I’ve always had a strong sense of community. I don't exactly know where it stems from. It could possibly have been from my struggles with my family in the past, or perhaps my close friends who have been there for me throughout the years. Though I can't quite pinpoint where my strong sense of community began, I do know that It is a large part of who I am. In my time at Royse City, I have given it my all to help out wherever I can, and I am proud of that fact. In my school, I am in the Teacher Appreciation Committee within TAFE. I do not have the intention of becoming a teacher, but I do understand how vital they are, and how we as a community need to appreciate them. As I’ve been in TAFE, I've worked hard volunteering within TAFE to make the teachers in Royse City feel appreciated. In October this year, TAFE planned and executed a week dedicated to appreciating our teacher- and as a member of the teacher appreciation committee, I had a big part to play. The other member of our committee and I were solely in charge of our bingo and pumpkin decorating events held within the week, as well as assisting with the other events as needed. Through this experience, I was able to show the teachers involved just how appreciated they are, and how vital they are to the community, and I’ll forever be grateful that I got to experience this event. Another volunteering experience I had was at our local library. Reading is a passion of mine, and I love our library and our librarians, so when I was informed of the opportunity, I took it up immediately. While volunteering at the library I had the chance to get to know the librarians, the people in our community (through assisting patrons), and what goes on in our city. I was able to assist in event planning, decorating, and running. I can't even put into words how much I enjoyed my time at the library- even when doing little things like stamping books or cutting out posters. I would not have missed out on this experience for the world. It’s not easy to get into volunteering. I often have a hard time finding opportunities and deciding to help. The best way to help out one's community is to take up any opportunity that is given. Any little thing can help out your community, whether that be running a food stall for a football game, or judging a science fair. Any little thing you can do to help your community will add up. Not all volunteering must be official or documented either; another way to volunteer could be picking up trash, or tutoring a friend. If there is something you can do that can help out your family, friends, or entire city, you should always do so. I love my community, and assisting when I can is incredibly important to who I am. I believe that volunteering and doing community service can benefit one’s life and character exponentially.

I’ve never really had a “passion” to pursue. When asked what I want to do when I’m older, I never really knew how to respond. At the beginning of high school, all I knew was that I was pretty good at math. I loved learning math and teaching it. That led to education, where I quickly learned that it had more to do with dealing with kids who don't really want to be there- rather than studying and practicing something I loved. I then had a long conversation with my counselor, who was determined to help me find what I wanted to learn and pursue. Something that I would enjoy. Throughout that meeting, we learned that my love of math stemmed from my love of problem-solving, puzzles, and numbers. She then put me in my first engineering class, which started my journey into my new-found love for electrical engineering. There were bits and pieces I loved in the class, and parts I didn't enjoy as much. It was only when we started our electrical engineering unit that I really found what I was passionate about. Circuitry is just one big puzzle, with so many intricate and fine details that complement and intertwine with one another to create a system. Just studying and learning about these electrical systems gave me so much enjoyment and satisfaction that I knew right then and there that I wanted to do this forever. The more complicated it became, the more it intrigued me. I wanted to learn more and more about electrical systems. Thus started my research into electrical engineering. I’ve always wanted to stay in Texas to pursue my education; community and family is one of the most important things to me, so leaving my family and friends was not an option. I researched colleges for hours until I found the one that fit my goals the best: UTD. The University of Texas at Dallas has a great electrical engineering program, with professors who are passionate about their work and are great at what they do. I also found that UTD was founded by Texas Instruments, which holds a special place in my heart, due to that being my stepdad’s place of work for years. I found that Texas instruments frequently offers internships for electrical engineering students, as well as hiring them post-graduation. This meant that UTD, above other schools, had great opportunities for employment after graduation. This security gave me more of a reason to choose this route. This journey led me to my current path, and I couldn't be more excited to pursue it. To get accepted into UTD, I spent a lot of time working as hard as I could in and out of school to build my resume. I volunteered and competed with TAFE, competed in UIL, and worked as hard as I could in school and work. I worked hard to become a well-rounded person in my high school experience with the intention of pursuing electrical engineering. I want to pursue electrical engineering for the challenge. I chose to pursue this career path because it aligns with everything I love: math, puzzles, machinery, circuitry, and most importantly, the challenge. Everything I’ve done these past years has led up to this opportunity. I've applied and driven myself in every way I can to pursue this degree because it’s the one thing that I’ve found that I’m truly passionate about. All of these experiences have influenced who I am today. They are what sparked my passions and love for my chosen path, and are imperative to understand me as a person.

The Connections puzzle by the New York Times is both incredibly difficult and fun. It's a great brain teaser, and creating my own was equally challenging. For one category I chose musical compositions. the words are: sonata, anthem, concierto, and duet. I chose this theme because I love music and theatre. The next theme is similar to the first. I chose it because of its similarity, and again because I love theatre. This theme is eras in art/theatre, and the words are: classical, medieval, renaissance, and restoration. I wanted to add a section for phrases as well to add diversity to my themes. I chose words that fit into the phrase under the [blank], which were the following: sea, weather, radar, and bus. and finally, I chose natural disasters because the words are similar to "sea" and "weather" in the previous section, and I wanted to make my game more challenging. for this section, I chose: tsunami, tornado, hurricane, and typhoon. I hope someone will be able to solve this game. I hope that whoever gets to try to solve it, has as much fun with it as I did creating this. Thank you so much for this opportunity and experience.