For me, success is defined by not only my education and accomplishments, but how I use those to help others. My goal next year is to major in biomedical engineering. I want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. My success in the future is not measured by how much money I make or how much recognition I get. Instead, I hope to positively help a community that has shaped me so much. I experienced this feeling of success before when I helped as a speech therapy assistant. As someone who spent years in speech therapy, the idea of seeing it from the speech therapist’s perspective was very intriguing to me. Growing up, I never felt understood by my speech therapists, and I hoped to change that, even with just one kid. I got in contact with a speech therapist from my elementary school and she allowed me the opportunity to shadow her during her in school appointments. Once every week, I would go to the elementary school and help a young kid work on his sounds. I have never experienced such a heartwarming experience–helping a young kid much like myself made me wonder if my stigma toward speech therapy would exist if I had help from someone in my same position. I spent months going to that elementary school: each time, I started to think more and more about my experiences in speech therapy as a kid. I had always wished I had at least someone in my corner who understood my experiences. The fact that I got to do that for a little kid was my idea of success. I want to help people feel understood and not feel alienated for something that they cannot control. I want to propel myself on the path to success; however, I have faced an obstacle with paying for my education in the upcoming years, especially considering I want to pursue my PhD. An opportunity such as this generous one would be incredibly beneficial to my future and would help me make the change I want to see in the world, a change that will hopefully benefit the Deaf/hard-of-hearing community worldwide.

From a very early age, I always knew I wanted to do great things. As a hard-of-hearing child with moderate to severe hearing loss, it is easy to say that my doctors and my parents and everyone around me doubted my ability to acclimate to society and ever truly become successful but considering my achievements and the growth I have shown the past 12 years, I can confidently say that they were wrong. My name is Ophelia McQueen, I am a senior at Maryville High School, and I have a bright future ahead of me. My ultimate goal is to double major in biomedical engineering and public health. While I have always been interested in the research and development of hearing aids, hoping to innovate research in the field as someone with a different perspective, I also have recently become interested in public policy analysis, to understand how current policy puts the Deaf/hard-of-community community at a disadvantage. My biggest obstacle to achieving this dream of mine is the inability to afford tuition costs without taking out a substantial amount of student loans. Besides my own obstacles as a hard-of-hearing student in a hearing school, I have also faced my own struggles as a woman in STEM. I have had my intelligence and capabilities constantly underestimated, despite proving myself time and time again. To combat this, I started the Progressives Club at my school, which was very controversial considering I live in a red state. With this club, I have organized activities such as writing letters to our state representatives to advocate for the passage of bills that would help marginalized communities and to protest bills that would hurt certain groups, such as protesting against certain abortion bills. This is something I am interested in continuing in my future. I have also considered double majoring in public policy so that I can more directly make changes. My hope for the future is to use my college education and resources to innovate the field of biomedical engineering and bring more public awareness to the Deaf/hard-of-hearing community. I want to use my degree to make a difference in the Deaf/hard-of-hearing community, and to also bridge the gap between that community and the hearing world. However, I have faced obstacles in funding my education in this upcoming academic year. I cannot attend college without taking out considerable student loans, which is especially impactful considering I want to pursue a PhD. If awarded this scholarship, I can assure that I will take the opportunity to further my future, accelerate my education, and make the change in the world that I want to see.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “playroom.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So, I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see every day truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six-year-old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18-year-old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “playroom.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So, I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see every day truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. Despite my ambitions, I have faced obstacles with college tuition. If granted this scholarship, I will use it wisely to learn how to help my own community. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six-year-old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18-year-old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “playroom.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So, I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see every day truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six-year-old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18-year-old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “playroom.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So, I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see every day truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. However, I have faced great obstacles in trying to reach these dreams because of the cost of tuition for college. I hope to show that if given the opportunity to receive this scholarship, I will use it wisely and use it to help me learn how to help others the best way I know how. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six-year-old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18-year-old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “playroom.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So, I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see every day truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six-year-old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18-year-old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “playroom.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So, I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see every day truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have known for the last four years that I want to go into the field of biomedical engineering, and that dream has never wavered. I pushed myself to explore different STEM topics, to explore the field, but I always went back to biomedical engineering. Not only is this path something that I am interested in and want to learn more about, but it is also the path I need to take to achieve my true passion in life: the passion that I have built my future around. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six-year-old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18-year-old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

Ever since I was little, I have always had the curiosity and a mindset of an engineer. One very vivid memory I have of an instance like that is when I was six years old, waiting for my mom to get off of work in the backroom I designated as my “play room.” With my own space and unlimited supply of markers and paper, I believed I could do anything. So I set out to be the youngest inventor in the world (at least in my mind) by constructing an umbrella/fan contraption out of paper. I spent hours (15 minutes) meticulously (sloppily) crafting my perfect invention. Until I stumbled upon one major obstacle: the fan didn’t work. That moment was one of true realization: how do the machines I see everyday truly work? And thus embarked my journey into the world of engineering. Although I could never truly craft my perfect (but most likely impractical) umbrella/fan, I did gain a whole new field of knowledge. I spent my early years taking apart any machine I could, even as small as a pen, to find out the mechanics behind it. And I spent my later years up until this point taking physics classes and doing research to find the more intricate explanations as to why magnets repel each other and how a generator makes electricity. My ambitions now expand beyond the little inventions I attempted as a kid. I now want to improve what I believe to be one of the most revolutionary inventions, at least in my life: the hearing aid. As a hard-of-hearing individual who always felt slightly out of place in academic fields because of her disability, I want to use my skills as a STEM student to engineer and improve hearing aids: to improve the lives of those like me. I want to revolutionize the field of hearing device engineering, from cochlear implants to bone-anchored hearing aids. However, I also want to use my skills to make outstanding technology that is also affordable, to make sure that efficient and helpful technology is available to families across the United States and, eventually, globally. I have always had and have never lost that true engineer mindset. Even though my six year old self may not have been as successful of an aspiring engineer as she thought she would be at the time, my years of learning have shown that my 18 year old self will be an even better aspiring engineer than my younger self could have imagined.

I plan to major in biomedical engineering with a minor in public policy. As someone who is hard of hearing, I have felt very underrepresented and misunderstood in these fields, and I hope to provide a new perspective in these fields and to advocate for the Deaf/hard-of-hearing community. I want to go into research and development for hearing devices, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants. Not only do I want to innovate current technology, but I also want to make advanced hearing device technology that is affordable to all families, so that everyone has the opportunity for technology that fits their hearing loss. I also have recently become interested in public policy analysis, specifically analyzing how current policy misrepresents the disabled community and how it can be changed to be more accommodating. Overall, my ultimate ambition is to use my major and my career to give back to the disabled community, specifically the Deaf/hard-of-hearing community.