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Haley Kelly

1,825

Bold Points

3x

Finalist

1x

Winner

Bio

Hello! My name is Haley Kelly. I have a broad variety of interests across many different facets. The organization I have been with the longest is Girl Scouts, over the time period of 11 years. FIRST robotics which I have been apart of for 9 years, has grasped my interests for my future the most. In high school, I wanted to see what my school had to offer. I was on my high school tennis team for 3 years, 2 of the years being on varsity, and my final year being the team captain in addition to being the number 1 seeded player for my school. I also was apart of my school’s Model UN, bringing me exposure to what is going on around the world. In addition to that, I am apart of my school’s FBLA. In our past area conference, my partner and I had placed first in our sales presentation. From my FBLA experience, it had influenced me to shift my major interests to business and marketing.

Education

Mascoutah High School

High School
2020 - 2024

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Master's degree program

  • Majors of interest:

    • Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other
  • Not planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Mechanical or Industrial Engineering

    • Dream career goals:

    • Barista

      Scooter's Coffee
      2022 – 20231 year
    • Front of House Team Member

      Chick-Fil-A
      2023 – Present1 year

    Sports

    Tennis

    Varsity
    2021 – 20232 years

    Awards

    • team captain
    • athletic leadership

    Public services

    • Volunteering

      Beta — Distribution
      2022 – 2022
    Shays Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    Snap EmpowHER Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    A Man Helping Women Helping Women Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    Koehler Family Trades and Engineering Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    Redefining Victory Scholarship
    There is no standardized measurement of success. Success is perception, which varies based on many factors in an individual’s background. Backgrounds that can affect one’s view of success will be affected by one’s childhood, where you live, your parents success, or many more factors. Without any progress or drive, it becomes more of a challenge to obtain an extent of success. I believe success has layers, like an onion. You can reach one level of success, but there is more depth in the journey to have accomplished that level of success. Most of my life, I have been a goal-oriented individual. The goals I continue to achieve and set, lay a foundation for me to feel I have obtained success. Success from my perspective would be living a comfortable life, with a career I enjoy. In addition to that, having enough financial stability to create a form of passive income. From there, that would verify I have reached my perception of success. To be able to obtain the career field, at the salary I would desire, that requires multiple levels of higher education. The career field I have always had an interest in is the engineering field. I plan on studying mechanical engineering for my undergraduate degree. Throughout high school, I have taken dual enrollment courses to be able to accelerate my college education. After my undergraduate, I strive to earn a Masters in a more specified engineering field. I am not sure which specified field I would like to get my masters in, but I can explore those avenues while I am earning my undergraduate degree. This scholarship opportunity would aid me in my journey to success by assisting me in my education funds. I do not come from a wealthy background, but my parents successfully pay all their bills and take good care of my sister and I. With that being said, my parents have raised me to be responsible and take accountability. From there, they have left it up to me to come up with funds for my education. As a child, they would compensate me for hard work, because that is what happens in the real world. When I got my car and license, it was up to me to get a job to have money to pay my car insurance, gas, and maintenance. From there, I have learn success does not come without many responsibilities. The foundation I have created for myself entails many experiences I have taken. Being an active participant on a robotics team for 8 years has helped me gain many skills regarding my career interests. Alongside that, having comradery and opportunities for leadership has taught me so much. My high school has many opportunities for students, many which I have utilized. Clubs I have joined and been active in encompass the Future Business Leaders of America, Model United Nations, and Varsity Tennis has helped me develop many characteristics of who I have become. As for my college journey, I have always wanted to go to Purdue University, and with my hard work and determination, I have been accepted into their Polytechnic Institute. Alongside that, I have been accepted into many other schools, but the only other school that gained my interest was University of South Florida. Although Purdue is my dream school, they are very expensive and I am responsible for paying for my higher education. I have a circumstance where I can receive In-State tuition for any public Florida institution. I believe that taking advantage of that circumstance could put me ahead when I graduate from college, with a significant amount less of student debt. This has been a dilemma for me since I received my acceptance letters from both school. I have curated a plan to optimize financial circumstances and be able to achieve my perception of success. I plan to go to University of South Florida for my undergraduate degree and then attend Purdue University for my masters, since they specialize in engineering of all sorts. With the foundation I will continue to build, I will feel I have become successful.
    William A. Stuart Dream Scholarship
