Rosa Maria Cardenas, my engineering teacher, made the most difference in my growth as a student. Since the start of high school, I always saw school as a chore more than an opportunity. I lived waiting for the end of the day so I could go home and do nothing. My freshman year passed in an instant just as other people told me it would. My mindset kept me in my own little box until I met Mrs. Cardenas next year. At first she seemed like a bad teacher who did not care about her students but thought the years my perspective changed. She truly cared about us, our learning, and our future. Through the years she taught me to have the mindset of an engineer. Thanks to her, I see school as an opportunity to open many doors to a better future. She taught me to do things right, no matter the importance. If you are moping, do the job perfectly, if you are building a circuit, do it perfectly. If you are giving something a shot, give it your 100% never less. Thanks to her, I think of myself as a better student and a better person as well. The most recent and biggest obstacle was during the competition of Racing the Sun in which we raced a solar powered Go-Kart as the Engineering class. The Go-Kart started with many problems, some were basic ones and others were much more serious. To start, the biggest problem was time management. We had around 5 months to work on the project but due to many time management issues we started with around 4-3 months which caused rush and disorder. This caused other problems such as missing pieces in the Test day, wrongful electrical connections, and the usage of defective parts. After a lot of struggle, effort, and trouble shooting, we got the car running, although it wasn't efficient it at least ran. While taking it out for a test drive the day before the race, a classmate grabbed the car from a sensible piece and accidentally tore an essential cable for the throttle. We knew it had been him who tore the cable, but we also knew it was not on purpose. Instead of blaming it on him and giving up, we decided to confront the problem as the team we are. We troubleshooted for an hour and found the problem. After fixing it we ran a test, the chain kept popping off and when the car ran it sounded horrible. An hour later we noticed that the plate's screws were loose. After tightening them, the car ran super smooth. The day of the race we almost took first place but due to a cloudy sky, the batteries did not charge enough to run the 6 laps. Although we did excellent and won other trophies, we knew we could have done better. We overcame all the challenges put upon us by working as a team, learning about past errors, and by thinking as engineers. This experience taught me to always give my 100% in everything I do because if the whole engineering team did that, the 1st place was surely ours. As an Electrical Engineer, I hope to make our world a safer place. I would love to be able to create new technology which would help and prioritize those in need as I am not from a family who has it all. In the future I hope to become someone successful who can represent and give back to his community in many significant ways.