What if smell can be recorded? Ever since I was little, I wondered, 'If sight can be captured, and sound can be recorded, why not smell?' If achieved, technology of recording smell can significantly alter our culture much like the invention of video and audio recordings did. I am mostly optimistic about the effects of this new technology. Smell has a very special effect on our emotions. It brings up deep nostalgic memories no other senses can. By being able to record the scent of our old home, our favorite flowers, and our grandmother's freshly baked cookies, we can treasure these memories more intimately. Access to these scents can have positive medical effects as it can relieve people of stress as well as bring emotional comfort. There are several practical benefits scent-recording technology can bring as well. Some studies have shown that smell is more effective to wake people up in the morning than sound. By being able to record smell, we can choose to be woken up by our favorite scents. Scent-recorders can also replace the roles of diffusers and deodorants, and it can also provide the extra benefit of being able to capture the scents that people like. Scent recording can also be utilized in entertainment as 4-D movie theaters can add smell to their performance. Scent-recording can also greatly bolster education. Instead of just seeing animals and elements through the science books, students can also learn to recognize their scents. To this day I do not know what poisonous gas such as chlorine or dangerous drugs such as marijuana smell like. By educating scents, students can be more informed about the potential materials they come in contact with. Scents can also allow students to have a deeper cultural education. By smelling the atmosphere of the country as well as their spices and food, students can experience the culture more tangibly. I do not know if scent-recording will become a reality in the future. But if sight-recording and sound-recording are available, why not smell? The potential of what scent-recording can do to our culture and how it can be utilized to advance society is what makes it one of the most exciting prospective technology.

“No amount of saving is insignificant.” Not only did my grandmother teach us this advice, but she was a paragon of living out the advice. As a little kid, I didn’t like visiting my grandparent’s place because they had no AC to survive the summer, no boilers for hot showers in the winter, and no internet. The bathroom light bulbs were almost as dim as candlelight and a large bucket was in the corner of the shower to catch any water splashes to be later used for other purposes. It wasn’t until later that I experienced the true strength of my grandmother’s savings. My grandmother’s three children, the youngest of whom was my mom, all became missionaries in Uganda. Naturally, none of our families had a strong source of income. However, whenever any of our families needed financial support, my grandmother was able to support us with the savings she made in her living. Even when my grandmother was well into her 80s, she was still able to provide financial support in cases of emergency. When I became old enough to realize this, I never again complained about the inconveniences I had to experience when I visited grandma’s place. Today, I try to live out my grandmother’s financial advice. I don’t want to be stingy, as I know there is value in using money for others. However, I do everything I can to prevent extravagant use of my finances. I know that if I can save properly, no matter how insignificant it seems, it is like earning a little extra in my income, and it can soon build up to significant amounts.

Money is useless if it is not spent. This might seem contradictory to most financial advice. While most financial advice focuses on making or saving money, I want to focus on using money. Many students are intimidated by the heavy tuition fees, and understandably so. Tuition fees in America are in the amount no student can afford. However, I would like to encourage prospective students to look beyond finance and consider the opportunities they are able to capture. Of course, it is not wise to go into unreasonable debt just for the sake of education. There are plenty of options such as scholarships, fellowships, grants, and assistantships to alleviate the cost of education, and once payment for education is in a reasonable reach, finance shouldn’t hold students back from taking incredible opportunities. A money not spent is merely a piece of paper or a digit in your bank account. Only when you spend it does it truly become valuable. Students shouldn’t be intimidated of turning money into experiences, knowledge, and opportunities. Money can always be made again, but an opportunity lost may never come back. Being truly financially literate means not only to know how to save money, but also to know how to use money.

A man looked to be in pain as he was hunched over holding on to a rail by the sidewalk. I was appalled to see people shooting a glance towards the man, and then walking straight past him. What really frightened me, however, was the fact that my legs were glued. ‘Surely someone will help him,’ I thought. Just then, a middle-aged lady approached the man and offered her help. It was a relief that the man was suffering from a cramp and there was no serious injury, but I was deeply distressed. Why did I not jump in to help? I realized that the difference between me and the lady was not in our level of compassion. I, along with the hundreds of people who walked past, was afraid to do something different, while the lady seized the opportunity to do so. Many of us don’t want to stand out. We want to stay in the shadows and live a comfortable life like everyone else. This has forced us to give up on our unique dreams and idiosyncrasies and pursue what is merely acceptable by society. We are so reluctant to jump into the spotlight and become pioneers. This has left millions of people with incredible potential powerless. One way to challenge this passive mindset is to encourage boldness in our schools and families. From an early age, children need to learn not to be afraid to be different. While courage was valued highly in medieval days, it is extremely underrated in today’s society. People need to be complimented for expressing their thoughts and doing what they think is right. Imagine how the world could change if twice or three times as many people would disregard their reputation from others, and boldly jump in to help their neighbors.

