I am not someone who knew what I wanted to do right from the beginning. I had always envisioned myself as a doctor; a future in medicine. However, I have learned that this is not where my true passion lies. I have always thoroughly enjoyed math and physics, and these have always been my favorites, and the ones in which I excel. Until my senior year, in which I took calculus, I was involved in an IMP math course, where everything was based on problem solving involving multiple variables and word problems.
I constantly looked forward to these classes, and I relished the fact that we didn’t just solve straight forward questions, but had to solve complicated problems where the process to obtain a solution involved many different steps and variables and was never straightforward. In my junior year of high school, my math teacher invited me and a ten other top students where we met and heard from four women engineers. This is when my interest in engineering was sparked.
They talked about the things they helped create and the different jobs they performed. I was fascinated, and began to envision myself helping create systems that didn’t require human energy inputs to operate. As I delved further into my academic career, I knew I wanted to pursue a career I was passionate about and would love doing, not a career based on the salary. This new mindset was brought about by my mother and father who told me, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.
The second semester of my junior year I joined robotics club to test the waters of what engineering might be like. I absolutely “fell in love”. I thoroughly enjoyed the task of building different machines and systems and loved the way I had to invest problem a multitude of skills and ideas into one project such as problem solving, math, physics, and leadership. I realized that no other career path was as suitable to me as engineering. I am fascinated with each type of engineering, and wish I was able to major in all of them.
I have always been enthralled by aircrafts, and designing better aircrafts and airborne machines would certainly satisfy me. During high school I was also infatuated with chemistry, and working the the medical world by engineering new medicines, prosthetics, etc. also held a definite promise, so chemical or biomedical engineering sounded great as well. However, I have decided upon mechanical engineering. I love the idea of working hand-on with equipment and really being able to watch your systems “come to life”.
I also wanted to major in a field in which I could work with many different things and companies. I am very interested in building systems to help the world and environment, but would also like to have open opportunities to help manufacture and construct all different kinds of mechanisms and test all the different waters. Although passion is a necessity in any career field, there are many other skills needed to be successful in todays world of engineering.
Leadership skills and the ability to work on a team have become extremely important in being a prominent engineer. With my involvement in the Silver Creek leadership academy, student senate executive board, and as president of national honor society at my school, I have obtained these qualities and have learned how to be a great leader as well as work as a teammate. I was also a huge participator in athletics such as basketball, track & field, cross-country, and tennis, where I furthered my ability to thrive on a team. This year I shall be taking a gap year.
During my gap year I aim to expand my horizons and gain a better view on the world and become more independent. I am traveling to Spain to stay as an au pair for a family for 8 months, and will travel around Europe for another month. I shall be taking one Spanish course at a university so as to obtain a student visa and become fluent in the language and learn more about the culture. I believe this experience will make me more prepared for college and allow me to find out more about myself and gain further independence and confidence.
