In 2015, my family and I immigrated from Ghana, West Africa, to the United States in search of a better life. This transition began a journey filled with challenges that would shape my identity and career aspirations. As a Black, queer immigrant, I faced the complexities of adjusting to a new culture, language, and educational system while dealing with the realities of financial struggles, racism, and the pressures of being an underrepresented minority. When we first arrived in the United States, one of my immediate challenges was learning to speak English. I had to attend language classes on top of my regular schoolwork, adding stress to an already demanding academic environment. The pressure was intensified by the responsibility of caring for my younger siblings, a duty that is deeply ingrained in our African culture. Balancing these responsibilities with my education required a level of perseverance that I had never before experienced. My thick Ghanaian accent made me stand out in school, and I was often labeled "the African kid." This label, coupled with the discrimination and racism I encountered, made it difficult to feel accepted. I was frequently ostracized and felt isolated every day I stepped onto the school grounds. However, instead of allowing these challenges to diminish my self-worth, I embraced my background and took pride in my heritage. I learned to remain headstrong in my academics, using the adversity I faced as motivation to excel. Despite these challenges, I remained determined to pursue my education as a pathway to a brighter future. Currently, I am a junior at Stanford University majoring in mechanical engineering. My passion for this field stems from its potential to address real-world problems and create sustainable solutions to improve lives. My career aspirations are rooted in the desire to use my engineering knowledge to develop technologies that tackle global issues, such as energy efficiency and medical device innovation. I am particularly committed to finding ways to serve underserved communities, both in the United States and in my home country of Ghana. The challenges I faced as an immigrant have shaped my outlook on life and fueled my ambition to make a difference. My experiences have taught me resilience, adaptability, and the importance of staying true to oneself in the face of adversity. These lessons continue to guide me as I pursue my academic and career goals, reminding me that success is not just about personal achievement but about using one's knowledge and skills to uplift others. In addition to my engineering aspirations, I am also passionate about music. I see music as another avenue through which I can support my family and give back to my community. My goal is to use both my engineering career and my musical talents to create a lasting impact for myself and those facing similar challenges. In conclusion, my immigrant experience has been a journey of learning, growth, and resilience. It has shaped my identity, fueled my ambitions, and instilled in me a deep commitment to positively impacting the world. As I continue to pursue my education and career, I carry with me the lessons learned from my family, my journey, and my core, determined to turn challenges into opportunities and aspirations into realities.

How can I make it in the United States? How do I repay my parents struggles to get me here, but also adhere to my passions? Success, to me, is the realization of one’s full potential and the positive impact one can make on the world. It is not merely about achieving personal goals but about using those achievements to uplift others, especially those who face similar challenges. As a Black, queer immigrant from Ghana, my understanding of success has been shaped by the struggles and triumphs of my journey, as well as the values instilled in me by my family and community. For me, success begins with education: coming from a low-income household with limited opportunities, I saw education as the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and creating a better life for myself and my family. When we immigrated to the United States in 2015, my family and I faced numerous obstacles—financial difficulties, racism, and health challenges among loved ones. Despite these hardships, I remained determined to pursue higher education, understanding it was my pathway to a brighter future. Currently, I am a junior at Stanford University majoring in mechanical engineering, a field that excites me because of its potential to solve real-world problems. I aim to use my engineering education to develop sustainable technologies addressing pressing global issues, such as energy efficiency and medical device innovation. Success, to me, will be realized when I can apply my knowledge and skills to create solutions that improve the quality of life for underserved communities, both in the United States and in my home country of Ghana. However, my definition of success extends beyond academic and professional achievements. It also encompasses the personal growth I have experienced through community service and the relationships I have built along the way. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was involved in a project with the FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America) club, where I helped elderly residents in nursing homes who were isolated due to quarantine measures. This experience taught me that success is also about making a meaningful impact on the lives of others, no matter how small the act may seem. This opportunity to apply for support is critical to my journey toward success. Financial challenges have always been a significant hurdle for me, as much of my income from various jobs has gone toward supporting my family both here and back home in Ghana. Scholarships and financial aid have played a crucial role in enabling me to continue my studies at Stanford, and this opportunity will help me stay on track to achieve my goals. In addition to aiding my Stanford career, this money will truly help me expand and work on my other passion, music. Both avenues are not only my passions but are also paths to secure money for my family. Most of the funds received will be used for school, and the rest will be used to work with music producers to release some music I have been working on. Success, to me, is a continuous journey of self-improvement, resilience, and service to others. It is about overcoming the odds and using one’s experiences and education to make a positive difference in the world. This opportunity will help me financially and reinforce my commitment to achieving success in a way that benefits those around me. I am deeply grateful for the support I have received thus far, and I am eager to continue striving toward my goals, knowing that each step brings me closer to realizing my vision of success.