"It is nothing to die. It is frightful not the live." This is a quote from my favorite book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The quote captures the change in Jean Valjean's perspective of life from existing to living. Towards the beginning of the book, Jean Valjean is introduced almost like an animal, stealing, lying, and using violence to fulfill his physical desires. He was concerned merely with his survival. However, as the novel progresses, we see change in the heart of Jean Valjean. He learns to be compassionate and sacrificial. He learns that to live truly is not merely about survival. The book shows the depravity of the human mind, yet at the same time, a glimmer of hope. We are prone to sin, always seeking to satisfy our hunger. Yet we also have a sense of morality that causes us to do something absolutely disadvantageous for our survival, and results in something beautiful. My favorite scene in the book is when as a fugitive, Jean Valjean discovers that someone else who is thought to have been Jean Valjean has been captured in his place. Jean Valjean has an internal struggle whether he should disclose his identity to free the innocent man. Keeping quiet would have been much more beneficial for his survival, but he chooses to go to court and reveal his identity to free the man falsely accused. As I closed the final pages of the book, I was left deep in thought. What does it mean to truly live? All of us are going to die someday, but will all of us truly live? The life of Jean Valjean as described in the book was full of struggles, yet I can say that he successfully crossed over from existence to life.

I was born in South Korea, raised in Uganda, studied in America, and working in Japan. While such multicultural background did allow me to widen my cultural perspectives, it has also prevented me from identifying strongly with a particular culture. Even though I look South Korean on the outside, I have been a foreigner everywhere I go. Cultural discrimination has not been a small part of my life. During my academic career as a student and as a teacher, I have come to realize that Asian students are extremely bright, especially in the field of mathematics. However, it is comparatively hard to find Asians in teaching positions, whether in high school or in universities. Whether that is due to the internal segregation Asians experience, I do not know, but it is my wish to make sure that it is not the cause. I have spent 6 years after my undergraduate studies teaching mathematics at an international school in Japan. Students from all around Asia including South Korea, China, Malaysia, and Philippines attend our school and compose more than 80% of our student population. One of my major goals has been to prepare these students to become international leaders. Obviously, teaching them English has been a big part, but we didn't stop there. We knew that in order to be competitive internationally, merely speaking English fluently was not enough, because, after all, they were competing with native English speakers. That is why I have focused my education on mathematics, which I believe is a real forte of Asian students. Over the course of 6 years, I was able to help 25% of our graduating class to get above a 750 on the SAT math section and to be admitted to prestigious universities worldwide. Through this scholarship, I plan to partake in a mathematics education program, and eventually to help thousands of underprivileged Asians become confident world leaders. As someone who has experienced segregation throughout my life, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of self-confidence. I believe that a strong mathematical education for Asians will open opportunities and allow them to be powerful contributors in society. The world cannot ignore competent mathematical thinkers, and Asians have incredible potential in this area. This is the first step I can take in promoting equity for the Asian population across the globe.

For many, finding the connection between spirituality, science, and math is as hard as finding the resemblance between Bill Gates and hamburgers. Spirituality deals with something that is completely transcendent, immaterial, and metaphysical while science and math deals with the purely natural. However, I see that one makes no sense, or at least is completely unreliable, without the other. Science and mathematics is highly dependent upon the spiritual realm as Microsoft is to Bill Gates. Human beings have benefited and made great advancements in science due to the reliability and the accuracy of mathematics. While we may sometimes fail in our calculations, mathematics as a discipline has never really failed us. Whether we use it in everyday lives such as in shopping or budgeting, or whether professionals use it in architecture, medicine, or economics, mathematics has been the language to accurately model our natural world. Yet what is it that makes mathematics so reliable? Mathematics is reliable and science is possible because the natural world follows certain laws. A paper held over a fire will always burn, a pencil dropped from the desk will always fall, and a ball thrown forward will always travel forward. The organization of the world to follow certain laws hints at a law giver. And just like the explanation of why a computer works as it does cannot be found within the software of the computer itself, we must look for this law giver outside of our natural world. It is ironic how the reliability of mathematics and the advancement of science have somehow persuaded many to believe that there is nothing outside of the natural world. A beautiful painting and a delicious dish requires an artist and a cook, and the more excellent the painting or the dish is, the more it requires to have a talented, meticulous creator. The fact that mathematics is so reliable and science was able to advance so far is one of the strongest indicators of the existence of the transcendental spiritual dimension. Math and science would be utterly unreliable without spirituality. The natural world is concentrated on survival rather than the discovery of truth. Our natural lives are only 70-80 years long, and honestly, it shouldn’t matter if one plus one is three as long as we can all live a long and happy life. Why bother advancing technology and science when we are probably not going to enjoy the full benefits of the advancement in our lifetime, and there’s no guarantee that better science and technology leads to a better life? Can we honestly say that our current world with its peaking suicide and depression rates is much happier than the world 500 or 1000 years ago? The reason we use mathematics and advance science is not because it leads to a happier life, but because there is a hunger for knowledge in us. There is something in us wanting to find out what’s at the bottom of this. Even though we might not discover the whole truth in our lifetime, we are satisfied if we have paved the way for our future generation to carry on the job. This, in fact, is what science and math is all about, and this is not motivated by our natural self. Spirituality is what explains mathematics and what makes science possible. It explains the laws that our natural world follows. It motivates us to seek truth and gain knowledge. It, in fact, gives birth to science and math.