One of the biggest social issues in my eyes is that of homelessness and hunger rates. I'm on the board of ambassadors for the NiHao Food Bank Initiative, an organization of Asian Americans fighting against hunger in the DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) area of Texas. We have partnered with locations such as the North Texas Food Bank (NFTB), where we have provided meals for thousands of homeless. This quickly became my favorite volunteering location. When a student who had just moved to the United States asked where they could begin volunteering, I brought her here, to the NFTB. Now, she is one of my best friends. Collaborating with the North Texas Food Bank has allowed me to experience food packing first-hand and create lasting experiences with people who I wouldn’t otherwise be close with. Furthermore, NiHao has connected with schools in our area, allowing our cause to spread throughout the community, to people of all types. The experience of corresponding and meeting with school representatives has taught me how to reach out into a community to ask for help to fight together against our common enemies of oppression and starvation. Most schools have gladly agreed to work with us, and NiHao has also received numerous awards since then. With the NiHao Foodbank Initiative, I have learned to fundraise and ask for help at various events, including traditional Asian festivals that have helped me to reconnect with my own culture. I have also experienced food packing, and the joys that come with delivering the packages to the people who need them. My experiences working with the hungry and fundraising for NiHao have made me much more aware about the staggering size of the homeless and hungry population right here, locally. I also now realize that a bigger percentage than expected of this population is children. This realization showed me just how privileged I was and made me start to want to do even more to help. I ended up deciding to take up the position to lead the social media team of NiHao, allowing me to spread our organization and its cause further. I now own both the organization's Facebook and their Instagram accounts, posting regularly. In college, I continue to contribute to similar organizations, advocating for the hungry while also working against discrimination and toward an inclusive environment for everyone. Homelessness and hunger will always be pressing issues in our time, but I will continue fighting to raise awareness and help the hungry population as much as I can.

One of the biggest social issues in my eyes is that of homelessness and hunger rates. I'm on the board of ambassadors for the NiHao Food Bank Initiative, an organization of Asian Americans fighting against hunger in the DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) area of Texas. We have partnered with locations such as the North Texas Food Bank (NFTB), where we have provided meals for thousands of homeless. This quickly became my favorite volunteering location. When a student who had just moved to the United States asked where they could begin volunteering, I brought her here, to the NFTB. Now, she is one of my best friends. Collaborating with the North Texas Food Bank has allowed me to experience food packing first-hand and create lasting experiences with people who I wouldn’t otherwise be close with. Furthermore, NiHao has connected with schools in our area, allowing our cause to spread throughout the community, to people of all types. The experience of corresponding and meeting with school representatives has taught me how to reach out into a community to ask for help to fight together against our common enemies of oppression and starvation. Most schools have gladly agreed to work with us, and NiHao has also received numerous awards since then. With the NiHao Foodbank Initiative, I have learned to fundraise and ask for help at various events, including traditional Asian festivals that have helped me to reconnect with my own culture. I have also experienced food packing, and the joys that come with delivering the packages to the people who need them. I've organized a variety of our volunteering events (one pictured). My experiences working with the hungry and fundraising for NiHao have made me much more aware about the staggering size of the homeless and hungry population right here, locally. I also now realize that a bigger percentage than expected of this population is children. This realization showed me just how privileged I was and made me start to want to do even more to help. I ended up deciding to take up the position to lead the social media team of NiHao, allowing me to spread our organization and its cause further. I now own both the organization's Facebook and their Instagram accounts, posting regularly. In college, I continue to contribute to similar organizations, advocating for the hungry while also working against discrimination and toward an inclusive environment for everyone. Homelessness and hunger will always be pressing issues in our time, but I will continue fighting to raise awareness and help the hungry population as much as I can.

