Over the past summer, I completed my work as a NASA High School Aerospace Scholar where I was nominated by a Texas State Legislator to pursue STEM courses that required me to research rigorously throughout my junior year. In fact, I was featured in the local news for being one of the top students in the program and being one of eight chosen to speak at NASA’s Closing Ceremony. Currently, I am one of few students who decided to take three years of college-level physics beginning in my sophomore year and ending with a calculus-based physics course in my senior year. I am heavily involved in the mathematics program and am currently auditing the second semester of AP Calculus BC course at the advice of my teacher since I missed over a month of lectures from being in the hospital. In February of my junior year, I rallied in front of the Texas State Capitol to raise awareness for district and state issues for teacher funding and attended & spoke at a primary caucus. I have spoken in front of thousands of students at leadership conferences across the state of Texas and volunteered over 100 hours alone just through Student Council.
Furthermore, in the span of a year, I became certified in AutoCAD software (Revit Architecture) in my school’s Principles of Engineering Program. In addition, I have been a competitor in the Academic University Interscholastic League throughout highschool by competing in Calculator Applications, Science, and Number Sense. Every year, we have earned Sweepstakes and earned gold to show that STEM goes further than just representing a career path, but rather a passion and activity that many students truly enjoy. I truly believe STEM extracurricular activities pave the way for the future generation to reach beyond the stars.
In addition, my mom has always been a single parent, and our household consists of myself, my mom, and my nana, and my nana retired twenty years ago. In November, my life was immediately changed, and I spent 20 days in two different hospitals. This is also why my rank and GPA changed drastically. My mom was off work for 8 weeks, unpaid. The countless follow-up appointments and therapies that I have gone through just this year so far have placed a tremendous amount of financial burden on our household. It seems that just as my mom was getting back to work, my nana was diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer on the top of her head.
Overall, with everything I have accomplished in my high school career while all the curveballs were thrown, I do not believe my SAT score is a reflection of my capabilities. According to Penn State, “research done by the tests’ manufacturers, class rank and/or high school grades are still both better predictors of college performance than the SAT.” Moreover, I do not believe SAT scores reflect a person’s potential, and I believe I am living proof of this statement. Test scores for admissions are becoming a thing of the past. There is so much potential behind someone through their character, servant’s heart, and leadership rather than a three hour test taken on a Saturday morning.