Since middle school, I have been determined to become an Aerospace Engineer. Watching birds soar through my backyard, wishing I too were able to fly, provoked me to learn more and more about this phenomenon. Growing up, my family always struggled financially but thankfully, I could never say that I lacked toys. I could always rely on my plastic planes to reach new heights and fly with the birds. Every day was a new adventure with a new height that I had imagined in my head. I can still remember the day I got my first drone. It was a present for my 10th birthday and suddenly, this box with an image of a black and red square with turbines on each corner was given to me by my parents. Its shape reminded me of the SHIELD Helipad and this alone was enough to excite me. I spent the rest of that year flying my drone outside in my backyard, navigating around trees and trying to figure out how such an object was capable of flight. Unfortunately, I soon broke my drone and have never had one since. Despite breaking my favorite toy, my curiosity about aerospace was still thriving within me. I would stay up late at night watching videos on the explanations of flight and would then apply these explanations to the real world. These late-night sessions paid off as I would be the "go-to" guy whenever my robotics team needed help figuring out the most effective way to launch certain objects from a catapult. Everything that I learned would take form all around me which helped me better understand the world itself. Now, as a high school senior this infatuation still lies within me and is greater than ever. Being granted this scholarship would allow me to achieve a higher education and break a cultural barrier at home. I am the son of immigrant parents, I shouldn't be going to university and attempting to achieve a career in Aerospace Engineering but I am. This scholarship will not only help pay for my education, it will pay for a new path for the generations after me. It will provide proof that the expectations can be surpassed and that the only limits that we have are the ones placed by ourselves. I aspire to be an Aerospace Engineer, it's true, but more than anything, I aspire to give hope to others in the same position as me.

What motivates me to pursue a higher education is definitely my parents. Knowing that they gave up their life in Mexico to move to a country where they would be faced with countless challenges, adds to my determination to get a degree. My parents have a high school education but they could never dream of going to a college or university. They've worked their entire lives and I hope to one day end that for them. One day, they won't need to depend on such physically demanding jobs and will enjoy their lives as they have allowed me to enjoy mine. Growing up, I didn't watch a lot of television as for the majority of my life I didn't have one. Somebody had either stolen it or it just didn't work. However, for the short period when I did have a T.V. or whenever I had those late-night visits to my cousin's house, I was hooked to the T.V. I wasn't watching Spongebob as other children would, I was watching Animal Planet, National Geographic, and my personal favorite, Top Gear. For any other person, cars and animals are polar opposites. Animals are live, breathing clumps of meat while cars are mechanical clumps of metal. For 5th grade me though, these two things were similar and I was certain of it. As a cheetah hunted down its prey, its body narrows itself for optimal speed. Its slick body reminded me of the way sports cars are built. This is when I first learned about aerodynamics. Of course, as I grew older I learned more and more about science and its unique properties. As a sophomore in high school, I learned that my school had a robotics team and I eagerly joined. The first year was nothing special but my second year was about shooting discs into a goal 2 feet in the air. My inner child awoke as aerodynamics was a crucial part of that year's competition and we went on to compete in the World Championships. I aspire to be an Aerospace Engineer and I'm really hoping that my background in robotics lets me learn more about the engineering process. The effect that air has on objects is fascinating to me and I would love to be able to apply this knowledge on a larger scale. My goal is to be able to further develop devices that will allow for more efficient human travel in space.

Clink, clink, clink. For the 3rd time this week, the robot has failed to complete its task of shooting the 6-inch discs into the elevated basket. For the 3rd time this week, we must find a new approach to overcome this persistent challenge. However, AP Calculus is next period and the rest of the team is too exhausted to continue working on the robot. As the driver and one of the main builders of the robot, I know that I have a heavy task ahead of me and that progress is a must. Nobody said that building a catapult on a robot would be easy. The bell rings at 8:56 but I do not leave the room until 9:04 which leaves me with 2 minutes to get to class. After school, I pass by the crew and I find myself walking back to the robotics room where I am greeted only by the metallic creation that I helped bring into this world. I brainstorm new ideas to battle this stubborn robot. Is it the slip-gear? Is there not enough tension between the rubber bands? Trial and error soon taught me that my questions were to no avail. The school week comes to an end and the robot has yet to be fixed. Eager to break this robot before it breaks me, I make a reservation with my teacher so that I could work on the robot on Saturday. One-on-one with the robot, I knew that Saturday was the day. I came in at 8 a.m. and left at around 3 p.m. As I left, I couldn't help but smile as I walked down the sidewalk to my car. The catapult was working and I couldn't wait to show the team. Monday rolls around and I ecstatically show the team the working robot. The discs are played inside the basket and launched 2 feet in the air straight into the goal. Soon, I was no longer the only one staying late after school or taking time out of my Saturdays. Seeing growth and progress, the team followed in my footsteps and dedicated themselves to the robot. After hours upon hours of work, multiple tardy slips turned into math teachers, and dozens of cuts from this wild robot, I had finally transformed it into a tamed beast. The year before that had been my first year in robotics and under the guidance of a senior driver, our team had only one victory throughout the entire year. The funding for robotics plummeted but I pushed through. Under my guidance as the driver, our team went undefeated at the local competition, beat the #1 seed in the state competition, and competed at the VEX Robotics World Championships for 2023. This year, I'm determined to do it all over again.