STEM interest topic 1 complete

wright-application/essays/extracurriculars.tex

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 	      club, organizing meetings, mentoring new members, and leading outreach events for STEM awareness in local community.
 	      Conducted
 	      biweekly lunch meetings to guide students through project ideation, research methods, and presentation skills.
+          %//TODO: ADD NUMBERS:::: 120 kidsm etc
 	\item \textbf{Speech and Debate} (9th-11th Grade): National (NSDA) and State quarterfinalist in Impromptu Speaking, and National
 	      octofinalist in Extemporaneous Commentary. Won local and regional tournaments in Duo Acting and Extemporaneous
 	      Speaking. Coded powerful timer utility and congress PO app for team use, with positive testimonials from state and national

wright-application/main.tex

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 \usepackage{needspace} % for avoiding page brake right after the section title
 \usepackage{iftex} % check if engine is pdflatex, xetex or luatex
 \usepackage{xstring}
+\usepackage{pdfpages} % for including PDF pages
 
 
 % Ensure that generate pdf is machine readable/ATS parsable:
@@ -353,4 +354,7 @@ effort involved in a major school project (include grade awarded, teamwork invol
 \end{onecolentry}
 
 
+\includepdf[pages=-]{stem-essay/main.pdf}
+
+
 \end{document}

wright-application/stem-essay/main.tex

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+\documentclass[12pt, letterpaper]{article}
+
+% Packages:
+\usepackage[
+    top=0.5in,
+    bottom=0.75in,
+    left=0.75in,
+    right=0.75in,
+    headheight=0pt,
+    headsep=0pt,
+    footskip=0.4in
+]{geometry}
+\usepackage{times} % Times New Roman font
+\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
+\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
+\usepackage{setspace} % for single spacing
+\usepackage{titlesec} % for customizing section titles
+\usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor}
+\definecolor{primaryColor}{RGB}{0, 79, 144}
+\usepackage[
+    pdftitle={Wright Scholar Essay},
+    pdfauthor={Keshav Anand},
+    pdfcreator={LaTeX},
+    colorlinks=false,
+    hidelinks
+]{hyperref}
+\usepackage{iftex}
+\usepackage{microtype} % Better text rendering
+
+% Ensure PDF is machine readable:
+\ifPDFTeX
+    \input{glyphtounicode}
+    \pdfgentounicode=1
+\fi
+
+% Settings:
+\pagestyle{empty} % no header or footer
+\setlength{\parindent}{0.5in} % standard paragraph indentation
+\setlength{\parskip}{0pt} % no space between paragraphs
+\singlespacing % single spacing
+\frenchspacing % Better spacing after periods
+
+% Custom title format for essay topic
+\titleformat{\section}
+    {\normalfont\fontsize{12}{14.4}\selectfont\bfseries}
+    {}
+    {0pt}
+    {}
+\titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{0pt}{6pt}
+
+\begin{document}
+
+
+\noindent\textbf{Topic 3:} Research involves trying new things. Please give an example of when you stepped out of your comfort zone to experience something new in regards to science or engineering.
+
+\noindent\textbf{Topic 4:} What do you hope to get out of the Wright Scholar experience (be creative)?
+
+\vspace{12pt}
+
+% Essay content begins here
+294 squiggly red underlines. Nearly every line of my code had errors. Null pointers,
+incompatible types, undefined variables, Gradle sync errors---I had seen it all, and each error felt like a
+dissonant chord demanding resolution. It was February 2024, my freshman year, and we had ten minutes to
+take the field for our First Tech Challenge (FTC) final match. My heart raced as I thumped the keyboard in a
+frenzy. My code was broken, and for the final match, it had to work. Time raced faster than it ever used to, and
+I finally compiled the code.
+There was no time to test, hardly any to breathe, and before I knew it, we were on the field with my index
+finger hovering over the large play button. Time paused. I heard the buzzer and pressed play. Success.
+In two minutes and thirty seconds, we became league champions.
+
+But just seven months back, I didn't know what a variable was. I was fully into music, and programming was not even an afterthought.
+It was mere coincidence that my neighbor (and good friend) decided to start a robotics team, and given the minimal investment, I
+joined. Like nearly all of my endeavors, my FTC learning started with a Google search. I was learning at a snail's pace, and it
+had taken me two months to simply make a motor move. Soon, I was hooked. Like a sponge, I was absorbing everything I had to learn,
+and I had eventually taught myself enough Java to become a functional FTC programmer.
+
+As the season progressed, my sponge was 
+soaked, and we were a top competitive team by February. On competition day, the lightbulb within me finally clicked. 
+The joy I experienced wasn't just from our robot picking up and scoring pixels but from the fact that code I had recently learn to write 
+was resulting in a tangible output that I could witness. It was that moment where I decided to pursue a STEM career. I was 
+no longer just a high school student, I was a STEM student, and I was ready to help change the world.
+
+
+\end{document}