My name is Braden Dennison. I was born and raised in Elizabethtown Kentucky. I am currently a sophomore at Northern Kentucky University. Ever since I was a kid I have loved playing video games. Although, I played baseball and soccer my entire life, I always considered video games to be my favorite hobby. I loved them so much I took classes in high school that were teaching video game development. I absolutely loved those classes I took in high school so I decided to take the computer science track at Northern Kentucky University in hopes I can graduate and get a career in video game development. One of the biggest problems I have in life is anxiety. I have always had nervous "ticks" that showed signs that I might have anxiety. Most of my anxiety comes from unfamiliarity. That was why in the year of 2020 I was finally hit with the realization that I needed help to control my anxiety. Like many people 2020 was a bad year. A global pandemic along with environmental issues were one problem, but the mental health is what hit me the hardest. I had trouble with the sudden change to remote learning along with many family members passing. Not being able to have the normal high school experience and completing my hardest academic year of high school at home pushed me too far. Fortunately with the help of video games and online friends I was able to get my anxiety down. It took some time, but I was able to become what I felt was normal again. To this day I still have problems with anxiety. Luckily, not as bad as I had it in 2020. But I never forget what helped me get out of that dark time. Playing video games helped me become myself again and opened up my eyes to the possibilities that is the computer science field. I have completed many classes and am excited to keep pursuing them to complete my Bachelor's degree. Once I graduate my main goal is to become a video game developer. It will be a challenge but I feel as though I am up for the task. After all, I did survive the disastrous year that was 2020. In the end, I have always loved playing and the act of creating video games. Video games have been there to help me out of the bad times and I hope will continue to lead me down a good path. Although my anxiety has been tough, I was able to overcome it and find a new doorway for my life.

Math is a wonderful subject. Math is very intriguing because of how it shapes the world. Math describes the principles of how the world, and even space, functions. It is also great because of how simple it makes tasks. Dividing up items between people, calculating the cost of something by adding and subtracting, and calculating percentages. Math truly is an amazing concept. One thing I personally like to do is play strategy board games. The amount of math involved in being successful is bizarre. Having to calculate the odds based on percentages can directly affect every move. Also crunching numbers with simple addition, subtraction, or even multiplication weighs in on a decision. Without the math involved, it would not make these types of games very interesting. Another thing that involves math is computers. There is a ton of math involved when it comes to building or maintaining a computer. I for one am interested in the field of computer science and I love all the math that goes into computers. In the end, I really enjoy and value all that math offers. I have been in many math classes and still have some to come. I hope that everyone can love math as much as I do.

Calculus is one of those math topics that is feared among many students. It also doesn’t help when students see many different types of calculus when building their schedules. Many students will say that math, and more specifically calculus, is a waste of time as people will never need to do this high-level math on a daily basis. However, that is not the case. Principles learned in calculus are used all of the time in STEM. This is why calculus is one of the most important, if not the most important, math classes needed by students wanting jobs in the STEM field. The most obvious example of jobs that use calculus all the time is engineering. Engineers have to use math every day when working on a project. Using thermodynamics, three-dimensional space, calculating volumes and density with related rates, and many more instances. Calculus is a necessity for engineers. The argument most people have has now shifted to the fact that they won’t be engineers. While that is valid to say that their major or expertise is not the math-heavy job that is engineering, that doesn’t get them off the hook for why they don’t need calculus. Every computer job whether that be programming, networking, cybersecurity, or any other job requires calculus. With programming, there are many instances where calculus-based equations are needed to complete a task. Networking uses exponential functions on a daily, and the same with cyber security when dealing with subnetting and IP configurations. Every computer-based job requires some knowledge of calculus in order to have them functionally work. The last thing few arguments are people who go into science-related fields that don’t use much-complicated math and say that they won’t need calculus. There are tons of jobs that are in the science field and don’t use the hardest calculus problems on the daily, but there are still benefits to have learned those skills. Working with the difficult equations and problem-solving skills needed in calculus makes all of the mundane math required that much simpler. While solving differential equations might not be needed, it definitely makes those compound fractions needed in the measurement easier to add together. Figuring out what the outcome of a series may not be necessary, being able to find a pattern when something is continuously done may be beneficial. All in all, calculus is a much-needed field of math for all STEM-related majors and jobs. Many people might fear it, which is still understandable, they shouldn’t say it is useless. Those people may not know it yet, but calculus is a big part of their future.

My name is Braden Dennison. I come from what used to be a small town, but now is growing into a medium-sized town, in Kentucky. I come from a middle-class family that makes too much money annually to receive any financial benefits from the government involving education. However, we don’t make enough money to send me all through college without having to take out loans and go into financial debt. I have received a few scholarships in the past but still have thousands of dollars that are spent on tuition, housing, books, and living expenses. I have had to downgrade to a smaller school that had less cost just to be able to afford school. That is why I am trying to get as much money through scholarships as I can. All the money given to help me through scholarships gets me closer to achieving my dream. My dream is to graduate from my four-year university with a bachelor's degree in computer science. I am currently a sophomore in college and still have two and a half years left of school, so any little bit of financial support helps. Once I graduate with my degree I plan on getting a job that pays well and paying back all the money that was spent on me and giving it back to my parents. My parents are the reason I went to college because they know that I can work through the tough times and achieve my goals. They are also the people paying a majority of the cost and I would love to give it back. My dream can also have a major positive impact on our society. Although there are many fields in computer science I would love to get a job as a video game designer. In doing so I will contribute to society by working on and building video games that are loved by many Americans of today. I also want to help by doing community services and potentially helping with fundraisers and donations. As someone who needs money in order to achieve my dream, I would love to be someone who will give money to others to achieve theirs. But in order for this dream to become a reality I need to graduate college and obtain my own personal goal. To do that I really need financial help to get me through college. Thank you for this time.

One of my passions as a kid and even as an adult has been kicking back and playing video games. I started playing video games with my dad as far back as I can remember. It was something that my dad and I would do to bond with each other. As I grew a little bit older, I branched out and explored many different video games by myself. I developed friendships that I still have today over playing video games together. Video games have always been a big part of my childhood, but I decided why should they stop as a kid. In high school, I took a program in which I would learn different coding platforms and dabble in three-dimensional design. The program was called video game and 3D design and there I was able to be HTML 5 certified. I then went on to college to pursue computer science in hopes of becoming a professional video game developer. I am currently a sophomore in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University studying for a bachelor's degree in computer science. I am studying many different programming languages along with cybersecurity. My professional goal is to graduate and get a job in which I can be a video game developer. More in particular, I want to become a programmer who actually works on and does fixes on the games. When it comes to life goals beyond computer science, I really want to have a family. I want to be able to have a great family with which I can share all of my love and experience every day. I want to have children I can raise and bond with just like my dad did with me. I also want to have an impact on society. I want to be a good citizen of the town or city I live in. In high school, I did many things in my community, and I have always felt joy in helping others. I want to continue doing that when I am older too. Both goals can be balanced and go hand in hand with each other. By becoming a video game developer, I am achieving my lifelong dream. But hopefully, I can inspire other people to get involved with the video game community just like it did for me. I believe that I could help other people through my career. In addition, I can share my love of video games with my family and create memories that will last a lifetime. When it comes to the community I could get involved with fundraisers or other events that could involve getting people involved with computer science. There are many opportunities that can arise that I really want to take part in to help others in need along with teaching the ones I care about the true values of life. All of these dreams all derived from one source, video games. And with the opportunities that I have taken and that still lie ahead, I can take them and become my lifelong dream of being a video game developer. And by using my degree in computer science I can create ways to help people all around the world and more importantly, the people I care about the most.