Coloring Outside the Lines by Shefali

Coloring Outside the Lines by Shefali - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

“Here’s a DVD to install a Virtual Machine, where you can download Ubuntu. Become familiar with ‘sudo’; you will need it for root privileges. Tomorrow, you can get started with evaluating open source software to record abnormal traffic patterns to detect DDoS attacks. And, oh! Read this proposal from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to understand the project.”

I stared blankly at my mentor, wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. It was the first day of my summer internship at Vencore Labs, a cybersecurity firm. I had spent the last few weeks of junior year eagerly anticipating this internship, brushing up my programming skills and dreaming of how I would spend my salary. Yet, as I trudged back to my desk with the eighty-page proposal, I couldn’t help thinking that I was surely a glutton for punishment. As the youngest intern at the company, I felt limited in both my knowledge and expertise. Surprisingly, that feeling was not unfamiliar.

I’ve spent my entire life coloring outside the lines, in a quest to push boundaries. After years of participating in robotics competitions, I took upon myself to instill STEM skills in younger students by becoming a mentor. My team comprised of eight boys in elementary school who were more interested in tossing around Lego pieces than in programming robots. It took immense perseverance to teach them programming and the mechanics of robot building.

Last year, I volunteered to not only redesign the layout of the school newspaper, but also to create a centerfold in the theme of ‘Humans of Morris Hills,” a spin-off of my favorite blog “Humans of New York.” Running around school to interview students, teachers, and custodians, I invested so much time into perfecting this centerfold that I skipped lunch for several weeks. The list went on. Though my experience in entrepreneurship had been limited to a small purse-selling business I started in third grade with a friend (who somehow ended up keeping all the money), I decided to spend my summer at MIT Launch, pitching ideas to investors and spending long hours polishing my business plan.

As these thoughts flitted through my mind, it dawned on me that I enjoyed being challenged. My robotics team won at the state championship for three years straight. The ‘Humans of Morris Hills’ feature was extremely received and is now a staple of the paper. And if I could launch a startup in four weeks, surely I could tackle my internship.

Motivated by this pep talk that I had given myself, I immersed myself in the DARPA proposal. That evening, I read every website I could find about Ubuntu, computer networks, and DDoS attacks. I created detailed notes and re-read the project proposal until I understood every line. The next day at work, I was nervous but eager to start working on the project.

Throughout my internship, I pushed myself harder. I conducted meticulous research, asked countless questions, dealt with dead ends, and eventually produced successful outcomes, like creating a tool to capture and replay network traffic.

By the end of the summer, I was confident that I had put forth my best effort. I was even more gratified when my mentor reached told me recently that my research had been presented at a conference with DARPA and other companies.

Whenever I take on a challenge, I take pride in not only seeing it through, but ensuring it is the best possible outcome. I know that the harder I push myself, the more I learn. And as I stand at the cusp of my next journey into college, I am more determined than ever to push more boundaries despite any curve balls -- or gargantuan proposals -- life may throw my way.