Engineering, to me, is not just another academic subject. It is my dream and my passion. I enjoy every part of the process from designing mechanisms from scratch, testing new builds, and sharing the results with others. I choose to major in electrical engineering because of the journey every project takes me on. My career goals are not just in semiconductor design but also discovering the solution of real-life problems such as GPS sensing for wildfire alarms or ways to solve global energy concerns.

If I were to win a generous 500 dollar STEM scholarship, I would start a “Makers Club” at my high school because there are no manufacturing or engineering based extracurricular activities there. This Makers Club would brainstorm issues in our community and create items to help solve them. We would use CAD and Arduinos as part of the engineering process. Also, I would spend a portion of it in the future for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and to enroll in coding classes that will benefit my STEM journey.

My interest in STEM, specifically the medical field, can pave a path for me to discover manufacturing relevant to medical devices and innovative solutions in the healthcare industry. It would be through my passions, and manufacturing, that I could create devices that can save lives and improve patient healthcare…I plan on majoring in Biomedical Engineering in college so I can learn more about approaching medicine from a design viewpoint.

In the manufacturing field or any engineering field, I love how people are so open to answering the questions you have so you can get better at your project. The manufacturing field is also really cool in that you can get hands-on experience and learn more from that than if you were to learn it in a textbook.

To reach my future goals for STEM I want to get more involved in the field of manufacturing and get involved in a variety of projects, STEM clubs, and events. I am studying hard on learning Python and other artificial intelligence tools to increase my participation with STEAM. The main goal of manufacturing is to create things that will help people and by helping them you end up helping yourself.

At the end of the day, manufacturing is about making things. I want to work at a company that takes pride in what they do because it is how I live my own life. Being technical and understanding the why and how something works should get you into the door. Loving what you do and enjoying working with those around you is what should keep you there.

For as long as I can recollect I have been interested in working with my hands, creating, building, and taking apart anything that I could. I have taken apart cameras and phones, all the way to RC cars and computers. Every time I take apart something I am astonished by how much goes into making this one item.

My role as a manufacturing teacher is to expose and teach the technical skills, processes related to a variety of areas in manufacturing…There are many students walking around my school that would benefit from learning about the future career opportunities they would have in manufacturing. Many students do not know about what we do in our manufacturing classes. We create designs using CAD software, create products based on those designs, and we also design and fabricate in our wood and metals shop area with more traditional methods.

 I am constantly fascinated by the structures around me, asking myself what I would do differently if I designed it with the current landscape. As an engineer it is important to know your materials and the process involved. I thought that it was interesting that the Fought foreman needed to be a metallurgist, chemist, and physicist all at the same time when dealing with steel.

My specific interest in manufacturing is raising awareness of the field of Biomanufacturing to my students.  Biomanufacturing is a rapidly expanding field in the Portland metro area.  It offers the promise of high wage, high demand careers for students of all levels and with many different interests.  Whether you want a long-term career right out of high school, a part-time job to help pay for college, or anything in between, the local biomanufacturing field has opportunities that our students need to know about.