Hard Work that Brought an Accomplishment by Cheyenne

Hard Work that Brought an Accomplishment by Cheyenne - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

As a student at Goshen High School, I had the opportunity to choose from many electives when determining my schedule. I decided to enroll in the course Introduction to Engineering which included the curriculum of studying different types of architecture while using Autodesk AutoCad software. It was not long before I advanced further than my older peers.
I was able to vision what I wanted a building to look like and how I wanted it to all work together, then transfer my thoughts onto paper. By the middle of my first semester, staff throughout Goshen Community School Corporation were giving me blueprints to practice with and to remodel just to help me pass time. At the end of first semester I entered an Indiana high school competition created by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This competition consisted of having a prompt given to the competitors on what the landscape was like and the kind of building needed to be designed (church, school, library, etc…). When I entered as a junior, the prompt was to design an ice cream shop and a parasailing shop that were affiliated with each other, on a dock in the middle of a lake. I had two months to design my building and to create a presentation board that would have to explain how my design worked to the judges, without me being there to talk to them myself.
Between being a full time student taking all honors/college prep classes and working over forty hours a week, I had a few too many sleepless nights staying up to design my buildings in order to have it done in time for judging. I was able to finish my project a day before it was due and sent it to Indianapolis to be judged. The judging process took about a month before I received a letter in the mail stating that my design would move on to the next round of judging and would be hung in the Indianapolis Artsgarden. Since my board was presented and went through a second round of judging, I was automatically invited to attend the awards ceremony for the remaining boards. Out of seventy-five boards that qualified for this ceremony, only about 15 people would receive an additional award.
I attended the second ceremony, which was crowded with the other high school attendants that had the opportunity to move on. Before the ceremony started, everyone was walking around looking at the remaining boards and the designs that the talented high schoolers had thought of. Once the ceremony started, everyone became silent and took their seats. I honestly was not expecting to have my name called for an award, I saw the other contestants’ designs and quickly became discouraged. One by one, high schoolers were awarded for their designs and then all of the sudden my name appeared on the projector. I had received the Judge’s Distinction award, with no teacher to help guide me through the designing process. I walked up and received my award and had my picture taken with the architect present, which would later be printed in the newspaper.
While I was spending hours and sleepless nights working on my design, there were many times I wanted to give up. There were many trial and error moments, tears, and stressful nights, but looking back now, I am so thankful that I did not give up. Not only did my hard work and effort help me to achieve a memorable high school accomplishment, but it also helped me realize what career I wanted to pursue.