The first time our AI model correctly identified a ransomware sample as malicious, I was disappointed. It had worked, which should have been good news. But ransomware is supposed to look dangerous. I wanted to know if the system could still recognize a threat when the answer was not so obvious. I was working on a cybersecurity research project exploring whether artificial intelligence could analyze computer code and spot dangerous behavior before the program was ever run. At first, the model simply looked at the code and gave us its judgment. I wanted to see if I could make that process better. So I started tinkering with the way the system made its decisions. I built a small database of examples the AI could compare new code against. I included ordinary programs, like a calculator, calendar, to-do list, and weather app, alongside malicious samples. When the AI received unfamiliar code, it could search for similar examples and use those comparisons as another clue. Once that started working, I wanted to push it further. I changed parts of the code, created different versions, and tested examples that looked harmless but had suspicious behavior underneath. I would change one detail, run it again, study the result, then change something else just to see how the system responded. Sometimes it caught the threat. Sometimes it hesitated. And sometimes it was completely wrong while sounding very confident. That was the hacking part I enjoyed most: not breaking something for the sake of breaking it, but constantly asking what would happen if I changed the rules a little. Those wrong answers were where things got interesting. Instead of only seeing a final result like "safe" or "malicious," my teammates and I could look at what the AI had compared the code to and try to understand why it made that choice. One result would immediately lead to another question. What if we changed this part? What if we hid the suspicious behavior differently? What if we made the code appear even more ordinary? Soon, testing the system stopped feeling like an assignment. It became a challenge between us and the model. Someone would suggest a change, we would test it, and everyone would wait to see what happened. I loved seeing something I had been experimenting with turn into something other people wanted to take apart, question, and explore too. That is one reason Kyle Lam’s story stood out to me. What I admire about Kyle was not simply that he was talented with technology. He seemed unable to look at a device, platform, or problem and accept that what already existed was the only possible answer. He experimented, tried unusual approaches, and sometimes found solutions nobody else had considered. I recognize that curiosity in myself. When I discover something interesting, my first reaction is often not, " Good, it works." It is, "What else can I do with it?" Like Kyle, I enjoy learning by testing limits and building something new from what I discover along the way. I also appreciate that his curiosity was paired with humility and generosity. His knowledge did not make him inaccessible; he shared it and helped others. That matters to me because the best part of my own experiment was watching my curiosity become shared curiosity. My favorite moment was not when the AI gave us the right answer. It was when someone looked at the screen and said, "Okay, what should we try next?"

For almost three years of high school, there were days when I went to school only to take an exam and return home. Because of illness, I could not attend classes consistently from 10th through 12th grade, and my school did not offer online classes. When I missed a lesson, I really missed it: the teacher’s explanation, my classmates’ questions, the discussion, and details that never made it into a textbook. Like Chris, I value listening closely to others and moving forward with them, so losing those in-class interactions made my learning even harder. So, I learned how to teach myself. That period changed the way I approached learning. I became comfortable with problems I did not understand, looking for missing information, trying different approaches, and continuing until something made sense. By the end of 12th grade, despite learning much independently, I graduated first in my class. Those same qualities drew me toward computer science. I was fascinated by how much could be created from logic, instructions, and problem-solving. I soon realized how broad the field was. Computer science could build applications, analyze information, automate tasks, investigate problems, or create new ways for people to interact with technology. I wanted to understand more before deciding where I belonged. At the University of Arizona, that broad interest has become more focused. Through studying Cyber Defense & Forensics, I have found myself drawn to cybersecurity. What fascinates me about digital forensics is that a computer rarely tells you directly what happened. You may have a disk image, network traffic, memory, logs, or suspicious code, and your job is to reconstruct the story. I love that process. More recently, I have worked on using artificial intelligence to analyze malicious code and identify dangerous behavior before execution. My goal is to pursue graduate study and conduct research in cybersecurity, particularly in artificial intelligence and emerging security challenges. I believe I am a strong candidate for this scholarship because education has rarely been something I could take for granted. There was a time when sitting in a classroom beside my classmates was something I wanted but could not always do. I learned anyway. Years later, I came to the United States because I believed deeply in what education could make possible for my future. Now, financial limitations create uncertainty. They affect the technology I can purchase, the opportunities I can pursue, and how I plan the next stage of my education. Yet I have never learned to make my dreams smaller because the path toward them became harder. That is why Chris Jackson’s story stays with me. He once struggled to afford the degree that later helped him build a meaningful career in technology. Receiving this scholarship would ease some of that same pressure for me as I complete my undergraduate education and prepare for what comes next. Every difficult season in my education has required me to find another way forward. I hope this scholarship can become part of the way forward.

