I believe we should do what we can to improve the quality of life for as many people as possible. I believe that should be the point of a great many professions, including my chosen degree electrical engineering. Exploring space has been a great way to do that thus far and we have no reason to believe that will change. Through my university and NASA, I have been given a wonderful opportunity to contribute to space exploration. In the past space exploration has brought us so many advancements. Teams working on small cameras for spacecraft invented the technology necessary for phone cameras. This development has influenced our world in a way that I don’t think can be overstated. Every time you look at or capture a picture on your phone, you can thank the effort to explore space. Land mine removal was also advanced by space exploration. Excess rocket fuel is used to burn a whole through the mines without detonating them. Foil blankets were developed for astronauts in space, but they enable survival in extreme temperatures here on earth. Have you ever used a dust buster? The technology was first invented for collecting samples from the moon. This was repurposed into a dust buster years later. There is no telling the further scientific discoveries that understanding space will bring. Currently on the international space station they are making advancements on Xray technology, artificial blood development, and 3D printing human tissue. All of these could drastically improve health for humans here on Earth. A world where we do not have to wait for the right blood or tissue and transport it within a short time window but can create it as needed would save countless lives. We also encourage some of humanities highest ideals by exploring space. There are currently fifteen different countries represented on the international space station. All cooperating and working together peacefully to further scientific advancement. A united species that prioritizes scientific progress that will help humanity is something from Star Trek. However, we take small steps toward it every day by exploring space. I am doing my part right now through the NASA minds project. Nasa minds is a program where college students put forth an idea to help NASA go back to the moon for the Artemis Mission. My team and I are working on streamlining the international space station’s inventory tracking system. Currently it takes over three hours to locate something on the space station. We hope to free up valuable time for other things the astronauts can be doing. For example, those experiments that we hope will lead to lives being saved. I would love to continue working with NASA in the future and do my small part to helping improve life. Sources: NASA. (2023, October 2). 15 ways the International Space Station Benefits Humanity back on Earth. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/15-ways-the-international-space-station-benefits-humanity-back-on-earth/ NASA. (n.d.-a). 20 inventions we wouldn’t have without space travel. NASA. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel

The way my high school was set up everyone had to pick a career in eighth grade. Some of the high school staff gave a presentation in my eighth-grade science class advocating for their specific pathway. You had to take four years of classes in one of the optional pathways. There was business, medical, visual art, digital design, and engineering. The engineer’s presentation spoke to me the most and so I applied and got in. I enjoyed the classes but in my senior year we did a unit on electrical engineering and that was my favorite. It was the most difficult of the units, for me, but I have always enjoyed the things that challenge me most. It was very important to my family that I go to college and be financially independent. My grandparents and parents have been saving for it since before I was born but what I decided to major in was up to me. I applied for the math program and took some intro classes because I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to do electrical engineering as a career or if I just enjoyed the classwork. I switched majors for three main reasons. Electrical engineering is something I have the potential to excel in. Technological advancements have been occurring exponentially and improved people’s overall quality of life. Lastly, electrical engineers work in almost every industry. Everyone wants to digitize, improve their technology, or get involved somehow in something an electrical engineer designs and works on. I find that incredibly valuable. Many people do not know what an electrical engineer does and confuse us with electricians. The main difference would be electrical engineers do the theory and electricians do the practical. Practical experience is invaluable in any field. As such I am interested in getting my electrician license as well and pursuing that trade in addition to my university work. I am not sure exactly when I will be able to do so. I have tentative plans for doing it this upcoming summer, but the university workload comes first. This is because if I don’t have the opportunity to complete the trade program this summer I might be able to do the program the next summer or even the summer after that but the degree program pathway is much more rigid. If you do not take extensive classes over the summer as well as regular semesters in the proper order it can be extremely difficult to catch back up. That's why I am pursuing electrical engineering.

