adel5067
Aug 26, 2025
Undergraduate / PERSONAL STATEMENT GKS-U University Track Mechanical Engineering [2]
Every morning of my childhood began with the same ritual: turning on the TV to watch Phineas and Ferb (피니와 퍼브). Two brothers who built impossible inventions - a roller coaster across the city, a portal to Mars - filled my imagination. Their wild creativity convinced me that even the craziest ideas could be real if you dared to build them. Looking back, I think that was the first seed of my interest in engineering.
But it was my family who gave that seed a real foundation. My father, a mechanic, could fix anything - from cars to household machines - and to me, it seemed he always had a solution. He often praised the quality of South Korean cars like Hyundai and Kia, pointing out their durability and innovation. At home, we always had Samsung devices - televisions, phones - symbols of how far technology could reach, even into a modest Kazakhstani family. My older brother, a pilot, opened another dimension: he taught me about aerodynamics, how forces work in the sky, how numbers and physics allow a plane to defy gravity. For me, engineering became not just theory but the art of shaping natural laws into something useful for people.
In high school, I began to test my own abilities. My first major project was Kozimnin Karasy, created for Technovation Girls. Together with my team, I designed smart glasses that could identify objects and describe them in Kazakh for people with visual impairments. As the lead developer, I worked on coding and model training, but the most important lesson came from outside the screen. We spoke with children and families with vision loss, and I felt a deep responsibility to make something that truly worked for them. That was the first time I realized engineering is not just about invention - it is about inclusion.
It was also during that competition that I noticed how many girls stayed away from programming. They said it was too difficult, or not meant for them. It made me sad, but also determined to keep moving forward. Around that time, I discovered the story of Yi So-yeon, the first Korean woman astronaut. She, too, faced stereotypes, but she broke through them and in 2008 flew to the International Space Station. She started with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, later pursued biotechnology, and in space she conducted groundbreaking experiments on how plants grow and how the human body changes in microgravity. Reading about her stunned me. She proved to me that engineering is not only about machines - it is about pushing beyond the boundaries of the possible.
Encouraged by her example, I threw myself into new projects. At the DPG UNICEF competition, our team created an app that allowed farmers to identify livestock diseases quickly and get treatment recommendations. Later, I worked on the AgriBotics Project, a smart agricultural management system that included a portable weather station, an FPV drone with computer vision, and a web platform with AI analytics. The system helped farmers monitor fields, improve crop yields, and reduce losses. With this project, I became a finalist at the INFOMATRIX 2025 International Competition, where students from across Asia presented innovations. These experiences taught me resilience, teamwork, and how engineering can bring concrete solutions to society's problems.
Outside competitions, I grew through teaching and leadership. I worked as a programming teacher at an educational center, where I learned how to explain complicated algorithms in simple words and how to keep younger students motivated. For four years, I also led my school's debate club with more than 40 members. It was not only about public speaking, but about teaching students to trust their own ideas. In 2024, I also interned in the IT department of BI Group, one of Kazakhstan's largest construction companies. There, I worked like a real office employee, solving everyday technical problems for staff. It was my first experience of professional responsibility, and it showed me what it means to contribute in a team setting.
Looking back, I see how all these pieces connect. From childhood cartoons that taught me to dream, to my father's admiration for Korean cars, to my brother's lessons about flight; from building glasses for blind children to presenting AgriBotics at an international competition; from the struggles of girls in coding competitions to the story of Yi So-yeon breaking barriers in space - all of these shaped my choice.
I want to study Mechanical Engineering in South Korea. Mechanical engineering, for me, is not just a field of machines and formulas. It is a foundation that can open paths into medicine, biotechnology, and even space, just as it did for Yi So-yeon. By gaining this education, I hope to later create technologies that improve healthcare and agriculture in my country, and to inspire other young people - especially girls - to believe that they, too, can build the impossible.
For me, South Korea is not only a place of advanced science and technology. It is a country that I have admired since childhood, through the machines my father respected, the devices my family used, and the story of the astronaut who showed me that engineering can take us beyond Earth itself. Studying there will not only give me a degree. It will continue the journey I started long ago - turning imagination into inventions that serve people.
