Since I was a child the importance of education was emphasized within my household. I knew that in order to succeed in the world- I had to excel in my studies.
My mother was unable to finish high school because she had gotten into an accident so she never got the chance to finish her education. She decided the she wanted a better life for my siblings and I; and through her I was eventually able to develop a hardworking and persistent attitude to excel.
Throughout elementary I was not a top student in all of my classes, in actuality I was more of a delinquent, but I wanted to pursue a career in the technology. This attitude gradually changed throughout my middle school career as well, although I struggled remaining on task- I always had a clear objective on my mind. I wasn’t very active within my school and missed out on various after school programs. For this reason when it came to applying to high school I took full advantage of all of the opportunities available. I soon found the drive to keep my work ethic more consistent and even help me to excel in my studies.
During high school I participated in a lot of extracurricular activities, one is specific was leadership. Leadership fortified the person I am currently; this is because before leadership I was shy and timid. Most times I remained silent instead of providing input on my ideas within a group mostly because I feared being wrong for believing or having a different opinion than the majority. However, It was not till my COSA informed me that I was a strong leader after leading a fundraising campaign that I wasn’t actually part of. I decided to pursue leadership as an after school activity and I have yet to regret the decision. After joining leadership my old shy self was no longer prevalent, I became more out spoken, and I went on to become the senior class treasurer. This is my greatest accomplishment within high school because it allowed me to become aware of not only the world around me but of myself. Before leadership I was limited to the amount of people I knew and would actually encounter, by joining leadership I was able to meet more people and broaden the way I think and interact with people.
During the summer of my sophomore year I participated in an Internship called GenTech. As one of thirty two selected interns from across New York City, I was exposed to entrepreneurship in the tech industry as well as various tech careers through workshops and mentorships with professionals. I was surrounded by peers that shared the same passion for technology as I did. Additionally, as my mentors guided me, my passion for pursuing a career in technology was fortified. I got to develop a functional android application and learned how to code in various languages. My mentors also taught me about concepts like object oriented programming. I was even given the opportunity to experiment with my own ideas on how to complete an objective that my mentors would give me. I would figure out the objective of my code then go through each step in the logical process to accurately build a functioning code. In most cases I was able to accomplish the goal but I also learned an important skill from all of my lessons, how to type like a programmer.
After completing the application my team had to pitch our application to a panel of judges to try and convince them to invest in our company. I could picture myself ten years from now as a back end developer working on big projects as if I were in Google or something. I spoke to my mentors about my career choice and they advised me on how to become successful. This inspired me to apply and build upon my experience as an intern in the GenTech program. I am now pursuing Computer Science as my major because of my strong interest in technology.
I currently attend the City College of New York, although it was not my first choice, I have sought to put in my best effort within the four years I remain in the college. As a freshmen I am anticipating a lot of difficulty getting acclimate to the work load because I know its not the same a s high school. Despite the uncertainty I am still excited to attend college at City College and I look forward to broadening my experiences and meeting new people. Ever since my time in leadership I have become more vocal and now I really enjoy meeting and conversing with people. This is especially prevalent when speaking on topics of interest for me, I become more animated and I’m excited to hear different perspectives.
Some of my goals after I graduate college are applying to blue chip companies like Google and pursue a career as either a backend developer or game developer. I want to apply the skills I learn to help people as much as possible.