When I decided to pursue higher education in the United States, I knew I was taking a path that no one in my family had taken before me. Growing up in Nepal, I understood that education could create opportunities, but studying abroad felt distant and uncertain. I did not have a clear example to follow or someone who could explain every step of the journey. I had to take that first step myself, trusting that the opportunities ahead would make the uncertainty worthwhile. Today, I am an international student at LaGuardia Community College in New York City, pursuing an Associate of Science in Computer Science. My journey has involved much more than adjusting to college coursework. I have had to adapt to a different culture, navigate an unfamiliar education system, and learn to manage the financial responsibilities of studying in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Being an international student also means having fewer financial assistance options than many of my classmates. These challenges have taught me to become resourceful, independent, and persistent. Rather than allowing these obstacles to limit my ambitions, I have tried to turn every opportunity into progress. I currently maintain a 3.96 GPA and have pursued experiences beyond the classroom, including acceptance into the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency, where I have been developing practical skills in full-stack development. I have also explored New York's technology and venture capital communities, which has broadened my understanding of how ideas, innovation, and technical knowledge can create opportunities beyond an individual career. I chose computer science because I enjoy the combination of logic, creativity, and practical problem-solving. Technology has the ability to cross geographical and cultural boundaries. A solution developed in one part of the world can improve someone's life thousands of miles away. That possibility motivates me to continue learning and to think beyond what I can accomplish individually. After completing my associate degree, I plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and eventually build a career in software engineering. However, I do not want my education to benefit only me. Coming from Nepal, I understand how valuable access to education, technology, and mentorship can be. In the future, I hope to contribute to technology education and mentorship opportunities in Nepal, helping students develop skills and connect with opportunities in the global technology community. I also want to support people from underrepresented backgrounds who may have the ability and ambition to succeed but lack the guidance or resources to get started. My experience in the United States has taught me that opportunity can change the direction of someone's life. It has also shown me how important it is to share that opportunity with others. I came here hoping to build a better future for myself. I now hope to use everything I learn to help others build one for themselves.

I left Nepal with a clear goal but no guarantee that the path ahead would work out. I came to the United States to study computer science because I believed technology could give me the skills to build solutions rather than wait for opportunities to appear. What I did not fully understand was how difficult it would be to build that future in a country, education system, and financial environment that were completely new to me. As an international student, I have had to navigate challenges that extend beyond the classroom. I arrived without a family history of studying in the United States, and I had to learn how college works while simultaneously adapting to a new culture and supporting the financial reality of studying in New York City. International students often have fewer options for financial aid and employment, which has made every educational decision more significant. There have been times when the financial pressure and uncertainty made my path feel much less secure than I wanted it to be. Instead of allowing those obstacles to define my education, I learned to become resourceful and persistent. At LaGuardia Community College, I have maintained a 3.96 GPA while pursuing opportunities outside my regular coursework. I was accepted into the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency, where I have been developing practical full-stack development skills. I have also explored opportunities in New York's technology and venture capital communities because I want to understand how technical ideas move from something built by an individual into something that can create value for entire communities. Computer science became meaningful to me because it combines the things I enjoy most: logic, creativity, and problem-solving. I like that a program can begin as an idea in someone's mind and become something that solves a real problem for another person. That possibility is what keeps me excited about STEM. I do not want to study technology simply because it is a growing field; I want to develop the ability to build useful things. My financial circumstances make continuing that education challenging. As an international student, I cannot rely on many of the forms of financial assistance available to domestic students. The cost of tuition, living expenses, transportation, and other necessities in New York adds considerable pressure. A scholarship of this size would give me more financial stability and allow me to direct more of my energy toward my education, technical development, and future opportunities. After completing my associate degree, I plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science and build a career in software engineering. In the long term, I want to use my education not only to build technology but also to create opportunities for people from backgrounds like mine, including through mentorship and technology education in Nepal. Richard and Rebecca Whiddon used their technical abilities to create, innovate, and help others. That is the kind of STEM professional I hope to become. My journey has taught me that adversity does not have to be the end of a path; sometimes it is what teaches you how to build a stronger one.

