Personal Statement Of Purpose By Mr. Thomas H. Huxley

“There is a thing called knowledge of the world, which people do not have until they are middle-aged. It is something which cannot be taught to younger people, because it is not logical and does not obey laws which are constant. It has no rules” (T.H. White).

I am very much interested in the field of engineering and hope to pursue a career in engineering sometime in the future. Although I haven’t decided which branch of engineering I want to pursue yet, my experiences as an engineering magnet student at Wheaton High school and the different engineering programs I am a part of have ignited within me a passion for engineering.

| The study of knowledge: What constitutes knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible

Knowledge, the key to progress, has proven to be a human being’s most powerful and significant weapon. We gain knowledge when we put our brain to work at the problems we need to solve in life. It doesn’t matter what we are trying to accomplish, whether it be creating a new technology or learning how to put together a puzzle, the matter of fact is that both request great examination and research to resolve and learn. Scientific research is a technique used to investigate phenomena, correct previous understanding, and acquire new knowledge. Knowledge could lead us to a possible cure for cancer, an alternative for fossil fuels, and the creation of a revolutionary technology. Nevertheless, all these benefits are a reason why

I realize that there have been many things that have influenced my growth as an individual. However, because I am so often drawn to ideas in math and science, I’d have to conclude that these two fields of study pose the most compelling as far as personal development. My interest in these fields have impacted who I am today. As a younger student I did not really care much about school. In fact, my second grade teacher pronounced me a failure, but my parents believed in my strengths, and gradually school turned a corner for me. By the end of my sophomore year I had begun watching lectures of theoretical physics, and deep space astronomy from the World Science Festival. I went into my Junior year very ambitious and self motivated! My cumulative GPA within

Before, those crazy enough to refuse the impossible frolicked through isolation, embalming a series of questions to persuade an explanation. Those explanations were planted, creating branches of science and technology such as biology, physics, chemistry and earth science. Later, blossoming into discoveries including: cancer diagnostic tests (Andraka), insulin pumps (Kamen), genomic research (Venter), lazy toggle (Shi), foursquare (Crowley), quantum systems (Wineland), predictive algorithms (Goiser), iRobot (Greiner) and many more. Today, more discoveries appear by the second, challenging our creativity to manipulate basic concepts. Which creates major opportunities to use those concepts to improve everyday life and a better tomorrow.

During my undergraduate career, I had many interests, and I was not sure what career path was best; therefore, I majored in mathematics and psychology. Lisa mentioned that my interest in STEM fields was possibly due to the wide variety of careers my aunts pursued. Lisa felt like that I knew that these careers would be challenging, but I did not let gender stereotypes hold me back.

The benefits and opportunities to embrace engineering far outweigh the difficulties in the process, but despite this, my pure love for mathematics has been the major contributor to my ambitions. From a young age, I found math incredibly enjoyable. The order and consistency found through something as simple as the order of operations served as a driving force to my curiosity and dedication to the subject. As the mathematical concepts intensified, I was able to adequately keep up and enjoy the journey along the way. While signing up for my senior year classes, the decision to take calculus was made easily. While speaking with the instructor, Yvonne Sebastian, I discovered that her love for math was derived from similar feelings. In an interview with Sebastian, she stated, “Math is a beautiful thing. Numbers are incredibly simple, but they can be used to calculate very complex scenarios. No matter how difficult a problem may seem, there is always a solution, an answer that can be found and understood through the power of math” (Y. Sebastian, personal communication, February 14, 2017). Interacting with a teacher who understood to a great level of degree my similar feelings regarding math has been an incredible motivator in my desire to pursue a career which incorporates mathematics frequently. For any individual to be happy with their occupation, I would argue that they must experience a desire to progress

Understandably, student motivation and academic preparation are not fully revealed by a student’s transcripts, I believe I have exhibited a strong passion for learning and avid curiosity which has served me well in academic career and I am geared to learn and to understand more.

As a member of today’s society, it is easy to become largely aware of the need individuals crave to know everything about everything. Whether it be the topic of entertainment, environmental issues or politics we seem to have a lingering curiosity as a people to be aware of the ins and outs of the world we live in. Just as often as we see this constant curiosity we also see the lack of true initiative. Many areas of our society today call for both our interst and knowledge so that we may fulfill the position of being and active member of the society that we live in.

The general consensus in the academic world is that knowledge is power that can solve humanity’s problems. Sometimes, it is clouded by greed, or it lights the way for a better humanity. Scientists experiment to prove new theories, artists sculpt to express emotion and theologians study to provide interpretations of biblical stories. Therein lies the problem, while society is always searching for knowledge, to date there is no singular “foolproof” method of obtaining it. In the movie “The Theory of Everything,” Stephen Hawking has a “eureka” moment when pulling a sweater over his head and seeing flames through the material. In this case, it seemed that serendipity played a role in his search for truth. This led me to wonder, to what extent is the discovery of knowledge a matter of serendipity that can then go on to solve problems? While an exploration of whether knowledge is produced only to solve problems in the Natural Sciences may be more obvious, its application to Mathematics and Indigenous Knowledge may draw some interesting observations.

I believe that my mathematics and physics skills would make me a proficient engineer. This is proven with my consistent performance in the UKMT, achieving top of year for 5 consecutive years and reaching the final round in the intermediate stage as early as year 10. This has allowed be to demonstrate my flexibility and adaptability, which are both important factors to my strong problem solving skills.

We as a culture have become entirely numb to the beauty that comes with living a simple and observant life. The saying that ignorance is bliss does come from very real sentiment, some of which our dynamic society could benefit from. Since the birth of capitalism and enlightenment, which were well enough intentioned at the start, mankind has isolated itself from life as much as it has tried to control and understand it. In a superficial mission to become closer to the earth and better enjoy life, we have lost its true meaning. Instead of simply taking delight in the wonders of the world, we have mathematized its essence and extracted the mystery that makes the human experience so rewarding. Although the knowledge gained over the past 400 years has been profitable and constructive, with all the progress comes a greater evil. Congruent to Vico’s concerns with this new found urgency for advancement, I find that the knowledge that we hold dear and fight so passionately for brings such pain and anger. One must wonder if we are better off living peacefully in the dark than scrambling through chaos grasping for fleeting

Knowledge, as we all understand, can be general or specialized. We are able to gather knowledge about certain aspects of reality, branches of science, skills, traits and phenomena observable in nature. But there is another kind of “knowledge”, which is the sum of every subcategoric, specific knowledge. This knowledge is what we know about the “world” - how knowledgeable we are, how well can we navigate the seas of reality because of our knowledge about its currents, flows and hidden reefs.

We live in a strange and puzzling world. Despite the exponential growth of knowledge in the past century, we are faced by a baffling multitude of conflicting ideas. The mass of conflicting ideas causes the replacement of knowledge, as one that was previously believed to be true gets replace by new idea. This is accelerated by the rapid development of technology to allow new investigations into knowledge within the areas of human and natural sciences. Knowledge in the human sciences has been replaced for decades as new discoveries by the increased study of humans, and travel has caused the discarding of a vast array of theories. The development of