One of the biggest social issues in my eyes is that of homelessness and hunger rates. I'm on the board of ambassadors for the NiHao Food Bank Initiative, an organization of Asian Americans fighting against hunger in the DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) area of Texas. We have partnered with locations such as the North Texas Food Bank (NFTB), where we have provided meals for thousands of homeless. This quickly became my favorite volunteering location. When a student who had just moved to the United States asked where they could begin volunteering, I brought her here, to the NFTB. Now, she is one of my best friends. Collaborating with the North Texas Food Bank has allowed me to experience food packing first-hand and create lasting experiences with people who I wouldn’t otherwise be close with. Furthermore, NiHao has connected with schools in our area, allowing our cause to spread throughout the community, to people of all types. The experience of corresponding and meeting with school representatives has taught me how to reach out into a community to ask for help to fight together against our common enemies of oppression and starvation. Most schools have gladly agreed to work with us, and NiHao has also received numerous awards since then. With the NiHao Foodbank Initiative, I have learned to fundraise and ask for help at various events, including traditional Asian festivals that have helped me to reconnect with my own culture. I have also experienced food packing, and the joys that come with delivering the packages to the people who need them. My experiences working with the hungry and fundraising for NiHao have made me much more aware about the staggering size of the homeless and hungry population right here, locally. I also now realize that a bigger percentage than expected of this population is children. This realization showed me just how privileged I was and made me start to want to do even more to help. I ended up deciding to take up the position to lead the social media team of NiHao, allowing me to spread our organization and its cause further. I now own both the organization's Facebook and their Instagram accounts, posting regularly. In college, I will continue to contribute to and create organizations like this, advocating for the hungry while also working against discrimination and toward an inclusive environment for everyone. Homelessness and hunger will always be pressing issues in our time, but I will continue fighting to raise awareness and help the hungry population as much as I can.

As an HVAC engineer, my dad was always fixing and building things, and I always loved it when he asked me to help. I remember us fixing up his car together and then playing catch in the backyard, like families on television do. But as I got older, he grew detached and moody, and our games together mostly ended. I eventually learned why: he suffered from Glaucoma since youth and was experiencing another large decline in his vision. He refused to drive after he accidentally drove me over the highway median. This and the many failed eye surgeries he’d undergone left him bitter. Learning to understand why my dad acted the way he did allowed me to reconnect with him. This was at a time when I was first starting my own battles with Graves' Disease, an autoimmune disease that has greatly affected my everyday life. I am on constant medication and suffer from issues with eating, overheating, emotional outbursts, fatigue, and a fast heartbeat. For the longest time, my condition was my excuse for everything. A bad grade was because I was too fatigued to study. Poor performance at a fencing competition was because my heart went too fast. Screaming at my family was because I couldn't control my anger. At one point, it finally clicked for me that I had become just as my father was when I feared and hated him the most. He told me about opportunities he couldn’t take as a teenager because of his eyesight and pushed me to chase my dreams by overcoming my own struggles with health. I started wanting to become an engineer like him to solve the problems of the world. I ended up in a research lab, where one of our topics of study is electrical, self-driving vehicles. I am reminded of how me and my dad worked on his car together, and how that same car nearly killed me. Quickly, I earned multiple research grants/scholarships and began presenting at conferences. For fencing, I started going to more practices and began analyzing videos of world champions. I started going to national tournaments each month and became nationally ranked, placing top 8 at the summer nationals and top 32 at the junior Olympics. I was proud to have proven that I could do it all despite of my condition. A scholarship opportunity would really help me afford an expensive college that has given me no aid and my parents are reluctant to help with. It would also be a major help to a family filled with health concerns, from my Graves' Disease and my father's Glaucoma/Cataracts, to my diagnosed depression/anxiety and my sisters struggles with her own mental health and diagnosed bipolar disorder. But it represents more than financial assistance; it's a chance to honor my unlock my full potential, and honor my now blind father by contributing to groundbreaking advancements in my field despite all of my adversities. I am committed to my goals and wish to benefit society. With your support, I am confident that I can turn my dreams into reality, fulfill my passion, and make a lasting impact on our collective future.

