It was a warm summer day, and I worked diligently to weed the garden, pot soil for plants, and harvest baby carrots. After an exhausting gardening session, I went inside the school, filled with the satisfaction of a job well done. I performed various community service acts at my high school. Over six days, I worked with a team of students to weed, remove old crops, harvest new crops, and plant seeds. I also helped cut out cardboard strips and placed them around the garden. The goal was to build a barrier that prevented weeds from spreading into the garden. We maintained two hydroponic towers used to grow plants indoors. Maintenance included checking the pH, disassembling and cleaning the towers, and replacing the seed pods. Another task was packaging the crops for donation, which required sorting, bagging, and loading produce into boxes. We worked as an assembly line to complete each of these tasks.  Whether it is serving my community or simply being a good teammate, it is important to me that I do my best to get the job done. It was enriching to see so many people, from people I did not know before to new people I just met, work tirelessly for the mutual goal of helping others. Community service is a means to help those around and bring out the best in oneself, so community service is heartwarming.

Straight ahead is my checkpoint. Despite the blazing summer heat, I look forward and press on. For a moment, my exhaustion fades, but then I realize I am only halfway through my run. Long runs are a quintessential aspect of cross-country training. Across many cross-country practices and meets, I have developed skills I will use throughout my life. The first month of practice of my first season was grueling; the workouts were long, and some summer days were scorching. Some people dropped the team, and some barely did the workouts. During that month, I learned tenacity and how to push myself through difficult workouts and later meets. It also showed me who shared my tenacity and was willing to fight through intense practices. These ideas were impressed upon me for the rest of the season and into the next season. The team during my second season significantly contrasted with the first season. Many people had left the team, and new people had joined. Those from the previous season and I were now veterans of the sport. After a year of training, I made the varsity squad and became a role model. I, for one, took pride in my status and offered advice on strategy for the different meets and information about the courses. Above anything else, my effort and positive attitude towards the workouts had the most impact. By inspiring the rookies and developing deeper bonds with my returning teammates, I assisted in building a strong sense of community within the team.  Due to the new and returning talent and an overall sense of tenacity and community, the varsity team and I were able to qualify for the State Championships. For context, my school had not qualified for states in thirty-one years. This achievement taught me the importance of finding the right people to achieve your goals. When the team was focused, tenacious, and goal-oriented, we were successful. This idea was impressed upon me as I looked toward my last season. I was uncertain what would happen, but I did know that I had a team capable of greatness and the team would improve. For my final season, I enjoyed the fruits of all of my efforts and time invested. Once again, I was able to inspire new runners, building a larger, stronger cross-country community. Ultimately, I was on the best cross-country team my school has ever had and that I could imagine. We qualified again for the State Championships, breaking two school records. We placed second in the Regional qualifiers and for qualifying for states two years in a row. Although I do not intend to pursue cross country in the future, my experiences will continue to impact me. The lessons of tenacity, building community, and cultivating a great team will support me in my future. Whether it's college or the workforce, these lessons will guide me, allowing me to find people I can depend on to complete complex tasks.

