It took me a little longer than most to discover my passion for a future career. However, this was not because it did not exist. I had always taken an interest in the inner workings of the road infrastructure world, often absentmindedly pondering the layouts of the streets and bridges around me. Growing up in an ever-expanding community in northern Virginia gave me many chances to observe construction sites, road renovations, and the traffic that came with this population growth. Even as I cultivated my interest through high school, it was not yet clear to me the impact I could create in this field, and its capacity to change the world for the better. As I began to dive into my passion for civil engineering, two causes stood out to me as important; pedestrian safety risks and the harm of car-dependent communities. These causes go hand-in-hand; it is difficult to find a suburban American community that does not at the same time require a vehicle to move about and exercise hostility towards those who choose to walk. Sidewalks are often neglected and placed precariously close to a high-speed roadway, if they exist at all. Ice, snow, dangerous potholes, uneven pavement, and bumpy patterned designs keep sidewalks inaccessible. Traffic lights neglect the pedestrian cycle and perpetuate the placebo with deactivated buttons. Visitors must cross vast stretches of parking lots even once they have reached their destination, adding time and discomfort to their journeys. Furthermore, forcing citizens to buy a car adds stress to low-income workers, requiring an expensive purchase to even be able to make it to their jobs safely. This is the cause I am passionate about, and this is what I will fix. As a civil engineer, I will fight for pedestrian safety. I will do all I can to ensure that suburban areas are designed with humans in mind, not cars. It has grown ever important to me now, going to school in Florida: one of the states most plagued by pedestrian casualties. I believe that these changes will improve life for all Americans, even if traveling by car is not a financial hindrance to them. Being able to gather safely without the fuss of expensive, eco-hostile vehicles would enrich close personal relationships. The ability to shape an area’s lifestyle through civil engineering is a privilege I will not take lightly. Community is what makes us human, and it is up to civil engineers to build them.

Calculus is the study of change. Despite having taken a calculus course every year since I was a junior in high school, this took me until college to appreciate. Ever since middle school, I knew I was passionate about math. I remember, in ninth grade geometry, I looked forward to trigonometry tests; they felt like a fun puzzle to challenge my brain. When I got to Calculus 1 in high school, I felt like I was unfolding a new side of the world with which I was once familiar. Finally, all of the cosines and exponents and logs and parent functions I had committed to memory for the last 6 years of my schooling were given a purpose. I enjoyed the whole year of Calculus 1 as my teacher explained continuity, limits, and chain rule in a mishmash of beautiful concepts. Around the beginning of Calculus 1 was also when I needed to decide on a future college major. Reflecting on my experience with calculus thus far, I decided I wanted to challenge myself with civil engineering. I knew that pursuing engineering would require hard work, dedication, and perseverance, but I knew I would enjoy it. Looking back at this story leads me to believe that calculus is important in the STEM field because it makes us realize our purpose in life. I know that many of my fellow STEM students first realized their desire for a challenge in our middle or high school math classes. I consider calculus to be both the steppingstone and the defining challenge for STEM students. It is the first “STEM” class many of us take as terrified freshman, welcoming us to our new life as college students. It is also a challenge that makes new students feel like, once we conquer it, we have earned our place in STEM. In the beginning of our undergraduate careers, STEM students are often lumped together, even though the title includes chemists, biologists, computer scientists, engineers, physicists, and mathematicians. However, transcending our differences is the one universal concept we all need: calculus. Young STEM students bond over the difficulty of last night’s homework, butterflies from the impending exam, and late nights spent on schoolwork. However, despite all these struggles, calculus leads all of us toward our end goal and holds our hand as we cross the finish line. Although we might curse it in the moment, we eventually remember what it has done for us, and look back at the memories fondly. For engineers like me, our college careers are only just beginning when we complete the calculus trilogy, but the concepts return in advanced classes like familiar, comforting friends among a crowd of strangers. It is in this way that calculus is the study of change: we grow and transform as we transition from high school kids to adults in STEM, all the while accompanied by calculus. It was there when we were young and blossoming students, and it stuck by us as we completed our STEM education. So, sure, calculus is important because its interactions with physics helps civil engineers determine the structural integrity of buildings, but it is much more than that: calculus is our friend.

