Receiving this scholarship will help me pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I selected mechanical engineering as my first choice major because it would provide me with seemingly endless career possibilities, all of which are indescribably appealing to me. I love the unknown about my future career, even finding comfort in the fact that my future job might not have even been invented yet. The wide range of topics covered in a mechanical engineer’s education path - biomechanics, materials, aerospace, and environmental concentration classes - is what drew me to mechanical engineering specifically. With such a diverse background, I believe I will be incredibly valuable as an employee, and also be inspired to learn more about a specific field while in college. I look forward to potentially using my degree in the field of sustainability. I am very interested in climate change and its effects, as I know I will be part of the generation that must learn to live with and adapt to it. In fact, I realized that my high school does not have an efficient way of teaching its students about climate change, and in my AP Research Capstone project, I conducted a study that proved that my school needs more pollution education and show that simple, one-time lessons can make a large impact. I am still following through with the changes this study will stimulate, but I am confident that this is just the first example of my ideas making change. My curiosity is one of my greatest strengths, it has led me to push my academic potential and expand who I am. Like any future engineer, I was building Legos from before I can remember, asking questions constantly about anything and everything, and trying to solve the minor problems and inconveniences I experienced. That led to a passion for math, where I could trust there was a right answer, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I will bring this same mindset to engineering and the problem-solving nature of my future career. Additionally, with my leadership skills earned through tireless work in a diverse extracurricular career, including track and field, marching band, and a STEM club, I believe I am well prepared to take new ideas and implement them. I would describe myself as a quiet leader, often leading by example and earning trust with consistent effort and honesty. For example, I might not have been the guy to give electric pep talks before track meets, but I was the captain who freshmen would come to for training tips and the sprint coaches trusted to anchor in races with immense pressure. This leadership will be incredibly beneficial in the engineering world, especially with the teamwork-oriented nature of the field. I was inspired to go into engineering by my father, who has used his ocean engineering degree to work as a radar and weapons systems engineer for Lockheed Martin, a job he truly enjoys and is passionate about. Growing up with parents that truly enjoy their careers and day-to-day work taught me the importance of mixing your interests with your strengths. That is why I am excited to walk through all of the doors this scholarship will help me open, using my curiosity to guide me to find a job as rewarding to me as my parents have.

Receiving this scholarship will help me pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I selected mechanical engineering as my first choice major because it would provide me with seemingly endless career possibilities, all of which are indescribably appealing to me. I love the unknown about my future career, even finding comfort in the fact that my future job might not have even been invented yet. The wide range of topics covered in a mechanical engineer’s education path - biomechanics, materials, aerospace, and environmental concentration classes - is what drew me to mechanical engineering specifically. With such a diverse background, I believe I will be incredibly valuable as an employee, and also be inspired to learn more about a specific field while in college. I look forward to potentially using my degree in the field of sustainability. I am very interested in climate change and its effects, as I know I will be part of the generation that must learn to live with and adapt to it. In fact, I realized that my high school does not have an efficient way of teaching its students about climate change, and in my AP Research Capstone project, I conducted a study that proved that my school needs more pollution education and show that simple, one-time lessons can make a large impact. I am still following through with the changes this study will stimulate, but I am confident that this is just the first example of my ideas making change. My curiosity is one of my greatest strengths, it has led me to push my academic potential and expand who I am. Like any future engineer, I was building Legos from before I can remember, asking questions constantly about anything and everything, and trying to solve the minor problems and inconveniences I experienced. That led to a passion for math, where I could trust there was a right answer, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I will bring this same mindset to engineering and the problem-solving nature of my future career. Additionally, with my leadership skills earned through tireless work in a diverse extracurricular career, including track and field, marching band, and a STEM club, I believe I am well prepared to take new ideas and implement them. I would describe myself as a quiet leader, often leading by example and earning trust with consistent effort and honesty. For example, I might not have been the guy to give electric pep talks before track meets, but I was the captain who freshmen would come to for training tips and the sprint coaches trusted to anchor in races with immense pressure. This leadership will be incredibly beneficial in the engineering world, especially with the teamwork-oriented nature of the field. I was inspired to go into engineering by my father, who has used his ocean engineering degree to work as a radar and weapons systems engineer for Lockheed Martin, a job he truly enjoys and is passionate about. Growing up with parents that truly enjoy their careers and day-to-day work taught me the importance of mixing your interests with your strengths. That is why I am excited to walk through all of the doors this scholarship will help me open, using my curiosity to guide me to find a job as rewarding to me as my parents have.

