far, I've not been able to get an internship at any company or organization. Winning this scholarship will help me afford the education that I need to start a successful career in cybersecurity.

A project that I worked on recently was a Python script that takes a given input and a list of characters, and generates all possible string combinations of that length. In other words, I created a brute-force script, which I'd like to integrate into a larger cybersecurity tool in the future. I began working on implementing multi-threading in order to speed up processing time, but I have yet to get it properly working. Even though the project only took a couple of days to complete, it helped me learn more about Python, as I haven't taken a single Python class since I began attending college in 2022, and I feel very confident in creating more scripts to aid me in my cybersecurity endeavors. Additionally, it made me feel as though I can learn any language that I'm not familiar with, so long as I refer to the documentation and build up from the basics. This is the same method that I used to learn C# while I was trying to create Unity games back in 2019. Learning more about computer science and cybersecurity, as well as creating coding projects, allows me to craft something from scratch and witness the fruits of my labor. It challenges me to think critically, experiment with different coding styles and libraries, and learn from mistakes by using new methods to attempt to solve a problem. For example, in 2022, I created a Mersenne Prime finder program in C#, but the code job was messy and executed inefficiently. After taking two discrete math courses and a data structures and algorithms course, I gave the program another shot. I used my new knowledge of mathematical theory and efficient coding methods to create an improved version of the program that ran faster and well-documented. I want to take my skills to the next level, perhaps by working on an automated tool for offensive or defensive cybersecurity. I'd also like to utilize more advanced Python libraries and begin using C, C++, and Bash for scripting. In the meantime, I study cybersecurity on TryHackMe, learning about penetration testing, enumeration, SOC, etc as well as the tools required to perform these actions. I'd like to become a cybersecurity specialist in order to protect peoples' sensitive data; I don't wish for people to needlessly suffer from identity fraud as a result of a company being careless with user data. This Python script may very well be the beginning of that journey.

Have you ever woken up one day, gone to a public area, and suddenly felt weird, as if your every move was being watched. That’s how it was for me one day in 7th grade. It was in the morning, and I was walking down the hall, able to feel myself moving my arms and legs. My movements were suddenly rigid, as if I were a machine that hadn’t had its parts and joints serviced in years. Even twisting my hair had a strange sensation to it. Unfortunately for me, the feeling of awareness that I had felt that day was not short-lived, and I continued to feel this way for weeks, months. Whenever I walked my dog, and I spotted someone, I’d stiffen up and start moving strangely again. Eventually, I had went to my mother to talk to her about it, and she recommended that I bring it up during my annual physical exam to our family physician. I described how I felt to my physician, bringing up the way I walked and how it only occurred when I was, or felt like I was, being observed. She had told me that I had developed social anxiety disorder. This disorder stuck with me through the rest of middle school and all throughout my high school career. It made me feel awkward, even when I was spending time with friends and caused me to distance myself from everyone I knew. When I look back at these times, I feel as if I’d had many missed opportunities stolen from me because of this disorder, because it made me afraid of growing out of my comfort zone. It ruined friendships, deterred relationships, and kept me from participating in extracurricular activities. It wasn’t until quarantine that I realized how much of my life was passing me by, and when my senior year of high school started, I began to try breaking out of my shell. I started dating, I joined an after-school program, and I began working a job at Dunkin’. The relationship didn’t last long and I eventually stopped attending the program, and I never really got along with my coworkers. I started to feel hopeless and lost, as if my life was going to keep being this miserable for the rest of my life. Only through spending time with close friends was I able to slowly but surely diminish those feelings; they held me together during a time of pain and loneliness, and helped me get through a rough time. Upon attending Kutztown, I first realized that I may have made a mistake. It’s a state college in a conservative rural town, with the nearest cities being 30 minutes on either side. Total enrollment didn’t exceed 9,000 and I had no car. All of these spelled disaster for me, and I had no clue what I was in for. My first year was great, and I met some people who I thought were pretty cool; however, because of my social anxiety and forced closed proximity, I was blind to the fact that the people who I considered my friends weren’t the best for me. During my second year at Kutztown, I realized this; I started to feel out of place, began to feel different from my friends and peers, especially as I was from the city and they weren’t. Eventually, I made the decision to transfer to West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where I attend now with the same major. Now, I’m working on overcoming my social anxiety through therapy, by attending clubs and spending more time outside.

