When my parents divorced when I was seven years old, my education was no longer my priority. The consistent absence of my mother and my father moving out contributed to the quiet depression I fell into. As my grades slipped, both my parents were informed about the risk of me failing elementary school. However, it was my father that made the effort in driving forty minutes every week in order to help me bring my grades up. My academics drastically improved once he began helping me study in the library, and he recognized that his positive impact on me was something he needed to push further. Despite my father's poor finances, he knew it was best to fight for custody of me. After almost three years, I was able to move into his town and get into a new school. At first, the environment felt completely alienating. Instead of being greeted at home by the smell of my mothers cooking, there were bugs that littered the floor and the air burned my nose. Going from my family's small shared home to being alone with my dad was drastically different. Once I saw the dangers of my new neighborhood, such as the high rate of crime and being followed on my walks back home from class, my worries increased. Both my father and I lived off of Dollar Tree meals for years, until he eventually made it back on his feet off of his income alone. Today, I still live in the same house I was introduced to as a child. My area is still dangerous and I still get followed home, despite strengthening my awareness and safety. Given the poor conditions of my home, the insects make it difficult to cook meals, but I remain hopeful and allow these situations to reinforce my perseverance. Under the challenging circumstances I've endured, I've come to the conclusion that I refuse to let others experience what I had at seven years old. I don't believe any hard worker like my father should incessantly worry about providing for their family and the safety of their surroundings. Whether considering one's unsafe housing and lack of life necessities, I aspire to help communities globally that live in poverty. I plan on using my experiences to support those that require the bare minimum to survive. Becoming an engineer that stabilizes the infrastructure of impoverished communities continues to be my main motivation to keep going. This ideology was created from my own personal exposure to hardship, along with the turmoil I perceive around me. Knowing I will gain connections and learn the culture of the people I hope to assist throughout the world, maintains my passion to be their support through engineering.

I have accepted that the inevitable change I will soon encounter after high school is nothing I should fear. Learning to realize that graduation is nothing but a step towards my end goal in life has helped me reduce my worries of "what comes next". There have been fears of leaving my hometown, splitting paths away from my friends, and the unknown of my future; these ideas consumed my mind. However, after reading and educating myself further into my interests in architecture and engineering, I am nothing but excited to be involved in those fields. The experiences I've had in high school are worth crying over, but I cannot wait to make a difference. I believe that if I maintain this factual mindset throughout my life and future career, I will be able to make at least a dent in helping the lives of others that deserve better. Whether in regards to those in the third world that are struggling to live from the little amount of pay they receive after their back breaking labor, or specifically areas such as Kenya, communities are facing severe sanitation issues, with black polluted water. I feel obligated to strive towards aiding those that are subjected to living their lives this way. I try spreading awareness to the suffering of the individuals across the globe in hopes others may resonate their same feeling of anger and passion, wanting to do something about it and make any kind of impact. On those nights when I find myself tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, I cure my restlessness by simply imagining myself providing secure homes for those less fortunate. I'm aware of the fact that I need to build connections now, to practice socializing better, and research deeper into engineering. My ideals and perspective have evolved from when I first stepped foot into high school. From wanting to be an architect who designs beautiful buildings to wanting to focus on helping poorer communities stabilize their infrastructure, I feel that fearing change is a disservice to both myself and the people I'm meant to support. I plan on using my knowledge from resources that both high school and college will provide me with as a tool to combat wealth inequality. Instead of worrying about my future, I now dedicate that energy to learning about how I can do my part. I frequently worry about the individuals and communities that lack proper sanitation and stable homes. I believe that I have no right to let my anxiety of the unknown prevent me from reaching my ultimate goal of helping people worldwide wherever I can.

