I’m a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I try my best to grow with each year as I learn new topics that grow more challenging and more exciting for me. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles, from my father to me. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always feared not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin, both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, which were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a fun time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, national honor Society, and the ping-pong club. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the Saint Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer and at feeding Tampa Bay, which allowed me to make food baskets for those in need as well as cleaning up the produce and other items they have there.

I’m a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I try my best to grow with each year as I learn new topics that grow more challenging and more exciting for me. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles, from my father to me. I want other children like me to know that they can do it, that it's possible. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always feared not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin, both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, which were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a fun time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, national honor Society, and the ping-pong club. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the Saint Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer and at feeding Tampa Bay, which allowed me to make food baskets for those in need as well as cleaning up the produce and other items they have there.

I’m a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles, from my father to me. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always feared not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin, both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, which were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a fun time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, national honor Society, and the ping-pong club. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the St. Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer and at feeding Tampa Bay, which allowed me to make food baskets for those in need as well as cleaning up the produce and other items they have there.

The revisions I have made are entirely too many to count and they all have made me a better person, leader, and colleague. The revisions that have changed me at my core are my confidence, my trust in myself, my communication, and my boundaries. All these things allow me to collaborate with other people but also allow me to work with myself when doing schoolwork or doing work for a job. Communication allows me to talk to other people and explain what I need help with to finish my projects, communication allows me to state my boundaries, it allows me to tell people what I am comfortable with when it comes to school or personal relationships in the workplace. The confidence I accumulated allows me to pursue ideas even if they feel far-fetched and just throw things at a wall to see what sticks and if it sticks, go with it, and if it doesn’t, it’s OK. I’ve learned you’re allowed to make mistakes everything is not going to work out or go your way and that’s OK. You just must be able to come back from that and make something new and better, to learn from what went wrong and come back stronger. That’s why I’m so proud of the trust that I have for myself because if you don’t trust someone in the workplace or just in everyday life then nothing will be done if you can’t trust yourself, the same thing is true. You won’t be able to do anything; you must have trust in yourself. I had to work for my trust because at first I would second-guess everything I would do. For example, I was doing a project in an internship and I didn’t know if my Ideas were good, but I fought through my anxiety of telling other people because I knew we had to get it done; so I told my supervisors and colleagues and they all really enjoyed the idea and were all really engaged with it as well. They even ended up using some of their insight to make it a better project it which made me really excited to work on the project so that taught me that no idea is too bad or too crazy cause even though some parts of it were a little rough around the edges. I still have dreadful social anxiety, so college is a place where I want to spread my wings and let it go. I can talk to new people, and high school has already helped me a lot with my social anxiety because it used to be terrible in middle school. I couldn’t talk to anybody so at least now I’m able to talk to other people, I’m not seeing everybody as a scary stranger but just as human beings who are all complex and have an everyday life just like I do. I didn’t know anyone entering high school so leaving high school with friends taught me that I can make friends anywhere. College it’s at such a greater scale, that allows me to talk to everyone from every walk of life and to explore different human beings and have the privilege to meet and make connections with so many unique people around me and that will allow me to grow so much greater than I can right now.

I’m a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I try my best to grow with each year as I learn new topics that grow more challenging and more exciting for me. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles, from my father to me. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always feared not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin, both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, which were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a fun time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, national honor Society, and the ping-pong club. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the Saint Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer and at feeding Tampa Bay, which allowed me to make food baskets for those in need as well as cleaning up the produce and other items they have there.

I’m a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I try my best to grow with each year as I learn new topics that grow more challenging and more exciting for me. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles, from my father to me. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always feared not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin, both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, which were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a fun time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, national honor Society, and the ping-pong club. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the Saint Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer and at feeding Tampa Bay, which allowed me to make food baskets for those in need as well as cleaning up the produce and other items they have there.

I had never really knew what mental health was prior to middle school but when I had got to middle school, I didn’t know anybody and my mental health plummeted. It got really bad in 6th grade then I met my first friend and she showed me to her friends and then it was good, but right after that Covid hit and that had made my mental health plummet even more I had friends but I was lonely during online school. My grades slipped, and I was struggling with my sexuality as well, then eighth grade came. I was forced to go back into face-to-face school and at that time I had crippling anxiety and I did not know how to interact with other people so I was spiraling. I was almost constantly in a manic episode. The friends I had before Covid had all left the school, had different classes than me or they had Covid so I wouldn’t be able to see them anyway. So, I was at school all alone left with intrusive thoughts that made me feel like I was a horrible person and just made me not want to exist. Then one day this girl I had sit across in my homeroom talk to me and ask me to play Minecraft and we played and laughed and other people came over and played, I became friends with all of them and that genuinely pulled me out of the place I was in. I learned what intrusive thoughts were because I didn’t know what they were, I just thought the thoughts were my own, that I was thinking that I was feeling that even though I didn’t. Prior to this I viewed the world as maintained, and it felt crazy to me that I had to live through every day with the same times at the same seasons with the same people it made me feel even worse, but after it made me realize that every day can be different. I just had to make it different. I had no goals, no relationships, no understanding of the world during this time just the want to not exist, I was so focused on that, my life seems so horrible at the time. After I made those friends, I ended up talking and reaching out to some people in my band class and made friends there as well. It taught me that life is truly what you make of it, even if there are outside circumstances that can make it worse, you can get through it, if I was able to get through that horrible time in my life, I can get through anything. Afterwards I went to high school and made friends even though I didn’t know anybody I became more social and I grew out of my shell. I learned that I enjoyed engineering and I wanted to get into that field because I love to solve problems. I learned about the people around me and that they’re all just humans and not scary strangers that are gonna judge me at every turn, the only person that can judge me is me truly.