In the 6th grade, I attended my first STEM class. I fell in love with coding on Scratch, a visual coding website created and owned by MIT. Playing video games was always my favorite way to spend time, but now I had the ability to make them (sort of). Strangely, using Scratch to make games paved the way for me to pursue a career in cybersecurity and/or software development. While making a game, I had come across the realization that Scratch was too simple of a website to make what I had in mind; my only option was to port the game to a different program, a real game engine. First, I chose Defold for its seemingly simplistic UI, but after struggling with navigating the program, I went with the industry standard for beginners, Unity. Porting the game over took a year, starting in late 2019 and finishing in early 2021. I had to learn to use C#, and interestingly enough, C# remains my top language as its the first one that I managed to teach myself and because I continue to make prototype games on Unity to this day. Fast forward to 2021-2022, my senior year in high school. My mind was set on being a game development major, and I was taking an AP computer science class. One of the lessons that was taught in that class that was very memorable to me was the introduction to cryptography, specifically keys and Mersenne primes. I was so fascinated with the idea of there being numbers that are highly sought after that I decided to make a program that found them. At the time, I was using Snap, which was a fork of Scratch that offered more features like geographical data. However, I eventually found Snap to be too lacking in what I needed for this program to work to its full potential, which was the freedom to write whatever code I wanted. This event marks the first time I used an IDE on a standalone project (since Unity still used Visual Studio, but only for scripting). I managed to re-create the Mersenne prime finder by separating the different tasks into functions. With this program and some persuasion from my mother, I switched my major to computer science, and after spending some time at Kutztown, decided to focus on software development and cybersecurity instead of game development. My love for games hasn’t died out, however, and I’m currently working on a massive project; my latest work has been towards procedural generation of voxel worlds. This scholarship will help me achieve my career goals, since I won’t have to worry about loans coming back to bite me while I’m job searching. Computer science is becoming an increasingly saturated field, meaning that there will be less opportunities for me to have a job post-graduation, even after focusing on cybersecurity. I want to use my skills to provide a service that people need in their everyday lives, or protect their data and sensitive information from malicious actors, and this scholarship will help me do just that.

During my childhood, I've often felt lonely. For the most part, I kept to myself, only spending time with family during mealtimes and during fun outings such as going for a walk or eating at a restaraunt. I rarely ever went out with friends unless it was a school event. I was often picked on during my elementary and middle school years, and eventually I developed social anxiety from it. It didn't help that I couldn't hang out with my friends after school because my parents wanted me to help my grandmother watch my younger sister. This isolation eventually developed into more serious mental health problems, such as depression. These issues affected my social life, my motivation in personal affairs and education, and led me to unhealthy coping mechanisms. I still struggle with these problems today but to a greater degree; back during the summer of 2023, I was told that I may be positive for mental health problems, which was a punch to the gut. Currently, I'm partaking in therapy, and it has been an eye-opening experience for me so far. I'm beginning to see my life, past and present, in a different light; I'm determined to actively participate in life, instead of just idling by like I usually do, and I'm more open to understanding someone's struggles and more willing to help them get through it. Right now, I am aiming to graduate from West Chester University with a Bacherlors' degree in computer science; afterwards, I plan to enter the Masters' degree program. Within the next three years, I am also looking forward to gaining internship experience within the field of computer science, whether paid or unpaid. After I complete my education, I want to become a software developer or cybersecurity specialist. Software runs the world, and shapes how people interact with technology in their day to day lives; that's why I find it such a valuable field to enter, as it will give me insight on how to create an application that will improve the lives of others. Cybersecurity is my second field of choice, simply because I believe it is within the rights of a person to have their private and sensitive information be kept to themselves; becoming a cybersecurity specialist will allow me to become a hero that works for the sake of the people. Loans are the majority of the payment for the education I'm pursuing. I'd very much like to not graduate with government debt, but if it is inevitable, then I'd like to decrease the debt by as much as possible. This scholarship will aid me in pursuing a Masters' degree in Computer Science with a bit less debt than without, which I'd appreciate nonetheless. With it, I'd be able to afford a certificate in Computer Security, which will further help me in pursuing a career in cybersecurity.