Receiving this scholarship will help me pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I selected mechanical engineering as my first choice major because it would provide me with seemingly endless career possibilities, all of which are indescribably appealing to me. I love the unknown about my future career, even finding comfort in the fact that my future job might not have even been invented yet. The wide range of topics covered in a mechanical engineer’s education path - biomechanics, materials, aerospace, and environmental concentration classes - is what drew me to mechanical engineering specifically. With such a diverse background, I believe I will be incredibly valuable as an employee, and also be inspired to learn more about a specific field while in college. I look forward to potentially using my degree in the field of sustainability. I am very interested in climate change and its effects, as I know I will be part of the generation that must learn to live with and adapt to it. In fact, I realized that my high school does not have an efficient way of teaching its students about climate change, and in my AP Research Capstone project, I conducted a study that proved that my school needs more pollution education and show that simple, one-time lessons can make a large impact. I am still following through with the changes this study will stimulate, but I am confident that this is just the first example of my ideas making change. My curiosity is one of my greatest strengths, it has led me to push my academic potential and expand who I am. Like any future engineer, I was building Legos from before I can remember, asking questions constantly about anything and everything, and trying to solve the minor problems and inconveniences I experienced. That led to a passion for math, where I could trust there was a right answer, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I will bring this same mindset to engineering and the problem-solving nature of my future career. Additionally, with my leadership skills earned through tireless work in a diverse extracurricular career, including track and field, marching band, and a STEM club, I believe I am well prepared to take new ideas and implement them. I would describe myself as a quiet leader, often leading by example and earning trust with consistent effort and honesty. For example, I might not have been the guy to give electric pep talks before track meets, but I was the captain who freshmen would come to for training tips and the sprint coaches trusted to anchor in races with immense pressure. This leadership will be incredibly beneficial in the engineering world, especially with the teamwork-oriented nature of the field. I was inspired to go into engineering by my father, who has used his ocean engineering degree to work as a radar and weapons systems engineer for Lockheed Martin, a job he truly enjoys and is passionate about. Growing up with parents that truly enjoy their careers and day-to-day work taught me the importance of mixing your interests with your strengths. That is why I am excited to walk through all of the doors this scholarship will help me open, using my curiosity to guide me to find a job as rewarding to me as my parents have.

The best piece of financial advice was given to me by my current business teacher Mr. D’Alessandro. In his self-made class titled “Fundamental Economics and Wealth Management,” he teaches the basic principles of micro and macroeconomics but with a heavy emphasis on one key idea: how we can turn knowledge into money. He repeats to us daily: “With this lesson, you already know more than at least 95% of the rest of the American public.” While I seem to learn valuable lessons every time he stands up in front of the room, one, in particular, stood out. When learning about the fundamentals of the business cycle, Mr. D. told us “The world will always be crying out in panic, there will always be a new world-ending event on the horizon, but as Warren Buffet has always preached, figuring out the patterns of the markets is simple.” He added, “Buy when everyone is frantically selling and preparing for a depression, and sell many, many years later when you are ready to use that money for something new. Most importantly, be proud of your decisions.” While this may seem like an obvious concept to someone with no trading experience, once most people start investing in the stock market, they get caught up in the small, irrelevant trends that stress out experts, but never really change anything in the long run. Some people devote years of their life to predicting the intricate trends of the stock market, but in reality, they are only making slightly more or even less than the overall market growth. In other words, I was taught that there are people that will always seem like they are out-working and out-performing you, but a few, selective yet thorough investments will usually result in a more prosperous future, with time for other aspects of life. What separates this lesson from other lessons he taught us is that it is more of a life motto than purely a money-making hack. In the real world, college, and in my future career, there will always be some that appear to be more ambitious and invested, but in reality, smart decision-making and time management can often lead