I have now accepted that the inevitable change I will soon encounter after high school is nothing I should fear. Learning to realize that graduation is nothing but a step towards my end goal in life has helped me reduce my worries of "what comes next". There have been fears of leaving my hometown, splitting paths away from my friends, and the unknown of my future; these ideas consumed my mind. However, after reading and educating myself further into my interests in architecture and engineering, I am nothing but excited to be involved in those fields. The experiences I've had in high school are worth crying over, but I cannot wait to make a difference. I believe that if I maintain this factual mindset throughout my life and future career, I will be able to make at least a dent in helping the lives of others that deserve better. Whether in regards to those in the third world that are struggling to live from the little amount of pay they receive after their back breaking labor, or specifically areas such as Kenya, communities are facing severe sanitation issues, with black polluted water. I feel obligated to strive towards aiding those that are subjected to living their lives this way. I try spreading awareness to the suffering of the individausl across the globe in hopes others may resonate their same feeling of anger and passion, wanting to do something about it and make any kind of impact. On those nights when I find myself tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, I cure my restlessness by simply imagining myself providing secure homes for those less fortunate. I'm aware of the fact that I need to build connections now, to practice socializing better, and research deeper into engineering. My ideals and perspective have evolved from when I first stepped foot into high school. From wanting to be an architect who designs beautiful buildings to wanting to focus on helping poorer communities stabilize their infrastructure, I feel that fearing change is a disservice to both myself and the people I'm meant to support. I plan on using my knowledge from resources that both high school and college will provide me with as a tool to combat wealth inequality. Instead of worrying about my future, I now dedicate that energy to learning about how I can do my part. I frequently worry about the individuals and communities that lack proper sanitation and stable homes. I believe that I have no right to let my anxiety of the unknown prevent me from reaching my ultimate goal of helping people worldwide wherever I can.

I used to identify myself as a shy, artistic person that would eventually become an architect for rich companies within the U.S. I didn’t let the news of destruction within several third countries be any of my concern. In the past, I had remained comfortable with striving for success and money, of course along with keeping my hobbies such as singing, poetry, and reading/writing alive. When I entered my senior year in high school, my ideals were completely altered. In my junior year, I would fall into a spiral due to my mental health worsening. I would constantly dwell on graduating and knowing that I wouldn’t be with my loved ones forever. I was afraid of the inevitable and allowed my attachment to consume me. I have now accepted that the inevitable change I will soon encounter after high school is nothing I should fear. Learning to realize that graduation is nothing but a step towards my end goal in life has helped me reduce my worries of "what comes next". There have been fears of leaving my hometown, splitting paths away from my friends, and the unknown of my future; these ideas consumed my mind. However, after reading and educating myself further into my interests in architecture and engineering, I am nothing but excited to be involved in those fields. The experiences I've had in high school are worth crying over, but I cannot wait to make a difference. On those nights when I find myself tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, I cure my restlessness by simply imagining myself providing secure homes for those less fortunate. I'm aware of the fact that I need to build connections now, to practice socializing better, and research deeper into engineering. My ideals and perspective have evolved from when I first stepped foot into high school. From wanting to be an architect who designs beautiful buildings to wanting to focus on helping poorer communities stabilize their infrastructure, I feel that fearing change is a disservice to both myself and the people I'm meant to support. I plan on using my knowledge from resources that both high school and college will provide me with as a tool to combat wealth inequality. Instead of worrying about my future, I now dedicate that energy to learning about how I can do my part. I frequently worry about the individuals and communities that lack proper sanitation and stable homes. I believe that I have no right to let my anxiety of the unknown prevent me from reaching my ultimate goal of helping people worldwide wherever I can.

When my parents divorced when I was seven years old, my education was no longer my priority. The consistent absence of my mother and my father moving out contributed to the quiet depression I fell into. As my grades slipped, both my parents were informed about the risk of me failing elementary school. However, it was my father that made the effort in driving forty minutes every week in order to help me bring my grades up. My academics drastically improved once he began helping me study in the library, and he recognized that his positive impact on me was something he needed to push further. Despite my father's poor finances, he knew it was best to fight for custody of me. After almost three years, I was able to move into his town and get into a new school. At first, the environment felt completely alienating. Instead of being greeted at home by the smell of my mothers cooking, there were bugs that littered the floor and the air burned my nose. Going from my family's small shared home to being alone with my dad was drastically different. Once I saw the dangers of my new neighborhood, such as the high rate of crime and being followed on my walks back home from class, my worries increased. Both my father and I lived off of Dollar Tree meals for years, until he eventually made it back on his feet off of his income alone. Today, I still live in the same house I was introduced to as a child. My area is still dangerous and I still get followed home, despite strengthening my awareness and safety. Given the poor conditions of my home, the insects make it difficult to cook meals, but I remain hopeful and allow these situations to reinforce my perseverance. Under the challenging circumstances I've endured, I've come to the conclusion that I refuse to let others experience what I had at seven years old. I don't believe any hard worker like my father should incessantly worry about providing for their family and the safety of their surroundings. Whether considering one's unsafe housing and lack of life necessities, I aspire to help communities globally that live in poverty. I plan on using my experiences to support those that require the bare minimum to survive. Becoming an engineer that stabilizes the infrastructure of impoverished communities continues to be my main motivation to keep going. This ideology was created from my own personal exposure to hardship, along with the turmoil I perceive around me. Knowing I will gain connections and learn the culture of the people I hope to assist throughout the world, maintains my passion to be their support through engineering.