Human connection is something that some people take for granted. It is in human nature to yearn for the connections offered by close proximity and community. Sometimes, though, life takes us in other directions. Children move away, empty-nesters downsize, and relatives return to their home countries. When life separates us, technology reunites us. That is why communication technology inspires me to strive to create something as impactful. I was in elementary school when smartphones began to gain popularity. I still remember my childlike amazement when I realized I could see my grandma through the screen without having to make the drive! Just like that, a person I loved was accessible with something that was right at my fingertips. In middle school, I was hit with the news that my best family friends were moving halfway across the country, to Texas. After they moved, however, we continued our friendships through video chats and reminisced on the middle school memories when we were all within reach. Gone were the days of friends forever lost by geography. Now, "closeness" can exist beyond physical limitations, and I am forever grateful. In a world where positions are ever-changing, it is refreshing to know that distance does not determine the love that can be exchanged. As I prepare to move 750 miles away for college, this thought comforts me. While I may not physically be with my loved ones, I know that I will always be there for them through the wonderful connections offered by modern technology. It's comforting to know that I can keep them close to my heart: even if they see me through a screen.

Oftentimes in my childhood, I felt the need to keep up a performance out in public. Act natural. Act confident. Everybody’s watching you, said my mind. Everybody’s judging you. I made sure I was aware of every movement I made, every word I spoke, every step I took. Everybody’s watching you. Despite my confident exterior, I was shaking. For a while, social anxiety ruled my life. I avoided going places alone like the plague. What if I went somewhere alone and made a… mistake? Can’t risk it. Too scary. Social anxiety can be hard to understand to an outside viewer; after all, you’re just going shopping by yourself, right? You’re just joining a club by yourself, right? There’s no danger; what are you so afraid of? I didn’t know how to answer that. Crippled by fear I can’t explain. Ridiculous. Infuriating. The night that turned this around was a night I didn’t expect. I stumbled upon the opportunity to work in a haunted house and knew that I would not let my mind talk me down. But you’ll be alone, it said. What if you… embarrass yourself? Nevertheless, I pushed. I decided to put on a different facade this time. Method-acting: what would someone with real confidence do? Volunteering that night shifted my entire worldview. I had beaten my mind’s ridicule and realized that I had what it took to do things alone. To me, confidence means having the courage to stand up to your own mind, no matter how hard it wants to control you. I now work hard against my thoughts to get to do things I enjoy. Even though I won’t always win, I know I have been and will continue to make progress that I am proud of. Everybody’s watching you, my mind says. So what?

When I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in civil engineering, I had no idea what possibilities were open to me. My interest sparked when I was in the car one day, pondering about bridges and speed limits (no, really). Since then, I have been spending my free time watching videos from real civil engineers on Youtube and TikTok and found out that they do way more than just set speed limits! The civil engineering influencers use their platforms to spread awareness about many things that I have found myself passionate about as well. One of the things I am passionate about is pedestrian safety. My interest blossomed upon stumbling across a Youtube video I watched by user Not Just Bikes about how important forethought in city planning is for pedestrians. He uses Houston as an example of an American city and how the US almost requires owning an automobile to survive. This is something that I want to work to change. Currently, most suburban American cities pay no attention to people who prefer to travel on foot; sidewalks, if they exist at all, are right next to a noisy and dangerous “stroad” (a treacherous mix between a local street and a high-speed road), unkempt, and end right at a long parking lot in front of the business the pedestrian was aiming for. Pedestrians are responsible for their own safety on sidewalks and crossing streets even more so in these areas because drivers are looking for cars, not people. This pedestrian-hostile environment is something that I am passionate about exterminating. Reliance on cars requires minimum-wage workers to own a car to just be able to drive to work: something they probably can’t afford easily on their hourly wage. As a civil engineer, I would ensure that every suburban area is safe and walkable for pedestrians. I will work to make it so that America no longer requires its residents to own a car to be a productive member of society. I will do this by ensuring that pedestrians are granted safe and quality sidewalks that are separated from high-speed roadways to get to where they need to go on a daily basis. I will also draw inspiration from European countries like the Netherlands and install two-way bike paths wherever I can to encourage bicycle travel: an environmentally-friendly method of transportation that is much more accessible than cars. As an engineer, I will improve the quality of life for people in my community by making sure that they have a safe and affordable way to travel. Another topic I am passionate about in civil engineering is accessibility. There are so many little ways that cities neglect people with mobility disabilities and make it impossible for them to exist without a car. There is a TikTok user by the name of @pedestriandignity whose account I frequent to see examples of what NOT to do when designing sidewalks. This account focuses on why it may feel “embarrassing” to walk in some areas because the hostile design makes them feel like they are breaking the rules. The account posts submitted videos of dangerous sidewalks and inaccessible areas that inspire me to do better. When cities don’t clear snow on sidewalk street crossings, leave potholes and dangerous cracks in roadside sidewalks, design bumpy and uneven pedestrian walkways with decorative tile or stone patterns, etc., they are making it very undesirable for pedestrians with disabilities. If I want a future where America isn’t so dependent on cars, an important step is making it so that everybody, at all levels of ability, has a fair and enjoyable chance at traveling without a car. As a civil engineer, I will ensure that every project has taken people with disabilities into account and allows them to enjoy their neighborhoods too. I believe that America needs to change in these areas. Requiring cars to travel even short distances puts minimum wage employees at a major disadvantage. Additionally, the unsafe conditions of current sidewalks endanger pedestrian lives every day. As a civil engineer, I will improve the quality of life for people in my community by making sure that every person, no matter their income, ability, and need, has the opportunity to safely carry out their daily lives without the expensive and eco-hostile purchase of a car. I believe that these changes will make suburban America a better place, and I plan to work hard to make the changes come true.

