One of my favorite hobbies has always been playing board games. It’s one of the few things that my family can all do together. Some of our favorite games are Apples to Apples, Clue, and Balderdash. Every year, we have a family reunion in Michigan and we have a tradition of playing board games there too. We play monopoly every time, though we almost never finish it. I’ve also brought this love of board games to school. I’m the president of our school's Role Playing Games Club where I host a space for people to play D&D and other lesser known RPGs. I’m currently planning my own campaign to run sometime soon. Lastly, I’m part of a Warhammer group where we play different games set in the Warhammer 40k universe like Necromunda. This is probably where I’m most active right now. I think the reason I’m enjoying Necromunda so much is because of the stories that it tells. If you’ve never heard of it, it is a tabletop gang warfare game. Each player creates their own gang, with each character developing a unique personality or having a signature weapon, and then two or more players battle it out in a series of games. It’s easy to imagine how rivalries can form and the stories that can be told about gang members rising the ranks through sheer chance. It takes some of the best parts of D&D and mixes it with a strategy focus and a bit of randomness to create really interesting campaigns. I’ve always been really good at strategizing and I’ve gotten quite good at Necromunda. Many of the game's mechanics revolve around rolling dice and trying to roll above or below a certain number. This creates an interesting situation where predicting the success of a single dice roll is quite easy, but trying to calculate the chances of several dice over a series of different rolls is rather complicated. Probability is one of my favorite subjects in math and I've been working on how to calculate these rolls in some of my free time. I’ve been able to use some of these calculations to get an advantage on my opponents.

To me, influence means changing someone's thoughts or opinions. Influencers can help bring to light important topics and help people understand them. I hope to influence those around me in a positive way. I’ve always strived to be a shoulder to lean on and help people who are struggling. That’s why I became a tutor at my high school, so I could help others. One of the big problems that I still struggle with is asking for help. I’m normally smart enough to not need help in an academic sense, but this year I’ve realized that won’t always be true. Classes are becoming harder and I highly doubt that college will be any easier. I’m trying to learn how to ask for help, and trying to teach my subconscious that asking for help isn’t a sign of failure. In college, I plan on getting a BA in Computer Science and Game Design. My father is a software engineer and I always looked up to him. He is probably the person who has influenced me the most in my life. Whenever I have a question about programming I know that I can always turn to him. He also taught that it’s okay to be childish and have fun even if you’re an adult. He introduced me to video games when I was just a child. When I realized that there were people who made these video games, I knew immediately that was what I wanted to do. The concept of being able to create entire fictional worlds and play around in them is mind boggling. Then being able to share them with the world to enjoy. It seems like the best way for me to do something that I enjoy, while also hopefully spreading joy to the people that will play my games. Receiving this scholarship would help me pay off the student loans from a private school that focuses on teaching game design and animation. Private schools are expensive, and without financial aid I’m not sure I would want to go there because I would spend far too much of my life just trying to pay off my student debt. Receiving this scholarship would help me stop worrying about student loans and pursue the degree that I want.

When I think of technology that can help the world, I first think about what is affecting the entire world. I think about a problem that has severe consequences on everyone, and the very first thing that comes to my mind is global warming and climate change. This problem is larger than the individual, blaming people for being irresponsible will do almost nothing to solve the problem. The truth is, most of the pollution responsible for global warming doesn’t come from normal people living their lives and producing waste or driving cars. The vast majority of pollution comes from companies and corporations in which pollution is a byproduct of what they are trying to produce. Take energy companies for example, despite the movement for green energy, only a tiny fraction of the current power being produced world wide comes from these pollution free sources. The rest of the power comes from a combination of coal and oil plants. If I had 100 million dollars, I would create a company to replace the current energy industry with green energy. However, most renewable sources of energy aren’t entirely viable yet. It would be impractical to build insanely huge solar/wind farms in order to power entire cities. Not to mention that we lack batteries to hold enough power for a single night in a major city. In order to replace the current industry, I would use the money to build nuclear plants. Nuclear power is advanced enough to match the world's current energy needs and wouldn’t require batteries as we could run reactors all the time. The largest concern against nuclear power is safety. Disasters like Chernobyl have made people afraid of nuclear power. However, modern reactors have been improved significantly. The chances of a meltdown are practically zero. And when compared to injuries sustained in producing coal and oil power, nuclear power is significantly safer. However, nuclear power isn’t perfect, nor is it entirely renewable. It still requires fuel rods in order to run. An alternative solution is being developed, but is not yet commercially viable. Fusion power is several times stronger, and is the same process that occurs in the sun that allows it to produce so much energy. It’s still only being used in experiments, but with any remaining money, I would invest in the research of fusion power. It would still require some sort of fuel but it would be far easier to obtain than fuel required for nuclear power. I believe that by replacing the current energy industry with these alternate power sources, we can start seriously fighting against climate change. That’s how I would use technology to help the world.