After the Zamboni had finally parked, I was eager to get onto the clean, smooth, ice rink. When I stepped onto the ice, my heart burst with joy and excitement ready to skate. I committed to a challenging new-year goal of learning to ice-skate and achieving proficiency in the sport. I skated every chance I had, even after a long 3-hour round-trip commute from campus. No matter how much snow I’d brush off from every time I fell on the ice, I felt one step closer to mastering the new material. I’d push away the insecurities telling me to “quit,” and ambition fueled me to keep practicing, breathing, and pacing. I love the sound of my skates etching circles in the ice and the cold air that embraces my cheeks welcomingly. Similarly, l love the satisfying sound of the fervent typing on my keyboard when debugging a programming project. I love absorbing every demonstration from my instructor and zealously digesting every criticism to improve my skating form, just as I love absorbing all the numbers and formulas spanned across the whiteboard from my math class. With every new technique I conquer, I crave to learn another. And with every new research project and internship I experience, my curiosity and desire to learn grows. My physical endurance on the ice taught me a new kind of stamina and appreciation for learning. I’m learning a new realm of resilience, patience, and discipline while balancing school, research, and work with my hobby.

One of my favorite forms of art that I do is creative writing. I think sometimes its hard to explain to people what you mean and how you feel. You may talk and explain to someone about your experience, but it can easily be taken as just words floating in the air, and it can mean so much more to you. Sometimes words aren't enough to express what you feel. And so, I express my feelings through imagery and sensory language, to hopefully show how I feel in that moment whether its beauty, inspiration, feeling strong, awoken, or at ease. I'm studying to be an incoming software engineer. As someone who thinks logically and mathematically, it's nice to have some free-style once in a while.

I choose the words to my dreams and goals imagining where I’ll be. Each time I listen, I have a clearer path with my eyes wide sparkling full of wonder and joy. I imagine myself thrilled and running as if my lungs might burst with excitement, pedaling on my bike to the endless road that awaits for me, twirling in the meadow with the beach and waves beneath me as the sun shines on my face, or flying as if I’m soaring through the clouds holding my breath as if my dreams are so close to reach.

In summer 2019, I was fortunate to graduate from Girls Who Code, an intense seven-week coding program that taught me JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Python, as well as other topics including robotics and Morse code. In our final project, my team and I created an environmental application, Conserve (available in the Google Play Store). The purpose of the app is to raise awareness about climate change, allowing individuals the opportunity to understand their global impact. Our product demonstrated our ability to engineer a means to improve our quality of life and leave a positive impact on the world. I was encouraged by my internship mentors to apply for the Congressional App Challenge, an annual contest for high school students to submit their applications. With Conserve, my group and I were recognized as the 2019 Congressional App Winners of District 11 in Illinois and were invited to the annual House of Code conference in the U.S. Capitol to present our work. This experience sparked my greater involvement in computer science. I became co-director of an organization, GenZCoders, where I held coding workshops for interested community members. In addition, I became an instructor with Wave Learning Festival, a platform that gave me the opportunity to teach middle schoolers coding basics. Computer science is a field with endless possibilities and the culmination of my experiences with Girls Who Code catapulted me into an environment where I can share my passions with others. Moving forward, I hope to raise awareness in my community about climate change. It takes one person to ignite the spark and a whole team to make a change. Because together, we can make a difference, and every attempt is a step forward to making our world green again. Through computer science, it can easily make a difference to inspire others, such as advertising, websites, apps, and more. Personally, as someone who has asthma, it is very important to me that we try our best to lessen our carbon footprint for the health of others in our society.

