My name is Bifuh Ngongalah, and I am a 17-year old college sophomore from Cameroon. I attend University of St Thomas MN and I am majoring in Computer science. I have not always been interested in Computer Science; my initial career plan was Medicine but this changed in my sophomore year of high school. I developed a more profound interest in Computer Science because apart from the fact that I am good at math and enjoy it, I enjoy programming, statistics, problem-solving and analysis, and these just combine with Math to form a Computer Science degree. However, I have always been interested in STEM for numerous reasons. Firstly, it is not news to anyone that women are drastically underrepresented in most STEM disciplines, Computer Science being one of them. Black women are even more underrepresented than women, and African Black women are even more underrepresented than Black Women in general. This is the category that I fall under. I took up the challenge of leaving my country at 16 to undertake a STEM degree in the United States because of the low quality of higher education, specifically in STEM fields, in my country. Now most people who come to the US either have long-term plans of settling in the US, or at least working here in the long run. I like to think that I am different because the only US-based work I’m interested in are internships, solely for the work experience. I do not find it normal that people in African countries have to travel across the world just to get a good education, and I intend to work on changing that. It’s true that a single tree doesn’t make a forest, but many drops of water form an ocean. I want to be a drop of water that contributes to forming the ocean of change in underdeveloped countries who do not have enough access to technology. I can think of so many ways that technology can assist in solving so many of the problems faced by underdeveloped countries. Some areas of these countries don’t have access to drinking water because of lack of machinery to process this water and make in drinkable. This is an engineering problem - which falls under STEM. Majority of these countries have very low life expectancy because of famine and disease, and inadequate access to medical aid. This is a medical problem - which falls under STEM. These countries also face high death rates. Efficient analysis of the causes of death, the number of people infected by various diseases, the number of families that carry out family planning and birth control, the number of families that live below the poverty line in various underdeveloped countries can only be done by statisticians, which is affiliated with Math - which falls under STEM. Me getting a STEM degree will not solve all these problems instantly, but it will create one more individual who is working toward the development of these countries, who is working toward general human well-being for the common good. I am only but a 17-year old girl with ambitions greater than my age, and all I ask for from this scholarship is a chance to acquire this degree.

My name is Bifuh Ngongalah, and I am a 17-year old college sophomore from Cameroon. I attend University of St Thomas MN and I am majoring in Computer science. I have not always been interested in Computer Science; my initial career plan was Medicine but this changed in my sophomore year of high school. I developed a more profound interest in Computer Science because apart from the fact that I am good at math and enjoy it, I enjoy programming, statistics, problem-solving and analysis, and these just combine with Math to form a Computer Science degree. However, I have always been interested in STEM for numerous reasons. Firstly, it is not news to anyone that women are drastically underrepresented in most STEM disciplines, Computer Science being one of them. Black women are even more underrepresented than women, and African Black women are even more underrepresented than Black Women in general. This is the category that I fall under. I took up the challenge of leaving my country at 16 to undertake a STEM degree in the United States because of the low quality of higher education, specifically in STEM fields, in my country. Now most people who come to the US either have long-term plans of settling in the US, or at least working here in the long run. I like to think that I am different because the only US-based work I’m interested in are internships, solely for the work experience. I do not find it normal that people in African countries have to travel across the world just to get a good education, and I intend to work on changing that. It’s true that a single tree doesn’t make a forest, but many drops of water form an ocean. I want to be a drop of water that contributes to forming the ocean of change in underdeveloped countries who do not have enough access to technology. I can think of so many ways that technology can assist in solving so many of the problems faced by underdeveloped countries. Some areas of these countries don’t have access to drinking water because of lack of machinery to process this water and make in drinkable. This is an engineering problem - which falls under STEM. Majority of these countries have very low life expectancy because of famine and disease, and inadequate access to medical aid. This is a medical problem - which falls under STEM. These countries also face high death rates. Efficient analysis of the causes of death, the number of people infected by various diseases, the number of families that carry out family planning and birth control, the number of families that live below the poverty line in various underdeveloped countries can only be done by statisticians, which is affiliated with Math - which falls under STEM. Me getting a STEM degree will not solve all these problems instantly, but it will create one more individual who is working toward the development of these countries, who is working toward general human well-being for the common good. I am only but a 17-year old girl with ambitions greater than my age, and all I ask for from this scholarship is a chance to acquire this degree.