As an HVAC engineer, my dad was always fixing and building things, and I always loved it when he asked me to help. I remember us fixing up his car together and then playing catch in the backyard, like families on television do. But as I got older, he grew detached and moody, and our games together mostly ended. I eventually learned why: he suffered from Glaucoma since youth and was experiencing another large decline in his vision. He refused to drive after he accidentally drove me over the highway median. This and the many failed eye surgeries he’d undergone left him bitter. Learning to understand why my dad acted the way he did allowed me to reconnect with him. This was at a time when I was first starting my own battles with Graves' Disease, an autoimmune disease that has greatly affected my everyday life. I am on constant medication and suffer from issues with eating, overheating, emotional outbursts, fatigue, and a fast heartbeat. For the longest time, my condition was my excuse for everything. A bad grade was because I was too fatigued to study. Poor performance at a fencing competition was because my heart went too fast. Screaming at my family was because I couldn't control my anger. At one point, it finally clicked for me that I had become just as my father was when I feared and hated him the most. He told me about opportunities he couldn’t take as a teenager because of his eyesight and pushed me to chase my dreams by overcoming my own struggles with health. I started wanting to become an engineer like him to solve the problems of the world. I ended up in a research lab, where one of our topics of study is electrical, self-driving vehicles. I am reminded of how me and my dad worked on his car together, and how that same car nearly killed me. Quickly, I earned multiple research grants/scholarships and began presenting at conferences. For fencing, I started going to more practices and began analyzing videos of world champions. I started going to national tournaments each month and became nationally ranked, placing top 8 at the summer nationals and top 32 at the junior Olympics. I was proud to have proven that I could do it all despite of my condition. A scholarship opportunity would really help me afford an expensive college that has given me no aid and my parents are reluctant to help with. It would also be a major help to a family filled with health concerns, from my Graves' Disease and my father's Glaucoma/Cataracts, to my diagnosed depression/anxiety and my sisters struggles with her own mental health and diagnosed bipolar disorder. But it represents more than financial assistance; it's a chance to honor my unlock my full potential, and honor my now blind father by contributing to groundbreaking advancements in my field despite all of my adversities. I am committed to my goals and wish to benefit society. With your support, I am confident that I can turn my dreams into reality, fulfill my passion, and make a lasting impact on our collective future.

My father handed me a violin bow at the age of 3. He played when he was younger and even met my mother in orchestra. And as much as I hated practicing all the time, violin became a way for me to connect with my father. To me, my dad is the epitome of success. Not only did he work hard to leave Taiwan and raise us in America, but he’s overcome many hardships in his own life. As an engineer, he was always fixing and building things, and I always loved it when he asked me to help. I remember us fixing up his car together and then playing catch in the backyard, like families on television do. But as I got older, he grew detached and moody, and our games together mostly ended. Violin was one of the only things that still connected me to him. He still made me practice every day. I eventually learned he suffered from Glaucoma since youth and was experiencing another large decline in his vision. He refused to drive after he accidentally drove me over the highway median. This and the many failed eye surgeries he’d undergone left him bitter and blind in one eye. Learning to understand why my dad acted the way he did allowed me to reconnect with him. He told me about opportunities he couldn’t take as a teenager because of his eyesight and pushed me to chase my dreams. I started wanting to become an engineer like him to solve the problems of the world. Now, in my research lab, one of our topics of study is electrical, self-driving vehicles. I am reminded of how me and my dad worked on his car together, and how that same car nearly killed me. My experiences growing up with a visually-impaired father taught me to see from others’ points of view and inspired me to work to one day use engineering to help people. Recently, my family has been playing music together with me and my dad on violin, my mother on piano, and my sister on cello. We play music from my dad’s childhood, since he can no longer read sheet music. It truly amazes and inspires me how he has managed to overcome his vision-impairment to play music, enjoy life, and work to support us. And he has also helped our family overcome our own struggles, from my chronic illness (Grave’s Disease) to my sister’s battles with depression and drug addiction. I truly cannot think of a more successful person than one who has overcome difficult struggles of his own and helped others to do the same; one who remains happy after the world was against him; one who has used his love of music to bond his family back together. That person is my father.

