Please expand upon an aspect (s) of your academic or extra-curricular background that you feel is especially important to you and that will help us to get to know you as a person Char limit: 5000.
As soon as my sophomore year was over, my father offered me the possibility to work with him at his office in the engineering area of the Banco Popular Dominicano during the summer. I did not hesitate to answer his proposal with an ecstatic "Of course!" It seemed like the perfect way to past time during the long summer vacations. Still, it turned out to be more than just a past-time activity; it was a life-changing experience. During my stay in his office, I learned more about personal values, project managing, and the construction process than any time before in my life. I must admit the job was exhausting at times and that it sometimes drained all of my energy, but it provided me with a satisfaction that I hardly find in any other activities. However, the work with my father not only provided me with great satisfaction, it also educated me in great extent. It made me grow more independent, mature, and entrepreneur, as many times I had to perform activities that required the most of my skills and abilities to be completed adequately and accurately. Moreover, the job opened my eyes to the world of engineering and served as a trigger that ignited in me a great passion for the field.
At the job, I got to know every person involved in the process of construction. Every single professional, from the technician to the architect, performed a task of extreme importance, without which a whole project could have collapsed. Each one of them performed their jobs with integrity and responsibility, values that I was able to learn, and that I started to apply on the work and on my life. During my stay, I formed part of this working team; I worked as an assistant and helped in the creation of blueprints for future projects. I was new to the task of designing, but I gave all my effort to perform it as well as I could. I sat for hours using various computer programs that helped me in the creation of the blueprints, and many times I had to make research to learn to use the programs. This was the part of the job in which I gained dependency. I was given a task and I never stood up of my chair until I performed it. With my own skills and endeavor to execute my job, I finished every single blueprint that I was assigned to create.
In many other occasions, my father took me to construction areas. During one of these visits I was able to perceive the great amount of concentration everyone put into doing their job perfectly. Seeing this scenario, I felt the urge to ask my father: "Why do they put so much concentration and effort into performing their tasks?" And my father responded with an answer I will always remember: "Because the lives of the people that are going to reside in this building are at our hands." At that moment I understood what engineering was actually about: giving your knowledge and endeavor to constantly seek for solutions to problems and ways to help others.
During most of my visits to construction areas, my father gave me certain tasks to perform. "Put that over there. Measure the height of that column. Calculate the amount of concrete needed. Create a sheet with the budgets of the day!" These are only few of the many commands that I received. The important things are not the activities themselves, but the things that I got to learn from them. For example, while making the budget sheet I was given the task of trying to figure out a way to reduce the costs of the day by allocating the resources efficiently. While performing this task my knowledge in economics and finance boosted, and I understood the real importance of project managing and the management of resources. Furthermore, most of the activities cleared my mind of stress. They awakened a feeling of excitement in me, a feeling that aroused because of the passion I have for math and physics.
This job was really important to me because it succeeded in showing me what my true passions really are, while at the same time giving me a new perspective of engineering. Rather than being just an interesting career for the future, it became a closer, more obtainable field of study. I now see it as one of the most valuable areas of study, as it connects the professional with the society and the rest of the world. Working with my father taught me many valuable lessons that cannot be found even on the most advanced classes at school. It was really a life-changing experience.
**Accepting any kind of critiques. PLease tell me if its weak, what it lacks, what I should eliminate, what I should add, if it lacks smoothness, consistency, if it is out of topic, ANYTHING!!! (and Grammar :P)**
The prompt is about "an aspect of my extracurricular life that is most important to me", so it is mainly about the job, not about engineering. I just wanted to highlight how "important" it was to me by stating that it opened my mind to anew field of study: engineering... What do you think then, it it good? ><
past-time pass time (i.e. pass the time) activity;...
learned more about personal values---- later in the paragraph, you have to explain this.
Less is more:
must admit t The job was exhausting at times, and ...
In On many other...
This job was really important to me because it succeeded in showing me what my true passions really are helped me to recognize my passion for (specify, what do you call this passion? Something other than just structural engineering? What is it to you?), while at the same...
time giving me a new perspective of on engineering.
Awesome... this is very impressive!
