Please describe a personal achievement or project that you are proud of and why it is important to you.
“IT FINALLY WORKS!”
I said in excitement after running on five cups of coffee and frustration from several merge conflicts later, my app finally compiled. In awe and fascination, I could not wrap my head around the idea that I had built an app for my grandmother within 36 hours.
During the rise of the pandemic, my grandmother fought a deadly battle with COVID-19 that left me managing her daily medications and vitals. All I was given from the doctors was a thick binder of over 100 pages to write her daily vital records in. I wanted to digitize this process to help make it easier for my family and her doctors. Two months later, I managed to digitize everything from my grandmother’s medical record to her real estate business.
I want to help others turn their ideas into reality. Seeing the excitement of creating reality is what propels me to move forward as it gives me a sense of purpose to help others achieve their goals. Knowing that I was able to use my skills to help my grandmother, makes me proud of the fact that I can leverage technology to help others in need.
How do you embody the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on your campus?
As the clock reached eight o’clock at night, I scurried to my family’s living room wearing my Elmo pajamas. I jumped on my couch and dialed the button ‘11’ on my television remote to put on a children’s show about a charismatic man who made everyone’s day better. He would always ask ‘will you be my neighbor?’ That man is Mister Rogers - the face of kindness.
Mister Rogers is a symbol of peace and kindness. His charismatic character made everyone welcome regardless of their identity. A scene that still struck me to this day was when Mister Rogers talked to a disabled boy about his electric wheelchair. Most handicapped individuals would be embarrassed to even talk about their disability, let alone be comfortable with who they are.
Through watching Mister Rogers, he has demonstrated what it means to create an inclusive environment. I view diversity in tech as living in a neighborhood having neighbors from different backgrounds who share unique personalities and skill sets that create an inclusive environment. In tech, everyone is our neighbor.
Furthermore, I embody the importance of diversity on my campus by organizing initiatives to empower women in STEM. More specifically, I organized Midwest’s largest startup conference in November 2021 (
https://www.foundersillinois.org/forge
) that highlighted female entrepreneurs including keynote speakers from Sue Harnett, CEO of Rewriting the Code, and Pree Walia, CEO of Preemadonna.