I’m Ndey Barrow, a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I try my best to grow with each year as I learn new topics that grow more challenging and more exciting for me. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles from my father to me. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always been scared of not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, that were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a good time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, and national honor Society. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the Saint Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer.

I have been in the Lakewood high school marching band for the last three years. My most memorable experience during that time was my first battle, a battle is when your band is going against a single or multiple bands at one time just trying to prove that you’re the best band, we all have worked so hard to get to the battles. This is my freshman year of high school, so I was scared that I wasn’t going to do good. We practiced every day from when school opened till the time the school keepers kicked us out. When we finally got to the battle. I was nervous, but as soon as we started playing, my nerves dissipated because I was playing better than I expected, and I was filled with a fire to be great and to compete that all my anxiety dissipated, and I just played from my heart. I played as loudly as I could. I played all my motes right and I jumped up and down for all the dance breaks. I was putting all my energy in through my horn and through the dances so I could prove that we were the best marching band. Our band’s name is Storm because you know when we come through, you’re going to hear it you’re going to feel it, it’s like a storm just went through and that’s what we did, and I remember feeling so great afterwards. Just feel like I did the thing that we’ve been planning to do, and it was so great. Band taught discipline in a way that I couldn’t learn from anything else. It truly taught me to not procrastinate by learning music as soon as I got it. Band taught me the necessity of studying and learning things as they come to you. To just take life on the chin especially when you make a mistake, to own up to it and to fix it while not getting defensive, to learn from it. To use ma’am and sir when addressing anyone. Band taught me that academics are above everything. You could be great and everything else your sports you’re extracurricular, but you need to have the academics to enjoy it in the first place, so academics have always been at the top since I’ve been in band.Being a leader in the band means leading my section through battles and teaching them the music. Helping them with whatever they need to learn the music, taking accountability for when my section doesn’t know the music cause it’s on me I’m the leader, I should be able to teach them the music, it’s my fault they don’t know it.

I’m Ndey Barrow, a child of Gambia in pursuit of a mechanical engineering degree. Through my love of science and math, I challenge myself with thought-provoking problems and topics that interested me regardless of how hard said topic was. I try my best to grow with each year as I learn new topics that grow more challenging and more exciting for me. I love engineering, growing up I was never able to see myself in the scientists and engineers I saw so I hope to be a representation of not only women in stem but black women in stem. I plan to work at leading aerospace company after college. Black professionals represent about 3% of all mechanical engineers while less than 1% of mechanical engineers are black women. Engineering is one of the least diverse professions and I want to change that; I have a deeply ingrained love for engineering that comes from my uncles from my father to me. I plan to attend Florida agricultural and mechanical University in the fall. It has always been my dream HBCU, but I have always been scared of not having the funds to go. I am a qualifier for Florida’s bright futures scholarship which covers my tuition for all four years but college is much more than just tuition so I apply to at least two scholarships a day so I won’t have to stress about money during college because I want to grow, have a good time, and flourish academically. I led two projects at Lockheed Martin both using solid works, which is a 3D CAD program that allows you to 3D print whatever you make on the program or just make 3D models of things to try to better them. They both had to do with a woman stem empowerment gathering for children that allows them to see and interact with engineering, that were meant to be fun for the kids to use, although only one was put into effect the kids really had a good time with it. I was in Lakewood high school’s marching band, drama club, poetry club, national honor Society, and the ping-pong club. I was section leader in the marching band and an assistant technical manager in drama club. National honor society allowed me to pursue my volunteering activities as I volunteered at the Saint Petersburg Raiders teaching and guiding special education kids on how to play soccer and at feeding Tampa Bay, which allowed me to make food baskets for those in need as well as cleaning up the produce and other items they have there.

