Personal Statement

Participating in the Honors Experience my freshman year encouraged me to take on the challenge of becoming a sophomore advisor to the TAMU honors class of 2024. After watching what this year’s sophomore advisors did for our honors class, I realized that I enjoyed doing those same things for my own friends: guiding them through things they don’t understand, being a shoulder to lean on, and otherwise just helping them in any way I can. Joining the sophomore advisor team seemed like a perfect opportunity to further develop those skills and practice being a leader.

My career plans have been pretty much set in stone since my eighth grade, which was when I first participated in FIRST Tech Challenge robotics and naturally gravitated toward the software aspects of the competition. However, if not for the honors breadth requirement for coursework, I probably would not have taken Intro to Psychology this semester (Spring 2020). I thoroughly enjoyed the course and I think I learned more in this class than I have in any other class that I have taken in college so far. Psychology plays an important role in the development of Artificial Intelligence, which is a hot topic in my primary field of study, computer science. Taking PSYC 107 opened my eyes to the possibility of pursuing artificial intelligence, either in research or as a career, and maybe even declaring a psychology minor. Doing undergraduate research in artificial intelligence would adequately prepare me for my post-graduation goals, mainly attending graduate school to do further research into this topic or similar ones, and having a background in psychology will provide a unique, relevant perspective in my work. It will hopefully set me apart from other graduate school applicants.

When I wrote the essay for my honors application, I was writing about what I thought being in honors would be like. My expectations were leveled because I had the wrong idea going in. I assumed being in honors would make it easier to seek out professors to do research with, but I now know that that is something I need to take initiative on and be proactive in my efforts to do undergraduate research. I still hope to pursue undergraduate research experience while here at TAMU. In my honors application essay, I also talked about the importance of multi-disciplinary interaction, and the opportunity to do that through the Honors Housing Community was invaluable. I enjoyed the discussions we had during family meetings because, although I had heard about all the topics we discussed and already had my own opinions, hearing my fellow family members’ perspectives opened my eyes in many ways, and I realized that I had lived my entire childhood quite isolated from the opinions of those different than me. I believe that these discussions helped round me out as a person and allow me to think about all sides of an issue before forming opinions.

I define a “life well-lived” by being able to support the people you care about, financially, emotionally, or in any other way they need. These people include your romantic partner, parents, children, siblings, yourself, and anyone else you care deeply about. My definition of success is being able to provide for all these people so that they have everything they need in order to be happy, such as a good education for my children and the resources to care for my parents when they get too old to care for themselves.

Some of the things I value the most are my relationships with my friends and coworkers. I enjoy tutoring my friends to help them with their homework in subjects that I am strong in, like math and computer science. In my chosen career field, being able to work with others is a necessity, and this reflects the importance I place on my relationships. I hope that in my career, I will be able to find opportunities to help my coworkers in a similar fashion to the way I help my friends now. Additionally, I hope to make software products that will help people or businesses work more efficiently or create better art, such as artificial intelligence that can be used to animate characters’ hair more efficiently in a children’s movie, saving lots of time and money, and hopefully allowing for more focus on the quality of the content.