Middle school. A Girls Who Code Club was started at my middle school, and I joined that club because I always was interested in technology but never had a chance to pursue those interests before. Although it was unfortunately short-lived due to it being canceled a year after it started, I will never forget the comfort and supportive atmosphere I felt in befriending girls who had a similar interest in technology. GWC enhanced my interest in pursuing IT so much that I decided to apply to a high school that combined vocational education and traditional academics, with IT as one of the vocational disciplines. On the first day of high school, I cautiously opened the IT classroom door and sat in my assigned seat. I looked around the room and I didn’t see a single person who wasn’t male or white, with the exception of the teacher who was a man of color. By the time class started, there was only one other girl that walked into class. Fortunately, the two IT classes in my grade merged after freshman year, resulting in my program being diversified to four girls and three students of color in a class of over twenty. IT in high school was extremely different from GWC, and being one of four girls and one of three students of color in that class was jarring to say the least. Luckily there was a club called Women In STEAM that was dedicated to supporting girls who are interested in working in the STEAM industry, I joined that club and eventually became secretary. In WIS, our meetings usually consist of challenges where people work with a team to accomplish a task within a time limit. However, one meeting that stands out to me is when instead of doing our challenges, we watched a Ted Talk about double standards in the learning process for boys and girls. Boys are encouraged to approach new topics with fearless abandon, to try again and again no matter how many times they fail. With girls, perfection is expected, and this expectation is enforced both externally and internally. During the meeting, we had a conversation about this double standard and everyone shared their own experiences with feeling like they couldn’t afford to fail. Promoting failure as a learning tool to underrepresented demographics in STEAM is extremely important because underrepresented demographics are held to an unfairly high standard, which presents an obstacle to the learning process of becoming great at any discipline. The members of WIS may not necessarily be a reflection of the thought processes of girls and women as a whole, but it was extremely valuable insight considering that sometimes I find myself expecting perfection of myself even though I know that’s impossible. Failure can be used as a learning tool, after one fails one can find the errors, correct the errors, and repeat that cycle until they find that they have learned what they wanted to learn. I will incorporate this knowledge into my thinking in the future by welcoming mistakes in my learning process and by encouraging others to approach new topics with fearless abandon.

Smuckers Uncrustables’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were in my line of sight, mocking me as I stood in line in the cafeteria. My eyes were drawn to the purple plastic packaging as my mind wandered in curiosity. What would that sandwich taste like? Why is everyone so obsessed with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? These are questions I will never know the answer to. From birth, I’ve had severe food allergies. No one else in my family has food allergies. Food is more than just sustenance, it is also a way to bond and forge connections. As a result, throughout the years, I’ve felt isolated from my family and peers at times. My family’s attempt to comfort me by saying that I would grow out my food allergies didn’t help with my feelings of isolation and has made me feel more frustrated. This frustration motivated me to look for possible ways to treat my allergies. My exploration brought me to the concept of gene editing. The idea that I could just take out whatever gene gave me allergies of my DNA was appealing. I was always fascinated by technology throughout my childhood, so the idea that I could make it so that no one would have to experience food allergies ever again with the help of technology ensnared me. Even if I probably won’t live long enough to edit food allergies out of my gene pool, I could work towards that goal so people in the future won’t experience the same struggles I do. Gene editing is a multidisciplinary field, not only consisting of geneticists but artificial intelligence researchers and computational biologists. Genetics and computational biology are interesting, but AI is fascinating. My exploration of the concept of gene editing led to me being captivated by how much can be done with AI, especially in healthcare. Fascinated with the possibilities of AI, I decided to pursue a degree in Computer Science with the hopes of concentrating in AI as I get further into my college career. Long after I decided what I was going to do in college, my motivation increased tenfold due to surprising news. One day in the beginning of this year, my day had gone from average to disappointing after an appointment with my allergist. I learned that I had grown more allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. For the majority of my life I have had a level four allergy, a classification that indicates a severe allergy. In that appointment, I discovered that my allergy’s severity jumped from level four to level six, which is the most severe an allergy can be. Even though the news didn’t change my diet, the knowledge that I would most likely never grow out of my allergy was upsetting after spending my life hoping that I would eventually grow out of it. The Forbidden Foods Scholarship would assist me in pursuing my goals by easing the financial strain of pursuing an education in artificial intelligence so that in the future, others won’t have to deal with conditions similar to mine.