Success Doesn't Happen by Chance by Michael

Success Doesn't Happen by Chance by Michael - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

I don’t believe luck comes by chance. I believe that a person must maximize their opportunities to make good things happen.

When I was young, my sister and I played checkers for hours, and I knew that victory was determined by the time and mental effort I was willing to put forth. There was no luck in checkers. I began to realize, through a series of life events, that I could achieve a goal if I followed a defined set of self-directed principles: success takes time, failure must be embraced, and one must start with the end in mind. Once I realized this, I found clarity. I am willing to persevere through a challenge, whether it takes a day, month, or years, and chance has nothing to do with it.

In 2020, I found myself learning from home during the pandemic. The absence of sports forced me to spend time differently and brought out a desire to conquer new challenges. I couldn’t change my predicament of being stuck at home, but I could control how I spent my time. I had a passion for STEM but never had the undivided time to explore the hobby in depth. So, I started spending time tinkering with my grandfather’s old electrical components, exploring C++ programming, and diving into Arduino circuit kits. Learning these skills led to an engineering project that became the catalyst for my future ambitions. It was the most transformative year of my life.

During that year, while watching a documentary, I realized most amputees around the world don’t have the wealth to obtain a myoelectric prosthetic. I became determined to build an affordable prosthetic arm using an inexpensive 3-D printer and materials ordered online. After 580 days of learning to CAD, solder, wire, program, and configure working parts, I produced a functional prosthetic arm with fingers wirelessly controlled by push buttons in a microcontroller shoe. I had to problem-solve to get things to work flawlessly, such as the tension of fishing line strung through the fingers. My mindset allowed me to traverse through roadblocks despite having to reconfigure and rebuild many parts along the way. I never lost sight of my goal. When I returned to school, I was able to take my project to the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair and win several awards. My hobby became my career ambition.

Time has passed, and I continue to utilize the same principles to guide me in a rigorous course load, a full athletic schedule, and my responsibilities as Student Council President. I have big plans for my future. I want to attend a university that will surround me with a diverse group of teachers and peers who have strengths that I can learn from. I have a specific interest in electrical circuitry and envision myself gaining an electrical engineering degree that will lead to a career in biomedical robotics. My goal is to develop less-expensive prosthetic devices for amputees regardless of their economic status. I imagine the end in mind—a future engineering breakthrough helping people all around the world. I know that I will work tirelessly for what may feel like eons. I know that I will dig through many tunnels of failure to find the light. And…I know that it won’t be luck that gets me there.