    The entirety of my life, I have been a goal oriented individual. Something I have valued is education, due to the scarcity of higher education on the global scare. My years in schooling, I have taken advantage of extracurriculars to be able to start a foundation in my education success. With this foundation, it initiates the chance for a strong higher education, for the ability to go into the career field I have desired. This scholarship would help me continue my education towards mechanical engineering, developing a foundation for my future career. Education is a system I have been accounting for most of my life. Many decisions I have made, since elementary school are college oriented. The thought of college crossed my mind and I knew involvement was important. At the age of 9 years old, I joined a robotics team which has shaped my interests. With this experience I set my educational goals around robotics and engineering. For my bachelor’s degree, I would like to major in Mechanical Engineering. Since my school has a dual credit program through Saint Louis University, I have taken that opportunity to be able to have almost two dozen credit hours under my belt before I graduate high school. After my bachelor’s degree, I desire to stay in school to get my masters degree. My masters degree would be in a more specific field of engineering that my attention gets drawn to in college. Once I am through with my education, I would like a career in the engineering field. Throughout college, to build connections and work experience, on summer breaks from school, I would like to have an internship with Boeing in St.Louis or local engineering firms to my home. After those are through, I would not mind traveling every so often for a job. As for a preference in my career, I would like to be in a leadership position, after I have earned it and been educated enough. Other paths I would be interested in following is joining or starting smaller engineering firms. In addition to that, once I am retired from my career, I would like to go back and teach high school students about engineering or physics, because of my work experience I had in my life prior to becoming a teacher. The William A. Stuart Dream Scholarship would help me pursue my career goals by obtaining additional funding for my education. My education will be the foundation for my career and make the young girl who joined robotics so proud
    Jiang Amel STEM Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    Nicholas Hamlin Tennis Memorial Scholarship
    Winner
    Becoming more than just a sport to me, tennis has taught me a lot. I have not just learned on how to play the sport with better strategies, I have learned a lot about myself. Joining tennis my sophomore year in high school had set me at a disadvantage, regarding my development of skill. Although it is perceived as late to just have picked up the sport, it was the perfect time for me. Mentally, I was in a position where my thoughts would consistently guide me to negative spaces. I knew I needed an outlet, and I found the right one. As a child, I was unathletic and overweight, which made me uncomfortable with who I was. The sport had caught my attention in middle school, but I did not develop a drive or passion for the sport until high school. The day I finished my freshman year of high school, I knew I needed to start my tennis career, I did not want to wait any longer. Fortunately, my mom had found a private coach who assistant-coached tennis for a local men’s Division II collegiate team, at Mckendree University. The coach helped build the foundation for me making my high school tennis team. From my experience on the junior varsity tennis team for my high school had opened my eyes. I would constantly observe the varsity girls, admiring their drive, which had helped me set goals to carry out in my own tennis career. After making the tennis team, I achieved the first step into developing more goals for my tennis experience. My goal for my junior tennis season was to make the varsity team. With that goal in mind, I had found a new private coach who was the head coach for a different local college tennis team, at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC). In the off season and summer, I took the insights I gained from that coach and earned my spot on the varsity team. Not only did I make the varsity team, I was the fifth seeded player for my school, which was exciting to have a position, rather than just barely making it on. Knowing that many varsity seniors would be graduating, I knew there was room for me to move up the roster during my senior year, as long as I put in the effort. My next goal was to be the number one seeded player on my high school team. Over that off season, I joined an indoor tennis club to play when it was cold, and played tennis over half of my summer. When I was not playing tennis, I was increasing my fitness by conditioning. When the challenge matches came around for team positions, I left them being the number one seeded player for my school’s girls tennis team, alongside being head captain. Tennis has shaped me as a stronger individual who strived for progres. Changing who I was, tennis helped me for the better. I became disciplined and a more goal oriented individual. In addition to that, I gained lots of leadership experiences and many unbreakable bonds with my teammates. All the experiences I have gained are invaluable. From the excitement of my wins, to needing to keep my head up after losses, tennis is something that I would not trade for anything. Forever being my escape, the courts will always be calling my name.
    Scholarship Institute’s Annual Women’s Leadership Scholarship
    Leadership is not an aptitude, it is developed. The development of leadership comes from a sense of motivation deep in ones inner self. I, myself, am striving to become a leader in my life. More life experiences would permit me to become a stronger leader. With only seventeen years of life experience, I have taken up many leadership building opportunities. From being an active member of my high school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and a varsity tennis player, has given me leadership exposure. The first leadership experience I have had in high school was the tennis team. Being a member of the team gave me an opportunity to grow to become a leader. Watching the varsity players as a junior varsity player inspired me. I started playing tennis my sophomore year of high school, which is pretty late in a tennis players career to get started. I was determined to make varsity tennis the next year, so I worked tirelessly all summer and on my weekends. Then I earned the number 5 seeded varsity position the following season. After that, I set the goal to be the number 1 seeded varsity player for my high school. From there, I put in more work to achieve that goal. Yet again, the following season, I achieved that goal. With the effort people had observed me putting in to achieve that goal, they saw the integrity and leadership qualities I had possessed, so I became the head captain of my tennis team. By the end of the season, I had earned an athletic leadership award from my coaches. I did not win as many matches as I would have liked, but had to remain with my head up, for all the eyes that were on me from match to match. Not only did I develop leadership skills from tennis, but from my high school’s FBLA. My junior year of high school I had joined just to see what I could gain from the organization, to see if it was worth my time, which it was. The first event I did my first year, was public speaking. Many people fear public speaking, but I do not. Just because I do not fear it, does not mean that I am good at it. Since that was not something I was confident in, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to be able to improve on. With that experience I did, at the area and state level. As for this year, I wanted to do something different. My best friend and I decided to take on the sales presentation. In FBLA, the sales presentation is comparable to Shark Tank. To be an entrepreneur and business leader takes the development of leadership skills. Considering that at our most recent competition, we had won first in our event, which we will be participating in at state. As for this competition, I do not just receive recognition, but important leadership skills in addition to that. With the experiences that have helped me develop leadership skills, I would like to apply those to my career one day. Since I will be studying mechanical engineering in college, I would like to work my way up to be able to lead many teams of engineers. I want to be the reliable person that my peers and colleagues can reach out to for sound advice and assistance, regarding engineering. When I end up in my leadership role, I will continue to find many ways to grow as a leader and become the best leader that I can.