From an early age, I was drawn to STEM fields, but I struggled to find a career path that aligned with my passions. At the time, I believed that computer science was the primary STEM field with lucrative career opportunities, but I didn't find it appealing. My father is the only one in my family with an engineering degree, and the only person in my family with a bachelor’s degree. Watching my father struggle and fight his way into engineering jobs just so he could make ends meet as a first-generation college student stuck with me Additionally, I doubted my ability to succeed in engineering because I didn't see myself reflected in the stories of prominent figures in the field. I believed no engineer looked like me, no engineer could look like me, no engineer was from an immigrant family, there was no way I could be an engineer. I thought I could never be smart enough regardless of how much I learned because engineering was just too hard and was not a field for someone like me. This was echoed by my peers dreading to be in a robotics group with me because I struggled with programming and I was "Difficult to work with and intimidating" according to my classmates. Due to the fact I asked questions and tried my best to contribute what I could to the group by learning more even when I was confused. This caused me to be isolated in groups I joined because nobody wanted to be in a group with the "Mean black girl" I thought I was a fraud, a sheep in wolves clothing, because of the way I was described, I believed I wasn't smart and could never be smart, that I didn't have place in the engineering space. However, when I was given the chance to interview at Lockheed Martin, I saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself and prove my capabilities to myself. Just getting the interview was proof enough that I was more intelligent than I believed myself to be. A month later I learned that I got an internship competing with thousands of other intelligent young high school scholars. Interning there taught me that my input matters, taught me how to communicate effectively, and ultimately taught me how to hold my own. Interning taught me that I had nothing to prove to anyone but myself. I hope to be able to relate to other scholars and learn freely with them at the college of my choice without worrying about money.

From an early age, I was drawn to STEM fields, but I struggled to find a career path that aligned with my passions. At the time, I believed that computer science was the primary STEM field with lucrative career opportunities, but I didn't find it appealing. My father is the only one in my family with an engineering degree, and the only person in my family with a bachelor’s degree. Watching my father struggle and fight his way into engineering jobs just so he could make ends meet as a first-generation college student stuck with me Additionally, I doubted my ability to succeed in engineering because I didn't see myself reflected in the stories of prominent figures in the field. I believed no engineer looked like me, no engineer could look like me, no engineer was from an immigrant family, there was no way I could be an engineer. I thought I could never be smart enough regardless of how much I learned because engineering was just too hard and was not a field for someone like me. This was echoed by my peers dreading to be in a robotics group with me because I struggled with programming and I was "Difficult to work with and intimidating" according to my classmates. Due to the fact I asked questions and tried my best to contribute what I could to the group by learning more even when I was confused. This caused me to be isolated in groups I joined because nobody wanted to be in a group with the "Mean black girl" I thought I was a fraud, a sheep in wolves clothing, because of the way I was described, I believed I wasn't smart and could never be smart, that I didn't have place in the engineering space. However, when I was given the chance to interview at Lockheed Martin, I saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself and prove my capabilities to myself. Just getting the interview was proof enough that I was more intelligent than I believed myself to be. A month later I learned that I got an internship competing with thousands of other intelligent young high school scholars. Interning there taught me that my input matters, taught me how to communicate effectively, and ultimately taught me how to hold my own. Interning taught me that I had nothing to prove to anyone but myself. I hope to be able to relate to other scholars and learn freely with them at the college of my choice without worrying about money.

There is only one person in my life I can say honestly say will always have an impact on my life and that is my grandmother. She is from The Gambia in West Africa she has always stood by me, she is my Toma, meaning my namesake in Wolof. I was named after her, and that I will carry forever with pride. My grandmother is not someone you mess with, she knows what she wants to do, she knows what she likes to do, and she knows what she is going to do. I am someone who hated to say no, to stand up for myself, so watching her always stand up for herself always no matter what, has made me do the same, she pushes me to do what I want and be selfish enough to look out for myself but selfless enough to look out for others. She has endless compassion regardless of what I did wrong she never scolded me, in the traditional sense, but she always found a way to teach me that I made a mistake that the mistake itself was wrong but the fact that I am capable of making mistakes, is right. Every celebration I have had she has been there, regardless of whether she was able to do it physically or not. My grandmother’s resilience in raising five kids in a developing country while running her own store is something I will always admire her for and will work my whole life trying to have the same strength she has. She has always encouraged me to do what I love to do no matter what field it was in, no matter how much money it made, no matter where I went in the world, she made it clear she was going to support me, no matter what. She will show up and show out for me and never lets me forget how proud she is of me. I was never able to meet my paternal grandmother, but the love, care, dedication, and devotion my maternal grandmother has is more than enough to never make me feel like I was missing anything. I dream to have the strength and kindness of my grandmother, she hasn’t been kind her entire life, but that strength has always been there, so if she can grow, against all odds, into the remarkable, educated, gentle women she is today then so can I.