On the nights where I find myself tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, I picture myself helping impoverished communities. To me, success is not merely achieving any kind of personal gain or benefit, it’s the ability to uplift communities that suffer from destitution and lack sanitation. I strive to become a person that is well off enough to reach a point where I’m an engineer that stabilizes the infrastructure of individuals that deserve a proper and stable life. I don’t see anything that matters more to me than using my knowledge and education from the U.S for good in other countries. Despite the low income household I’ve lived in my entire life, I believe that I’m still significantly privileged compared to those living in poverty in the third world. This very fact upsets me, making me want to use all the resources given to me as an opportunity to accumulate more passion and knowledge in me, for those across the globe that have been struggling. I plan to use the money from this scholarship to help me move forward in terms of my ultimate goal of helping others worldwide. I view all kinds of help provided to me as a step that makes the distance between my current self and end goal minimized. With every internship and scholarship I apply to, I hope to utilize any kind of aid to support myself in the way that will transfer onto the individuals I seek to meet and elevate. Given the career path that I believe is most well suited to help others, it requires rigorous work in terms of training and education. I do currently face some issues regarding my tuition and trouble landing internships for the past three years in high school. With the help of this scholarship, it would take pressure off covering my tuition out of pocket completely. I’d be allowed the time to focus on maintaining a job, focusing on courses in college, and once more, pushing me to my long term goal of becoming a catalyst for stability. Being supported by this scholarship would be the investment of me becoming an engineer for the sole purpose of the people. I’ve currently looked into how to create an organization that can help me for the process as a humanitarian and an engineer. I strive to find others with ambitions and values similar to me, building a community myself and gaining diverse perspectives and ideas for future projects. I hope that the organization I’ll be able to build will eventually spread across multiple countries. The support from this scholarship will be a ripple effect in which future generations of those I’ll aid will feel and gain help from.

“I talk a lot so I’ve just learned to tune myself out” (Kelly Kapoor.) Kelly is a character that I resonate with when it comes to either talkativeness and/or understanding why she is the way she is. Kelly is made out to be your typical “attention seeker” or “drama-involved” person in a workspace. Those around me who are friends and family would certainly agree that our personalities are practically identical. When it comes down to our sense of style, mindset, and actions, Kelly is the character I resonate myself with most. I see more to Kelly than how she presents herself as, however her character is complex to others who just see her on the surface. Recently, I began rewatching The Office. It’s been five years since my first viewing. Being the ten-year-old that I was, I didn’t get to appreciate much of the show since I didn’t understand the humor of it all. I didn’t understand the characters' personalities and thought it was just an awkward show without any laugh track. Though I now know a show shouldn’t need to have a laugh track if it were true comedy. The Office creates a sense of humor within its workplace. A workplace that has diversity of all kinds of races with all kinds of personalities. My sense of humor now, has definitely shaped from just watching everyone's idiosyncratic ways. It’s safe to say that this show has influenced my perspective on adults, simply assuming that once you grow up you’re expected to become professional and responsible. After watching the office, it has unquestioningly changed my view on adults. The fact that workplaces in an office are known to be boring and lifeless, these characters are the complete opposite of boring and lifeless. There’s always something going on, drama, gossip, or scandal, The Office has it! Dynamics like Dwight and Jim are my favorite comedical duos, more than the office romance ones because it shows how unserious these people can be. Though if it did come to office romance, Kelly and Ryan's relationship would have to fit in the “toxic highschool relationship” category. Their on and off and on again dynamic has to be what I cringe at most, other than Michaels weird jokes, and every offensive thing he has to say. This show has made me forget multiple times that these are real adults in a workplace, and that’s what makes it my favorite.