“We’re moving out tomorrow," my father said blankly. His voice was choked and he kept his eyes away from me. Veins bulged out of his temples, and his dark brown face had become reddish. Even though he wasn’t looking at me, I could see that his eyes glistened with held back tears. My father had planned to pay that year’s rent with the profit he was to make from his supposed business, but his plans failed. He had been scammed. $8000 was gone. Money my father had worked for all his life. This event rendered my entire family homeless for two years. Internet fraud and cybercrimes have become increasingly prevalent in my country, Nigeria. The worst part is the pain it causes others and the bad picture it paints of Nigerians and the black community in general to the rest of the world. The actions of these internet fraudsters, popularly known as yahoo boys, have made their way into popular music in Nigeria, and many young people feel that this line of “work” is their only path to prosperity. It is commonplace to have an advanced aunt or young cousin walk into my family home and complain of his/her account being hacked and their pictures being used to extort money from people. I dislike the feeling of helplessness that brushes over me when events like these take place. My father’s experience led our family into a financial situation that was so difficult to get out of. When we finally got out of it, I became obsessed with trying to ensure that no other person was a victim of internet fraud. These experiences have instilled in me the desire to not only make the internet safe for people, but also to provide them with a sense of security while online. Over the years, I have studied and researched intensively how blockchain technology can help the world tackle information security problems. I have come up with several solutions and preventive measures that I have shared on my school notice board and taught to the students I tutor. One of my ideas include the "Global Identification Listings," which is essentially a list of all human beings in the world who are over the age of 16, with a brief consented bio and basic information about them. These listings would greatly reduce online impostors. Using the desktop in my school, I am able to practice creating blockchains by creating blocks myself. I obtained a lot of information along the way, and I was inclined to share my knowledge of this "good news" with others. I volunteered to be a peer tutor at my school, and my focus was information and communication technology. I use my position as a tutor to encourage female students at my school to pursue STEM careers because they hold many limiting beliefs of themselves such as " Women can’t be doctors, they can only be nurses." I was delighted to introduce them to fields that were never spoken about in our community, such as aeronautic engineering, astrophysics, and fintech. Also, exposing them to boundless learning opportunities on the internet has increased my knowledge and also shown me how great it feels to be able to help others. Many people around the world, including the majority of Nigerians, are afraid of doing business online because of the scams and hacking they believe abound on the internet. I intend on becoming a cybersecurity expert, collaborating with national governments and proposing solutions to the problem of cybercrime across the world. Studying computer science in college will give me the training and connections I need to become a professional take on these projects. My obsession with cybersecurity led me to gain an interest in other fields of computer science and engineering, such as product design and robotics. My study of robotics was inspired by my conversation with my classmate, Peter, who, despite having no crus, was very socially active, and I was inspired by him. He recalled to me his gruesome accident. He was only ten years old then. His parents got him a prosthetic leg, which cost a fortune in the local currency, but as an adolescent experiencing a lot of growth spurts, he quickly outgrew it. This worsened their financial condition; they could no longer afford to carry out regular check-ups or buy prosthetics. He passionately wished he could participate in sports and help his mother with little errands. Our conversations led me to do intensive research on prosthetics and some parts cost as much as $7,000. During my apprenticeship with Ik and Brothers Electrical Services, I learnt how to use materials effectively. Because of the kind of tools and materials available to us and the calibre of customers we tend to, we are challenged to cut costs while still providing quality products and repairs. This local knowledge can be applied to bionic development to reduce prices by sourcing more affordable materials. My life’s goal is to launch a tech company that provides cybersecurity services and produces expandable bionics that cost as little as $100 (this would enable children like Peter who are from underprivileged backgrounds or developing countries to live fuller lives).

The odds of a student not being able to apply what they learn in a math classroom outside of it are zero. In a bid to be different from my peers and follow the path less traveled, I began to claim that math was my favorite subject. This was in the 9th grade. At this point in my life, I was terrible at math, but I decided to take the "fake it till you make it" approach, which made all the difference for me. Staying up a little later to solve math problems and attending my math teacher’s office hours helped me develop a genuine affection for the subject. I’m often driven to make decisions based on my emotions at that moment; math serves as a safe refuge in these times. It helps me calculate the results of my actions and inputs in the past and helps me make better decisions for the future. Math makes me decisive. In a world that constantly reminds me of impossibilities and limitations, math proves to me that just like there are an infinite amount of numbers, I am limitless. In math, there is no problem that can’t be solved. I figured that if I’m able to find a solution to 1 divided by 1548, I can surely figure out how to squeeze an after-school job into my schedule and use it to support my family while somehow still being able to save up for a rainy day. And I have been able to achieve this. Math reminds and assures me that life is in stages and that the baby steps I’m currently taking count in the big picture just like the workings of a quadratic equation. Our natural curiosity is often dulled because we feel we’ll never find the answers we seek. Math encourages curiosity. Humans were curious about those living on the other side of the world; math helped them invent wireless communication to reach those people instantly. Humans then became curious about free-falling from the edge of space and were able to calculate the exact spot the free-faller would land at. Studying computer science in college will give me the opportunity to fall in love with math all over again and make several attempts at becoming a renowned inventor, remembering that with math, there is no problem without a solution.