I did not grow up assuming that studying in the United States was possible for me. Growing up in Nepal, higher education abroad felt distant, especially without a family history of doing it. But I knew that I wanted to challenge myself, gain an education in technology, and create a future that I could eventually use to help others. That belief led me to leave home and begin my education in New York City. I am now pursuing an Associate of Science in Computer Science at LaGuardia Community College. Coming to the United States meant starting over in many ways. I had to adjust to a different culture, education system, and environment while managing the financial pressure of being an international student. I quickly realized that many forms of financial assistance available to domestic students were not available to me. There were moments when the uncertainty was difficult, but those experiences taught me to become resourceful, patient, and willing to keep moving forward even when I did not have a clear path. My academic progress has become one of the ways I measure how far I have come. I currently hold a 3.96 GPA and have actively pursued opportunities beyond my classes, including the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency, where I have been developing practical skills in full-stack development. I have also explored New York's technology and venture capital communities because I want to understand both how technology is built and how it can create opportunities. One of the things that has inspired me most is not a single famous person, but the people who have taken the time to help me when I was still learning how to navigate an unfamiliar environment. A classmate explaining something I did not understand, a mentor sharing an opportunity, or someone simply believing that I was capable has reminded me how much a small act of support can change someone's direction. Those experiences have shaped the kind of person I want to become. After completing my associate degree, I plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and build a career in software engineering. Long term, I want to use my education and experience to create opportunities for people from backgrounds like mine, particularly in Nepal. I hope to contribute to technology education, mentorship, and eventually projects that connect talented people in Nepal with opportunities in the global technology community. Coming to the United States was a risk, but it was also a decision to believe in my own potential. I have learned that success is not only about reaching a goal yourself; it is also about using what you learn to make the path easier for someone else. This scholarship would help me continue building that path while giving me the opportunity to focus more fully on the education that I came here to pursue.

I left Nepal to learn how to build a different future, but I have never wanted that future to be only mine. Growing up in Nepal, I saw how much talent can exist without enough opportunities to develop it. For many students, access to technology, mentorship, and the right educational resources can determine how far their potential goes. When I came to the United States to study computer science, I was not only pursuing a degree. I was gaining access to knowledge and experiences that I hope to eventually bring back to the people and communities that shaped me. I am currently pursuing an Associate of Science in Computer Science at LaGuardia Community College in New York City. The journey has challenged me in ways I did not expect. I have had to adapt to a new country and education system while managing the financial responsibilities of being an international student. At the same time, those challenges have strengthened my determination. I currently hold a 3.96 GPA and have pursued opportunities outside the classroom, including the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency, where I am developing practical skills in software engineering and full-stack development. My long-term goal is to build a career in technology and use that experience to create opportunities for others in Nepal. I want to contribute to technology-driven businesses, educational initiatives, and mentorship opportunities that help young people develop skills that can connect them to the global economy. Nepal has talented and ambitious students; I want more of them to have the opportunity to turn that potential into something tangible. I also want my impact to go beyond simply bringing technology back home. My experience as an international student has taught me how valuable it is when someone takes the time to explain an unfamiliar system, share an opportunity, or simply believe in your potential. As my career develops, I hope to become that person for students in Nepal. Whether through mentorship, community programs, or eventually supporting technology education, I want to help make the path a little clearer for someone who is where I once was. My education in the United States is giving me more than technical knowledge. It is teaching me how to adapt, take initiative, communicate across cultures, and recognize opportunities that I can eventually help create for others. I left Nepal because I wanted to learn what was possible. I hope to return that investment by helping make more possibilities available to the next generation.

The Semicolon It was 11:47 p.m. when Rohan noticed it. He had been staring at the same function for forty minutes — the kind of staring that stops being productive around minute twelve but continues anyway out of stubbornness. The assignment was due at midnight. The code was supposed to calculate the shortest path between two nodes in a graph. It did not. It did nothing. It sat there, silent and smug, returning no output whatsoever, just a blinking cursor that felt, after a while, like it was mocking him personally. He scrolled up. He scrolled down. He checked his logic, found it sound, and felt the particular despair of being correct in theory and completely broken in practice. He walked to the kitchen, drank a glass of water, and returned as though the brief absence might have fixed things on its own. It had not. He read through the code one more time, slowly, line by line — and there it was. A semicolon. Sitting at the end of a for-loop declaration like it belonged there, comfortable and unbothered, quietly responsible for the last forty-seven minutes of his life. It had told the loop to execute once with an empty body and move on, and the rest of the code had followed that instruction faithfully, without question. Rohan deleted it. One key. One tap. He ran the program. It worked. He did not celebrate. He simply sat in the blue light of his monitor and stared at the correct output with the hollow expression of someone who has survived something they cannot explain to anyone who was not there. He thought about texting his roommate. "I found the bug." "What was it?" "A semicolon." "...That's it?" He would have to say yes. And his roommate would nod politely, not understanding, and Rohan would be left alone with the knowledge that he had spent the better part of an hour in combat with a single punctuation mark — and won — and that this victory would appear nowhere on his resume and be remembered by no one but himself. He closed his laptop and made tea. Outside, the city was doing what it always does — loud, indifferent, luminous, unbothered by the private battles being fought in dorm rooms across its boroughs. Rohan stood at the window and felt the quiet peace of a problem solved that no one else would ever know existed. He went to bed at 11:53 p.m., assignment submitted, mind finally still. The semicolon was gone. The code worked. He figured that counted for something.