A social issue that is important to me is intolerance. I see intolerance in many different facets of life, unfortunately. This is a core problem behind many other social issues as well. How can I fight intolerance? I have three main things I can do every day; educate myself, hold myself accountable, and hold others accountable. Every day I listen to a podcast or read an article about some form of intolerance. It is not difficult to find, just paying attention to the news you will see lots of examples of intolerance. By staying informed on the issues of today I am better able to understand who and what I am dealing with. I am also better prepared to discuss it with others. Secondly, it is important to hold myself accountable. If I or someone else notice anything I have said or done that doesn’t express tolerance I dig behind that. Usually, the answer is to be more aware of myself and the environment I am in. To make sure what I say and do reflects my values and not necessarily the values I was exposed to as a child. Journaling is a great way to see where any of that came from. For example, it is important to me that my beliefs have facts and data to back them up and this was the environment I was raised in. If the facts support a different view, I will change my view. Others don’t necessarily seem to form their opinions the same way. This upsets me more than it really should, others are just as entitled to their viewpoints even if they didn’t put the same amount of effort into forming or examining them. I have talked through with people I trust to give me honest feedback and journaled about these concepts to come to this conclusion. Now when I encounter people who act that way it is much easier to engage with them respectfully. Thirdly, being able to have a respectful conversation when someone I know displays intolerant behavior or speech is important. I am fortunate to be able to surround myself with people who share similar values like a duty to be tolerant. While I have not needed to have a conversation like that every day when it arises, I do. Again, it is important to be respectful during these conversations. These are just a few things anyone could do daily, and if everyone did, I think the world would be a much better place.

I wanted to graduate high school, go to college and get a degree, move away from home, become an engineer, and live life as a functioning adult. Unfortunately, this wasn’t easy. I have had health problems for as long as I can remember. It took a long time to figure out how to deal with it. I learned I had to work harder than my “healthy” peers because I could not count on the same amount of time to do things that they had. I also couldn’t count on being able to take the tests without being in pain, which would cloud my thinking. This motivated me to learn how to study very early on, to do assignments as early as possible, and how to stay very organized. My bullet journal has become invaluable to me. It helps me keep track of everything. Meals, assignments, study schedule, appointments. I also downloaded apps to help me keep track of what I’m eating and how much water I’m drinking. These are always questions asked of me so might as well have the information. Typically, when I went to the emergency room, I would not get any actual help. I would be told I was dehydrated or that this just happened sometimes, and I should just learn to accommodate it. So that’s what I did, the other choices were to just not do anything and be in pain all the time. I was able to find a doctor who could finally help and that was life-changing. I continue to do all the things I used to do to try to manage it, but it actually makes a difference now. I still do assignments as early as possible and keep track of as much information about my health as I can. You never know when you are going to need it. I remember when I realized I hadn’t missed any classes all semester. It was the first time I had been able to do that, ever. It was euphoric. I chose a college that was close to home in case anything happened because it usually did. This turned out to be the right choice. So far, I have been able to graduate high school, go to college, I am pursuing a degree in electrical engineering, I moved away from home , and I am hopeful this will turn into a good job and I will be able to live as a normal adult.

I was fortunate to be able to try multiple sports as a kid before falling in love with swimming. Swimming is a great way to work out your full body in a way that’s easy on your joints. I had a lot of health problems as a kid so this was a great way for me to stay active. My school had a swim team and an indoor pool so we could practice year-round. My main contribution to the team was I never got disqualified. I was a very good technical swimmer even though I wasn’t the fastest. In a game of adding up points swimming correctly meant much more than speed. This taught me the importance of doing things well instead of quickly. The team environment was very positive, facilitated by two great coaches, a father and son team. I made great friends. In comparison to some of the other teams at my school, our coaches also focused on accountability. If you got in trouble at school you would swim what was called a “KG”. Butterfly, the hardest stroke according to many, for one lap then five push-ups, then two laps and ten push-ups, and so on for two hours. There were not many repeat offenders. When I injured my knee instead of sitting on the bench while I couldn’t swim the coach let me work out with weights or swim as I was able. This meant a lot to me not to be treated like I couldn’t participate in something that meant so much to me during my last year there. Swimming impacted my life positively by giving me opportunities to learn life skills such as how to work in a team environment, the importance of quality work, accountability, and a great way to stay active even when injured. One of the other athletics I tried was cross-country. I was terrible at running. I was usually second to last. However, I persevered for the two years I was able to be on the team. I never missed practice or competitions. I did all the drills. This taught me how to fail and keep trying. Failure is part of life and it’s important to know how to work through it. I was consistently able to beat my times and get faster. It also taught me not to compare myself to others. I was racing my previous self and looking for self-improvement, not racing others. This kept me motivated. Cross-country taught me useful life skills like not comparing myself to others and the value of self-improvement,

