beccaoxanne
Sep 16, 2012
Undergraduate / Figuring out who I am through failure- UT Austin Prompt [2]
Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
Why do they ask this question, when I barely even know what I want for breakfast in the morning? At that moment, I sat on my comfortable bed, waiting for a thought to flow into my perplexed mind. Twelve fourteen in the morning, I was stumbling on my last and final application essay for the Governor's School of Technology and Engineering. "Propose a specific engineering or technology problem you'd like to be working on ten years from now. Why is the problem interesting, and how do you hope to approach it?"
I thought, "Why do I want to pursue applying to Governor's School, or even why I am fascinated in engineering and technology?" I started my essay, mindlessly typing a generic essay, but then I realized that wasn't the path I wanted to take. I thought I was going to write about how, "I want to create something that will change the world." If I was going to answer that question, I wanted to answer it wholeheartedly, which meant I knew I'd be up for hours searching for that one thing that I truly wanted to do.
Forty-eight minutes passed unconsciously by, sitting there, and trying to figure out the person I desire to be and the goal I strive to achieve. I started to peel away all the layers of my own personality. There are two things I knew: I wanted to always be challenged mentally and I wanted to make a difference.
When I was freshman, I wanted to skip a grade of math, so it was possible for me to reach calculus when I was a senior. I decided I would be tutored for two hours a week for six weeks in the summer in Algebra 1. Every single day, I would do my homework, not by force, but voluntarily. I would sit for hours at my kitchen table, reading the textbook, over and over again. My whole summer was dedicated towards algebra. By the end of that summer, I received a 95 on the final exam.
Ever since that summer, I have thrived for that glorious rush of the challenge. It invoked a sensation that could only be recreated through thought-provoking problems.
Still stuck on what to write, I started to brainstorm about futuristic technology. I thought about the cars that can parallel park on their own. That thought exploded many ideas in my mind. This image of a car driving itself, stumbled its way into my head. I thought about how I would go about creating it, realizing I was focusing more on the programming of the car, than anything else. In that moment, I realized, not only would this be incredible to create, but it would also help keep people safe on the road. I vigorously typed away on my laptop, researching these autonomous cars. These two words kept on popping up: Artificial Intelligence.
At that moment, I realized that maybe a computer science major would be a plausible path to the person I desire to be and the goal I strive to achieve. Through this major, making a difference would also be a possibility in my future. I knew that it would be rocky path for me to take because I am a woman and I am going into uncharted territory. However, I knew I was eager for the challenge and I would start the journey by taking a Computer Science AP course my senior year.
In modern day, when one thinks of computer science, along with artificial intelligence, one thinks of a geeky male that can recite ten thousand digits of pi. However, as tides turn, this mold of the "normal" computer science geek starts to melt away and reshape into something completely different. Humanities have traditionally been thought to clash with computer science, but as I've learned by applying to Governor's School, this is not the case.
By the end of that week, I found out I didn't get into Governor's School, but I benefited and grew more from writing that essay than I would have by going there.
Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
Why do they ask this question, when I barely even know what I want for breakfast in the morning? At that moment, I sat on my comfortable bed, waiting for a thought to flow into my perplexed mind. Twelve fourteen in the morning, I was stumbling on my last and final application essay for the Governor's School of Technology and Engineering. "Propose a specific engineering or technology problem you'd like to be working on ten years from now. Why is the problem interesting, and how do you hope to approach it?"
I thought, "Why do I want to pursue applying to Governor's School, or even why I am fascinated in engineering and technology?" I started my essay, mindlessly typing a generic essay, but then I realized that wasn't the path I wanted to take. I thought I was going to write about how, "I want to create something that will change the world." If I was going to answer that question, I wanted to answer it wholeheartedly, which meant I knew I'd be up for hours searching for that one thing that I truly wanted to do.
Forty-eight minutes passed unconsciously by, sitting there, and trying to figure out the person I desire to be and the goal I strive to achieve. I started to peel away all the layers of my own personality. There are two things I knew: I wanted to always be challenged mentally and I wanted to make a difference.
When I was freshman, I wanted to skip a grade of math, so it was possible for me to reach calculus when I was a senior. I decided I would be tutored for two hours a week for six weeks in the summer in Algebra 1. Every single day, I would do my homework, not by force, but voluntarily. I would sit for hours at my kitchen table, reading the textbook, over and over again. My whole summer was dedicated towards algebra. By the end of that summer, I received a 95 on the final exam.
Ever since that summer, I have thrived for that glorious rush of the challenge. It invoked a sensation that could only be recreated through thought-provoking problems.
Still stuck on what to write, I started to brainstorm about futuristic technology. I thought about the cars that can parallel park on their own. That thought exploded many ideas in my mind. This image of a car driving itself, stumbled its way into my head. I thought about how I would go about creating it, realizing I was focusing more on the programming of the car, than anything else. In that moment, I realized, not only would this be incredible to create, but it would also help keep people safe on the road. I vigorously typed away on my laptop, researching these autonomous cars. These two words kept on popping up: Artificial Intelligence.
At that moment, I realized that maybe a computer science major would be a plausible path to the person I desire to be and the goal I strive to achieve. Through this major, making a difference would also be a possibility in my future. I knew that it would be rocky path for me to take because I am a woman and I am going into uncharted territory. However, I knew I was eager for the challenge and I would start the journey by taking a Computer Science AP course my senior year.
In modern day, when one thinks of computer science, along with artificial intelligence, one thinks of a geeky male that can recite ten thousand digits of pi. However, as tides turn, this mold of the "normal" computer science geek starts to melt away and reshape into something completely different. Humanities have traditionally been thought to clash with computer science, but as I've learned by applying to Governor's School, this is not the case.
By the end of that week, I found out I didn't get into Governor's School, but I benefited and grew more from writing that essay than I would have by going there.