Opportunity died June 10th, 2018. I wouldn’t know of his death until Feb 13, 2019, when NASA disclosed it. I remember the day he died. I was in school, the same place where my fascination with space had first begun. Years before, in the third grade, I had to watch a YouTube documentary on the birth of twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Back then, granted I was eight, I lacked drive and clear career aspirations. This documentary was one of my first introductions to the real world of space and engineering. My favorite part was seeing the humanity in their work, not just the technical aspects. The rovers’ cute, humanoid features, like big eyes and tiny hands, showed the personality and fun of their creators, who’d call the rovers their babies and nicknames like “Oppy” for Opportunity. You could see the joy and pride they found in their work. Over the years, I grew attached to Oppy and watched his journey through life on Mars. I finally knew what I wanted to do: aerospace engineering. NASA announced Opportunity’s death on February 13th, 2019. Last year, the famous documentary on Opportunity’s death, “Good Night Oppy”, was released, bringing to the world the same love for the adorable rover that I had since third grade. The movie showed his final, teary transmission, and I had now witnessed his birth, life, and death. From the life I have lived with him, I have taken inspiration and a calling to pursue my dream of working in aerospace. My father used to tell that, as a child, he was also infatuated with space and wanted to become an astronaut. He told me about how his visual impairment didn't allow him to reach for his dreams, but he pushed me to pursue my own. This dream pushed me out of my high school and into the engineering track of a STEM school. Here, I took real engineering classes, alongside inspiring college students with the same goals as mine. These classes supplied me with invaluable connections with people who had impressive jobs in different fields of engineering but still came back to introductory level classes to learn more. I got the opportunity to work in a research lab with people who wanted to affect the world in the way I did. I wondered if this could compare to how it felt for the people in the documentary. My excitement was unimaginable when I was given the opportunity to work on the very thing that kept Opportunity alive: solar panels. Now, I work to use multiport converters to increase the efficiency of solar panels by minimizing energy waste and stabilizing power. In winter, it took Opportunity days of sleep to recharge. But with the work I'm trying to do, I hope to one day extend the lives of rovers and similar devices. These experiences have helped prepare me for an innovative future, and I thank Oppy for his life and how it has impacted mine and countless others. Now, I hope the dreams he has given me will continue to drive me forward and allow me to pay him back.

Throughout my diverse experiences in engineering, volunteering, fencing, art, and dog-raising, I have made various ideas for innovations that could help to improve the world. For engineering, I am currently conducting research at the University of North Texas (UNT) in a power electronics and renewable energies lab under a professor of electrical engineering. I researched over the summer, earning a stipend for working 35+ hours a week for 10 weeks. I also applied for and was awarded a research grant. In this lab, I am currently working on a new family of multiport DC-DC converters, focusing on buck-boost converters, which will be able to improve the efficiency of solar panels and other forms of renewable energy. DC systems are more flexible, effective, less conversion levels than traditional battery-based AC renewable energy systems. Multiport DC-DC converters, specifically, have applications in smart grids and renewable energy, integrating various power sources, optimizing power distribution, and adapting to dynamic environments. And buck-boost converters excel in regulating voltage for diverse applications, offering versatility, efficiency, and reliability. This is why multiport DC-DC buck-boost converters are my field of research. Currently, we have designed the PCB board and recently received a prototype, after sending the model for fabrication. I will continue to work on this prototype by soldering in the components, and hopefully I will have a working model, along with some analyzable voltage waveforms and graphs to add to my poster, which I will be presenting at the next UNT Scholars Day Conference. As for volunteering, I am on the board of ambassadors for the NiHao Foodbank Initiative, a group of Asian Americans against hunger in the DFW area. My experiences fundraising, asking for volunteers, and trying to coordinate with schools gave me