For all of my life, I’ve struggled with social anxiety. I couldn’t do anything by myself for fear of strangers’ judgmental stares. However, to my own surprise, I forced myself to step out of my comfort zone and take on opportunities by myself. It was this perseverance that transformed my life and freed me from the shackles of my own mind. One October, I stumbled upon the opportunity to volunteer in a haunted house that I frequented during the spooky season. My excitement skidded to a halt, however, when I found out that none of my friends were interested or available. Nevertheless, fueled by my passion and the pilot light of excitement that refused to be blown out, I signed up on my own. I was swimming in nerves every day leading up to the event, but I did what I signed up to do. By the end of the month, I had had an incredible time. Even though it seemed like everybody knew each other but me, I was able to break my way into the group and was so thankful I did. Scaring people in the haunted house was so much fun! This event was a step that started me on my journey to overcome my anxiety, and I am so glad that I endured in spite of the fear. Later the next year, I decided to get my first job. This time, when I felt the all-too-familiar anxiety returning, I realized I had a weapon; my confidence from the haunted house returned and pushed away the encroaching anxiety. By the time I quit after a year of working, I had gained so much confidence in my social skills. I began to notice that it was easier to talk to customer service workers, teachers, and even kids my age. I no longer crumbled under the gazes of the people that may or may not be looking at me. I had grown stronger than my own intrusive thoughts. These two events molded the way I travel through life in more ways than I ever expected. Without them, I would never have gotten as far in my personal growth as I am now. I am incredibly proud of myself for coming as far as I have, and I don’t intend to stop anytime soon; I’ve signed up for multiple volunteering opportunities by myself, even including the second year of the haunted house that started it all. I will take what I have learned to advocate for myself in college and in the future. I actually feel prepared to enter a whole new world in August: something that would have paralysed me in the past. I learned that it requires the most resilience to fight against your own thoughts, and I am prepared to continue the fight in the future. I’m excited for what the future holds now that I am no longer held back by my own mind. I am free.

I’ve struggled with confidence issues my whole life. This made doing new things as a kid very difficult for me. In sophomore year, however, I finally decided to sign up for a volunteer Halloween fundraiser on my own. It was my first time going into a situation with new people without a more confident friend to lean on; I was a little nervous, to say the least. Luckily, I was able to power through the anxiety and have an incredible time volunteering. I’m so grateful that I was able to persist, even with my worries, as this was a big step in my journey to overcoming my social anxiety. I’m much more likely to talk to new people and my mind is open to opportunities that would have otherwise been blocked by my mental wall. To continue my progress, I never let my social anxiety keep me from taking opportunities. I have learned that, even if I go into it alone, I can come out with a good experience and maybe even new friends. I now realize that confidence means trusting in your abilities and getting out of your own head. It’s important to remember that everybody has insecurities and anxiety; most likely, you’re not alone. A big part of social anxiety is feeling like everybody is staring at you. It essentially changed my life to realize that, as much as it may feel like it, nobody cares if you don’t have a friend at the function. The only thing that held me back and made me anxious was myself; confidence came to me when I got out of my own head. I will have to continue to work on myself to keep the progress I’ve made, but I’m proud of myself for coming as far as I have.

