The Road to Engineer by Wyatt

The Road to Engineer by Wyatt - April 2025 Scholarship Essay

Behind every college major lies a story waiting to be played, and the start button lies in my hands. Civil engineering has always been in my heart at every young age. Civil engineering is such a vast field from water structures, to structural, and traffic engineering. However, my favorite part about civil engineering is the highways. I chose civil engineering as my major because of the unique designs and endless possibilities that come with it, and the love of looking at them.
Even though I am not a civil engineer yet, I still design my own highways. Ever since I started playing Minecraft and City Skylines when I was young, I would make my own cities, and with that came highways. I would spend countless hours building some of the craziest and fantastic highway interchanges that still surprise me now. I would pull up real life highway interchanges and try to recuperate them or try to improve on them. I added details such as signs - speed limits, direction signs, interstate signs and exit signs. I even added highway lights. Later on, when I became older, I would draw my own interchanges on a piece of paper, labeling or using different colors to label the height or which exit ramp it was for. Sometimes afterwards I would make it in Minecraft. Young or old, I will still design a highway.
I have been to many places, and the best part about them was the highways. The earliest memory I remember of going on a highway was when I was four years old, getting off of Route 29 onto Interstate 495. I remember going to Denver and Colorado Springs on a car trip. Maryland to Colorado. It was such a beautiful drive, driving along Interstate 70. A few years later, me and my family would go to Las Vegas. I would go to New York and Florida too. I always loved the drive, seeing the new area and infrastructure and design of highways always impressed me.
In conclusion, I chose civil engineering as my major because of the unique designs and endless possibilities that come with it, and the love of looking at them. I will be attending Slippery Rock University to pursue my civil engineering degree. I know one day in the future I will be making my own highway in real life.