One of the most significant challenges I’ve faced in the span of my educational career was the fear of underachieving and underperforming compared to my peers. At the beginning of my educational journey, I was naturally inclined toward the education format and didn't have much trouble adapting to the different subjects in school. I loved to learn and expand my educational horizons, and I excelled at the top of my class without much effort. At the early age of 9 years old, I was placed in advanced programs and advanced courses. I was held to a higher standard, and me being held to this high standard at such an early age, I would attribute my self-worth to my performance on tests and my succes to others. While I did not know this back then, I can now realize how damaging this competitive mindset would soon have in my life as time went on. As I progressed in school, the work's difficulty and the quotas I expected to reach only grew further. With the increasing workload, the level of effort I would have to put forth grew. I found the subjects that I once so effortlessly excelled at, now at times, leaving me stumped and confused. I felt this throughout my time in middle school. I carried the anxious feeling of the possibility of disappointing all the people who had entrusted me with such high expectations and all of the trust invested in me by my parents to do well. These feelings and expectations grew exponentially over the years, leaving me with anxiety and stress that I wouldn't wish on anyone. These feelings would only get worse as I went into early high school, where I would have to withstand the vigorous high school and college courses at fourteen years old. The very courses that would leave a permanent impact on the course of my future. I experienced multiple anxiety attacks and many sleepless nights that would leave me feeling that I was falling behind and my struggles in school would soon ruin my life. Then halfway through the school year, I, along with the rest of the world, would be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. During the Covid-19 lockdown, along with the regulatory measures that affected everything from social interaction to educational opportunities. With schools being fully online, I struggled to adapt, and with the same expectations I needed to meet, I struggled more than ever before. I lost all hope in my abilities, and my only sense of self-worth was now lost. The only way I managed to dig myself out of this deep hole was through an opportunity to engage in an engineering workshop, where I was reminded of my true passion for learning. Learning to build robots, problem-solve, build programs, and design the technologies of the future in this workshop lifted me up and reminded me that learning is best done when done for your passions and not for the obligations of others. Since attending this engineering summer camp, I have been devoted and passionate about careers in Math, Engineering, and Physics. STEM became my safe haven, and now, through engineering, I want to ensure that others who have a passion for learning have an outlet to discover their true passions. I want to use the knowledge, thoughts, and experiences from my past as motivation to engineer the technologies of tomorrow. I want to, for my own educational pursuits, use the abilities that I've acquired to leave a positive impact on my community and become a role model for those like me with similar dreams.

My dream is to provide better opportunities for my family and, through my future educational pursuits, acquire the ability to earn enough to take care of them in their older ages. Coming from a very impoverished county lacking many resources and opportunities, my parents worked hard to ensure that I had the ability to be in the position I am in today. My goal for the future is to utilize this very fortunate position I'm in as a first-generation college student to succeed in college and provide for my family.

Math has been a passion of mine since the very beginning of my educational career. Some of my happiest memories of my youth include asking my parents to quiz me, as I wanted to be the first person in my class to memorize the multiplication table. As math started to get increasingly complex, I loved the presentation of the challenge and took them head-on. I love math because of the mental processes involved in finding solutions to any problem that might present itself. As basic arithmetic suddenly changed to the intricate world of algebraic expressions and equations, I yearned to absorb all of the information I could, a mentality I continue to carry to this very day. I attribute my passion for math to the avenues that I now have the ability to pursue. As a racial minority in a very impoverished area, I did not have many educational opportunities at hand to quench the passionate, burning flame that math had ignited. As a result, I took advantage of all of the opportunities I could to hone my skills and create new passions along the way. That love for math has increased my interest in many math-related fields, such as engineering and computer science, and opened doors that would have stayed closed forever. My love for math has given me the ability to tutor my peers in the subject, passing on the very passion that made me fall in love with the subject to an entirely new audience. I love math in every aspect and am indebted to the many educational and career opportunities that the subject has afforded me. Pursuing a Math degree will allow me to learn more about the educational subject that I have been on a conquest to learn more about since a very young age, while also granting me the opportunity to reach new heights in society.

We arrive at 5 pm on a cool March evening on the side of what would be my and many others' first robotics competition. Not knowing what to expect, I hopped off the activity bus and, with a curious gaze, glanced at the neighboring teams around me. Entering the gym of the competition, I was amazed at what I saw. When looking at the competing robots, I was insanely impressed at their incredible designs, prestigious sponsors (such as NASA, John Deer, and Caterpillar), and teams upwards of 30 people. This feeling of awe quickly turned into belittling intimidation, making our 10-person team with a broken robot feel small. Despite this feeling of beginning to dig deep into my soul, I knew that my team was working on borrowed time that we simply couldn't waste. Our robot had a broken elevator, a busted front motor, and no code for the autonomous section of the competition. Realizing the monstrous task presented before our team, I realized we needed a leading force to direct us through this trying time. I assumed this role, and we began working. The next five hours consisted of me assigning others to different tasks, helping in the repair of our front motor, proposing possible solutions, trying to fix the broken elevator, and patching the errors that my autonomous code would present. While mildly stressful back then, looking back at that experience and the later days to come, I look very fondly at my first experience in the heat of competition. I learned how to act and cooperate in a distressing situation while working on multiple tasks simultaneously. Despite not being able to get the elevator to work in those short five hours, by the end, we achieved movement of the arm and made the playoffs in our robotics competition. Learning from these successes and failures, in this year's robotics competition, I bring a new fire, a new flame burning bright in my heart with the motivation to have a fully operational robot on the day of the competition. Engineering has awarded me this passion, the passion for working harder, to problem-solving, and never giving up despite the situation. For this reason, I am passionate about engineering, and I want to use the medium to inspire the same passion in others.

Math has been a passion of mine since the very beginning of my educational career. Some of my happiest memories of my youth include asking my parents to quiz me, as I wanted to be the first person in my class to memorize the multiplication table. As math started to get increasingly complex, I loved the presentation of the challenge and took them head-on. I love math because of the mental processes involved in finding solutions to any problem that might present itself. As basic arithmetic suddenly changed to the intricate world of algebraic expressions and equations, I yearned to absorb all of the information I could, a mentality I continue to carry to this very day. I attribute my passion for math to the avenues that I now have the ability to pursue. As a racial minority in a very impoverished area, I did not have many educational opportunities at hand to quench the passionate, burning flame that math had ignited. As a result, I took advantage of all of the opportunities I could to hone my skills and create new passions along the way. That love for math has increased my interest in many math-related fields, such as engineering and computer science, and opened doors that would have stayed closed forever. My love for math has given me the ability to tutor my peers in the subject, passing on the very passion that made me fall in love with the subject to an entirely new audience. I love math in every aspect and am indebted to the many educational and career opportunities that the subject has afforded me.