19 children and 2 adults dead. 17 injured. 77 minutes taken to stop the shooter. I stare at my laptop, transfixed by the breaking news of the Uvalde shooting plastered over my screen. My mind freezes in refusal to process the scope of the tragedy. Only four hours away from my home, such senseless deaths had occurred. Determined to develop a way to prevent such atrocities from occurring in the future, my partner and I undertook a new project: a convolutional neural network designed to detect concealed weapons through CCTV and infrared imagery. Focusing on mitigating areas of weakness that have allowed school shootings to propagate around our nation, we created an efficient model and built a prototype of a system that combined the use of cameras and an integrated app for instant notifications. This project was a turning point for me. It allowed me to not only improve as a programmer but also witness first-hand the importance of computer science in addressing critical social issues, thus inspiring my interest in innovation. I initially joined DECA to become a more articulate speaker, but discovered a genuine interest in the business concepts that I researched. My competition category, human resources management, allowed me the creativity to explore various methods of staff development; I capitalized upon this freedom through internationally recognized presentations that emphasized the combination of technological tools and personal mentorship. For instance, in response to a prompt concerned with the transition of employees to leadership roles, I recommended the implementation of asynchronous learning models on effective leadership combined with shadowing experiences, creating a detailed timeline for the gradual transition. One of my most valuable high school activities was my employment at the American Robotics Academy. Through this opportunity, I was able to combine the skills I gained through both DECA and my past research projects, applying hypothetical mentorship concepts while effectively collaborating with the other instructors to maximize the usage of our strengths. I had the chance to both guide students through their coding and engineering projects and assist with the management aspects of workshop planning. Under the mentorship of Mrs. Rosa Chen, I gained insight into the behind-the-scenes administration of a small, tech-related business, which helped to spark my interest in entrepreneurship. My experiences in high school have shown me the value of the intersection between computer science and business, contributing to my dream of building a startup related to artificial intelligence or cybersecurity software development. I would be truly grateful to be granted this prestigious scholarship, and I hope that through the extraordinary experiences that it facilitates, I will be ready to embark on my path of innovation.