I was born and raised in the Philippines so I would say that my culture is a big part of my identity. Living in an Asian Household has pushed me to pursue a career in engineering. It’s a fact that typhoons are frequent in the Philippines and I remember this one time when my grandfather went out to risk his life for our livestock. Even though the water was rising from the river that was near our house and even though there was lightning and thunder, he knew that he needed to put his family’s needs first. He couldn’t afford to lose those livestock since we were relying on them financially. It was hard to see my family struggle, and looking back at it makes me want to be just as hardworking as he is. It has made me the strong-willed person that I have become. Knowing the life and the adversities that we shared makes me want to repay them in any way I can. Pursuing my dream to be a civil engineer is my way of giving back to my family, while creating a future for myself. Another reason why I decided to pursue this career is because I’ve always had a passion in math. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always liked working with numbers more than words and letters. In fact, I would always joke about how I hated words so much that I was put into speech therapy. My liking for numbers and hatred for words only grew stronger when I moved to the United Stated from the Philippines. At times when I didn’t understand much English, math became my solace. When I almost failed all classes except math on my first year here in the United States due to my lack of English knowledge, there I realized that math has no barrier. It is a universal language. I’ve always held onto big ambitions thus through this career, I want to change the world. And that may be a vague statement. Having taken environmental science in my senior year in high school, I’ve seen how much we really need a change in the world. I plan to apply eco-friendly materials into industrialization. I may not know much but I am committed to fulfilling this goal and that is why I’m pursuing further studies in higher education. Through this scholarship, I am able to help fund my education.