From Code to Culture: My Fusion of Tech, Language, and Science by Dayra

From Code to Culture: My Fusion of Tech, Language, and Science by Dayra - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

As a Mexican American born into a Spanish-speaking household, it was challenging to understand and communicate in English. I had to take additional classes in elementary school to learn the language, on top of learning other subjects that the other students were learning. It was a difficult process, but I knew that learning English would open new opportunities for me in the future. Growing up in a community predominantly composed of Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley has been an advantage for me. The reason for this is because my teachers were able to provide me with additional support, as they themselves were fluent in Spanish. Being from a border town, I have had the opportunity to experience what the Mexican culture is all about and have been immersed in the Spanish language since I was born. My parents from an early age emphasized the importance of being bilingual so that I could have the most opportunities when I was older. I think this was one of the main experiences that drove me to being passionate about language-learning.

Learning languages has become a huge hobby of mine. In fact, I have been able to reach a proficiency in French and American Sign Language (ASL) that I didn’t think I could ever reach. Learning languages feels like a puzzle. I am constantly learning new ways to put the pieces of sentences together to create coherent speech. I am constantly learning different sounds that my mouth can make so different people understand me. I love the idea of being able to communicate with different people. As I continue to learn French and ASL, I have been able to appreciate the differences of distinct cultures. It feels kind of like entering a whole new world where you must enter a tedious process of relearning basic things but when you do, it’s extremely rewarding. Although my major, computer science, does not directly have anything to do with languages, I want to tie them together regardless.

Along with my passion for language-learning, I also developed a passion for tech and STEM related activities. What I love about living in the beautiful city of Brownsville is that although it’s not as developed as other places in Texas, I’ve been given plenty of opportunities to explore careers and find my passion. I fell in love with coding in elementary school, where I spent hours reaching the highest levels of Code Combat and exploring all the functions that Scratch offered. The idea of controlling a computer to have it perform incredible tasks fascinates me. Now that I am currently a high school senior and take college classes at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley through dual enrollment, I have been blessed with the opportunity to explore careers and get an early glimpse at college life through this program. As I’ve grown older and have had the chance to further explore the computer science field, I have found an interest in cybersecurity and quantum computing. Through a summer program called Girls Who Code, I got to spend the last two summers learning about computer science concepts and exploring different careers within this massive field. This is where I first learned about cybersecurity and cryptography. Aside from the cybersecurity field, I am also deeply interested in physics. I fell in love with physics not too long ago when I took a college class on it. I had so much fun, and I was pretty good at it too. Therefore, I’ve decided to combine technology, natural science, and languages. I do a lot of self-studying when I have free time and I am very interested in learning computing languages, solving physics problems and continuing my language studies to become a polyglot one day.

By combining my love for these semi-distinct niches, my goal is to help create new cryptographic solutions to keep up with the power quantum computers have. However, I want to apply computer science not just to my career but to my own life and hobby as a programmer. I have many projects in mind that I want to accomplish using physics, computer science, and language learning. I want to help make software/ai systems that can aid people in learning languages more effectively and get to do it at the comfort of their home, for free. Communicating with people in a language is hard, especially with no native speakers around. Therefore, I want to make this process easier for people so that they can be motivated to learn. After all, everyone’s goal is to learn a new language but only very few actually follow through with it. Overall, I have many plans, some clearer than others. What is very clear though is that through the life experiences I have gone through and the beautiful culture I’ve been surrounded by my whole life, I know that I will make a positive impact on people.