This is it by jordan

This is it by jordan - September 2019 Scholarship Essay

This is it. After over a decade of struggling with failure, and mental illness, enrolling into and withdrawing from programs, working at several different companies, from restaurant service to one of the biggest tech companies in the world, I've found my passion in helping people. More specifically, those with disabilities, motor impairment, neurological disorders, hearing and vision impairment, and mental illness. I have finally taken the steps to identify, cope with and manage my illness well enough to see it as a victory. I'm ready to help.

About three years ago, I helped a man who had lost a lot of his memory and cognitive function due to a fall he had taken years prior. During our 15 minute appointment, he shared with me that he used to be a brilliant engineer, and he felt that after his fall, his life was ripped from him. The doctors gave him no hope of recovering, and that his condition was permanent. He explained to me that his phone was his life. His empowerment, and it wasn't working, so I made it my mission to make sure it was working. He couldn't get certain accessibility features to function properly, and because of that, the phone may as well have been a brick to him. I spent way more than 15 minutes with him, and ultimately we resolved the issue. The joy on his face brought tears to my eyes, and I felt purpose that I've never felt in my life.

This scholarship is important because it's part of that first step in going back to school for me. The trials and tribulations of that first year back at school in ten years are going to be difficult, financially, emotionally, and even physically, but I'm ready, and with your help I can start that journey with one less obstacle.

I want to study computational neuroscience, more specifically, neuroplasticity in the brain and applied artificial intelligence so that I can work with psychiatrists, psychologists, neuroscientists and engineers of all kinds to find solutions to scalable problems. The first step of course is to get my general education taken care of, and I want to make sure that I can focus well enough on the task at hand.