In my opinion, the most impactful way to fight climate change would be for large corporations to prioritize it. If the top 10 polluters would make different choices climate change would no longer be a concern. Unfortunately, passing more laws in the United States doesn’t seem to have as big an effect as we would like. Many of these companies are not bound by U.S. laws perhaps improving international relations would help. Smaller corporations could make similar decisions. For a long time, everyone used sustainable, biodegradable packaging. We in the United States had a culture of "waste not, want not" instead of consumerism. Not only did that seem less expensive for us as consumers but also much better for the planet. In high school, I had the opportunity to take an environmental science class where we learned in the 50s department stores purposefully fostered a new culture of consumerism involving planned obsolescence so they could sell more products without making the products any better. Another thing that would make a huge impact is if the recycling companies recycled. Rather than throw away vast amounts of materials because they had something non-recyclable in the bag with it or food. Another thing some recycling companies do is simply shift trash overseas and burn it there instead. I have also heard of amazing technological advancements in the green energy field such as clear solar panels that could replace windows. If this was more readily available to the public it could have a large impact. All these things could potentially have a huge impact and I am not sure precisely if any of the above would have a greater impact over the other. So, what can I do? I recycle what I can. My university has multiple recycling bins throughout campus, so this is relatively easy. I can do my bit to not be wasteful and to purchase sustainable and eco-friendly options. I keep up with the news involving sustainable options and steps I can take. Such as which candidates in upcoming elections support my interests and any petitions I can sign or charities I can donate to. I can cultivate green spaces with native plants where I can. I have some solar panels. These are small and are used to charge a generator. I have been researching more solar panel options and hope to obtain more in the future. I have also been researching electric vehicles. With many car companies getting involved in producing electric vehicles it is not just an option for luxury brands anymore.

A very important message can be found in "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. It is a good reminder that to make the world a better place we must start with ourselves. Throughout the song, he emphasizes compression for others will make the world a better place. He also highlights how he will begin by being more compassionate himself. We can't control others, but we can do our best ourselves and that is enough. You never know the ripple effect your kindness might have. While the song doesn't directly state all that, that is the overall message and an important one at that. The audience clearly understands this message thanks to how the song is structured to go from discussing others' misfortunes to how he can change and the effect he can have. He extends the invitation to us all as well, “No message could've been any clearer if you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself and then make a change” (Michael Jackson. Lyrics to “Man in the mirror.” Genius, 1988, genius.com/Michael-jackson-man-in-the-mirror-lyrics).

Of the many things, I would like to change right now most of them stem from people being purposefully unkind to each other. So, what can I do right now to do to make anything better? I can be kind. The nice thing about having that as a goal is you can work on it all the time from anywhere. It is also not reliant on others’ actions. Since I can only control my own, this works out well. While my being kind won’t fix everything I can make my little corner of the world a little more bearable for us all. That is all I feel I can hope to do right now but it’s worth something.

I am passionate about building things and have enjoyed my previous engineering classes. I think studying STEM fields will allow me to have a successful career in a variety of areas because it’s the framework of our world. I first became interested in engineering through theatre. I absolutely fell in love with working on the sets for my middle school theatre department. It was easily my favorite part about the program. I was able to contribute a unique perspective to the work and this carried over into high school. There, I began working with lights as well. I enjoyed programing the board and fixing the lights themselves. Through the engineering program at my high school I was able to win an internship the summer before senior year. While I was there, I was able to identify an issue that resulted in increased production for the company. For me, working at Noble Energy was a very rewarding experience. In my engineering classes when we got to senior year, we started breadboarding. I found I liked breadboarding and would often spend my lunch breaks solving circuitry puzzles. This, combined with my passion for building, made me want to pursue STEM in college and as a career. I want to study an engineering discipline as these touch on every aspect of society. Currently I am looking at going into the technology or energy industries, both employ people primarily from STEM fields. I’d love to work in an industry like that would allow me to give back. The energy industry funded my engineering classes in high school and gave me the opportunity to do an internship. The technology industry enabled me and many other people to continue attending school during a pandemic. A part of the appeal of working (and a core value at my college) is to enable giving the same opportunities to others, directly and indirectly. I am mechanically inclined, have enjoyed my STEM classes, and feel a career in these fields would be rewarding work and satisfying as a way of helping others.