Involvements

LEAD Scholars centered on community service and relational leadership, putting me in spaces I wouldn't have found otherwise. Most of my involvement was through tech literacy workshops, youth programs, and campus service events, which pushed me to communicate differently and work with people from a lot of different backgrounds.

On the project side, I ran tech literacy workshops for high school students, interviewed volunteers at the UCF Arboretum, and did research on civic engagement. By the end I had contributed over 70 hours of community service and came away with a stronger sense of what leadership actually looks like outside of a technical context.

As Software Chair I owned the website, databases, and internal tools that the branch runs on. With hundreds of members depending on those systems, keeping things reliable and up to date was a real priority. Most of my time went toward maintaining existing infrastructure and building improvements based on what officers and students actually needed.

Sitting in on weekly officer meetings gave me experience representing a technical perspective in planning and operations discussions. It was a good reminder that engineering work has to make sense to the people it serves, not just the people building it.

I got involved with IEEE early on through workshops and project teams and it quickly became the organization I put the most time into. Over time I went from attending events to serving as an officer and contributing to the software infrastructure that supports the branch.

I've attended IEEE conferences for the past three years, which has been a useful way to see what's happening in the field beyond campus. It's also where I've built most of my closest friendships and found a consistent community of people who take engineering seriously.

Freshman year I joined a wide range of organizations to explore different areas of engineering and campus life. That included ACM for software and algorithms, Knightlight for drone-swarm robotics, and VST where I got exposure to digital signal processing and music technology.

I also went through KnightHacks, participated in the SolidWorks Student Leadership Program for CAD, and was part of LEAD Scholars. Each group offered something different, and together they did a lot to shape where I ended up focusing my time and interests going forward.

The Hagan Scholarship has given me the financial stability to focus on school while requiring me to work each semester, which has kept me disciplined and accountable. The program also includes financial literacy training and an annual conference that introduced me to long-term planning, investing, and a national network of scholars.

One thing that stuck with me was the emphasis on building financial confidence early. I started researching and investing in stocks as a result, which has shaped my habits and thinking well beyond just covering tuition.

I applied for this scholarship early knowing the wait would be a few years. When I was selected, I went to Rome and took an accelerated course in Roman architecture, studying how ancient design principles influenced the development of engineering and infrastructure. Seeing those structures in person made the material click in a way that reading about it never would have.

Living abroad for that stretch, even briefly, gave me a broader perspective on how engineering is shaped by culture and history. It also pushed me out of my comfort zone in ways that carried over well after I got back.

Bright Futures is a merit scholarship I earned in high school that has helped reduce the financial burden of college and allowed me to stay focused on my coursework and involvement.