My name is Bifuh Ngongalah, and I am a 17-year old college sophomore from Cameroon. I attend University of St Thomas MN and I am majoring in Computer science. I have not always been interested in Computer Science; my initial career plan was Medicine but this changed in my sophomore year of high school. I developed a more profound interest in Computer Science because apart from the fact that I am good at math and enjoy it, I enjoy programming, statistics, problem-solving and analysis, and these just combine with Math to form a Computer Science degree. However, I have always been interested in STEM for numerous reasons. Firstly, it is not news to anyone that women are drastically underrepresented in most STEM disciplines, Computer Science being one of them. Black women are even more underrepresented than women, and African Black women are even more underrepresented than Black Women in general. This is the category that I fall under. I took up the challenge of leaving my country at 16 to undertake a STEM degree in the United States because of the low quality of higher education, specifically in STEM fields, in my country. Now most people who come to the US either have long-term plans of settling in the US, or at least working here in the long run. I like to think that I am different because the only US-based work I’m interested in are internships, solely for the work experience. I do not find it normal that people in African countries have to travel across the world just to get a good education, and I intend to work on changing that. It’s true that a single tree doesn’t make a forest, but many drops of water form an ocean. I want to be a drop of water that contributes to forming the ocean of change in underdeveloped countries who do not have enough access to technology. I can think of so many ways that technology can assist in solving so many of the problems faced by underdeveloped countries. Some areas of these countries don’t have access to drinking water because of lack of machinery to process this water and make in drinkable. This is an engineering problem - which falls under STEM. Majority of these countries have very low life expectancy because of famine and disease, and inadequate access to medical aid. This is a medical problem - which falls under STEM. These countries also face high death rates. Efficient analysis of the causes of death, the number of people infected by various diseases, the number of families that carry out family planning and birth control, the number of families that live below the poverty line in various underdeveloped countries can only be done by statisticians, which is affiliated with Math - which falls under STEM. Me getting a STEM degree will not solve all these problems instantly, but it will create one more individual who is working toward the development of these countries, who is working toward general human well-being for the common good. I am only but a 17-year old girl with ambitions greater than my age, and all I ask for from this scholarship is a chance to acquire this degree.

My name is Bifuh Ngongalah, and I am a 17-year old college sophomore from Cameroon. I attend University of St Thomas MN and I am majoring in Computer science. I have not always been interested in Computer Science; my initial career plan was Medicine but this changed in my sophomore year of high school. I developed a more profound interest in Computer Science because apart from the fact that I am good at math and enjoy it, I enjoy programming, statistics, problem-solving and analysis, and these just combine with Math to form a Computer Science degree. However, I have always been interested in STEM for numerous reasons. Firstly, it is not news to anyone that women are drastically underrepresented in most STEM disciplines, Computer Science being one of them. Black women are even more underrepresented than women, and African Black women are even more underrepresented than Black Women in general. This is the category that I fall under. I took up the challenge of leaving my country at 16 to undertake a STEM degree in the United States because of the low quality of higher education, specifically in STEM fields, in my country. Now most people who come to the US either have long-term plans of settling in the US, or at least working here in the long run. I like to think that I am different because the only US-based work I’m interested in are internships, solely for the work experience. I do not find it normal that people in African countries have to travel across the world just to get a good education, and I intend to work on changing that. It’s true that a single tree doesn’t make a forest, but many drops of water form an ocean. I want to be a drop of water that contributes to forming the ocean of change in underdeveloped countries who do not have enough access to technology. I can think of so many ways that technology can assist in solving so many of the problems faced by underdeveloped countries. Some areas of these countries don’t have access to drinking water because of lack of machinery to process this water and make in drinkable. This is an engineering problem - which falls under STEM. Majority of these countries have very low life expectancy because of famine and disease, and inadequate access to medical aid. This is a medical problem - which falls under STEM. These countries also face high death rates. Efficient analysis of the causes of death, the number of people infected by various diseases, the number of families that carry out family planning and birth control, the number of families that live below the poverty line in various underdeveloped countries can only be done by statisticians, which is affiliated with Math - which falls under STEM. Me getting a STEM degree will not solve all these problems instantly, but it will create one more individual who is working toward the development of these countries, who is working toward general human well-being for the common good. I am only but a 17-year old girl with ambitions greater than my age, and all I ask for from this scholarship is a chance to acquire this degree.