Essay V2

wright-application/essays/leadership.tex

@@ -28,4 +28,14 @@
 	      my experience to help students make the right decisions. Finally, as a student who has been intimidated by
 	      the science fair process, I plan and cater my presentations to help lower the barrier to entry for new students and underclassmen,
 	      recruiting members by making science fair more approachable.
+	\item From halfway in my 9th grade to now, I have started, owned, and am fully maintaining a Discord study server for our school's
+	      student class of 2027. As the owner, I am fully responsible for a managing a team of 8 voted moderators, and I have
+	      to ensure that everybody's voices are heard. As the server is run through Discord, arguments and disagreements can
+	      easily escalate, so I have to step in as a neutral party to mediate and resolve conflicts. It was through these Discord
+	      "blow-ups" that I started learning how to be a better leader and work with others. I have poured over 300 hours into
+	      this server, managing over 100 active members. Housing over 50\% of the class (at its peak) was a daunting task, and I
+	      had to deal with revolts and mass exodus of members multiple times. From arguments about the "wetness of water" to
+	      kicking me out of my own server, I have seen and managed all of these conflicts. Now, our server is a stable and
+	      thriving community, with valuable study resources, popular group study calls, and constant member engagement through
+	      general (and of-topic) text channels.
 \end{enumerate}

wright-application/essays/work.tex

@@ -37,16 +37,7 @@
 	      Calculus, Chemistry, and even history. Each session requires significant preparation, as I have to explain
 	      the concepts in an intuitive manner that struggling students can understand. So far, I have received positive feedback
 	      from my students, and I always prioritize their learning and understanding above all else.
-	\item From halfway in my 9th grade to now, I have started, owned, and am fully maintaining a Discord study server for our school's
+
-	      student class of 2027. As the owner, I am fully responsible for a managing a team of 8 voted moderators, and I have
-	      to ensure that everybody's voices are heard. As the server is run through Discord, arguments and disagreements can
-	      easily escalate, so I have to step in as a neutral party to mediate and resolve conflicts. It was through these Discord
-	      "blow-ups" that I started learning how to be a better leader and work with others. I have poured over 300 hours into
-	      this server, managing over 100 active members. Housing over 50\% of the class (at its peak) was a daunting task, and I
-	      had to deal with revolts and mass exodus of members multiple times. From arguments about the "wetness of water" to
-	      kicking me out of my own server, I have seen and managed all of these conflicts. Now, our server is a stable and 
-          thriving community, with valuable study resources, popular group study calls, and constant member engagement through 
-          general (and of-topic) text channels.
 	\item % NHS officer work!!.. AYNY VOLUNTEER OR PAID WORK
 	\item % Robotics team work?
 	\item % Science fair club officer work?

wright-application/stem-essay/main.tex

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 % Settings:
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-\setlength{\parskip}{0pt} % no space between paragraphs
+\setlength{\parskip}{6pt} % no space between paragraphs
 \singlespacing % single spacing
 \frenchspacing % Better spacing after periods
 
@@ -58,55 +58,69 @@
 
 \vspace{12pt}
 
-% Essay content begins here
+294 Squiggly red underlines. Nearly every line of my code had errors.
-294 squiggly red underlines. Nearly every line of my code had errors. Null pointers,
+Null pointers, incompatible types, undefined variables, Gradle sync errors---I
-incompatible types, undefined variables, Gradle sync errors---I had seen it all, and each error felt like a
+had encountered them all. It was February 2024, my freshman year, and we had
-dissonant chord demanding resolution. It was February 2024, my freshman year, and we had ten minutes to
+ten minutes to take the field for our First Tech Challenge (FTC) League Finals.
-take the field for our First Tech Challenge (FTC) final match. My heart raced as I thumped the keyboard in a
+My heart pounded as keys clattered beneath my flying fingers. My code was broken,
-frenzy. My code was broken, and for the final match, it had to work. Time raced faster than it ever used to, and
+and for the finals, it had to work. The merciless clock ticked away, and with
-I finally compiled the code.
+seconds to go, I finally compiled the code. There was no time to test, hardly
-There was no time to test, hardly any to breathe, and before I knew it, we were on the field with my index
+any to breathe. We took the field, and my finger hovered over the play button.
-finger hovering over the large play button. Time paused. I heard the buzzer and pressed play. Success.
+Time paused. The buzzer sounded, and I pressed play. Success. In two minutes
-In two minutes and thirty seconds, we became league champions.
+and thirty seconds, we won.
 
-It was almost hard to believe that seven months back, I didn't know what a variable was.
+Seven months earlier, I didn't know what a variable was. I was fully into music,
-I was fully into music, and programming was not even an afterthought.
+and programming wasn't even on my radar. When my friend started a robotics team,
-It was a mere coincidence that my neighbor (and good friend) decided to start a robotics team, and given the minimal investment, I
+I joined on a whim. My journey began with a Google search. Progress was
-joined. Like nearly all of my endeavors, my FTC journey began with a Google search. I was learning at a snail's pace, and it
+painstakingly slow; it took me two full months to make a motor turn. But
-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,
+gradually, I became hooked. Like a sponge, I absorbed everything: tutorials,
-and I had eventually taught myself enough Java to become a functional FTC programmer.
+documentation, and even Stack Overflow threads. Eventually, I taught myself
+enough Java to become a functional FTC programmer.
 