to a higher quality of life. I plan on living to work, not working to live, and this lesson contributes to both my financial future and my general mindset toward life. Specifically, in a business sense, I plan on using this advice to make a solid foundation of investments that will pay great dividends decades down the road. Mr. D’Alessandro owned a few hundred shares of Apple stock in the early 2000s and sold them before 2009, thinking that the state of the economy would prevent Apple from growing to the next level. He, unfortunately, lost thousands of dollars, and while this sounds quite unfortunate, I plan on following a similar path, only perfecting it. I plan on investing in 6-8 promising companies in green energy and sustainability after thorough research, and then quite literally not looking at those accounts for years. While there is of course some risk in this strategy, the general growth of the market and the longevity of my investments always guarantee a higher return than if I just sat my money in a bank for decades. I am treating my choice of going to college to study mechanical engineering as an investment in myself. I am essentially taking a large amount of money and predicting that I will make greater returns than the initial investment. For that reason, my choice of college is heavily dependent on a few basic, yet key statistics, including expected starting salary within the major, job placement 6 months after graduation in the field of major, and student retention levels. This will lead me to a choice that is not the cheapest option, but one that will yield the best career trajectory. Rather than panicking when I see all my friends committing to schools they barely know anything about in January and listening to the ranking websites that push for the most “prestigious” colleges, I am making a thoughtful and confident decision. I am grateful to have a teacher I can trust to guide me in the right direction, as the choices I am making right now, in both a financial sense and for college, will have a ripple effect across the rest of my life.

Receiving this scholarship will help me pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I selected mechanical engineering as my first choice major because it would provide me with seemingly endless career possibilities, all of which are indescribably appealing to me. I love the unknown about my future career, even finding comfort in the fact that my future job might not have even been invented yet. The wide range of topics covered in a mechanical engineer’s education path - biomechanics, materials, aerospace, and environmental concentration classes - is what drew me to mechanical engineering specifically. With such a diverse background, I believe I will be incredibly valuable as an employee, and also be inspired to learn more about a specific field while in college. I look forward to potentially using my degree in the field of sustainability. I am very interested in climate change and its effects, as I know I will be part of the generation that must learn to live with and adapt to it. In fact, I realized that my high school does not have an efficient way of teaching its students about climate change, and in my AP Research Capstone project, I conducted a study that proved that my school needs more pollution education and show that simple, one-time lessons can make a large impact. I am still following through with the changes this study will stimulate, but I am confident that this is just the first example of my ideas making change. My curiosity is one of my greatest strengths, it has led me to push my academic potential and expand who I am. Like any future engineer, I was building Legos from before I can remember, asking questions constantly about anything and everything, and trying to solve the minor problems and inconveniences I experienced. That led to a passion for math, where I could trust there was a right answer, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I will bring this same mindset to engineering and the problem-solving nature of my future career. Additionally, with my leadership skills earned through tireless work in a diverse extracurricular career, including track and field, marching band, and a STEM club, I believe I am well prepared to take new ideas and implement them. I would describe myself as a quiet leader, often leading by example and earning trust with consistent effort and honesty. For example, I might not have been the guy to give electric pep talks before track meets, but I was the captain who freshmen would come to for training tips and the sprint coaches trusted to anchor in races with immense pressure. This leadership will be incredibly beneficial in the engineering world, especially with the teamwork-oriented nature of the field. I was inspired to go into engineering by my father, who has used his ocean engineering degree to work as a radar and weapons systems engineer for Lockheed Martin, a job he truly enjoys and is passionate about. Growing up with parents that truly enjoy their careers and day-to-day work taught me the importance of mixing your interests with your strengths. That is why I am excited to walk through all of the doors this scholarship will help me open, using my curiosity to guide me to find a job as rewarding to me as my parents have.