I love mathematics because it is the application of an abstract human-made concept to the real world. In other words, mathematics, much like science, is humanity's way of understanding the universe. Math applies to many areas in life: something as large as cosmology or something more widely applicable to the average person such as cooking or baking. Mathematics has allowed us to define mass-energy equivalence, gravitational pull of celestial bodies, and the different motions of a physical body; there was even an attempt made to define everything in all of existence with a mathematical equation, known as the Standard Model. Mathematics is important for the existence of life, as it's theorized that if there were enough of a difference within the structure and properties of the universe, then life could not occur. We are made up of math: the average human body has a particular percentage ratio of various elements, and the same goes for the air we breathe. We require a particular amount of vitamins and minerals a day to properly function, as well as a recommended amount of fluids and hours of sleep. The determination of our more simple genetic traits can be accurately calculated using Punnett squares. Much of these are the same for plants, animals, and all other forms of life. I am a computer science major, and yet I still have to deal with mathematics when learning programming skills. Many would consider computer science to be the mathematics of computers. Cryptography deals with modulus and prime numbers, running time for algorithms and programs requires optimization and other topics learned in discrete mathematics, and artificial intelligence requires complex algorithms which allows the program to reach a desirable output. All coding languages even include something very commonly found in Algebra and higher, which are variables. To sum it all up, I love math because I see and use it in everyday life. Although math is flawed and cannot be used to understand everything, it is still, largely, an inescapable fact and an undeniable truth.

My interest in the STEM field has been lifelong, but really began actualizing back in 2016, when I was in the 6th grade. I've always had a passion for gaming, ever since I was a young boy at the age of 3. During my free time, I always loved playing video games on the computer, Wii, 3DS, and/or PS4. One question that I always had on my mind was “how do you make video games?”. For the longest time, this question remained unanswered until the 6th grade, during which I attended a class specifically for STEM. In that class, the teacher introduced us to Scratch, a website used to turn blocks of code into games and other projects. I grew to enjoy using Scratch, so much so that I worked on games outside of school. One of these games was called Crystal Miner, which was a game inspired by a Roblox tycoon game about mining crystals and buying machines to upgrade them in order to sell them for higher amounts of money. Eventually, the features that I had intended for the game became too complex for what I could create in Scratch; I had to search for a new engine. Enter Unity: a popular game engine for beginners. Switching to the Unity engine back in 2019 allowed me to learn my first coding language, C#. I’d spend the next 3 years developing prototype games in order to practice my skills. In 2022, I began to attend Kutztown University as a computer science major; the school is located in a small, quaint area near Allentown, PA. I had picked the school because it offered a game development major, but my mother had persuaded me to become a computer science major due to it having more career opportunities. There, I learned about C++, data structures and algorithms, Assembly language, and various mathematical theories. During my time at Kutztown, I also took a peek at cybersecurity, and started learning the basics online, which I’m continuing to do to this day. Without a doubt, I can say that my time at Kutztown strengthened my yearning to learn about computer science as a whole. I am currently in the process of transferring to West Chester University, mainly due to my belief that my growth is limited in such a place like Kutztown, which is a very different environment than I am used to, physically and socially. At West Chester, I plan on participating in the Masters’ degree program for computer science, as well as participating in many of the computer science clubs that the school has to offer. I believe that transferring will allow me to better achieve my career goals of being a software developer and/or a cybersecurity specialist. I want to write software that helps people live better lives, whether it means securing their personal information, or making living easier. The exciting thing about computer science for me is the process of creating something that functions from a bunch of words on a screen. I find it enjoyable to learn the processes behind how programming works, from libraries to compilers and everything in between and beyond. Even now, I am working on a program that utilizes node.js, MySQL, and the RestCountries API that provides a basic service to the user, and therefore reliably emulating a real application.