In my seminar class, we had an assignment to complete the ‘Signature Themes Test’. My results were Achiever, Futuristic, Discipline, Learner, and Focus. At first, I was upset with my results because I was always criticized for those characteristics, even by people who were closest to me. I sorta wished I was placed with characteristics that described me as adventurous, creative, interactive and daring because those were the characteristics that I also had. People were annoyed by my focus because I always liked to be in a quiet space to study when they didn’t value my goals. There were people who always looked down upon me silencing my voice, opinion, concern, or values, and thought I should sit quietly and learn. People constantly told me that “you shouldn’t apply because you're never gonna be accepted anyways” when I aspired to have a future for myself. People constantly questioned why I was trying to be an achiever when I could’ve just followed my stereotypical culture and marry a doctor. There were people who kept saying I was too paranoid by setting schedules disciplining my work and studies. I didn’t want to end up like my father, an addict refusing to provide for my family. I struggled to find my self-worth from being emotionally and mentally abused for the past 15 years. However, there are still a few people in my life that I am grateful to have that remind me that I should love myself because who I am as a person, is my strength. My sister, my best friends, and my mentors all pushed me to be the best person I can be. With the stamina and ambition this semester I received a 4.0 because I know how to stay focused. Every morning when I wake up, I write out a schedule to organize my assignments that I need to complete because I am disciplined. Even though we are in a pandemic, I managed to make some friends from orientation, classes, and clubs because I love to hear and learn about people’s stories and experiences. I’m on a journey of completing self projects, volunteering in my community, and encountering new hobbies because I want to achieve and grow as much as I can. And well for my future… I don’t know what to expect because I don’t know where I’ll be. However, I always try to be prepared. The rest is to live my experiences to the fullest by being adventurous, creative, interactive, daring, and most of all: see the big picture of who I want to be. I want to have Malala’s resilience- to stand up after coming from a hard fall. I want to have Michelle Obama’s self-confidence- to push through those who want to push me down. I want to have Anotnio Brico’s strong will- to not accept no for an answer and run towards my dream. Most importantly I want to be myself and live up to my name -altruism; to be selfless and compassionate.

Currently I am an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago pursuing Computer Science. Initially, I was going to major in mathematics, because I have always loved math. It was my favorite and strongest subject in school. It was always so exhilarating to find the solution to x. It was so amusing to see how math can be so structured and logical. Mathematics is a universal language that never lies. After taking a computer programming class, I immediately loved it. I really enjoyed programming because not only does it have a mathematical background, but it allowed me to implement my creativity and bring my ideas to life through technology. For the final project in my AP Computer Science Principles class, I created a computer app on code.org-- a children’s game for practicing multiplication, which I hope encourages young children to enjoy math while improving their skills. It was so amazing to have the ability to create something out of nothing that can help people in their daily lives excites me. Something that I was also grateful about computer science is that I can engage with other fields that interest me such as education, medicine, economics, entertainment, and research. I was glad that computer science was a general field that allowed me to be flexible in exploring other fields as well. Computer science is an effective tool to share the wealth of knowledge and help transform our communities. The potential it can bring to the world is indescribable. The simple beauty of computer science can be utilized in aerospace, education, medicine, art, entertainment, and more. With technology on the constant rise, it is now more important than ever to make sure computer science helps contribute to bettering society at large. I wish to explore and study machine learning and data science. One project I want to work on is shedding more light on the educational and pedagogical platform by creating applications to help supplement student learning. For me, the main area I want to help grow is the study and science of aerospace and astronomy. Within the past two years alone, astronomers have discovered seven earth-sized planets and even captured a picture of a black hole. With computer science, we can find solutions to improve technology and uncover hidden treasures. As a curious student, I am excited to embark on a path towards becoming a computer scientist and contributing to the betterment and progression of discoveries, inventions, and societal issues at large. Computer science identifies and solves situations that can help people around the world. I would like to have the opportunity to make people’s lives a bit easier and more convenient. The number one thing people need more is time. Time is of the essence, and computer science can solve someone’s problem within seconds to take care of the next problem. It allows one to have structure and fluidity in their lives with the power of technology. And with Generation Z rising, imagine where we can be 50 years from now.