Justin Moeller Memorial Scholarship

Growing up, I have always been interested in technology. I found myself constantly interested in gaming and viewing it on YouTube. Watching video after video, I gradually began to ask myself critical questions, such as "How are these games even made?" and "Can I learn how to create something like this?". It was in 8th grade when I realized that coding was behind all of this, and it immediately encapsulated me. When I first discovered coding, I started on code.org. Through the curriculum, I selected a story game activity, where one could create a mobile story game. There were different endings to the story depending on the choices you made throughout it. It was exhilarating to develop a narrative and different outcomes for it. What I found to be the most thrilling, though, was the satisfaction I felt when my code would work. I believe it is a universal experience for every programmer to have a feeling of exhilaration and fulfillment when they eliminate all of the bugs and witness their code operate seamlessly. That feeling has persisted throughout my high school computer science classes I vigorously sought after, where I wrote in Python, HTML, CSS, Visual Basic, and (currently) Java and Pyret. In these classes, some of the most memorable, exciting things I developed both alone and with others include a slot machine, a Rube Goldberg machine and 3D game on Unreal Engine, a game of chance, and a birthday calculator, to name a few. In particular, I recently made a Hangman game on CodeHS using Java for my AP Computer Science A class project, which was probably the hardest thing I've coded so far. However, as difficult as it was, I enjoyed debugging and being able to finally complete it and let my friends play it. While I haven’t delved into advanced college-level coding yet, my aspiration remains strong to develop skills to a level where I can create successful video games or AI. Thus, computer science also connects to my future aspirations. After my collegiate years, I will improve diversity in the tech field and bridge the racial/ethnic gap in STEM jobs by creating a video game development team where colleagues will be able to cultivate a community where they can celebrate all types of cultures because of how diverse and culturally different each of the members are. Our mission would be to promote diversity in the games we develop and design. In a day and age where people like me make up such small percentages of jobs in the tech industry, it's important to have diverse teams like the one I aspire to create because it gives other historically underrepresented people the opportunity to see others who look like them and have the assurance that it's possible to pursue a STEM degree or career regardless of their race/ethnicity. It gives the feeling of "Wow, I can do that too!". The digital divide is real, but I believe this strategy is one of many ways to combat it. I realized the importance of representation firsthand by attending a predominantly white high school for the past (almost) 4 years and being only 1 of 2 Black people in my computer science classes, and I'm excited and determined to make that difference. I'm hoping that, by winning this scholarship, I will be able to do just that and more. Not just moneywise, but also knowing the fact that the creators of this scholarship believe in me and my aspirations, is what will push me to move forward.