I did not grow up assuming college was part of my story. Raised in Nepal, higher education felt distant — something for people with clearer paths and more resources than I had. When I made the decision to come to the United States and pursue a degree, I was stepping into the unknown. No family member had done it before me. No one could tell me what to expect. I just knew that if I wanted a different future, I had to be willing to build it myself. That decision brought me to LaGuardia Community College in New York City, where I am now pursuing an Associate of Science in Computer Science. Adjusting to life here was not easy. I was navigating a new country, a new culture, and a new education system all at once — while keeping up with coursework that demanded real technical skill. Financial pressure added another layer. As an international student, many forms of aid that my peers could access were simply not available to me. I learned quickly that I would have to be resourceful, focused, and patient. What kept me going was purpose. I fell in love with computer science — the logic of it, the creativity of it, the way it could be used to solve real problems for real people. I started to see a version of myself that could build things that mattered. That vision became my motivation on the hard days. I have worked to turn that motivation into action. I currently hold a 3.96 GPA and am on track to graduate in spring 2027. I was accepted into the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency, a competitive full-stack development program that has pushed me to grow as an engineer beyond the classroom. I have pursued internship opportunities in New York City's tech and venture capital ecosystem, because I want to understand not just how to build technology, but how it shapes the world. My next step is transferring to the City College of New York to complete a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. From there, I want to work in software engineering — and eventually contribute to creating opportunities for people from underrepresented backgrounds, the way others are now helping to create it for me. This scholarship would make a real difference. The financial weight of being an international student in New York is significant, and every bit of support allows me to redirect energy toward what actually matters: learning, building, and growing. I left home to bet on myself. New York has been hard, and it has been worth it. I am not done yet — and with this scholarship, I would be one step closer to where I am going.

Growing up in Nepal, college felt like something that existed for other people. Coming to the United States as an international student and enrolling at LaGuardia Community College was a decision I made with no roadmap and no family member who had done it before me. I am a first-generation college student in every sense: the first to navigate applications, financial aid, transfer planning, and the unwritten rules of American higher education — largely on my own. There was no one to call when I had questions. I figured things out by asking, researching, and sometimes just getting it wrong and trying again. That experience has shaped how I approach everything. I do not wait for things to be handed to me. I find a way. Despite the challenges, I am proud to be pursuing an Associate of Science in Computer Science with a 3.96 GPA at LaGuardia, on track to graduate in spring 2027. My goal is to transfer to the City College of New York and earn a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Long term, I want to work in software engineering — building products that solve real problems and create opportunities for people who, like me, had to work hard just to get a seat at the table. I have already begun laying that foundation. I am a participant in the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency, a competitive full-stack development bootcamp where I am gaining hands-on engineering experience beyond what the classroom offers. I have also been actively pursuing internship opportunities in New York City's tech and venture capital space, learning how the industry works and where I can contribute to it. These experiences have confirmed that this is the right path — and that I have what it takes to succeed in it. What stands between me and that future is, in large part, financial. As an international student, many traditional forms of financial aid are unavailable to me by default. The cost of tuition, living expenses, and everything that comes with building a life in one of the most expensive cities in the world adds up quickly. I manage it, but it is a constant pressure that pulls focus away from where I want it — on learning, growing, and preparing for what comes next. This scholarship would directly ease that pressure. It would allow me to invest more of my energy into my education, my projects, and my professional development rather than financial stress. More than the money itself, it would be a signal that the path I have chosen — leaving home, starting over, betting on myself — is a path worth supporting. I came here with a goal and the willingness to work for it. This scholarship would help me get there.