Before attending Kutztown, I was very set on my goal of becoming a game developer. I already had experience with C#, Visual Studio, and the Unity engine, all taught to myself. Originally, my search for colleges was limited to those that had game development majors. In hindsight, this was not the best decision I could have made, but you live and you learn, right? Luckily, colleges that offer game development are guaranteed to offer computer science as well. In the end, with help from my mom, I decided to go for computer science. I had realized that computer science was better for me because of my previous coding experience as well as the wide range of fields that it encompasses, like software development, software engineering, or data science. After I receive my degree in computer science, I wish to become a software developer or cybersecurity specialist. I want to become a software developer because the idea of coding thousands of lines of code across multiple files and compiling it into one application thrills me. Cybersecurity is a choice of mine because the idea of deploying offensive or defensive tactics in a digital space seems like a very interesting concept to me; not to mention that in an increasingly digital age, it wouldn't hurt to learn how to take protecting my sensitive information into my own hands. I feel I am the best candidate for this scholarship because I live for computer science. I have been interested in computer technology for most of my life, whether it be hardware or software. I have a strong drive to learn new things; for example, this year I took the initiative to teach myself some basic information and tools needed in cybersecurity, and learned more about Microsoft's .NET and ASP.NET frameworks. I also try to find ways to improve, such as using Leetcode to touch up on my C++, algorithm, and data structures skills. To sum it all up, I'd like to see how far I can take my knowledge and experience in computer science.

I am a computer science major at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, currently in my sophomore year. Recently, I’ve made a major shift in my career goals. Originally, I had intended on becoming a game developer; it was during my first year at Kutztown that I realized there is more to the world of computers than just creating video games. My love for video games over the years has set me on a path to becoming a computer scientist. Playing video games has always been my favorite pastime, and it inspired me to try developing games on my own. After years of making terrible games on MIT’s Scratch and the Unity engine, I knew what I wanted to be in life, and additionally, what I wanted to study in college. After attending Kutztown, this vision slowly evolved into one that is much more broad and achievable. Sometime after the spring 2023 semester began, I started looking into software development and cybersecurity. There are multiple reasons for this change, all occurring within a year. One of the reasons was that I took a class called CSC150, where I learned about the ethical and legal implications of different areas of technology, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital security. Another reason was that my first-year seminar was about puzzles and the concept of infinity. I was fascinated by the mathematical problems shown, like the 8 Queens problem or Hilbert’s hotel paradox. Since I had already written a C# program that could calculate Mersenne prime numbers in the summer of 2022, part of me was further inspired to write programs that could tackle the most difficult problems in mathematics to date. A third reason why I changed my career options was due to the time I spent on Microsoft’s training website. It has various learning modules that teach users about .NET, C#, ASP.NET, and Azure; the site also offers certifications for developers who wish to master these tools. I was mainly interested in the C# and .NET modules in particular, and I’m now very familiar with these topics. During the summer of 2023, I used the Microsoft training website to learn about web app development using Microsoft’s Razor and ASP.NET technologies. It is now fall of 2023, and I am a few weeks into teaching myself how to use Linux, specifically the Ubuntu distribution, to learn the basics of cybersecurity. I am interested in becoming a security system defender or a bug bounty hunter. Winning this scholarship will allow me to afford my education. Currently, I am taking out loans to afford admission at Kutztown. I dread the thought of graduating with debt as it means I would have to wait to begin the next chapter of my life; it could take months or even years to be able to afford living on my own, the ability to own a car for travel, or the ability to regularly purchase necessities such as groceries. I would like to allocate more mental resources towards working my hardest, rather than worry about whether I can afford the experience of living by myself without needing someone’s help. Currently, that is my reality, and soon I plan to make it my past. Regardless of whether or not I win this scholarship, I want to achieve the title of software developer and/or cybersecurity specialist. These two subjects fascinate me the most and the world would benefit greatly by having one more person creating apps that are useful to everyday life or fighting against cybercrime.

