Personal Statement: Pre-Experience Journal Entry

I have been interested in science and math since I was a young girl. When high school began, I had the opportunity to take PLTW Intro Engineering Design. While I enjoyed the content of the course, I was disappointed in the lack of interest and engagement many of my classmates had. Applying math and science skills to solve, or at least have a deeper understanding of everyday or technical problems, intrigues me, because I enjoy hands-on problem solving. I plan to study engineering in college, however, I realize that I need more exposure to how science, technology, engineering and math function together in the professional workplace before I determine my major of study. I expect to gain exposure and hand-on experience through the TARGET program

I believe in the proverb ” the happiest moment for a person is when he find the one who has the same pursuit as he does.” I still can remember my feeling in that moment when I found a college called Sewanee - the University of the South- and our common pursuit of academics and cultural diversity.

One of the major facets in my pursuit of a career in medicine is that I have not followed a traditional pre-med undergraduate curriculum. Though I initially did not have a significant aptitude for physics, I harbored an inherent curiosity of the subject, and have taken it upon myself to spend my undergraduate education focused on it. The journey ahead was trying, but one that has made me a stronger individual.

This skill is very important to me, because it allows me to reassure myself that I selected the best possible course of action and that it would result in an outcome that benefits the greater good. I would know if it is the best decision if I first create a list of positive and negatives and this action has more positives in this list and these positives actually become a reality once it is put in action. In addition, this process allows me to be content with the decisions I make as they do not come with several negative consequences or make me regret making them. Once I am a nurse this skill will be very helpful, because as a nurse you want to make the best decisions for the coworkers, patients, and their

While taking computer and engineering classes the subjects relating to computer sciences always stood out to me. Being in an actual

Throughout all my years of education in elementary, math was the subject I hated the most, but now that I got older I realized that this subject has started to grow on me. Not until like about the 7th grade was it that I realized that math is really useful in life and I also realized that I wasn’t bad at math. The reason math interests me is because I like a challenge, if I don’t understand an equation I try to find out the steps myself and try to break down the steps in the equation in order to comprehend the problems. By doing this I ended up improving my analyzing skills. Because of my interest in math I gained an interest in the field of engineering. I looked further into the field of engineering by shadowing a mechanical engineer. I reached

So I finally decided to take Computer Programming as my technical program. I chose this through great consideration, and guidance from my teachers. It can give me insight on what major I would want to take in college, and what career path is best suited for

Yellow sheets, a menacing term that I once thought would never become a reality, were first presented to me in 2016 in AP Calculus AB and have remained a constant presence throughout my AP Calculus BC and Multivariable Calculus courses. These have a reputation for being the most challenging questions you will ever face in the math classroom during your four years of high school. The yellow sheets were the first form of assessment that I had to complete that focused on my understanding of a concept and not just the memorization of formulas. This was a menacing task for me because I had never seen anything quite like these questions. These problems not only tested my academic ability but my academic perseverance. These multi-step problems encouraged

Ever since I used to play with Legos as a little kid, I had a passion for creating something from scratch. My first educational experience in this was taking a web design class when I was a freshman in high school. The idea of building a website from nothing sparked my interest, so I continued taking web design classes throughout the rest of my high school career. I even designed a site for a local animal kennel. When I got accepted to the University of Florida I choose electrical engineering as my major because I felt like that was the closest thing to the kind of work that I was doing in high school. After I started to take electrical engineering specific classes, such as circuits, I was starting to lose interest and my grades were suffering. I wanted to be able to see visually the work that I was doing and I did not feel like I was getting it from electrical engineering. During one of my semesters I took a statics class as a technical elective and loved it. For the first time, I felt that I was able to visualize how the material I learned was applied to real-world applications. Because of this, I switched majors to mechanical and aerospace engineering, my grades improved, and I have never been happier.

The last few years of high school made it obvious to me that engineering was the field I should go into. Physics and math were my two favorite subjects, and I excelled in them. Aside from that, I learned many leadership and time management

For my Senior Project, I wanted to explore careers fields I was interested in, specifically Astronautics, Engineering and Psychology. Discovery is what piques my interest, by far, and these fields show much promise. I was taken under the wing of a sound technician and helped him set up several concerts and shows at local theaters while studying the technical side of the process. I also spent time touring HP to understand what a mechanical engineer in a technology company does on a regular basis and how. Because of my interest in Engineering, I have taken some classes like Pre-Calculus, Manufacturing Technology, and Physics, to list a few.

My vision in how I will take this opportunity and pay it forward to others would be sharing my own experience with others. I would want to allow others to learn and grow from me. I want to be that individual that passes on my knowledge and provide coaching so I can encourage other people to achieve their own goals. I have come across many people who not only have a single parent but financially it is difficult for them since that parent does not really have a high paying job and being a graduate of SCSU I can be a role model for those individuals.

Math has always been my favorite subject in school and I will always be curious about how the world worked that is how science will capture my attention. I was in a program in middle school called AVID that prepared me for high school and got me to start thinking about college. This program is what introduced me to a high school program called Project Lead The Way (PLTW). It was an engineering program that taught me what engineering is and the different types of engineering. Once I knew it involved math and science, I was eager to join the program, it seems interesting and fun to be a part of. I submitted an application to be part of PLTW and I got accepted, I have been part of Project Lead The Way for 3 years. As a matter of fact, I became interested in Civil Engineering when we build bridges in PLTW. With your partner,

This specific skill was developed from college and having a part time job and being able to balance out my part time work and college work this skill has continued to develop throughout my university studies with the meeting of several coursework deadlines and manging my time accordingly.

My major at Nicholls State University is Mathematics with a concentration in Computer Science; however, I plan to transfer to University of Louisiana at Lafayette to pursue a degree in Physics. The process in which one would solve a problem has always appealed to me. In math, specifically calculus, derivatives tell me how the original function acts and integrals tell me the relevance of the original function to the x – axis. Using a simple formula to find the answer to a seemingly impossible problem that involves numbers that geniuses have discovered centuries ago is the most amazing thing one could possibly do, in my opinion. Also, upon taking my computer science course, I have learned how to write certain scripts. Writing these scripts has taught me of a connection between the person and the computer; sort of like a collaboration.