20 years ago, my father started the paperwork necessary to bring my family to the United States. I remember calling him from my home in West Africa, Ghana, and asking him if everything was done. After two years, my father came back home to take my two older siblings, Amanda and Mathias, to the US because their paperwork was done. I remember sitting outside with Mathias on the last day before he and Amanda left. We stared at the sky as I tried to hold back tears. Mathias told me it was okay and that it would not take too long to join them. I held on to this hope for six years until it was time for the rest of our family to join the other half in the US. My first plane ride was phenomenal. The sky was blue, and the earth was miles away. I stayed up through the straight trip from Ghana to New York, watching movies on the plane. After landing, we walked to the airport parking lot to see Mathias, Amanda, and my dad waiting for us. We ran to them and hugged them for what seemed to be an hour. I can still remember the smell of oranges from the car, and the cold, unfamiliar air. As we sat in our small new home(apartment) talking about our flight and the years we spent apart from each other, my father made sure that he told all of us the reason why he worked so hard to bring us to the US. He told us he brought us to the US to have a chance at a better education. He and my grandparents always stressed this point, and I made it my goal to not fail them. As we waited in the apartment, we never forgot what we were anxious to see; one morning, a substance similar to cotton began to fall from the sky. We finally saw some snow! I can remember the picture of a finally reunited family outside in the cold trying to catch the softly blowing snowflakes. On my first day of school, the air was cold, and I was bundled up in my first winter coat; I believe it was primarily red with some grey lines on the zipper. The school might have been pedestrian to most people, but it felt like hope and happiness as I stepped into its lunchroom. It was a very different scene than my school in Ghana. Including me, I could only see two other people of color. I walked on to my first class, feeling the eyes of everyone on the new kid who arrived in the middle of the year. I chose to ignore it the best I could because I could not let myself be held back by fear and shyness. When I went home from school, I could not stop pointing out all the new things I saw at school; There were only about 23 students in the class instead of 40, the school had a library, and they had supplies for everyone. From that day onwards, I dedicated myself to doing the best I could at school. I cherished the school and the friends I made from it. My family was new to the American system, so my parents could not help me with the school processes such as signing up for the ACT, signing up for school activities, or helping me with the college process. I grabbed a hold of my future by researching what I needed to get done for college and asking some experts for help. My parents helped by giving me what money they had so I could focus on my studies. America has been a blessing, but it can also be challenging; My parents both have jobs and are working vigorously to provide for my five siblings and me, but sometimes we get into financial problems due to our contributions back to our extended family in Ghana. The community in New Ulm, Minnesota, greatly aided my family by giving us food and other items after my mother had triplets. Due to this help, I valued my community and volunteered as much as possible to give back to them. I helped my church by joining the choir and the mass servers and setting up areas for activities. I joined my school’s volunteer group and volunteered at my mom’s pregnancy center. My parents helped me by establishing a better life for my family in the US, and my community has helped me by aiding my family. I feel blessed by Yine(God in my native tongue FraFra), and I hope he can help me as I prepare for this college process and hopefully provide me with more opportunities.

