The first time I realized that I wanted to be an engineer was during my sophomore year of high school while taking a CAD class. I was working on a project where we needed to improve an existing product. Doing this project helped me realize how satisfying it was to research a product, find a creative way to make it better, and model your idea into a prototype. My choice to pursue engineering was made clear during my junior year in my PLTW and physics classes. PLTW confirmed my interest in engineering through the many projects we did throughout the year, and physics helped me discover my interest in electronics. Currently, during my senior year, I am taking a digital electronics course, which is already one of my favorite classes I have taken throughout all of high school. Apart from my math and science based classes, my experience with the band program during high school has also helped me realize that engineering is for me.
In band, especially marching band, a tremendous amount of teamwork is required to sound good. As a member of the drum line, everyone needs to work together and practice extensively so we can all sound like one person. Also, the drum line needs to be able to work well with the band so everyone can blend well to play as well as we can. This teamwork is very similar to what is required as an engineer. Everyone needs to be able to contribute and listen to others’ ideas in order for the best solution to come out of their project. High school has helped me realize who I am and what I want to become, and college will help me become that person.