I've been a casual gamer for most of my life. I've always liked spending my spare time playing computer, console, and mobile games. This passion for gaming had awoken a desire to learn how to make games, but I didn't know where to start. This lack of information ended in 2016, during my 6th-grade year. I had been enrolled in a STEM class, which taught us about coding, robotics, and the like. One day, the teacher introduced us to Scratch, the block coding website made by MIT. Every month, the class would receive an assignment to make a game or project that meets specific requirements. I would always complete the assignment, as well as go above and beyond to release updates and bugfix patches. These coding assignments inspired me to create real fleshed-out games in Scratch. Many blocks of code were placed to create complex interactions in these games. Due to my lack of expertise, the complexity of my ideas for these games was unable to be put to fruition; my only option was to switch to another engine. After much contemplation, I decided to use the Unity engine due to it being beginner-friendly. C# was a fairly easy language to pick up on as well. Spanning from 2019 to early 2022, I was able to teach myself basic game development knowledge, such as instantiation, file serialization for saving game data, linked inventory and hotbar systems, and status effects. The more I worked with C#, though, the more I became interested in general computer science. In the summer of 2022, I began using what I learned to create individual programs in Visual Studio. The first was a working ATM program, with features like credit card number and PIN registration and a case-sensitive log-in system. The second, which I am more proud of, was a work-in-progress Mersenne prime number finder. It was in this program that I thought outside the box; I experimented with multithreading and parallelism to find out how I could run the program faster, and using functions that returned specific data types made the program less complicated. In the fall of 2022, I began attending Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. During my freshman year, I learned a lot about computer science and the information I gained sparked an increased interest in computer science; for instance, learning about the ethical components of the different aspects of computer science allowed me to learn about the power that the entire field holds, and why it must be kept under control with laws and procedures to avoid potentially devastating real-life consequences. To summarize my point, my love of gaming started my life as an aspiring computer scientist. Then, I only saw myself as a game developer working at a company like Riot Games or Blizzard; now, I realize that I shouldn't limit myself to one specific career option. Software development and cybersecurity have been developing interests of mine during the past year.

In 2016, when I was in the 6th grade, I was introduced to a website called Scratch, which was a block coding website created and owned by MIT. During that year, I was given various assignments where we were to create games that met specific requirements. I fell in love with this website. Every project I've been assigned was not only completed but also expanded upon with updates. After 3 years of block coding, I decided it was time to move on to a real engine and real coding language. I chose Unity and the C# language because it's beginner friendly and easy to use. From 2019 until even today, I've spent some time working on small projects; most of them were ultimately scrapped, but the practice that came from working on them has not gone away. I've learned a fair amount of coding concepts in C#, such as file serialization, multi-threading, and parallelism. Recently, I've delved into .NET and ASP.NET. I plan to move on to learning about SQL. After I receive a degree in computer science, I am hoping to find a job as either a game developer or a software developer. Specifically, I would like to be a back-end developer, working on the code that allows the app/game to function. I am aware of my lack of creative design and would not be a good fit for front-end development. This may change in time, however. While working either of those jobs, I would engage in some self-teaching during my free time, learning the ins and outs of cybersecurity. Whether or not I enter the field is up for life to determine. I want to make an impact in the world around me using my acquired computer science skills. In recent years, I couldn't help but notice an increasing stream of distressing news: the hatred, violence and death occurring around the world, and the growing disparity between people through social, economic, and political concerns. I believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better as long as there are people who are willing to cultivate it into the tool that will change the course of humanity for the better.

I became interested in computer science through video games. I had spent much of my childhood playing video games, and it grew into a deep love that would eventually be the drive behind my career choice. Back in 2016, my first year in middle school, I attended a STEM class; the teacher introduced us to Scratch, a block coding website managed by MIT. Since then, I developed a gradual interest in game development. At first, I tried to use an engine called Defold where users create games using the Lua language. In the end I couldn't understand how to use Defold. Luckily I had Unity at my disposal; it's free and easy to use. As a plus, C# is the primary Unity language and it is easy to use. Making games in Unity was the gateway for my interest in computer science in general. I eventually decided to learn C# outside of Unity. In the summer of this year, I managed to create a program: an ATM system that allows a user to register a 16-digit account number and 4-digit account PIN. After the user registers an account, the user can then withdraw or deposit money. The program only serves as a framework and doesn't save user-entered information, or withdraw or deposit real currency. After concluding my work on the ATM program, I started working on a program that calculates all iterations of equation 2 to the power of n minus 1 (2^n - 1), with n starting at 1 and continually increasing, and checks if the result is a prime number through a method that requires finding the factors of each iteration. This idea spawned from my discovery of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. While creating this program, I was able to experiment with the tuple data type, the BigInteger data type, parallelism, and multithreading. The only veteran that I know personally is my stepfather. I cannot recall the years in which he served, but he does often bring up the fact that his service took place in the Middle East, specifically Iraq. I am very appreciative of his service to this country and his part in aiding the United States in protecting the rights and lives of its citizens. Although he and I didn't grow very close, I am thankful for his role as a father figure to me. He has taught me many life lessons that would help me survive in the world as an adult.

