How pathetic. As I stood on the sidelines watching my robot roll around the playing field, I felt the true meaning of defeat, and a fire of passion was lit under me. A small fish in a sea of sharks, my team’s product wheeled helplessly around the game area trying to complete a task it could not do. Months prior, I had started my school’s first girls’ Vex robotics and was excited to learn and compete with my team to build a machine that could stack the highest towers possible. A few days before the competition, we realized that the gear ratios rendered the robot’s arm incapable of stacking any blocks, and our design would end up as a push bot that could only move around and try to block our opponent from stacking blocks. As my team and I walked into the competition, we gazed in awe at the monstrous machines that stood before us. My seemingly insurmountable desire to succeed had been defeated by the creatures brought to life by the other teams. How was it possible that I worked so hard on something only for it to turn out disastrously when it seemed like everyone else succeeded? As a young woman pursuing a career in engineering, this question has come into my mind countless times. Many engineering projects and programming camps had come and gone and I couldn’t help but question why I got so discouraged when my designs would not turn out how I wanted, while the guys in the class would just laugh it off. Was I just not meant to pursue this career? I was heartbroken by this thought because I have loved math and science since I was little and always saw myself having a career in engineering in the future. How could I succeed in an engineering career if I couldn’t even build a functioning claw bot? I felt stagnant, going into the team not knowing anything about robotics and feeling like I was coming out of it in the same place. When I had almost reached the point of giving up, my father enlightened me, saying, “If you just aren’t interested in robotics, that’s a reason to quit because you gave it a shot. But don’t stop trying just because it’s hard.” I realized I had almost succumbed to quitting because I did not succeed at building an award-winning robot. How pathetic. Every engineer has to push past countless challenges and there is no such thing as doing it right the first time; I was not a helpless case, but someone who was going through the situations that every aspiring engineer has to go through. Now, whenever I experience challenges with programming or robotics, these words get me back on my feet and I feel as invincible as those colossal block-stacking machines I saw at the competition. My inquisitive and unwavering mindset has become my strongest weapon and I am encouraged by challenges as I pursue my destined career in technology. Nothing will be easy, but I know it will be immensely rewarding when I achieve those glorious “aha” moments. I can work through bugs. I will succeed and learn everything I can about engineering and computer science. No defective robot arm can get in my way.

Since my early childhood, I have immersed myself in engineering and programming camps where I would make games, build robots, and learn programming languages. As a software engineer, my father has been my inspiration to pursue this rapidly growing field and his passion for the field ignited my dedication to the industry. Since I was a little girl, completing a degree in computer science has been my dream, and the experiences and skills I have gained throughout my high school years have set me up for success in this rapidly growing field. In the summer of 2021, I was accepted into the Girls Who Code summer immersion program, which allowed me to learn web design skills along with other girls across the nation. In this program, I created an activist website that advocated for farm workers’ rights in America. It included a feature that allowed users to send a generated script to their senator to support improved farm labor conditions. With no previous web design experience, I had persevered through many challenges throughout this project and I was very proud of the final product. When I finished, it dawned on me how much of an impact I could make with my programming skills, and I intend to redesign the bounds for activism through similar projects in my software engineering career. Once I work my way to the correct combination of for loops and if-statements- along with the accurate placement of semicolons- the beauty of a working program reveals itself in full bloom and invokes an endlessly rewarding feeling I will strive for again and again. An education in this field of technology will allow me to invoke positive change in society and make a difference for women who are interested in engineering fields. Engineering motivates me in a way no other career path can and I intend to find success in this career and inspire others like me to pursue their dreams. When we break boundaries to input our value into society, it causes a ripple effect for those who come after us. Receiving my education in computer science will allow me to build a toolkit that will help me find creative and effective solutions to societal problems. It will allow me to expand my knowledge and allow my curious mind to flourish. To progress in an innovative society, the most crucial action is to be curious and want to learn more about the world; with this skill comes fruitful results.