My mother was diagnosed with hypertension and had survived a heart attack before she gave birth to me at the age of 41. I grew up learning and wondering how I could best alleviate her stress and make her feel better. Luckily for me, I obtained admission and a scholarship to Rosyland Comprehensive College, the only school in my community that had computers. I was so excited to learn how to type, search on Google, create spreadsheets, and how to use Corel Draw. Using various search engines, I researched how I could reduce my mom’s blood pressure and make her feel better. Playing music, taking deep breaths in the morning, and reading motivational books I got for her were among the regimens I began to ensure she practiced. My mum has become much better and even though we still spend a lot of money on drugs, the amount of drugs we buy is steadily reducing. I was also able to use the computer at my school to learn about different colleges abroad and apply to them, including the number one HBCU, Spelman College, which I am currently admitted to.   Prior to attending Rosyland Comprehensive College, I had no access to computers. Most of the schools in my community and its environs have no computers. Thus, 90% of children and teenagers here are not computer literate, and this greatly stalls their growth compared to their counterparts across the world. My goal is to use the education, connections, and exposure I receive from Spelman to collaborate with international tech companies like Google and the Nigerian government in order to provide computers for every school in Nigeria.   Spelman College boasts the best institution for training girls of African descent in STEM fields. At Spelman, I would have access to lots more technology, world-class professors, and internships with the likes of Google and Microsoft. With most of the household income going towards medical expenses, I currently bear the burden of all my college bills. This scholarship will reduce my burden and allow me to direct my time towards researching in order to make my aspirations a reality. With my passion and solid work ethic, success is inevitable.   My access to the internet through my school’s computer has allowed me to obtain an enormous amount of coding knowledge. I have also been able to start a YouTube channel and even found a job from which I saved up enough to get my own computer. I currently use it to teach my cousins and neighborhood kids how to type and perform basic computer tasks. Having access to the internet has been a blessing to me, and I intend to spread the benefits to other youth in my country by providing every registered Nigerian school with computers. This will dramatically stimulate intellectual growth and productivity in the country. This productivity will bring about a higher standard of living. Students at schools with working computers have a 20% higher chance of having a GPA of over 80.0/100 than students without them. Students at computer-equipped schools and schools with projectors also display more enthusiasm towards learning than students at schools without. These computer-literate students are also shown to give out-of-the-box responses during national competitions. Over 50% of children less than 16 in Nigeria are not computer literate. I have a seven-year plan to change that. One of my strategies includes building cyber hubs/cafes in underdeveloped parts of the country where students can be taught how to use computers and have freedom to experiment with them.

In the past century, no woman in my entire family has pursued a career in STEM. In fact, due to poverty and child marriage, less than 10% of my family's women attend college at all. I am breaking this bias. The internet has exposed me to so many different career paths, most of which I would never have heard of in my rural community. I am more privileged than most members of my community because I have access to the internet, so I decided to share my privilege with others. I did this by gathering kids together every evening, and tutoring them all I had learnt about computer science. This helped with my knowledge retention and also got the kids excited about education. I also share videos with them, exposing them to career paths like aeronautic engineering, astrophysics, product design, and more. Along with exposure, I provide these kids with something my mother never had: inspiration and mentorship. Pursuing a career in computer science has been difficult, and I often experience this feeling of loneliness gnawing all around me, especially because I have no one to look up to and feel like I have no place there. The major barrier for West African girls going into STEM fields is simple; they've just never seen anyone like them who did it. One thing that keeps me going is just remembering that when I succeed and achieve my goal of becoming a data scientist, it will be much easier for the next sub-Saharan girl. I realised that if I wanted more West African women in tech, I had to make it happen myself. My goal in the future is to expand my mentorship and tutoring across Africa, partner with organisations like GG-STEM, and provide scholarships for promising girls going into tech fields. This will increase diversity in STEM fields whilst also substantially reducing the rate of abject poverty on the continent. If not for my father's experience, I might not have developed an interest in technology. My father, who is in Nigeria, went to the hospital to run some tests as he was having problems with his vision. He returned home and told us that the doctors had noticed some weird growth in one of his eyes and didn’t know exactly what to do. They said if the surgery wasn’t carried out within some months, the growth would spread and he wouldn’t be able to see at all. All the members of my family were terrified. My father was the breadwinner of our family, and we couldn’t imagine a life without him being able to see. Furthermore, we didn’t think we could afford to do the procedure. The doctor called him the next day and told him about a hospital that had the needed technical equipment for his surgery and that the cost was a little over the Naira equivalent of $100. My father went through the procedure, and after a while, he returned to get checked, and the growth was completely gone. This was the first time I realized just how important technology is to health care and the need for us as a society to make such technology affordable and easily accessible. In the past, when