I will be majoring in mechanical engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia. Engineering is the most male-dominated field in STEM and may be the most male-dominated profession in the U.S. According to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), only 10% of mechanical engineering jobs are held by women. A Harvard study showed that even though females do as well as males in college engineering classes, they often leave the field due to a masculine culture that treats them as less competent. Transgender women are an even greater minority, and this lack of visibility is where I can make a difference in at least three ways. First, I will join the campus SWE chapter and create trans visibility at all events, and also hope to attend its national conference. Second, I am interested in Temple’s Formula Racing car building team, which enjoys huge visibility on campus and online. I aim to represent queer and trans pride in public representations of the team's success. Finally, I was part of the 10% of students offered a spot in the Honors College, which includes living on a dorm floor called a Living-Learning Community. I will be an open support for queer residents, and would eventually like to be a Resident Advisor. I have some experience in this kind of public role. In my high school’s Pride Club, we coordinated an annual event called Pride Expo to celebrate and raise awareness for queer communities and educate the student body. In addition to merchandise such as pronoun pins and Perler bead flags, we offered educational games such as matching different historical events with queer activists and identifying a variety of different queer flags. I have been passionate about building and how machines work since I was very young. I started building Lego kits when I was 5 years old and then moved up to designing projectile launchers fed from detachable magazines powered by rubber bands. I later improved this design to make a fully automatic version based on the design of the 1940’s Sten gun. When my 12th grade physics teacher assigned a group project to “Build a car that travels as far as possible. It must be propelled by a falling weight that it suspends” I considered the potential energy of the weight, the ratio of wheel to axle size, and the resulting torque required, and decided to build our structure with Legos because they are modular. My team built a 18” high tower that could hold 500g of weight. Our car went the farthest in our class and we got a 100. I had a lot of fun because the teacher gave us total freedom, and I enjoyed identifying what I could tweak to engineer the most efficient vehicle. I also enjoy learning how to fix things, such as when my guitar amplifier stopped working. The teacher explained that there are two cables inside that attach to metal plates inside the plug, and sometimes they come undone and disconnect the circuit. He joked that I could fix it if I had a soldering iron. I was soldering Arduinos at age 10 and later helped solder wires in family vehicles, so I taught myself to fix this in under 30 minutes with a YouTube video. This kind of comfort with machinery and experimentation is required to build and improve machines that help us every day, such as safety gear for firefighters or in aerospace, two areas that I am interested in. I want to help create a country and world where people of all identities are encouraged and supported to follow their career passions.

I have been passionate about building and how machines work since I was very young. I started building Lego kits when I was 5 years old and then moved up to designing projectile launchers fed from detachable magazines powered by rubber bands. I later improved this design to make a fully automatic version based on the design of the 1940’s Sten gun. When my 12th grade physics teacher assigned a group project to “Build a car that travels as far as possible. It must be propelled by a falling weight that it suspends” I considered the potential energy of the weight, the ratio of wheel to axle size, and the resulting torque required, and decided to build our structure with Legos because they are modular. My team was able to build a 18” high tower that could hold 500g of weight. Our car went the farthest in our class and we got a 100. I had a lot of fun because the teacher gave us total freedom, and I enjoyed identifying what I could tweak to engineer the most efficient vehicle. I also enjoy learning how to fix things, such as when my guitar amplifier stopped working. The teacher explained that there are two cables inside that attach to metal plates inside the plug, and sometimes they come undone and disconnect the circuit. He joked that I could fix it if I had a soldering iron. I was soldering Arduinos at age 10 and later helped solder wires in family vehicles, so I taught myself to fix this in under 30 minutes with a YouTube video. This kind of comfort with machinery and experimentation is required to build and improve machines that help us every day, such as safety gear for firefighters or in aerospace, two areas that I am interested in.

I will be majoring in mechanical engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia. Engineering is the most male-dominated field in STEM and may be the most male-dominated profession in the U.S. According to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), only 10% of mechanical engineering jobs are held by women. A Harvard study showed that even though females do as well as males in college engineering classes, they often leave the field due to a masculine culture that treats them as less competent. Transgender women like me are an even greater minority, and this lack of visibility is where I can make a difference. Two College of Engineering professors at Temple have already started a diversity unit for faculty and staff to get "LGBTQ Safe Zone" certified, but I can contribute specifically to trans support in at least three ways. First, I will join the campus SWE chapter and create trans visibility at all events, and also hope to attend its national conference. Second, I am interested in Temple’s Formula Racing car building team, which enjoys huge visibility on campus and online. I aim to represent queer and trans pride in public representations of the team's success. Finally, I was part of the 10% of students offered a spot in the Honors College, which includes living on a dorm floor called a Living-Learning Community. I will be an open support for queer and especially trans residents, and would eventually like to be a Resident Advisor. I have some experience in this kind of public role. In my high school’s Pride Club, we coordinated an annual event called Pride Expo to celebrate and raise awareness for queer communities and educate the student body. In addition to merchandise such as pronoun pins and Perler bead flags, we offered educational games such as matching different historical events with queer activists and identifying a variety of different queer flags. I have been passionate about building and how machines work since I was very young. I started building Lego kits when I was 5 years old and then moved up to designing projectile launchers fed from detachable magazines powered by rubber bands. I later improved this design to make a fully automatic version based on the design of the 1940’s Sten gun. When my 12th grade physics teacher assigned a group project to “Build a car that travels as far as possible. It must be propelled by a falling weight that it suspends” I considered the potential energy of the weight, the ratio of wheel to axle size, and the resulting torque required, and decided to build our structure with Legos because they are modular. My team was able to build a 18” high tower that could hold 500g of weight. Our car went the farthest in our class and we got a 100. I had a lot of fun because the teacher gave us total freedom, and I enjoyed identifying what I could tweak to engineer the most efficient vehicle. I also enjoy learning how to fix things, such as when my guitar amplifier stopped working. The teacher explained that there are two cables inside that attach to metal plates inside the plug, and sometimes they come undone and disconnect the circuit. He joked that I could fix it if I had a soldering iron. I was soldering Arduinos at age 10 and later helped solder wires in family vehicles, so I taught myself to fix this in under 30 minutes with a YouTube video. This kind of comfort with machinery and experimentation is required to build and improve machines that help us every day, such as safety gear for firefighters or in aerospace, two areas that I am interested in. In addition to the male-dominated nature of engineering that I already mentioned, trans people face additional challenges. For example, it is important to me that people recognize my true abilities and achievements and not think I was just hired due to DEI quotas. Access to gender-affirming care is another one. I am fortunate to live in Illinois which has comprehensive legal protections for trans healthcare, but due to parental consent laws I still have to wait until I am 18 to legally change my name and pursue medical transition. Another challenge is housing discrimination. Although I will be living in a Temple University dorm and the campus is generally queer-supportive, there is a chance that I could encounter transphobic people in my shared living spaces. If I ever choose to rent an off-campus apartment, I could be refused apartments by potential landlords. If I study abroad, I have to pay careful attention to that country’s laws and customs regarding trans individuals. In summer 2023, I received a scholarship from the Council for International Educational Exchange to study for four weeks in Tokyo, Japan and thankfully I felt very safe there. I want to help create a country and world where people of all identities are encouraged and supported to follow their career passions. I believe I will make the Antony Cesar Scholarship team proud of their investment in me in helping carry out Cesar’s legacy.