Straight ahead is my checkpoint. Despite the blazing summer heat, I look forward and press on. For a moment, my exhaustion fades, but then I realize I am only halfway through my run. Long runs are a quintessential aspect of cross-country training. Across many cross-country practices and meets, I have developed skills I will use throughout my life. The first month of practice of my first season was grueling; the workouts were long, and some summer days were scorching. Some people dropped the team, and some barely did the workouts. During that month, I learned tenacity and how to push myself through difficult workouts and later meets. It also showed me who shared my tenacity and was willing to fight through intense practices. These ideas were impressed upon me for the rest of the season and into the next season. The team during my second season significantly contrasted with the first season. Many people had left the team, and new people had joined. Those from the previous season and I were now veterans of the sport. After a year of training, I made the varsity squad and became a role model. I, for one, took pride in my status and offered advice on strategy for the different meets and information about the courses. Above anything else, my effort and positive attitude towards the workouts had the most impact. By inspiring the rookies and developing deeper bonds with my returning teammates, I assisted in building a strong sense of community within the team.  Due to the new and returning talent and an overall sense of tenacity and community, the varsity team and I were able to qualify for the State Championships. For context, my school had not qualified for states in thirty-one years. This achievement taught me the importance of finding the right people to achieve your goals. When the team was focused, tenacious, and goal-oriented, we were successful. This idea was impressed upon me as I looked toward my last season. I was uncertain what would happen, but I did know that I had a team capable of greatness and the team would improve. For my final season, I enjoyed the fruits of all of my efforts and time invested. Once again, I was able to inspire new runners, building a larger, stronger cross-country community. Ultimately, I was on the best cross-country team my school has ever had and that I could imagine. We qualified again for the State Championships, breaking two school records. We placed second in the Regional qualifiers and for qualifying for states two years in a row. Although I do not intend to pursue cross-country in the future, my experiences will continue to impact me. The lessons of tenacity, building community, and cultivating a great team will support me as a computer engineer. Whether it's college or the workforce, these lessons will guide me, allowing me to find people I can depend on to succeed.

When I was small I suffered a long list of illnesses whether it was MRSA a strong bacterial infection, having asthma and needing medication for that, or losing the ability to walk due to illness and needing to undergo physical therapy. In each case, I struggled greatly but refused to let my circumstances defeat me. I fought tirelessly to defeat and recover from each illness. Overcoming this level of adversity early on gave me a unique perspective on life. A sense that with focus and dedication, people can conquer the many problems they face. I attribute much of my success in school to this mindset. I ensure that I communicate with my teachers to ensure I am on top of my assignments and to better understand the concepts. I focus in class to take quality notes that I can carefully review for quizzes. Since my academics define my opportunities in college it is of high importance. I am constantly looking toward my future and progressing towards milestones to put myself in the best position for college and beyond. It is both my struggles in the past and my optimism for my future that drive me to be focused and dedicated in the present. I dream and becoming a research scientist and my field of interest is computer engineering. I find how the Internet of Things, the way smart devices can wirelessly communicate with each other, highly interesting. The way devices connect reflects the connections between people and through innovation in this field I can easily perceive the rippling impacts these devices have on society. In this way, it is both compelling to begin studying in the field and highly enriching to make profound advances in it. My career goal is to become a professor and research scientist so that I will have a great opportunity to create inventions to support a variety of electronic devices. I want to create profound innovations that shape society and eventually earn me a Nobel Prize in Physics. This would not only be a grand personal accomplishment but also a cultural one. There have been no Black Nobel prize winners in the sciences ever so to make a grand accomplishment such as this could inspire future generations of Black scientists and engineers to make substantial innovations to their respective fields and create massive waves of positive change in society. I want to be successful give more opportunities to those less fortunate than I am and support the people around me so I move through every day driven and dedicated.

When I was small I suffered a long list of illnesses whether it was MRSA a strong bacterial infection, having asthma and needing medication for that, or losing the ability to walk due to illness and needing to undergo physical therapy. In each case, I struggled greatly but refused to let my circumstances defeat me. I fought tirelessly to defeat and recover from each illness. Overcoming this level of adversity early on gave me a unique perspective on life. A sense that with focus and dedication, people can conquer the many problems they face. I attribute much of my success in school to this mindset. I ensure that I communicate with my teachers to ensure I am on top of my assignments and to better understand the concepts. I focus in class to take quality notes that I can carefully review for quizzes. Since my academics define my opportunities in college it is of high importance. I am constantly looking toward my future and progressing towards milestones to put myself in the best position for college and beyond. It is both my struggles in the past and my optimism for my future that drive me to be focused and dedicated in the present. I dream and becoming a research scientist and my field of interest is computer engineering. I find how the Internet of Things, the way smart devices can wirelessly communicate with each other, highly interesting. The way devices connect reflects the connections between people and through innovation in this field I can easily perceive the rippling impacts these devices have on society. In this way, it is both compelling to begin studying in the field and highly enriching to make profound advances in it. My career goal is to become a professor and research scientist so that I will have a great opportunity to create inventions to support a variety of electronic devices. I want to create profound innovations that shape society and eventually earn me a Nobel Prize in Physics. This would not only be a grand personal accomplishment but also a cultural one. There have been no Black Nobel prize winners in the sciences ever so to make a grand accomplishment such as this could inspire future generations of Black scientists and engineers to make substantial innovations to their respective fields and create massive waves of positive change in society. I want to be successful give more opportunities to those less fortunate than I am and support the people around me so I move through every day driven and dedicated.