There are many people that I admire from history; Wolfgang Mozart, William Shakespeare, and Leonardo Da Vinci. While all these people are formidable characters in our history, I have a deep respect for people who go against the normal in an attempt to make life better for underserved in the world. The woman I am to talk about is really a force to be reckoned with. After watching The Great, I immensely admire Catherine The Great, the lead character in the show. Born as Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, on May 2, 1729 in the German city of Stettin (Szczecin, now Poland), Catherine The Greatgrew to become the famous Empress of Russia. If I could meet any historical figure, it would be Catherine. Watching her story, I realize that determination can get anyone anywhere. In her time, women were written off as property and having no value other than for breeding, but she rewrote the system. Upon meeting Catherine, I would first tell her that she is a very inspirational figure. I would ask her how she got the courage to start a coup against the Emperor of Russia to give rights to all the citizens and how she accomplished it. I would also ask her if the accounts of her numerous romantic relationships were true (I find that fascinating). While this is very risky (since I would be talking to an Empress) I would ask her about the rumors regarding the horse business which nearly destroyed her reputation. I genuinely commend Catherine for her bravery. She deserves and truly embodies her epithet, “The Great.”

“Once you stop learning, you start dying”- Albert Einstein I grew up in Ghana, West Africa where my parents had hard lives and wanted better for me. My father worked as an artist while my mother worked as a fire officer to send my siblings and I to school. Education was and still is very important to my family. My father had a friend from America who helped him establish a life in the US. He worked tirelessly day and night so he could bring us over to America to give us better opportunities. When I got here, I started the paper route and used this as a chance to earn some money. I worked hard for years and accumulated some money. I worked harder than was my job description by performing extra duties as a paper carrier. This money was sent back to Ghana for my extended family. My parents and I have been sending money for some time now to help with medicine for my grandparents or other projects at home. I have always wanted to learn. Learn how to sing, learn how to play basketball, and learn how to cook. Learning motivates me, and I wanted to learn more so I could get a job that could support my family. I can still remember the hot days in Ghana, West Africa, and the two brothers who spent them indoors working on multiple projects. Those two boys were my brother Mathias and me. Mathias and I always tried to make our own electronics, or build our own forts. Mathias did most of the work. Mathais would dismantle the toy cars that our dad brought from the US. He would carefully take the motor from the car so that we could attach it to batteries and to a styrofoam boat we made. We hoped that the motor would spin fast enough to make the boat move in the stagnant water we found outside. Sometimes it worked! I remember when we would take the seats off our couches to make forts. He would place them in a manner that made the forts stable and resistant to collapse. I never realised it then but I was witnessing physics. I always wanted to do what Mathias did. I wanted to learn more about such processes and structures. My first-choice major is Civil Engineering because I want a curriculum that covers all aspects of engineering. I want to try them all so that I can choose a final route to pursue. With the skills I learn, I can help my extended family back in Ghana and hopefully make new innovations to the engineering practices in the world.

Four legs, two legs, three legs. That is it. We humans have frail, short lives. We start out as babies on all fours, crawling as we try to find our bearings. Then we grow to depend solely on our two legs, and at our old ages, we end up using a walking stick, making it three legs. This life can be long to some, but short for most. I intend to work on the earth as a whole. I am passionate about my education in civil engineering, and using those skills to develop the world without hurting the earth. The world is slowly dying, similar to us. Global warming and other environmental factors play in this degradation. There are many issues in the current infrastructures which aid in this ailment. As I progress as a civil engineer student, I plan to assess the problems and find ways to add more years to our planet. To achieve these goals, I have studied as hard as anyone could study. As a Black male from Ghana-West Africa, I have had to add many more steps to my plan on achieving my goals. I have had to study harder than other students, work harder than other students so I can try to pay for college, and I have had to overcome other challenges that are not school affiliated. I am black, and I am proud of it. There have been many times when the odds have been against me. When I arrived in the United States in 2015, my school held me back a grade because they saw me as a boy from a third world country who did not know much. I have had to face spite from other classmates and teachers based on the color of my skin. I have had to leave restaurants with racist employees. Life as a hard working teenager is hard enough without all these challenges that chain me down. To overcome this adversity, I relied on my family and friends. I trusted in their advice and I trusted that I was strong. I relied on this inner strength to help me navigate my challenges like a sailor navigating his ship through rocks. The one item I can always count on to take me through these adversities is my will. I am a strong black male who is self aware of the cruelty of the world, but I still hope to improve it. I plan to save the world from the hurt that her residents force on her, and I also want to make this world forgiving to more black students in my situation. Four legs, two legs, three legs. That is all there is.