On paper, I might not seem to qualify for this scholarship. Nothing screams "underserved" about a south asian guy pursuing an undergraduate computer science degree. If you look solely at the income lines on my family's tax form or my individual FASFA filing, you might believe I have no financial "need". However, such papers don't provide a complete picture. My parents aren't just from India, they're from Kashmir, a territory of India in the northernmost region of the country. Their childhood was ridden with war and terrorism. Their people were persecuted for their religion and killed. Any survivors were forced to leave their homes. They lost everything. They immigrated to America to give their children a better life, and have been working their asses off day after day ever since. Moreover, my father was an engineer in the automotive industry during the 2008 financial crisis, and my mother worked in education during the 2020 pandemic. Financially, these events set them back years. They've had insane medical expenses (exacerbated by travel costs) for themselves and their parents. I also have a younger brother who has yet to start college. Ultimately, my family is still living paycheck to paycheck, worried about bills, and trying to survive. My parents came from absolutely nothing. They grew up during a literal genocide, one that most have never even heard of. If that's not 'financially underserved', I don't know what is. My parents deserve respite. This scholarship could help give my parents the rest they deserve after decades of sacrifice. To that end, I'd like to share three commitments I'll make to ensure a better future for me, my family, and my community. These commitments are to constantly 'sharpen the saw', to build a meaningful career, and to be a mother to the world around me. Sharpening the saw refers to preserving and enhancing my greatest asset: me! This commitment means becoming a lifelong learner Computer science is a fast-moving field where innovations emerge regularly. Staying relevant requires constant improvement to keep skills sharp and evolve alongside the industry. This will enable an older version of myself to remain adaptable, competent, and open to new opportunities, leading to sustained personal and professional growth. This scholarship directly supports this commitment by making it financially possible for me to follow my dreams by focusing on my education now, while simultaneously fulfilling my responsibilities to my parents by bringing money in for the family. Without the burden of financial stress, I can become the best version of myself—someone who thrives in the constantly changing fields that STEM includes. My second commitment is to build a career with meaning. Careers are about more than money—they should have purpose and impact. I will create a path that allows me to contribute to solving real-world challenges and be useful to humanity by developing technology that makes life easier. My work will have meaning. Providing value that goes beyond me will imbue my career with fulfillment, and that fulfillment will allow me to transcend the struggles that come with success. Being a "mother to this world" is about taking responsibility for the world around me, it's about empathy, understanding, and doing what I can to alleviate the suffering of others. Learning is a luxury, it is important to pay that forward. By building inclusive technologies that empower individuals and by mentoring younger students, I can give those who come from challenging backgrounds but have the drive to make a difference the opportunities this scholarship is giving me. With your support, I can make a difference in this world for a lifetime. Thank you!!

I started college as a political science major. After my first semester, I was hired as a consultant for a firm helping a former professor run for a local office. My job was to poll voters on key issues. Eventually, I realized that many tasks involved in calling voters and logging answers could be automated, but I needed to figure out how. So, I taught myself a programming language called Python. Then, I learned how to use automation tools related to my work. Finally, I began implementing my idea. A few weeks later, I had a working product. It was during those few weeks I fell in love with computer science. I loved helping people by making their jobs easier. Showing off my work to friends and family brought immense joy. Being able to express my intellectual creativity through software development was incredibly fulfilling. Most importantly, I loved the *struggle*. During those late nights spent burning the midnight oil... googling relentlessly, trying, failing, debugging, and trying again...I realized I loved the work. That's when I truly became interested in a computer science degree. I quickly changed my major to Computer Science, and have been moving forward ever since. So, what will I do with my degree? Well, just like Chris, I want to help people. I'm an entrepreneur, but I'm not driven by money. I wish to be useful..to make a difference. When I consider the problems I want to spend my life working on, I think of combatting climate change and understanding human consciousness. Currently, my focus is solely on learning...venturing out to the edge of knowledge, and finding ways to engineer new technologies that advance humanity. The rest of my college education is focused on the science, software, and hardware underlying artificial intelligence and quantum computing systems. The synthesis of the simulation power of quantum computers and the learning capacity of artificial intelligence models will be a new technological revolution for humanity. I will be right there on the front lines. Quantum computing has already been employed by researchers for drug discovery. AI has already been used to generate advancements in protein synthesis. I aim to extend these efforts into the fight against climate change by investigating the engineering of biological compounds that can capture or transform carbon. Moreover, I want to use these systems to build upon existing research into the brain, the mind, and the nature of human consciousness. Now I can't say I'm the best person to receive this scholarship, but I can say I chose this path purely out of passion. No buzzwords, salary statistics, or parental pushes influenced my decision. The choice came from first-hand bottom-up experience. Moreover, any money you give me will be treated as an investment. Learning is a luxury, your investment will enable me to fulfill both my dreams and my responsibilities. If you invest in me, you are betting on the power of persistence, compounded over time. That investment will pay returns to society for a lifetime.