On the last Saturday of every month in Rwanda, I grew up seeing people work for the community. A road might need repairing, a shared space might need cleaning, or an elderly neighbor might need an extra pair of hands. Through Umuganda, I participated in that work alongside members of my community. No one is handed a volunteer certificate afterward, as it is simply part of being Rwandan. That tradition taught me that being part of a community also means accepting responsibility for it. I am Sheina Beryl Musanase, a first-generation African immigrant studying Cyber Defense & Forensics at the University of Arizona. Even thousands of miles from Rwanda, that understanding of community continues to shape how I approach school and social responsibilities. One place where I carried it forward was Technovation Girls. In high school, I worked with girls learning to code and developing ideas around problems they noticed in their communities. Some were confident immediately; others needed someone to keep asking, “What do you think?” until they trusted their own answer. I loved that part. I was not interested only in teaching them how technology worked. I wanted them to understand that they had every right to build with it. Coming to the United States changed my relationship with community in another way. In Rwanda, it was always around me. Here, I had to be intentional about finding it. At the University of Arizona, one of those spaces has been the Black Student Union, particularly its book club. We choose books to read throughout the semester and come together to discuss them, sometimes agreeing and sometimes seeing the same pages completely differently. But the conversations rarely stop with the books. We talk about school, life, our experiences, and help one another academically and socially. It has become one of the places where college feels less individual. I am also part of the W.A. Franke Honors College, which has pushed me academically, but I have learned that the most meaningful parts of education are not always measured by how difficult a class is. Some come from what you choose to do with what you learn. That is also how I think about cybersecurity. A cyberattack might begin with code, but it can end with someone losing money, privacy, access to important information, or trust in a system they depended on. I want to work in cybersecurity because I want to be on the side that protects people. As artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into technology, I hope to study both how it can strengthen cyber defense and how we can protect systems from the new risks it creates. Long term, I want my career to stretch beyond my own success. I want to contribute to cybersecurity research, pursue graduate education, and eventually create more opportunities for young people, especially girls in Rwanda and other African communities, to enter technology with confidence. Receiving the Dr. Soronnadi Nnaji Legacy Scholarship would help ease the financial pressure of academic expenses, including the cost of technology I will need to successfully complete my thesis during the 2026-27 academic year, and give me more room to pursue research opportunities in cybersecurity. What makes Dr. Nnaji’s legacy meaningful to me is that education took him far without taking him away from his community. I want the same to be true of me. Wherever my education takes me, I want to keep carrying that lesson from those Saturdays in Rwanda: if you have something useful to contribute, you do not keep it to yourself. I will uphold Dr. Soronnadi Nnaji’s legacy through my contributions to STEM.

I am Sheina Beryl Musanase, an undergraduate at the University of Arizona majoring in Cyber Defense & Forensics. I am someone who finds a lot of meaning in people. I enjoy listening to how others think, learning about their experiences, and being around people whose backgrounds are different from mine. I tend to be quiet and observant at first, but I care deeply about building genuine relationships and being someone others can depend on. What motivates me most is knowing that what I do can have value beyond myself. I want to succeed, but I do not want success to become something I experience alone. Whether it is encouraging someone, sharing an opportunity, helping another person understand something, or simply being present when someone needs support, those moments matter to me. They have shaped the kind of person I want to become. If I could do anything with my life, I would build one that gives me both purpose and freedom: the freedom to explore the world, meet people from different cultures, support my family, and create opportunities for others. I would especially like to mentor young girls around the world who are still trying to figure out what they are capable of and remind them that their circumstances do not have to determine how far they can go. Professionally, I hope to build a career in cybersecurity as a Security Analyst, but I want the person I become outside of my career to matter just as much. I want to be remembered as someone who achieved her goals while still making room to help other people achieve theirs. What excites me about STEM is that it constantly challenges what we think is possible. There is always another problem to understand, another solution to improve, and sometimes an entirely new problem created by the technology we develop. I find that especially interesting in cybersecurity because technology can improve people's lives while also creating new ways for them to be harmed. I chose cybersecurity because protecting technology ultimately means protecting people. Behind a compromised account, stolen identity, exposed medical record, or financial scam is a real person dealing with the consequences. That human side of cybersecurity is what makes the field meaningful to me. Through a career in information technology, I want to contribute to developing systems that can recognize and respond to threats before significant damage occurs. I am particularly interested in how artificial intelligence can strengthen cybersecurity, while also understanding the security problems AI itself introduces. As technology continues to advance, I want to be among the people asking not only, “Can we build this?” but also, “How do we make sure it is safe?” I also hope that simply being present and successful in this field can have an impact. Women are still underrepresented in many areas of technology. I want younger girls to be able to see women working in technical cybersecurity roles, conducting research, and eventually leading teams without viewing it as unusual. For me, STEM is exciting because there is always more to discover, but its greatest value is what we can do with that knowledge to improve and protect people's lives. My greatest challenge came during high school, from 10th through 12th grade, when illness prevented me from attending classes in person consistently. My school did not offer online classes, so being absent meant actually missing the lesson. There was no recording to watch later, no virtual classroom to join, and no easy way to recreate the discussions my classmates had with the teachers. For much of that period, I had to teach myself. I studied the material independently and went to school when I needed to take an exam or test. The hardest part was not simply reading alone. My classmates could ask questions immediately, hear different explanations, participate in discussions, and learn from one another. I often had only my books and whatever resources I could find for myself. When I did not understand something, I had to keep working at it until I could figure it out. There were moments when it was frustrating to think about a learning environment I wanted to be part of but physically could not always attend. Still, I refused to treat my circumstances as a reason to expect less from myself. I became more disciplined about how I studied, and became comfortable teaching myself instead of waiting for someone else to explain it. By the end of 12th grade, I graduated first in my class. That result means more to me because of what happened before it. The experience taught me that resilience is not pretending that something is easy. It is finding another way forward when the usual path is unavailable.