In my past education, I have always taken charge in group projects. Despite this, I have never checked any box on personality tests that ask if I’m comfortable in a “leadership role.” However, in the past 2 years, I have been provided with opportunities to practice leadership and realized that all that was missing was confidence. Through these experiences, I was able to find it. My experience as Managing Editor of the yearbook has been a meaningful one. I’ve been a member for 3 years in a row now, and this is a group that I care a lot about. When I heard I was eligible to apply for Managing Editor after my second year, I was ecstatic. It meant a lot to me that my abilities had evolved into being qualified to lead a group of new people to success. It just so happens that that year was the year that the yearbook was made entirely online, so when the year concluded, I had become exponentially more confident. Now that I’m an editor, I am in charge of a group of 4 other members of the staff. I delegate work, give feedback, and answer questions as they make the pages with me. I love the opportunity to hone their skills and tell them the little tips and tricks I have learned over my years on the staff. I feel so proud of my team as the year progresses and I see how their skills have evolved under my leadership and I’m thankful for the opportunity to lead in a community that means a lot to me. Another time I felt like a leader was when I was working at Topgolf. I had worked there for about 9 months when I was assigned to train a new employee. The time working there had flown by and in my mind I was still new, so my confidence in my abilities surprised even me. I was able to accurately answer the trainee’s questions and give her all of the little tips and tricks I had learned over my months of experience. When she was trained, I watched her use the things I had taught her with pride. I was grateful to have been paired up with her in her first few days because it taught me to be confident in my abilities and helped me realize that I am able to and enjoy being a leader to others. Through these experiences, I learned that being a leader means being confident in your abilities and using your knowledge to help others succeed. In the past, I had had the tendency to doubt myself to an unwarranted extent. I have learned to get out of my head and give others advice when I have it. I also once believed that I was uncomfortable in a leadership position because of this self-doubt. Now, I know that I enjoy delegating responsibilities to get the job done and that I am capable of leading a successful group. In the future, I will keep these experiences in mind when I am offered a leadership role and remember that I am capable and have a good time when I’m able to help others with my experience. As I progress through my education, I will take leadership opportunities whenever I can to gain more knowledge and experience to one day become the leader of a group in the field I want to pursue, civil engineering. I am grateful for what I have learned in these experiences and look forward to the next time I can put my knowledge to use.

I've been participating in community service ever since I was a Girl Scout in elementary school. The first experience I remember was volunteering with my Girl Scout troop for Mobile Hope, an organization that provides mobile food and supplies to underprivileged people. Even though our tasks as elementary schoolers were simple, I remember that experience to this day. I remember thinking how easy it was to help people and the warm and happy face of the woman who welcomed us in. When I reached middle school, my troop began to join more involved opportunities. We volunteered with Project Horse, an organization that provides mental health services using horses as therapy animals. We helped move supplies, set up donation bins, painted fences, and even donated ourselves. Through Project Horse, I learned that there was an organization for everything and that volunteering can be fun. I had a great time seeing the horses and realized that it was possible to donate your time and have fun. When I got to high school, I became eligible to volunteer with the church I had attended since I was born, Gateway Community Church, for 2 hours a week for over 2 years. I took this opportunity to help out in the childcare services with 2-year-olds. Not only was this a growing experience for a little socially-anxious 14-year-old, but it was also a great feeling to be giving time back to the community that had raised me. Being able to teach the same lessons that I had once learned to the kids of people that once taught me was an incredible feeling that I hadn’t even dreamed of being able to do one day. Every week I looked forward to seeing their smiling faces and being able to spread the joy and community I remember from their age. Through this experience, I learned that volunteering can lead to even greater feelings when you’re connected to the communities you’re helping. One year, I decided to finally step out of my comfort zone and confront my long-lasting social anxiety by volunteering for a haunted house fundraiser by myself. The fundraiser is thrown by Arc of Loudoun as a way to raise money for their work with people with learning disabilities. It was a lot of work to ignore the worries and find security in myself, but I found the strength in my curiosity in the fundraiser. Finally, to my surprise, I was able to have a blast volunteering with friendly new people. In total, I volunteered for about 40 hours over 2 Octobers. Through this, I’ve shifted my view to see the opportunities for new experiences in unfamiliar surroundings rather than the anxiety and discomfort they once caused. I also learned that volunteering by yourself leads to incredibly fulfilling friendships that you might not even be looking for. My most recent volunteer experience is starting shortly. I've just completed the training for an animal shelter called Friends of Homeless Animals that saves animals from kill shelters to keep them safe. I've taken from all of my experiences and found an organization that I’m interested in. I've also signed up by myself, remembering what I learned from my experience with Arc of Loudoun and hope to make a difference with new friends by my side. In college, I hope to continue volunteering in a community that means a lot to me, like I learned from volunteering with Gateway. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I've taken even from such a young age, and I will remember the lessons I've learned from these experiences for many years to come.

