My trade journey was kickstarted by the mere curiosity of how a cars insides worked. This curiosity opened up thousands of doors for me because I understood at a young age that I enjoyed learning with my hands. I enrolled myself at a technical high school that taught automotive and I excelled greatly there. I now aim to be an airplane mechanic because airplanes fascinate me due to their extensive complexity and size. My motivation has always stemmed from problem solving and learning by working with my hands. I believe there is no other way to live. I have encountered many problems while in my automotive program but by far the hardest one was restoring a 1967 Porsche 911 from scratch. Throughout the process, I faced countless obstacles, from fabricating custom motor mounts for a Subaru engine to restoring that engine and getting it to run. One challenge in particular transformed the way I approach problems in my automotive career and everyday life: creating a complete custom cooling system for the engine. Nothing like it had been done on this type of car, so I found myself in uncharted territory. Despite how daunting the task seemed, I knew I would gain something valuable from it. Subaru engines already have extremely complex cooling systems, so expanding and adapting one required precise measurements and careful planning. I had to learn to use a hydraulic pipe bending machine that no one in the shop, including my instructors, had ever used. It took countless attempts to understand the machine, but I refused to give up because I believed I would eventually succeed. Once I finally learned how to use it properly, I faced the more difficult task of bending the pipes so they would fit into the car's tight spaces. The frustration of getting it wrong so many times pushed me to the brink of defeat, but my hunger to succeed pushed me to force myself to take a deep breath, calm down, and keep going. That experience taught me a skill I now use in every part of my life: when confronted with a difficult problem, patience and persistence are essential. After months of trial and error, I finally completed the last section of the cooling system, and looking back, I realized how much I learned about myself and my ability to overcome any challenge I may face in the future. All of this trial and error has reinforced my idea of why skilled work matters. It is through creating something yourself you can have true pride and happiness in what you did. By receiving this scholarship it will lessen the burden of the total tuition cost of my post secondary aviation maintenance school. This will grant me the opportunity to further my passion of problem solving and fixing things with my hands.

I am pursuing the Aviation Maintenance field and I aim to change the way mechanics think about their trade so they can live a meaningful life. I never had any interest in anything that had to do with the trades until I enrolled into the automotive program at my local high school. I learned so much and am now the top student of my class. Airplanes seems like another layer of mechanics to unravel and it interests my brain because of the scale and complexity of the aircrafts that move people and things continent to continent everyday. My way of paying it forward one day to future trade students would be that I would become an airplane mechanic teacher. I have been extremely touched and inspired by my current mechanic teachers. I would like to follow in their footsteps by paying it forward to the next generation of future mechanics by teaching them not only how to be a mechanic but how to live a fulfilling life as a one.