Receiving this scholarship will help me pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I selected mechanical engineering as my first choice major because it would provide me with seemingly endless career possibilities, all of which are indescribably appealing to me. I love the unknown about my future career, even finding comfort in the fact that my future job might not have even been invented yet. The wide range of topics covered in a mechanical engineer’s education path - biomechanics, materials, aerospace, and environmental concentration classes - is what drew me to mechanical engineering specifically. With such a diverse background, I believe I will be incredibly valuable as an employee, and also be inspired to learn more about a specific field while in college. I look forward to potentially using my degree in the field of sustainability. I am very interested in climate change and its effects, as I know I will be part of the generation that must learn to live with and adapt to it. In fact, I realized that my high school does not have an efficient way of teaching its students about climate change, and in my AP Research Capstone project, I conducted a study that proved that my school needs more pollution education and show that simple, one-time lessons can make a large impact. I am still following through with the changes this study will stimulate, but I am confident that this is just the first example of my ideas making change. My curiosity is one of my greatest strengths, it has led me to push my academic potential and expand who I am. Like any future engineer, I was building Legos from before I can remember, asking questions constantly about anything and everything, and trying to solve the minor problems and inconveniences I experienced. That led to a passion for math, where I could trust there was a right answer, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I will bring this same mindset to engineering and the problem-solving nature of my future career. Additionally, with my leadership skills earned through tireless work in a diverse extracurricular career, including track and field, marching band, and a STEM club, I believe I am well prepared to take new ideas and implement them. I would describe myself as a quiet leader, often leading by example and earning trust with consistent effort and honesty. For example, I might not have been the guy to give electric pep talks before track meets, but I was the captain who freshmen would come to for training tips and the sprint coaches trusted to anchor in races with immense pressure. This leadership will be incredibly beneficial in the engineering world, especially with the teamwork-oriented nature of the field. I was inspired to go into engineering by my father, who has used his ocean engineering degree to work as a radar and weapons systems engineer for Lockheed Martin, a job he truly enjoys and is passionate about. Growing up with parents that truly enjoy their careers and day-to-day work taught me the importance of mixing your interests with your strengths. That is why I am excited to walk through all of the doors this scholarship will help me open, using my curiosity to guide me to find a job as rewarding to me as my parents have.

Receiving this scholarship will help me pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I selected mechanical engineering as my first choice major because it would provide me with seemingly endless career possibilities, all of which are indescribably appealing to me. I love the unknown about my future career, even finding comfort in the fact that my future job might not have even been invented yet. The wide range of topics covered in a mechanical engineer’s education path - biomechanics, materials, aerospace, and environmental concentration classes - is what drew me to mechanical engineering specifically. With such a diverse background, I believe I will be incredibly valuable as an employee, and also be inspired to learn more about a specific field while in college. I look forward to potentially using my degree in the field of sustainability. I am very interested in climate change and its effects, as I know I will be part of the generation that must learn to live with and adapt to it. In fact, I realized that my high school does not have an efficient way of teaching its students about climate change, and in my AP Research Capstone project, I conducted a study that proved that my school needs more pollution education and show that simple, one-time lessons can make a large impact. I am still following through with the changes this study will stimulate, but I am confident that this is just the first example of my ideas making change. My curiosity is one of my greatest strengths, it has led me to push my academic potential and expand who I am. Like any future engineer, I was building Legos from before I can remember, asking questions constantly about anything and everything, and trying to solve the minor problems and inconveniences I experienced. That led to a passion for math, where I could trust there was a right answer, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I will bring this same mindset to engineering and the problem-solving nature of my future career. Additionally, with my leadership skills earned through tireless work in a diverse extracurricular career, including track and field, marching band, and a STEM club, I believe I am well prepared to take new ideas and implement them. I would describe myself as a quiet leader, often leading by example and earning trust with consistent effort and honesty. For example, I might not have been the guy to give electric pep talks before track meets, but I was the captain who freshmen would come to for training tips and the sprint coaches trusted to anchor in races with immense pressure. This leadership will be incredibly beneficial in the engineering world, especially with the teamwork-oriented nature of the field. I was inspired to go into engineering by my father, who has used his ocean engineering degree to work as a radar and weapons systems engineer for Lockheed Martin, a job he truly enjoys and is passionate about. Growing up with parents that truly enjoy their careers and day-to-day work taught me the importance of mixing your interests with your strengths. That is why I am excited to walk through all of the doors this scholarship will help me open, using my curiosity to guide me to find a job as rewarding to me as my parents have.