Innovation is defined as the introduction of new ideas. To me, innovation is defined as the broadening of our understanding of the universe. In doing so we open ourselves to new possibilities and more questions feeding back into the innovative process. A large part of understanding humanity is what drives innovation. By understanding these causes we can better understand humanity as a whole, the universe, and our place within it. Some say innovation is driven by competition. Examples of this are the world wars and the Space Race. Conversely many argue for collaboration as seen with the International Space Station. Innovation in the sciences is astonishing in that one innovation in one sector supports advances within the others. For instance, the MRI machine which has saved lives greatly improved the process of medical diagnoses and required the invention of superconductors. The physicists behind superconductors had no idea that later on their research would go on to create a life-saving machine they only knew they were advancing their field. In this roundabout way innovation in any field of science is important for its impact could cascade into many benefits for society. For me, the main drivers of innovation are collaboration and curiosity. By finding new, better, and safer ways to send people to space various new technologies are invented. These inventions can then impact other innovations across different fields and disciplines supporting science as a whole. By staying curious humanity has and will continue to innovate. Curiosity cannot be fully explored without collaboration. Collaboration is a product of diversity which allows for a multitude of experiences and ideas to be shared culminating in a more creative ideation process. In turn, well-thought-out solutions to problems can be developed. Curiosity and collaboration are tools that can be applied to solve problems in the world. In that way, they drive innovation and are an important component of humanity. My dream is to become a professor to not only drive my field of interest in computer engineering but also inspire others to take up research and broaden their chosen field thus broadening humanity’s collective knowledge of the universe. As a researcher, I plan to study machine learning and how it is implemented into the development of computer parts such as central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processors (GPUs). Advances in computer hardware will improve the training and thus the capabilities of AI models. This also reduces the energy consumption and environmental impact of AI models. This topic is significant to me because AI is a revolutionary technology and as it advances it will have greater and greater impacts across the tech industry and society.

My field of interest is computer engineering, and my mission is to study many different subjects within the field to gain a deep understanding of the field. I aim to make a discovery that significantly benefits society. Growing up, I watched many science fiction movies. The marvel of futuristic technology was fascinating. Seeing these concepts, I knew I wanted to bring what I saw to reality. I also enjoyed solving puzzles. Whether it was piecing together an image or solving a maze, I always enjoyed identifying patterns to find a solution. When I started coding, writing functions and algorithms became my favorite type of puzzle. The variety of ways to create the same algorithm made it compelling, while the restrictions of syntax in programming made creating those functions rewarding. When researching careers, I was at odds. I was interested in programming and electronics and did not want to choose between them. When I learned of computer engineering, I knew it was for me; it perfectly blended my interests into one field. In high school, I got to work with Arduinos for one semester. I did most of my work through simulations outside of class, which taught me problem-solving skills. This class introduced me to embedded systems, one of the main fields I wish to explore during college. In June 2024, I began taking classes through MIT’s MITES program. I took a class on machine learning. At first, I knew nothing about this subject, but I quickly picked up on the topics and developed a computer vision project. I learned some complex math (calculus and linear algebra) and Python. I studied everything AI-related, from the math behind different algorithms to manipulating data sets in Python to train AI models. MITES expanded my knowledge of mathematics and programming and gave me a life-changing opportunity to explore AI, which is now a field I want to study. My experiences have instilled in me a desire to research various topics in the computer engineering field and develop unique skills and expertise. This expansive knowledge will allow me to innovate within the field. Recently, I learned there are no Black Nobel laureates in the sciences. I determined to make a profound discovery, earning myself a Nobel Prize in physics.