the idea for an innovative mobile app which could revolutionize volunteering with food banks, by connecting volunteers with relevant opportunities based on skills/availability, providing real-time updates on urgent needs, and fostering community through gamification. Volunteers can indicate skills, receive training, and easily donate money or food. The app could also use feedback and ratings to maintain accountability and recognize contributions, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of food distribution efforts. I have also been fencing since I was nine and am now nationally ranked. I have received impressive results, such as top 8 at summer nationals and top 32 at junior Olympics. My sport is heavily connected to my field of study (electrical engineering), as fencing involves a lot of electrical wiring and conductive clothing, in order to see when someone has been hit. An innovation that I think would benefit this is improved video-replay systems. Currently, the video review system has no sound and the has a two-dimensional image becomes flat and two-dimensional, making it harder for the referee, if he is unsure about a point. Often times, there are no video systems at all until you reach top 16 at nationals, or are fencing outside of the US. This often results in incorrect calls and arguing/yelling coaches and parents. Another solution to this could be the use of sensors. In saber fencing, right of way is the most important thing. Special motion sensors could tell the ref who was beating who's blade, or who was going forward first, all important things which contribute to right of way. I have always been interested in art. Recently on TikTok, there has been a trend of calling out creators for "cheating" art using AI generated art. I think a good innovation would be an application on your phone that instantly tells you when a piece of art is AI generated or plagiarized from somewhere. Integrity is very important, and the true creators of art should always be credited. Furthermore, maybe TikTok could improve their flagging abilities and be able to take down pages that purely use AI art or plagiarize off of genuine creators. On of the biggest innovations I have worked on is one with my dog. We adopted a baby chichuahua named Peluche to be an emotional support animal for my sister. When she first saw him, she joked about him looking scruffy and having a weird name. Peluche is French for stuffed animal, something my sister thought couldn’t describe the skinny and seemingly stuffing-less puppy. He was a bit aggressive and constantly bared his teeth. But the biggest reason everyone wanted to return him was because he wasn’t potty-trained. I seem to be the only one who became deeply attached, finding his clumsy antics endearing. I gave him the nickname “Lu” and let him sleep on my bed each night. Dedicated to keeping him, I tried to potty-train him, but it was hard because I couldn’t constantly monitor him. After consulting various articles and videos to no avail, I remembered the vibrating collar my mom used to train our other dog, and I borrowed it to see if it could help me. After an initial test, I found it was useful, but only with constant surveillance, so I decided to modify the collar to make my own device. To find a way to detect when he peed, I researched different types of sensors, ultimately deciding on moisture sensors, a reliable detector of urine. I also added an alarm system to the collar, so I could hear when Lu was peeing and move him outside, to teach him the correct place to go. By the end of my endeavor, it was all integrated and sewn into an outfit for Lu to wear. Surprisingly, my family supported me and even decided to help me file for a patent. I learned that patent applications require a lot of writing– more than you’d think possible for a seemingly simple device. Getting the opportunity to draw my own diagrams, I drew four on my iPad, with no idea if I was doing it right. I remember my pride when the patent lawyer said my diagrams looked professionally made and ready for submission. The most tedious part was writing the descriptions for these diagrams, which had over 50 labeled points. My patent application remains under review, but it was a great introduction to a world of engineering and innovation. One in ten pets adopted from a shelter are returned in under six months. Hopefully an innovation such as this one can help to get rid of this statistic. It is apparent that I have constantly considered ways of improvement for all of the different parts and experiences of my life. Some are merely ideas, but some I have been working on for a while. Hopefully I will be able to successfully have a few of these ideas come to fruition, along with any I come up with in the future, and truly make my impact on the world some day.

