The first eight months of my life, I was barely holding on to life. I suffered from parasites, malnutrition, and an overall lack of care in an orphanage in rural China. Miraculously, I survived near death three times and was adopted and brought to the United States. Here, I have been loved, nurtured and brought back to health. This amazing support from my family has been so influential in developing an identity that once did not exist. I was given love, life, purpose in a place where I belonged. I went from a nameless, abandoned and sick baby, to a thoughtfully named and valued baby. This journey into being seen and loved sparked a desire to share what I have been given with others. There are about 150 million orphans in the world of which around 87.6 million are Asian. At one point, I was just one single number of this astronomical amount. However, being blessed with a home and a family has given me worth and shown me that I am more than just a number. I am a person who is seen and loved. I feel called to go back to my origin roots as an orphan and give back to other orphans, to show them the value they have and to give them the love they deserve. I have always loved STEM subjects in school, but I have also loved designing floor plans. All of these interests combined into a dream to build orphanages. To get there, my goal is to first build a career in Civil Engineering and Architecture. I hope to create orphanages that are environmentally cohesive, therefore helping to ensure the future generations the same or even better environments to live in. Our legacy is an important reason to pursue finding sustainable ways to provide housing that enables a way of life that positively moves with our world. My desire is to use the natural resources unique to the specific environment as material and energy facilitation when creating these structures. I took a class that investigated the science behind our brains and kindness. We learned that kindness and empathy can be grown like a muscle, and that it isn't a set trait that is stagnant throughout life. Another concept we looked at was the idea that kindness is contagious, and that because of neural plasticity, we can rewire ourselves to strengthen our empathy skills while also creating new norms for spreading kindness. I hope that my actions will create little ripples in the world by inspiring other engineers to also pursue ambitious dreams that will serve others. I look forward to the opportunities and abilities I will gain after pursuing a higher education in the field of Civil Engineering on the path to building environmentally sustainable orphanages.

The first eight months of my life, I barely lived. I suffered from parasites, malnutrition, and an overall lack of care in an orphanage in rural China. Miraculously, I survived near death three times and was adopted and brought to the United States. Here, I have been loved, nurtured and brought back to health. This amazing support from my family has been so influential in developing an identity that once did not exist. I was given love, life, purpose in a place where I belonged. I went from a nameless, abandoned and sick baby, to a thoughtfully named and valued baby. This journey into being seen and loved sparked a desire to share my experience with others. There are about 150 million orphans in the world of which around 87.6 million are Asian. At one point, I was just one small part of this astronomical number. However, being blessed with a home and a family has given me worth and shown me that I am more than just a number. I feel called to go back to my origin roots as an orphan and give back to other orphans, to give them what I was given. I have always loved STEM subjects in school, but I have also loved designing floor plans. All of these interests combined into a dream to build orphanages. To get there, my goal is to first build a career in Civil Engineering and Architecture. I hope to create orphanages that are environmentally cohesive, therefore helping to ensure the future generations the same or even better environments to live in. Our legacy is an important reason to pursue finding sustainable ways to provide housing that enables a way of life that positively moves with our world. My desire is to use the natural resources unique to the specific environment as material and energy facilitation when creating these structures. During my time at NIC, I took a class that investigated the science behind our brains and kindness. We learned that kindness and empathy can be grown like a muscle, and that it isn't a set trait that is stagnant throughout life. Another concept we looked at was the idea that kindness is contagious, and that because of neural plasticity, we can rewire ourselves to strengthen our empathy skills while also creating new norms for spreading kindness. I hope that my actions will create little ripples in the world by inspiring other engineers to also pursue ambitious dreams that will serve others. My endeavors require years of training, as well as a strong team who is willing to not only build structures and innovate designs, but willing to serve and love others. Through these connections, my efforts to help others may be magnified. I look forward to the opportunities and abilities I will gain after pursuing a higher education in the field of Civil Engineering on the path to building environmentally sustainable orphanages.

I was abandoned at an orphanage and the care was so minimal I almost died three times. My name was made up and an estimated date became my birthday. However, I was given another chance and it was filled with love. I was taught to embrace my story and use it as a kickboard as I followed my dreams rather than a shackle. My story mimics that of my faith, it shares a redemptive story full of hope and love. It is because of this that I so badly want to give back to those who are like me. Without names and without homes, and to show them that they do matter and that they are important. I want to give them a family like I had. I want to give them the love I have received, the love that has shaped me into being able to pursue the things that I am passionate about. I want to teach them to fearlessly face the world, encouraged that they have already overcome so much. My dad pastored a church for much of my life. During this time, I was taught the value of serving and loving others. One of these was Night to Shine where we put on a prom-like experience for people with special needs. When given a place to truly act as themselves, these people were filled with life. They had contagious smiles and were so compassionate to others. Almost all of them were constantly seeking to serve their own servers and it just opened my eyes, enabling me to look at people in an open minded way. This is just one of so many chances I've had to hear so many incredible stories of people persevering through life and growing into beautiful souls, not allowing their past to define them. This love for people and desire to serve orphans evolved into a dream to study Architectural Engineering in the hopes of being able to provide housing for those in need. There are two aspects to this. The first is to build an orphanage. Being an orphan myself, I dream of being able to give back to others who share this background. I want to provide them with the feeling of home that I was given, and to show them that they matter and are loved. Building a large home that could accommodate that family would be an amazing opportunity. This would be a nonprofit endeavor, with continued fundraising to increase the children’s opportunities and better their education, allowing them to go on to pursue the dreams they may have once found impossible. The second aspect is to create environmentally cohesive homes for those in third world countries. Similarly, these homes would be for young families who are in need of a home. I hope to design these buildings in ways that are unique to the environment, using natural resources and processing them to create a comfortable environment. I know my ability to achieve these things greatly depends on my education. I seek to understand how to build these buildings and how to teach others. I am excited to learn how to work better together with others, and to learn how to better understand others as a way to serve them. This scholarship, should I receive it, will allow me to pursue this education and relationships aiding growth. I will be responsible for my expenses, and a scholarship would allow me to give more time to my personal growth as I won’t have to work as many hours in order to make ends meet.