First and foremost, I am a seeker. Though I don't just want to know, I want to do, and I want to create! Engineering is the creative application of knowledge. These applications lead to innovation. These innovations have the potential to transform society. Engineering is a path that necessitates the application of knowledge across all disciplines to bring ideas to fruition -- that is exactly what I want to do with my life. That's why I'm sticking with engineering -- but these intellectual realizations, as authentic as they may be, do not explain *why* I initially chose engineering as my path. As an Indian guy, it's laughably commonplace for people of my demographic to get into engineering. However, I chose this path for myself. No parental pushes or fancy salary statistics were guiding my decision. No. I chose this path as a result of pure bottom-up hands-on experience. What started as wanton curiosity slowly grew into the focus of my education, then blossomed into academic research and not one, but two professional co-op rotations! Upon graduating high school, I aimlessly and haphazardly decided upon a political science major. A few weeks into college, I landed a phone banking job that had me calling voters and polling them on key issues. Soon after, I taught myself how to write a program automating making calls and logging answers. That process was a struggle. The kind of struggle that led to a fulfilling eureka moment once I made it to the other side. At that point, I knew I wanted to be a Computer Science student. The following summer, my best friend and I wanted to build a "little free library" (think of a birdhouse, but for books) for our local community, so we drew up precisely measured designs on engineering paper, went to Lowe's, purchased supplies, and spent a weekend doing hands-on construction. Upon completion, we had a friend paint the library and then coordinated with the local Parks & Rec department to install it on public property. When the library was finally handed to the parks department, I was sure I wanted to become a full-fledged engineer. The next semester, I began tinkering with electronics and taking electrical engineering classes. Eventually, I joined a research lab focused on medical devices. I was part of a small interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students working on developing a novel biosensor for early Sepsis detection. I was the only computer science major ever to join the team. Over a year, we did research, performed experiments, put together prototypes, and demonstrated them to industry partners at a conference in Europe. It was an amazing experience that validated many of my life choices. Fast-forward to the present day and I have just completed a 6-month co-op rotation with a local startup working on medical devices to mitigate cardiac arrest. During my rotation, I implemented a patient portal that enables clinicians and researchers to analyze device measurements. I'm currently getting ready to begin another 6-month co-op rotation in which I will return to the field of political science and develop an application for the visualization of information found in often-obscure campaign finance filings. Now I'm at a point where I'm torn between following dreams and fulfilling responsibilities. If I double down on my education, taking advanced engineering classes and completing a physics minor (to enhance first principles thinking), I know I can be a paradigm-breaking engineer. At the same time, my family needs money, so I need to start working. If given scholarships, I could do BOTH!

When I was 16, I was kicked out of high school twice for substance abuse issues. I used to run around popping pills, chain-smoking cigarettes, day drinking, skipping school, doing anything for an escape. I lost friends and loved ones, I got in trouble with the law, and I struggled with intense self-loathing. Overtime I began to take steps towards recovery. I took heed from the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous and started to speak more openly about my struggles. Then I began eating healthier. I fixed my sleep schedule. I started to exercise more. Eventually I began mediating regularly. I even took up yoga. Along the way I read Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. Step by step I began to heal, to really recover, all across the board. Addiction after addiction began to slip away. I saw dramatic changes in thought, in emotion, and in energy. Yet for all those changes, "I" didn't feel different...I felt more like "me" than I had in ages. That's why, to me, recovery represents a form of renewal and rebirth. It is a burning away of all that you are not, and the flourishing of who you really are at your core.