Breaking Free by Tiffany-Louisa

Tiffany-Louisaof NEW WINDSOR's entry into Varsity Tutor's September 2017 scholarship contest

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Tiffany-Louisa of NEW WINDSOR, NY
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Breaking Free by Tiffany-Louisa - September 2017 Scholarship Essay

Two years ago, in my career goal statement essay; an assignment from my English teacher, I wrote:

“My long-term career goal is to become a renowned female Software Engineer…the first step toward becoming a Software Engineer will be to complete the [OU BOCES] CTEC Computer Programming program…I will know I have attained this goal when I graduate from this program with honors and hopefully, top of the class”

To be frank, I wrote this to meet the one-page requirement my teacher had given. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a girl of great ambition - my parents always encourage me to aim high. Being the only female sitting in a class of 20-some-odd males however, I just couldn’t envision myself graduating “top of the class”.

In popular culture, the computer geniuses were always the Caucasian males who spent inconceivable amounts of time playing video games and downloading mods for the laptops, never the colored girl who had no background in coding whatsoever and only knew how to access the internet from her mother’s 2008 Toshiba laptop. Truly, this was my only obstacle, finding the confidence to break such stereotype and work hard to see my dream come to fruition.

It wasn’t easy, but through determination and hard work, I graduated from the program two years later winning the OU-BOCES Silver Outstanding Student Award, the OU-BOCES STEM Engineering Award, and the OU-BOCES Computer Programming, which provided me a total sum of $2050 in scholarships towards my college education.

What was once a page requirement became a reality and since then my self-perception and view of female’s role in the engineering field has changed completely. At the age of sixteen, I can boast of being competent in C++, HTML, Visual BASIC, Visual C++, JavaScript, and CSS, and a new outlook on colored women’s role in the field of engineering, an accomplishment I am most proud of.

My computer programming elective is one I am forever grateful for. It gave me the opportunity to meet like-minded students, and teachers who impacted positively in my life. My self-confidence grew so much; I decided to enroll in a Computer Information Systems major, focusing on programming. Hopefully in the nearest future, I am able to pay forward and impart my knowledge to other people, especially females.

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