The prospect of contributing to an aerospace project team dedicated to designing critical enhancements and updates to America’s missile defense enterprise architecture is an exciting prospect. My enthusiasm to work in the aerospace design field stems from the intervention of a wonderful mentor and teacher. My physics teacher at the US Air Force Academy High School helped me marry my love of engineering design with my high aptitude for mathematics. His contagious passion for this field pointed me towards an area I would otherwise likely never come across on my own, let alone receive the encouragement to pursue it. He helped me muster the self-confidence to pursue my talents and interests, irrespective of whether they aligned with my parent’s plans for me. Discovering aerospace design and engineering, in general, could almost be described as a child first discovering the existence of Hogwarts. Growing up in a household where neither of my parents had an academic background beyond basic algebra, my fascination with aerospace design was absolutely an anomaly of the bell curve and the entire page, for that matter. My disabled mother and my perpetually absent career military father had interests that greatly deviated from my own. They naturally pushed me to look at fields aligned with their interests instead. Aerospace projects and design opportunities offer a unique combination of high-level real-world implications, directly affecting the security of American, NATO, and trans-Pacific partners. The field is also constantly evolving as it continually pushes the boundaries of possibility and is forever at the leading edge of aerospace concepts and design, which I find incredibly exciting. Ideally, my involvement in the project would span all stages of platform design, development, and testing. This would allow me to apply my skills and knowledge in a comprehensive manner, thereby bolstering the technological reliability of existing and future systems. I believe that my contribution can make a significant difference in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of our missile defense systems. I am eager to matriculate into the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, where I was recently accepted. The chance to learn from the experiences of helping project teams I will work with tackle aerospace challenges side-by-side with the personnel from nearby Peterson Space Force Base and Schriever Space Force Base on current real-world challenges is an amazing privilege I eagerly look forward to. My journey towards aerospace design has been unconventional, yet my commitment to pursuing this field is unwavering. I intend to personally contribute to the advancement of our missile defense enterprise architecture. I want a career of significance, and I cannot imagine anything more significant than continually pushing the boundaries of possible in aerospace.