If I had to put it into different words, I'd say that computer science chose me. I was always interested in video games as a kid and life created a path for me to turn this passion into my career. During the 6th grade, I attended a STEM school; one day, the teacher introduced us to Scratch. Whenever she assigned Scratch assignments to the class, I was always the first one to complete them. I developed a deep interest in Scratch that lasted until 2020. During that time, I'd make simple games, but one game idea I had jumpstarted my move toward computer science. It was a mining tycoon game where you can mine, upgrade, and sell crystals. This project grew so complex that I had to port it to Unity to publish it on websites. The game didn't become popular, so I abandoned it and moved on to my next idea: a magic survival game. This project, which is what I'm working on currently, started last year in Unity 2D. Building a game in 2D is complicated so I made the move to Unity's 3D engine. The decision was wise because I had access to a lot more features such as the particle system. I am proud of my progress so far and hope to release it on Steam within the next 2 years. Small Unity games aren't my only pieces of work. During the spring, I created a Mersenne prime finder in Snap, a remake of Scratch. This summer, I ported it to C# in Visual Studio. Earlier in the summer, I made a program that acts as an ATM. The user is required to register a 16-digit card number and a 4-digit PIN of their choosing. Afterward, the user can log in to their account with the option to withdraw money, deposit money, or log out. I have no other Visual Studio projects in the works right now, but I am searching for ideas on programs to create. I plan to enter game development or software development after I graduate from Kutztown University. I don't have a clear career goal right now, but I would likely create or help create an app that helps to combat the ongoing mental health crisis. Overall, I chose to pursue a degree in computer science because it's what my everyday life is based on, and my interest in what is possible continually grows.

I am interested in the software development area of technology. I have always loved playing video games, and they are the reason why I am interested in computer science in the first place. I plan on becoming a video game developer; I already have 1-2 years of experience using the Unity engine. I work on small projects here and there that become unfinished due to a loss of motivation. Recently, however, I've been working on a game that has made excellent progress. This project has taught me about the use of JSON file serialization. Software development is particularly interesting to me because of the ability to create whatever I want so long as I understand each step along the way. There are a few problems that I would want to solve, namely the ongoing mental health crisis, homelessness & poverty, and the flaws in the American education system. If I had to focus on one problem, I'd choose the mental health crisis. In a way, negative mental health influences the other two problems. Those who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness and/or poverty are most likely suffering from depression and other mental health disorders. The weight of struggling to survive puts stress on their minds, causing them to collapse. The American education system is not built very well around the idea of helping kids who are struggling mentally. If someone is not doing so well in a class or course, while there are options one could take to improve their performance in that class, students are likely not made aware of this path being available. Issues at home can affect students as well, such as living in abusive or neglectful households. Thankfully, counseling services are offered at schools, but that alone may not be enough to tackle the problem of mental health in the student population. If I were to contribute to mitigating the mental health crisis, I'd create an app where users could engage in various activities that work toward stress management, enforce the idea of self-love, increase self-esteem, improve motivation, and combat feelings of hopelessness. As a plus, the app could have a built-in therapy service, where users could talk to certified therapists in real-time. Overall, the app would improve users' day-to-day lives by helping them manage their mental health in a healthy capacity. The app would be not-profit, as I do not believe that one should pay to improve their life.