-As the season progressed, my sponge was
+As the season progressed, we became a competitive team, and my knowledge was
-soaked, and we were a top competitive team by February. On competition day, the lightbulb within me finally clicked.
+expanding in parallel. On that competition day, something just clicked. The
-The joy I experienced wasn't just from our robot picking up and scoring pixels, but from the fact that the code I had recently learn to write
+joy I experienced wasn't just from our robot picking up and scoring pixels,
-was resulting in a tangible output that I could witness. It was that moment when I decided to pursue a STEM career. I was
+but from seeing my code produce tangible results. In that moment, I'd found
-no longer just a high school student; I was a STEM student, and I was ready to help change the world.
+my calling. I was no longer just a high school student; I was a STEM student,
+and I was ready to see where my code could take me.
 
-But that readiness was tested in September 2024. In a spur of ambitious insanity,
+But that readiness was tested in September 2024. Somewhat naively, I committed
-I had committed to building a machine learning model to predict gait patterns in Parkinson's Disease for my sophomore-year
+to building a machine learning model to predict gait patterns in Parkinson's
-Science Fair project. The problem: I had no clue how to. And so I learned. Python syntax, NumPy arrays, signal filtering,
+Disease for my sophomore-year Science Fair project. The problem? I had no clue
-feature extraction, and model architectures. I had entered a brand new domain, and each concept seemed to confuse me in a different way.
+how. So I dove in: Python syntax, NumPy arrays, signal filtering, feature
-After two months of painfully laborious learning, coding, and debugging, I was finally able to transform raw sensor data into a
+extraction, and model architectures. I had entered unfamiliar territory, and
-functional and accurate classification model. Somewhere between the first error message and the final 96\% accuracy, I
+each concept brought new confusion. After two months of relentless reading,
-had managed to absorb a new discipline by pushing myself into unfamiliar waters.
+coding, and debugging, I managed to transform raw sensor data into a working
+classification model. Somewhere between the first error message and the final
+96\% accuracy, I had begun to absorb a new discipline.
 
-If it weren't for my ambition, I would have stopped there. Unfortunately, I realized that a working model on my laptop
+I could have stopped there, but I realized that a working model on my laptop
-wasn't going to help any Parkinson's patients, and I needed to embed my model into a complete hardware device. This
+wasn't going to help any Parkinson's patients, and I needed to embed my model
-task was beyond daunting, as I had to venture into the foreign land of hardware and electrical engineering. With my
+into a complete hardware device. This task was beyond daunting, as I had to
-engineering teacher guiding me, I slowly learned everything I needed. After dozens of 2 AM KiCAD tutorial binge sessions,
+venture into the foreign territory of hardware and electrical engineering.
-I finally had a working
+With my engineering teacher guiding me, I eventually learned the basics. After
-design for a fully custom printed circuit board (PCB). Two weeks later, my PCB arrived, and after soldering all my
+countless 2 AM KiCAD tutorial sessions, I finally had a working design for a
-components, it didn't work. My heart sank. I touched up all the joints with my soldering iron and tried again. Success.
+custom printed circuit board (PCB) housing a sensor and microcontroller. Two
-I wrote some quick software in C++, and I finally had a working end-to-end implementation for my final solution. After
+weeks later, my PCB arrived, and after soldering all my components, it didn't
-my project made it to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the judges were impressed by the full
+work. My heart sank. In desperation, I resoldered each joint carefully and
-end-to-end implementation, and my efforts were finally rewarded when I won 3rd in Robotics and Intelligent Machines at ISEF.
+tried again. Somehow, it worked. After writing some C++ software for the
+device, I had something that actually worked. The project eventually made it
+to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), placing 3rd in
+Robotics and Intelligent Machines. What struck me most wasn't the placement,
+but the fact that six months earlier, I wouldn't have understood any of it.
+
+Throughout high school, I've taught myself disciplines, from Java programming
+to machine learning to circuit design. The Wright Scholar program offers an
+opportunity to apply my knowledge to critical research. I'm drawn to AFRL's
+Sensors Directorate, where I hope to deepen my understanding of signal
+processing while contributing to sensor exploitation technologies. I'm equally
+fascinated by the Human Performance Wing's work with multimodal sensing to
+monitor and enhance human performance. What excites me most isn't just the
+cutting-edge technology, but the chance to work alongside domain experts who
+can accelerate my growth as an engineer and developer. Whether working with
+sensor fusion or biomedical sensing, as a sponge eager to learn, AFRL is
+exactly where I need to be.
 
-Throughout my high-school life, I have strived to constantly learn new things, which is why I am so excited about the
-Wright Scholar opportunity. From tinkering in my bed, I can start working on relevant research problems this Summer,
-which would exponentially increase my learning and comprehension of these subjects. From cutting-edge
-biomedical computing to sensor processing to cybersecurity, AFRL offers exciting venues for me to apply my knowledge.
-For a sponge who lives to learn, AFRL can serve as a reservoir of knowledge, and I can't wait to absorb new information with
-domain experts.
 
 
 \end{document}