quality healthcare was not available to the masses, my father could have become blind as a result of that tiny growth, and such surgery was unimaginable. Presently, there is technology that provides healthcare for the visually impaired through bionic eyes that come in the form of glasses with electrodes, lenses, and more. In the future, I believe these technologies will become more common to the point where bionics and healthcare-related technologies will become an integral part of study for future opticians. I I became more passionate about bionic engineering after my little brother had an accident and lost his right lower leg. My family was able to afford a prosthetic leg for him at first, but he was growing very fast and soon couldn’t fit into them anymore, and we couldn’t keep up with the cost of getting new ones. He began using crutches, and it was very painful to watch my energetic Jamie stumble around the house and constantly complain about the pain shooting up his one good leg. I began doing research on various ways I could make my brother’s life and the lives of kids like him much easier, and that was when I learned of bionics for the first time. My interest in the topic is a big influence on my desire to study computer science and engineering. I learnt how the bionic limb could receive instructions from the brain through wires that replace the original receptors. I also learnt how expensive they were and how families like mine could never have the privilege of purchasing them. The development of adaptable, expandable bionics at an affordable price would be life-changing for James and millions of kids like him all over the world. I’m studying computer science and engineering so that I can spearhead the change and be a vital part of the building of bionic limbs and bionic organs at affordable rates and easily accessible to the masses. My discovery and research on bionic parts has made me more hopeful for Jamie’s future and for the progress of the healthcare ecosystem in general. I am hopeful that in the future, disabilities such as blindness and deafness will be a thing of the past. Currently, bionic technology has been used in creating replacements for different parts used for vision, and the future is bright with many more innovations. The development of bionic organs like kidneys would lead to progress in both the healthcare system and also reduce the human trafficking that takes place as a result of organ harvesting. I also feel very hopeful for women like my aunt who want to bear children but can’t because of ruptured fallopian tubes or problems with other related organs. Bionic technology could open up more possibilities for them by replacing these impaired parts with similar devices. Every day, I come up with new designs for expandable bionic legs. I’m currently working as an apprentice at a local electrical shop to increase my knowledge of electronics and engineering. The proprietors of the shop have all the hacks for doing quality electrical repairs and building small appliances at half the cost. This knowledge is very vital to the accomplishment of my goal of providing affordable bionics for children, and I can’t wait to learn more at Spelman College.

“We’re moving out tomorrow” my father said blankly, his voice was choked, he kept his eyes away from me and settled them between the brown wall and the black tiles on the floor. Veins bulged out of his temples and his dark brown face had become reddish. Even though he wasn’t looking at me I could see that his eyes glowed with held back tears. My father had planned to pay this year’s rent with the profit he was to make from his supposed business but his plans failed, he had been scammed, $8000 was gone. Money my father had worked for all his life. Internet fraud and cyber crimes have become increasingly prevalent in my country, Nigeria. The worst part being the pain it causes for others and the bad picture it paints of Nigerians and the black community in general to the rest of the world, thus making people deny their nationality. The actions of this internet fraudsters popularly known as yahoo boys have made the way to popular music in Nigeria and many youth feel that this line of work is their only path way to prosperity. It is common place to have an advanced aunt or young cousin walk into my family home and complain of his/her account being hacked and their pictures being used to extort money from people. I dislike the feeling of helplessness that brushes over me when events like this take place. These experiences have planted the desire in me to to not only make the internet safe for people but also give them the feeling of security while online. Last year, I studied and researched intensively on how blockchain technology can help the world tackle information security problems. Using the desktop in my school, I was able to practice creating blockchains by creating blocks myself however I am confident that I would have advanced in my learning much faster if I had fast internet service and a desktop computer or laptop of my own. I aim to work and create solutions to the problem of cyber crime in my country and across the world. With unlimited access to technology, I would be able to bring my vision of having all the human beings on earth, their names and consented bios listed on a database accessible to everyone through a blockchain. This listings would make crimes such as impersonation much less probable and make the world more of a global village. Being a Computer science tutor to fellow students at my high school and exposing them to boundless learning opportunities on the internet has shown me how great it fills to be able and willing to help others. Many people across the world are terrified of taking their business online because of the scams and hacking they feel are abound on the internet. By becoming a cybersecurity expert I would be able to partner with national governments to help people secure their digital platforms thus encouraging sales As a cybersecurity expert I would love to tap into my love for teaching and teach coding and cybersecurity for free in person and on platforms like YouTube. I would be so grateful to Accusoft if I am awarded this scholarship because I have no means of funding my dream and have been working around the clock to save up money. If I win, I would strive to uphold the name of the Accusoft corporation through stellar academic performance and good morals. Thank you for reading through my essay.

