Growing up I found my calling in a very unique way. In 2007, my father was deployed to Iraq. His job there was to drive the roadsides and find improvised explosive devices. My dad's and his company's job was the most dangerous job in Iraq, but even though it was dangerous, he found time to find and bring back the Ironman movie. As a watched the movie with my dad, I realized that I need to build things to help disabled veterans. From that day forward, I knew I want to become a biomedical engineer. As a biomedical engineer, I would be able to design and build prothetics, and new engineered items to better the lives of veterans that lost a limb in combat. These prosthetics will allow the veterans to have a better quality of life, and enable them to live a more normal life. My overall future dream is to own and operate my own biomedical engineering firm that specializes in helping disabled veterans. My dad is a disabled veteran that suffers from migraines, back pain, and PTSD. My best dream would be able to find a way to help veterans like my dad, address and better life with the effects of PTSD. By finding a way to help PTSD, veterans and people with this disorder would live much better lives, and be able to better cope with their triggers.

I have had the same goal for my career and academics since I was very young. The jump start to my future career happen with my dad returned home from his deployment from Iraq and brought me home the first Ironman movie. As we sat down and watched the movie together, I realized that I wanted to be able to build and design things that could better the lives of disabled veterans and persons of the world. I felt that the best way for me to accomplish this goal was to work hard for stellar grades, and be excepted into Saint Louis University' Biomedical Engineering program. In addition to my career path is chose, I decided that I want to graduate high school with my associates degree. Now being in my senior year of high school and getting ready to graduate I can see all my hard work paying off. I will be graduating with my Associates of Art Degree from Mineral Area College, the top of my high school class, and have been excepted to Saint Louis University's Biomedical Engineering program. By completing these first steps, I can see my dream of helping the disabled come to light. My future plans for my career is to graduate from Saint Louis University and obtain a job with a company that is involved in engineering items to better the lives of the disabled. After learning the ins and outs of biomedical engineering, I would like to open my own biomedical engineering firm that focus in on helping disabled veterans and making those items affordable to all disabled persons worldwide. These goals are what I have strived for since I was young, and goals I am working on achieving.

My favorite hobby is what my family calls tinkering. From a very young age, I was intrigued buy how things worked. the first thing I can remembered taking apart was an old vacuum cleaner. I wanted to better understand how the internal mechanics works, and how those mechanics cause a vacuum to clean. From that day forward, I wanted to understand how everything worked and how I could make them better. My tinkering has also lead me to several different projects. I have drawn up designs for a web shooter, which has allowed me to learn to solder wire and understand wiring of electronics. The only thing I have not mastered on this project is how to make the web fluid. Another project that I have tinkered with is an arm sleeve that helps the arm lift heavier load. The prototype was made out of PVC pipe and use pneumatics to aid in the lifting. By tinkering with this designed, I was able to better understand how pneumatics work, and how to apply those concepts to increase the lifting capacity of a injured arm. My hobby in tinker, and my taught process of building items to help disabled individuals quality of life come from my father service connected disabilities and his enable to preform certain day to day activities. I want to be able to build things that will better the quality of life for disabled veterans and other disabled citizens of the world.