Every morning of my childhood began with the same ritual: turning on the TV to watch Phineas and Ferb (피니와 퍼브). Two brothers who built impossible inventions - a roller coaster across the city, a portal to Mars - filled my imagination. Their wild creativity convinced me that even the craziest ideas could be real if you dared to build them. Looking back, I think that was the first seed of my interest in engineering.
But it was my family who gave that seed a real foundation. My father, a mechanic, could fix anything - from cars to household machines - and to me, it seemed he always had a solution. He often praised the quality of South Korean cars like Hyundai and Kia, pointing out their durability and innovation. At home, we always had Samsung devices - televisions, phones - symbols of how far technology could reach, even into a modest Kazakhstani family. My older brother, a pilot, opened another dimension: he taught me about aerodynamics, how forces work in the sky, how numbers and physics allow a plane to defy gravity. For me, engineering became not just theory but the art of shaping natural laws into something useful for people.
In high school, I began to test my own abilities. My first major project was Kozimnin Karasy, created for Technovation Girls. Together with my team, I designed smart glasses that could identify objects and describe them in Kazakh for people with visual impairments. As the lead developer, I worked on coding and model training, but the most important lesson came from outside the screen. We spoke with children and families with vision loss, and I felt a deep responsibility to make something that truly worked for them. That was the first time I realized engineering is not just about invention - it is about inclusion.
It was also during that competition that I noticed how many girls stayed away from programming. They said it was too difficult, or not meant for them. It made me sad, but also determined to keep moving forward. Around that time, I discovered the story of Yi So-yeon, the first Korean woman astronaut. She, too, faced stereotypes, but she broke through them and in 2008 flew to the International Space Station. She started with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, later pursued biotechnology, and in space she conducted groundbreaking experiments on how plants grow and how the human body changes in microgravity. Reading about her stunned me. She proved to me that engineering is not only about machines - it is about pushing beyond the boundaries of the possible.
Encouraged by her example, I threw myself into new projects. At the DPG UNICEF competition, our team created an app that allowed farmers to identify livestock diseases quickly and get treatment recommendations. Later, I worked on the AgriBotics Project, a smart agricultural management system that included a portable weather station, an FPV drone with computer vision, and a web platform with AI analytics. The system helped farmers monitor fields, improve crop yields, and reduce losses. With this project, I became a finalist at the INFOMATRIX 2025 International Competition, where students from across Asia presented innovations. These experiences taught me resilience, teamwork, and how engineering can bring concrete solutions to society's problems.
Outside competitions, I grew through teaching and leadership. I worked as a programming teacher at an educational center, where I learned how to explain complicated algorithms in simple words and how to keep younger students motivated. For four years, I also led my school's debate club with more than 40 members. It was not only about public speaking, but about teaching students to trust their own ideas. In 2024, I also interned in the IT department of BI Group, one of Kazakhstan's largest construction companies. There, I worked like a real office employee, solving everyday technical problems for staff. It was my first experience of professional responsibility, and it showed me what it means to contribute in a team setting.
Looking back, I see how all these pieces connect. From childhood cartoons that taught me to dream, to my father's admiration for Korean cars, to my brother's lessons about flight; from building glasses for blind children to presenting AgriBotics at an international competition; from the struggles of girls in coding competitions to the story of Yi So-yeon breaking barriers in space - all of these shaped my choice.
I want to study Mechanical Engineering in South Korea. Mechanical engineering, for me, is not just a field of machines and formulas. It is a foundation that can open paths into medicine, biotechnology, and even space, just as it did for Yi So-yeon. By gaining this education, I hope to later create technologies that improve healthcare and agriculture in my country, and to inspire other young people - especially girls - to believe that they, too, can build the impossible.
For me, South Korea is not only a place of advanced science and technology. It is a country that I have admired since childhood, through the machines my father respected, the devices my family used, and the story of the astronaut who showed me that engineering can take us beyond Earth itself. Studying there will not only give me a degree. It will continue the journey I started long ago - turning imagination into inventions that serve people.