My goal for computer science is to greatly expand my knowledge on the topic. Computer science has been my biggest passion since I was young. I've spent my life around technology; playing video games and watching videos online was all I ever looked forward to doing. It was when I was in the 6th grade that I discovered the potential of code. The middle school that I attended, Hill-Freedman World Academy, was a STEM school. One day in STEM class, I was introduced to Scratch, the block coding website for beginners created and managed by MIT. I was very engaged in the work that the teacher assigned, completing objectives way before my classmates. I fell in love with using Scratch to the point that I wanted to use it at home. I practiced using it by making games on it. Eventually, I created a game that would spark my ambition to become a game developer; I called the game Crystal Miner. Initially created in Scratch, I successfully ported it to Unity to gain access to more features such as a separate editor and IDE. Unfortunately, I wasn't good at marketing and the game didn't grow in popularity on the site where I uploaded it. However, I kept turning video game ideas into reality as practice. Currently, I am working on a game that I am serious about: so far, I've experimented with the Unity particle system, JSON file serialization, and tuples. Through college courses and personal coding projects, I plan to learn as much about computer science as I can. My one goal in life is to gather as many experiences as I can, whether it be traveling, learning or spending time with friends and family. I realized recently that I've spent a lot of my life indoors, either playing video games or watching TV. During late 2021 and early 2022, a few events occurred that changed how I viewed life. Within the past year, I'd occasionally spend time roaming around or visiting places, particularly in downtown Philadelphia. The trips helped clear my mind and understand how beautiful and carefree life can be. This truth became particularly evident after I started my life at Kutztown, where I would walk around the town at night with friends. For it to be possible to combine these goals, I would have to find employment at a company with positions that require professional knowledge in computer science. I am open to moving around the country for work, as long as the area I move to is urban/suburban. Moving would open opportunities to discover the way of life in a new city, as well as to work a job in an environment that I am not yet used to.

I want to pursure a career in STEM because I was born for it. At the young age of 3, I would sit on my mom's lap and watch her play games on her laptop. Ever since then, I have had a growing passion for video games. I've played games on a DSi, Wii, 3DS, PS4, and multiple computers throughout my childhood. However, it wasn't until I reached the 6th grade when I realized that I could make a career out of it. Growing up, I always thought I'd take on typical jobs, such as architecture or culinary arts. I would've never thought that I would create video games, because I always thought it would be a task too complicated for me to ever accomplish in my lifetime. However, a beginners' coding website called Scratch had taught me that creating video games was a possibility for me. My 6th grade STEM teacher, nicknamed Captain Hook, had introduced the class to Scratch. By that time, i had already used the website before, but not to a serious extent. During that year, I would always be ahead of my class in assignments where you had to create a game with certain features. Later on in the year, I started diverging and creating my own games. One example was a running game where you had to spam the spacebar and beat the AI to the finish line; this specific project that began in 2016, and was last updated in 2018. Ever since the 6th grade, I had written down plans for many different kinds of video games, including survival games, tycoon games, and fighting games. Only one truly came to fruition, and that was a game called Crystal Miner. One day during my 8th grade year, while I was hitting what could be considered an artist's block, I was in the kitchen speaking to my mom about potential ideas for video games. While going through various ideas, I had thought of one in particular that stuck with me; a variation of one of my favorite Roblox games at the time but in 2D. So after taking this idea into consideration, I ran upstairs to my room to start planning immediately. After a couple of days of planning, i went onto Scratch to start building the game. After I felt that the game was ready for release, I searched online to learn how to release a Scratch game on the popular game store website GameJolt. The years went on, and although Crystal Miner wasn't a success on GameJolt, I still felt proud of myself to have created a proper video game for the first time ever. In 2020, I worked on recreating Crystal Miner on Unity from the ground up, and in early 2021 it was released on itch.io, another popular game store site. Fast forward to early 2022, where I started working on a new project: a magic-based survival game. This year is also the year that I start my college process, applying to schools that offer game development to some degree. My overall goal in life is to use the knowledge that I learned in college to work as a game developer, and if not that, a software developer. I plan to use a portion of my salary to give to charities that combat poverty and mental health issues or research centers for medicine and environmental sciences.

The technological advances of today have made life easier than ever before. Work gets done in a more efficient manner and worldwide communication is readily available at the push of a button. However, many people are still struggling in their daily lives. One day, I would like to be able to make a noticable impact in the lives of those who are not as fortunate to be able to live a happy, healthy life. I personally believe that happiness should be a guarantee in life, and that no person should unnecessarily suffer due to being neglected by society. My plan is to use a portion of the profit that I generate from my career choices to put towards charities of various causes. These causes include but are not limited to: world hunger, poverty & homelessness, and mental health treatment. If this plan succeeds, I would be able to say that I used my passion for gaming to help others, and perhaps even inspire others to use their passion in a similar way.