Graves' Disease is an autoimmune disease that has greatly affected my everyday life. I am on constant medication and suffer from issues with eating, overheating, emotional outbursts, fatigue, and a fast heartbeat. I have been diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism from a young age. The first time I went on medication, it greatly decreased my appetite. When I went to a new doctor because I was underweight, he did nothing and instead said I should be happy because a lot of young girls want to be skinnier. This was/is the worst treatment I ever received from a healthcare professional. I will never forget his unprofessionalness, along with his complete disregard for my condition. I went off the medication. This was during the pandemic, so I stopped going to check-ups. When I went back to my old family doctor, she decided my condition was too extreme and I had to go to a specialist. Apparently, she reported that I had just recently been diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism and that I was on heart medication for a year, both untrue facts. My specialist was better than my family doctor. She finally diagnosed me with Graves' Disease and said funny things, like that she could see my thyroid from across the room. But she also said scary things, like that she was surprised if I hadn't yet gotten thyroid storm, a rare, life-threatening condition. I got back on medication and began having frequent blood drawings. But overall, my negative experiences have given me a level of mistrust in the American healthcare system. For the longest time, my condition was my excuse for everything. A bad grade was because I was too fatigued to study. Poor performance at a fencing competition was because my heart went too fast. Screaming at my family was because I couldn't control my anger. While these things all had an ounce of truth to them, I was basically giving up on life. It took my parents telling me they felt like they couldn't even talk to their daughter without her blowing up to make me realize that I couldn't let my condition define me or my life. I realized that I should be using Graves' disease not as reason for failure, but for why success was so impressive. So I started trying harder-- at everything. My grades skyrocketed. I applied for an early-college STEM school, where I took all of my classes alongside college students. I even skipped levels in math and became a tutor for students in calculus I/II/III and electrical engineering. I went even further with academics, researching in power-electronics at my university, earning multiple research grants/scholarships and presenting at conferences. For fencing, I started going to more practices and began analyzing videos of world champions. I started going to national tournaments each month and became nationally ranked, placing top 8 at the summer nationals and top 32 at the junior Olympics. I was proud to have proven that I could do it all despite of my condition. With both fencing and academics, I recently committed to MIT, which has been my unattainable dream school since childhood. But with all of my successes, I never forgot how I'd been treated and neglected by healthcare professionals in the past. I had become the team lead of a volunteering group at Rays of Light, an organization dedicated to helping disabled children and their parents to live happier lives. Some of the kids I have spent time with will forever leave their marks on me. And I hope that I have been able to show them that they too can achieve their goals.

Understanding the nature of our universe is important not only as a scientific endeavor but also as an essential human trait. I firmly believe that delving into the mysteries of the cosmos is necessary for our collective growth and progress. Firstly, comprehending the universe allows us to gain insight into our place in it. It humbles us by revealing the vastness and complexity of the universe, reminding us that we are part of something much larger than ourselves. This understanding fosters a sense of interconnectedness and unity, encouraging us to collaborate and work together as a global community. Additionally, studying the universe drives technological advancements. As we strive to unlock the secrets of distant galaxies and celestial phenomena, we develop innovative technologies that benefit society. From space exploration to advancements in communication and medicine, our quest for cosmic knowledge has practical applications that improve our lives and drive human progress. As I embark on my own journey to contribute to our understanding of the universe, several ideas and concepts guide me. I believe that I can contribute to this understanding through research. Currently, I am conducting research under a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of North Texas. My research is in power electronics and multiport converters. This experience has been a great introduction to the vast world of research. I hope to one day be able to research in my field of interest, aerospace. This is one of the ways in which I could help to contribute to our understanding of the universe. Furthermore, curiosity and a willingness to embrace the unknown are required. The universe is vast and filled with things we have yet to discover. Embracing uncertainty and remaining open-minded allows us to challenge existing theories and explore uncharted territories, leading to groundbreaking discoveries. In addition to scientific concepts, I hope to employ creativity and innovation in my pursuit of cosmic understanding. As an aspiring aerospace engineer, I recognize the power of technology to extend our observational capabilities and gather data from distant parts of the universe. I have recently gotten the experience to work with a patent lawyer to patent one of my technological inventions. This experience has introduced me to the adult world of innovation. By continuing to design and build sophisticated instruments, I aspire to contribute to space missions and observational projects that can help humankind to expand our knowledge of the cosmos. Finally, collaboration is at the core of scientific progress. Working with diverse teams of scientists and researchers fosters a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives. I have a bit of experience working with others, whether it be in my school (where I work with the board of the academic society as a math and engineering tutor), in my internship (where I worked as an information technician for the girl scouts of the USA), or in my research (where I work under a PI and a multitude of doctoral candidates and graduate students). I hope to participate in more collaborative projects that unite experts from around the world, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries to collectively advance our understanding of the cosmos. In conclusion, the quest to better understand the nature of our universe is an imperative undertaking that shapes not only our scientific knowledge but also our worldview as humans. As I pursue my passion for STEM and engineering, I am committed to contributing to this noble endeavor. By embracing research, curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, I hope to make meaningful contributions toward unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos and inspiring future generations to continue this awe-inspiring journey of exploration and discovery.