As an aerospace engineering student, math has become a key part of my life and studies. It holds the power of our universe, and without it, branches like chemistry, physics and all other sciences would not exist. I am drawn in by its ability to describe the natural phenomena of the world and call upon theories within itself. The deeper I dive into math, the more I find myself falling in love with the world around me. When I am walking down the street, the shadows on the sidewalk are no longer the product of my body blocking the sun. They become complex equations that take into consideration my height, the time of day, and the angle of the pavement. The length of my shadow is an unknown variable and for the remainder of my walk, I am a mathemetician. I find the beauty of the Earth through her equations. Flowers blowing in a field are being pushed with a force of F, stems with a diameter of X. I catch myself staring at the everyday acts and considering which theory applies to it. Not everybody will spare a second glance at the straw that rolls off a tabletop, yet I watch it fall and admire the beauty of the equations that explained its motion. I am constantly fascinated by the beauty of the world around me. I am also always grateful for my predecessors in the field of STEM, who devoted their lives to finding the equations that I so frequently call upon. When walking in the grass to shorten my path around a corner, Pythagoras walks with me. The leaves that drift down trees on cool fall mornings are watched by me and Newton. The souls of every engineer to work on spacecraft stand with me as we watch takeoffs from Cape Canaveral. Applying math to the real world allows me to cherish the smaller moments and feel less alone as I do so. I am forever grateful for the knowledge I've gained through math. It has shaped my world into a beautiful byproduct of equations and interactions. Through my studies, I have found a love for the world around me that encourages me to constantly push myself harder to learn more. The more knowledge I gain about the world through math, the better I can succeed in my career. I hope that my applications of math in the real world will transform into applications of math in the spacecraft that I design. My knowledge will be used to take humanity to places never reached before, and my love for math will remain strong.

1. As a woman going into a male-dominated field of engineering, I feel as if I am most motivated by spite. Throughout my entire high school career, I have been told by countless people that I am never going to succeed. Whether it was because of being unable to pay for college, not being taken seriously because of my gender, or never finding a job that would "risk losing an employee to pregnancy and mom-life", people have always been more willing to find reasons for me to fail than for me to succeed. However, I have only ever used these excuses as springboards for me to push myself harder in school. If I don't, then I will never become an aerospace engineer and work my dream job. Regardless of my family's income, I will do everything in my power to ensure that I have the opportunity to get my degree and see myself through all of my goals. Even if this means applying for hundreds of scholarships and working every moment I have free. Additionally, I have never allowed stereotypes about women to stop me from pursuing my goal of becoming an engineer. The spite and anger I feel when people try to drag me down motivates me every day to wake up and put 110% of my effort down with everything I do. I know that without ever being told that I would never make it, I would have never found the strength in myself to carry my dreams into reality. 2. The most exciting thing about STEM is its ability to constantly change and never be stagnant. Regardless of what is discovered and how many secrets are unearthed, there will always be more to rise and take its place. STEM is as permanent as a hydra, when one "head" or question is gone, three more will be there to take its place. The field that strongly shows this as a truth is astrophysics, the same field that I will hopefully work closely with. I hope that with my work as an astronautical engineer, I can create spacecraft that can take us deeper into the universe and discover more about our greatest unknown. The idea that I will be able to answer my growing questions about the universe and allow deeper, more complex ones to rise as my knowledge increases greatly excites me. I also hope that my studies in college will take my knowledge further and give me the resources I need to develop new questions and explore all the amazing things in engineering. My biggest dream is being able to be part of a team that makes a space discovery that genuinely benefits the world. This could be the discovery of faster, more efficient spacecraft or even the creation of portable living facilities that can travel from one planet to the next. Regardless of where I take my studies, I am excited to explore every corner of the knowledge available to me and hope that one day it will be my research that takes down one of the STEM hydras heads. 3. The biggest challenge I've ever had to overcome is finding a way to break the glass ceiling in engineering by myself. In my school, finding a girl in the engineering program was about as rare as finding a unicorn on a freeway. Additionally, none of the boys in the program were ever friendly to me, and would even be hostile toward me if I tried to do the same activities as them. They kept me in low-ranking positions, such as the secretary or historian of the club, and often "forgot" to give me the paperwork for field trips or inform me of competition dates and deadlines. They make millions of excuses ranging from "girls are just better at being pretty than smart" to "this is more of a man's job." This never changed until I found the strength to stand up for myself. It took a lot of time, effort and arguments, but it paid off in the end when I was able to gain their respect. After 2 years, I became the president of my school's engineering club, a top-performing student in the program, and even became a mentor for many of the girls that joined the club but could not find the courage to stand up for themselves. The only way I could have been able to get over this significant hurdle was by my constant drive to be the best. I knew that if I didn't stand up for myself, they would continue to step over other girls in engineering and crush their dreams beyond repair. Additionally, the impacts I make now will follow me and give me the strength to encourage girls every step of the way. Whether it's through scholarships, personally mentoring them, or taking on a side hobby of public speaking, I hope to be able to give a helping hand to girls that found themselves in similar positions to me.