I still remember when it clicked for me that I wanted to work with computers: I was in the 5th grade, and by that point, I already had a lot of experience using computers. But, that was the year that my mom gifted me her old iPod Video. That was the first time I used a device that always did exactly what I expected. I realized that every other computer I had used up to that point never just worked. Recognizing the possible power in technology, I resolved to make these resources both functional and accessible. Previously, this has meant obtaining valuable industry experience by interning while earning my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at Cornell University. Now, it means pursuing an M.Eng degree in Computer Science to facilitate my long-term goal of bringing a start-up from ideation to realization. I've already had meaningful experience working on small meaningful teams. One such project that came from a smaller team is an iOS app I designed last year. The app simplifies the career fair experience for both recruiters and students by allowing recruiters preliminary access to relevant student information. It also creates virtual lines that students can wait in to ensure equal opportunity for students of all backgrounds. I was excited to use my experience attending career fairs at Cornell, as well as the Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers conferences to influence my creative process. At these events, I became well aware of the barriers that exist for students at a career fair. For example, needing to stand for hours at a time restricts these fairs to able-bodied students. Building this app reinforced my mobile development abilities while allowing me to learn to effectively communicate with a client and how to design app mockups in UX design software before writing code. Along with the skills I gained from my coursework, professional industry experiences have allowed me to further understand the real-world applications of these tools. During my two summers interning with Walmart Labs, I built both Mobile and Full-stack Software that enhanced the customer experience. These projects strengthened my ability to communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences. Additionally, they allowed me to build software that satisfies the needs of international stakeholders. In my time at Google, I created a data visualization dashboard that increased the engineering efficiency of chipset teams. This involved using a variety of engineering and design skills gained from my coursework to develop visualizations that were meaningful, accessible, and able to communicate the team’s progress towards their goals. The insights I have gained from my industry experience have also been incredibly helpful in confirming my mentality that start-up work is the right work for me. I learned so much from my fellow experienced Engineers, but it was difficult to feel the impact of my work. This summer I am working for the Black-led start-up TaggiD as a Software Engineering Intern and I've never been so excited about my work. I can see the impact of my contributions every day which allows me to take real ownership of my work. Even being backed up by my 3 summers of big industry experience, deciding to start pursuing my start-up aspirations now was a big risk as start-up work naturally is. But you gotta cross the line to move it forward. And I want more and more Black engineers like myself to feel more supported when deciding to take these risks. My background as the son of immigrants from the island of Dominica has given me unique perspectives that I use to positively inform how I support other students. Incorporating this background with my technical experiences has allowed me to empower future engineers to apply their skills into practical, hands-on applications with real-world impact. As a Team Lead for the Cornell Hyperloop project team, I ensured that students had a space to implement the knowledge they accrued in their Computer Science and Electrical Engineering courses to shape the future of transportation. This involved making decisions around the higher-level system design and giving my team members tools to effectively make the best lower-level design decisions. As a Director for BigRed//Hacks, Cornell’s largest student-run hackathon, I invited students of all backgrounds to create technological projects in a supportive environment. BigRed//Hacks is the first opportunity for many students to apply Computer Science creatively and practically, and I used my own experiences to validate the hackers’ ideas and help them actualize their designs. With the Underrepresented Minorities in Computing and CUEmpower organizations, I have mentored underclassmen to help them navigate academia and industry. As a Black Software Engineer, I embraced these mentorship roles to give back to the communities that have helped me achieve success. The challenging coursework, practical internship experience, and fulfilling leadership experiences have all been undertakings towards achieving my goal of developing the type of functional and accessible software that I discovered on my iPod Video. But, my story isn’t over. The next chapter involves me earning my M.Eng Degree in Computer Science at Cornell University. And once I've earned this degree, I'll take what I learned in the CS and Business courses and use them to continue to contribute to start-up success. All the while, I'll be doing all I can to encourage more Black engineers to enter the start-up space and to provide support to them. Then, after spending some time providing my engineering skills to the start-up world, I'll do what I've envisioned myself doing since I decided to pursue a career in computing. I'll found my own start-up company to make a meaningful impact on this world and the people in it. And I can guarantee you one thing. The company's makeup won't look like the start-up world of today. Hopefully, with my help, that can be said of the entire start-up world in the near future.