Nowadays, with everything going on since the beginning of the pandemic, it can be hard to focus on the positives. However, as I see the people around me grow and change into their future selves, I am filled with hope. I have lived in the same community for all of my schooling years. Because of this, I have been able to watch a lot of people grow from kindergarten to senior year: even if from afar. I am so grateful that I am able to see my childhood friends grow up and turn into the people they aspire to be. Additionally, it being my senior year, I have been able to see my peers apply and get accepted into colleges. Hearing that people from my grade and community got into incredible schools to do incredible things or committed to a college to pursue their dream sport fills me with such a good feeling. The smartest kid in my grade has aspirations to go from President of the Class of 2022 to President of the United States, my friend from English class wants to be an actress in big Hollywood movies, and my close friend that I’ve known since middle school wants to be an FBI agent. I just know that they have been able to foster their ambitions all around me and I’m constantly excited to see where the people I grew up with end up in the future. Additionally, it also fills me with hope to see even people I don’t know succeed. Every story I hear about young people from my generation doing great things makes me feel safe in the hands of the future leaders. Recently, I heard the story of Zara Rutherford, a 19 year-old pilot who became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world. Seeing that headline and reading that article made me realize how incredible the people my age are becoming and the wonderful things they can achieve even at such a young age. It brought back memories of the protests in 2020 that were mostly made up of young people that I had written about in my school’s yearbook. I got to interview people from my school that had been to protests to fight for their rights. Those people I interviewed were so inspiring to me; the idea that people so close around me were taking monumental strides in history gave me such an encouraging feeling for the future. The people I’ve grown up with and the kids around the world make me so proud to be a part of what I expect will be the generation of change and give me hope that the future will be by their design.

One of the reasons I want to pursue civil engineering is to make towns in America more pedestrian friendly. Currently, because of long parking lots before stores, unkempt or nonexistent sidewalks and pedestrian walkways, and what people in the civil engineering field call “stroads” (a mix of “street” and “road” resulting in a dangerous, high-speed stretch through a high-populated area), owning a car is a hidden necessity in many American towns. I believe that this is an unrealistic standard that lower-income households are subjected to, and I believe that redesigning the infrastructure of transportation in the US is necessary. Furthermore, there are many senior citizens that are restricted to walking and public transportation as they age. As a civil engineer, I will work to improve the transportation methods by which people without cars travel. I will emphasize the importance of pedestrian safety and improve their paths of travel by keeping sidewalks safe and tidy. I will also ensure that buses and trains are safe and quality for those without cars to use. In addition to pedestrian safety, I would like to focus on accessibility. More and more I see people with mobility disabilities struggle to find wheelchair-accessible buildings and sidewalks in places in my community. I have also heard of many towns near me doing away with disability aid designs in sidewalks for things such as canes or guide dogs. As a civil engineer, I would ensure that these designs that allow people with mobility disabilities access are included everywhere, making life easier for those with disabled movement from every age group.

Being a high school senior, I have found that it is important to have things that motivate me to get through this last year before graduation. Firstly, I have my friends. I have had the same group of friends since middle school, and we always motivate each other to get through our classes. We celebrate our college acceptances, good grades, and even good days! It's always a relief to be able to unwind after a stressful school week with my best friends. Secondly, I make sure to fuel my life with my favorite pastime: video games. It may sound like the opposite of fuel, but the rest and excitement I get from video games is what helps me stay sane in these last months of high school. Gaming has also introduced me to many friends that I never would have known had it not been for the games we all hold so dear. Finally, I have my family board game nights. My mom has been a huge board game enthusiast since she was a kid, and she thankfully passed that on to me! My family doesn't see each other much during the week due to work and school schedules, so family game night is something we all enjoy and use to catch up after a busy week. Board games are a great way to have fun with the people you love, and it reminds me of how much we all mean to each other. I am grateful every day for the people I have been blessed with, and, thanks to them, I remain fueled to get through the rough times life throws at me.