1. I believe in the African concept of Ubuntu. A human being can only become an authentic individual by being a part of a larger and more significant relational, societal, and spiritual world. In my opinion, community is a group of people in whose presence we lose the urge to ‘perform’. Community is just as important as food and water for survival. Having a tribe of people who love you and whom you can love in return is priceless. During my battle with sciatic paralysis, my parents had no money to have me treated in the hospital, but every day, while I was ridden to that bed, I was visited by friends and surrounded by family. That was the greatest gift in the world. It gave me the assurance I needed that I was not alone. I can only wonder how my life would have turned out without that supportive tribe. I have also learnt that I do not have to be financially affluent before I can give back. When I discover something wrong in my community, I make a conscious effort to not wait for the government; I break down the problem and do all I can where I can. Through my project "Free Sanitary Pads for Teenage Girls", I and my team have been able to provide about thirty sanitary pads for teenage girls in West Africa every month. 2. I am the last born of six children. Early on, my mother always reminded me how beautiful I was and constantly rang it into my ears that I had to marry a rich man and take the family out of poverty, so I grew up wanting to get married at eighteen, that is as soon as it was legal, so my family wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I was doing excellently in my classes, but that didn’t mean much to my mother because, after all, I would end up in the kitchen. As I grew older, read books, watched documentaries, and met people, my horizons grew broader and I began questioning many of my ideologies. This was very difficult to do because of my family background and the belief system of the majority of the people around me. At twelve, I decided to no longer be a doormat to my mother and elders. These people had made me question myself and if my dreams really mattered. Once I made the discovery that my dreams of becoming a computer scientist and not a housewife were indeed valid, I became a women’s rights evangelist to teenage girls in my community. My sole mission is to make the world a more conducive place for coloured girls to thrive. In the future, I intend to be able to do more for my community. I intend to create an organisation that provides mentorship and gives out scholarships to promising but underprivileged young women.

Without any intention of bragging, I have achieved a lot in my short life. However, I always found that contentment eluded me; it didn’t matter how much effort I put in or how many things I did. I just never felt like I quite measured up. Impostor syndrome plagued me, and I constantly compared myself to other people. I had a conversation with my younger cousin about how both of us were now the same age, fifteen years old, and how, in a few months, I would be leaving him at that age. That was the last conversation I had with my brother-figure, Jeff. As he walked back home from church, he kept steady on the side walk when a truck hit him from behind and cornered him into the wide gutter. He couldn’t even be rushed to the hospital; it really did happen "just like that."   Who could have possibly imagined that a few glasses of spirit would destroy my aunt’s booming business, give her husband PTSD, cause her a heart attack, put a man behind bars, leave his little children helpless, and take my cousin’s life? Well, definitely not me. Loss and drinking with the intention of driving soon have something in common. You never expect what is to come; you never imagine yourself having such an experience. I'm in the same boat. Everything we do, no matter how small, has ripple effects. I remember as a little girl, I would complain to my mother about having a stomach ache, and she would say, "Ah, why won’t you have a stomach ache when you’re always watching TV up close, na wa?" I always wondered what the relationship between TV and having a stomach ache was. Growing up, I realised that some things in life held such funny and unexpected correlations. In high school, we can all attest that a simple decision like staying in bed just 1 minute longer can ruin an entire week and have us playing catch up with our projects and grades. Let us also view drunk driving through the same lens. We have the option of having a drink with the boys when I know I’ll be driving myself home and then going to jail the next morning; or deciding to postpone that drink, having a soda instead, still having a fun time with the boys, and then going home safe. We can see that the second option wasn’t really that difficult. In fact, it only saved us from a lot of difficulty. The death of my cousin has led me to properly assess the possible outcomes and ripple effects of every action I intend to take, so I make better decisions. It has also made me grateful and content with all I have and how far I’ve come because I know Jeffery would do anything to simply be alive and take care of his mother. Through research, campaigns, and creating awareness, I will continue to do the best I can to ensure promising children like Jeff do not continue to fall victim to drunk driving. We, as a people, need to join hands together and end this drunk driving epidemic that is ravaging our world. Through protests to reduce blood alcohol content levels and more, we can end accidents caused by drunk driving just as we have created vaccines for COVID.