I am Duane Carter Jr., born and raised in Trussville, Alabama. I am a black man who loves to help people out, extremely interested in rollercoasters, and competes in track and field with dedication. But most importantly, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I am a rising sophomore studying Civil Engineering and doing Track and Field at Missouri University of Science and Technology. My passion for being a leader and helping others comes from the Christian principles of generosity, love, and kindness. I have been involved in leadership in my community as I have taken lead acting roles in Christmas plays and Halloween skits. Normally people from the community who are not regular churchgoers or not even Christians come to these events because these events are big American holidays. Because of this, my fellow church members and I use drama plays and skits to help show those people why Christ will make their lives better. Although I do not know if my efforts are making a difference, I hope that the plays and skits I participate in will lead people closer to Christ. I have also been able to display leadership through my school. During my Senior year of high school, my assistant principal told me that he needed someone to help mentor a 5th grader who was having educational, family, and life problems and he thought I would be a good fit. I was excited to be able to mentor someone and hopefully help improve his life. The first session went pretty well as we introduced ourselves and talked about our educational, athletic, religious, and family life to each other. Then as the sessions went on we began talking about deeper issues, playing educational games, and I even got to help improve his math skills. One day as I was walking through the halls my assistant principal came up to me and said that I was making an impact on him. He explained that the kid's grades were improving, he looked happier, and he was not getting in trouble. This experience really meant a lot to me as I realized that I was able to help improve someone's life just by being a leader. My educational goals within STEM are to get a high-quality education in Civil Engineering and graduate Summa Cum Laude. During my educational career, I also plan to build relationships in the various organizations I am in like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Society of Black Engineers, and Roller Coaster Innovation and Design Entertainment Society. All of these goals along with my education will significantly help me reach my career goal, which is becoming a roller coaster engineer and designer. Becoming a roller coaster engineer, I plan to make roller coasters safer, encourage people to overcome their fears, and bring families closer together. This will leave an incredibly positive impact on the world because making roller coasters safer will eventually lead to potential roller coaster injuries/deaths being decreased. When the roller coasters are safer, eventually more people will ride them and overcome their fear of riding roller coasters which will give them the confidence and bravery to overcome other fears they have in the world. Lastly, with an increase in roller coaster safety and a decrease in fear, more families will be able to bond because they will be riding scary roller coasters together, feeling like they are about to die in mid-air together, but most importantly coming out of the roller coaster ride alive together. This will really bring a family closer; it did with mine.

I am Duane Carter Jr., born and raised in Trussville, Alabama. I am a black man who loves to help people out, extremely interested in rollercoasters, and competes in track and field with dedication. But most importantly, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I am a rising sophomore studying Civil Engineering and doing Track and Field at Missouri University of Science and Technology. My passion for being a leader and helping others comes from the Christian principles of generosity, love, and kindness. I have been involved in leadership in my community as I have taken lead acting roles in Christmas plays and Halloween skits. Normally people from the community who are not regular churchgoers or not even Christians come to these events because these events are big American holidays. Because of this, my fellow church members and I use drama plays and skits to help show those people why Christ will make their lives better. Although I do not know if my efforts are making a difference, I hope that the plays and skits I participate in will lead people closer to Christ. I have also been able to display leadership through my school. During my Senior year of high school, my assistant principal told me that he needed someone to help mentor a 5th grader who was having educational, family, and life problems and he thought I would be a good fit. I was excited to be able to mentor someone and hopefully help improve his life. The first session went pretty well as we introduced ourselves and talked about our educational, athletic, religious, and family life to each other. Then as the sessions went on we began talking about deeper issues, playing educational games, and I even got to help improve his math skills. One day as I was walking through the halls my assistant principal came up to me and said that I was making an impact on him. He explained that the kid's grades were improving, he looked happier, and he was not getting in trouble. This experience really meant a lot to me as I realized that I was able to help improve someone's life just by being a leader. My educational goals within STEM are to get a high-quality education in Civil Engineering and graduate Summa Cum Laude. During my educational career, I also plan to build relationships in the various organizations I am in like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Society of Black Engineers, and Roller Coaster Innovation and Design Entertainment Society. All of these goals along with my education will significantly help me reach my career goal, which is becoming a roller coaster engineer and designer. Becoming a roller coaster engineer, I plan to make roller coasters safer, encourage people to overcome their fears, and bring families closer together. This will leave an incredibly positive impact on the world because making roller coasters safer will eventually lead to potential roller coaster injuries/deaths being decreased. When the roller coasters are safer, eventually more people will ride them and overcome their fear of riding roller coasters which will give them the confidence and bravery to overcome other fears they have in the world. Lastly, with an increase in roller coaster safety and a decrease in fear, more families will be able to bond because they will be riding scary roller coasters together, feeling like they are about to die in mid-air together, but most importantly coming out of the roller coaster ride alive together. This will really bring a family closer; it did with mine.

I will make a positive impact through my engineering career by redesigning and engineering roller coasters to make them safer which will save lives and, in the long run, lead to more family togetherness. I have enjoyed roller coasters ever since I was a kid. My family and I would go to Disney World and Universal Studios every other summer and I could not wait to spend a week riding roller coasters and hanging out with my family. I would love riding all the roller coasters like The Hulk, The Mummy and, my favorite, The Tower of Terror. I vividly remember riding The Tower of Terror the summer going into 5th grade. Being so afraid and anxious of that roller coaster feeling. That feeling you get in your stomach when you hit a big drop on a roller coaster. That feeling that feels almost like God, himself, reached in and snatched the air right out of your body. But that whole time I knew that I could hold on to my mom on my left and dad on my right, trusting them with my life. After I rode The Tower of Terror and came off safely I knew that my parents would always have my back, protect me, and never intentionally put me in harms way. I knew that no matter how dangerous or frightening the roller coaster looked I could always count on my parents to make sure I came out alive and uninjured. Since roller coasters were such a great experience to me and my family, I would get sad at how many of my friends would say that they would never ride a roller coaster because they were too afraid of falling out, getting injured, or dying on the big drops and the loop to loops. Although I did not agree with them at the time, I now understand where they were coming from, considering around 500 people are injured or get killed from roller coasters in the U.S each year. Although 500 people is not a lot compared to the 300 million people that ride roller coasters each year, it is still 500 too much. I want to become a mechanical engineer so I can do mathematical and scientific calculations to make sure that there are even fewer people that die or get injured while riding roller coasters each year. Doing this I can help to save lives, and I can encourage people who are normally too scared to ride roller coasters to try them out so they can experience the greatness of riding roller coasters and the family bonding that comes with it. That reassurance of knowing that their parents and/or loved ones will always protect them no matter the circumstances. That feeling that they can always trust their parents, with their life, to ensure that they are safe. I would never want a kid to not have a chance to experience this incredible feeling of trust and togetherness that comes from riding a roller coaster with their loved ones simply because they were too scared. And even if kids do not experience this, making roller coasters safer will encourage more families to ride them. If more families ride them, then families will spend more time together. Becoming a roller coaster designer could help me save lives and increase family bonding and trust so people can have that same feeling towards their parents that I do about mine. There are only a few ways that impact the world in a more positive way than this.