    Ward AEC Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    Chronic Boss Scholarship
    Human lives are like cars. They start off clean, fragile, and untested, and end up worn, challenged, and pushed to the limits. Not only is it comparative, but a variety of aspects even cross paths. From manufacturing a car to when the car is in no condition to continue running, these parallels persist. My life begins like a brand new make and model of a car, at least from the exterior. All new designs do not come without issues, but over time, those issues develop into requiring recalls or general maintenance. Throughout the fine tuning of my childhood, many internal issues arose. Being born with a genetic marker, HLA-B27, leads me to become more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, which has made me become a model that requires more maintenance. Despite needing more medical attention as an adolescent, I did not let that hold me back from traveling down many roads with a variety of journeys. Most of my life, I have been interested in sciences and technology, but was unsure where that would guide my interests in life. When I was a younger Girl Scout, I would be the first to sign up for any stem camp or event available for me to participate in. From those experiences at stem camps, it had inspired me to join my first robotics team of twelve girls, at the tender age of eight years old. At this point in my life, I have stuck with robotics for nine years. With a heavy background in stem and a sizable passion for robotics, I knew that career avenue was for me, just not which direction I would turn. Then one day, it hit me, in the literal sense. Thinking that my best friend and I were going out for an early lunch the day after I returned from a lengthy vacation, I was instead in a nearly head-on collision. Along a sharp curve on a backroad, an inattentive, bare-footed driver was barreling at me, head on, in my lane. Swerving off the road allowed the accident to become a t-bone strike to my car, rather than a deadly head-on collision. If it were not for me being an AP Physics student and having an intensive unit on elastic and inelastic collisions, I may have not known to swerve to avoid the head on collision and could have just frozen up, where things would have been much worse. I credit the knowledge I gained with saving my life. Given the chance to walk away alive, let alone being barely injured at all, I owe to the countless engineers before me to not only continue their noble work, but to build upon their previously laid foundations in the engineering field. Now I have found the direction I want to turn down on the avenue of engineering, ensuring the future of travel safety. Even though I am only in high school, I want to make a difference now. Approved by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, I have taken the opportunity to develop my Gold Award on the education of making the roads a safer place, for all to drive on. Through the higher education that I will earn and the connections I will make along the way, I am committed to making a difference in the transportation safety industry as an engineer.
    Joanne Pransky Celebration of Women in Robotics
    With college quickly approaching for me, living without my parents is inevitable. Intending on going to a school not close to home, I cannot return on a whim. My parents’ assistance and guidance throughout my life has greatly impacted my frequent habits. On my own, there will be day to day tasks that I must complete by myself, that I would not do as consistently at home. In addition to all the new housekeeping level responsibilities, I will carry the weight of all my studies and health when I am on my own. If there was a way to reduce the housekeeping responsibilities, I would have more time to focus on my studies in mechanical engineering, rather than spending time cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or any other house hold task at hand. In the near future, I envision robotics taking over many of these house keeping tasks, due to the rampant increase of americans’ jobs demanding everything at a faster pace. With that being said, a robot to sort and transport your laundry could be one of the many tasks that will come through fruition in the near future. Highlighting that color sensors, motors of varying sizes, and timers exist very commonly in modern day robotics, on a more simplistic level, imagining this is not out of reach. Those robotic parts would be key elements in developing a functional, technologically advanced, household chore completion robot. With these elements combined, the robot would be able to sort the user’s laundry (by color) in their dorm, transport it to the local laundromat on campus with an arm, alongside a detachable basket. Once the laundry process has began, then the robot would send the user an SMS text message to notify when your clothes have been completely washed, moved to the dryer, or even stolen by other students in the facility. As an alternative to the text message system, there could be an internet/cellular supported mobile app that is paired with the house keeping robot. Using the app would have additional benefits so the user could select the housekeeping task for the robot to begin. Considering that the robot has a gauge on how much time is in between each load of laundry, before the laundry is rotated, the robot could prepare meals for the user. The meals do not necessarily need to be cooked, but saved for when cooking and preparing meals would be inconvenient for the user. All the time gained from possessing this innovative house keeping robot could permit the user to be able to go to the gym, keep up with their studies, attend social events, all while their house keeping robot is taking care of the necessary tasks at hand. Promoting education, health, and well being would be the initiative of this form of robotics technology. Therefore making this idea more than just a want, a need in the future. This is a practical use of robotics that I could imagine myself using as a college student and beyond, if I am not the one inventing it on my own in the near future.