Personal Narrative: My Journey To Baltimore

I was raised in a city of two realities; I grew up in Baltimore. My parents immigrated from the Netherlands a year before I was born to pursue opportunity in the United States. My sister and I attended a private Quaker school because my parents could afford it. On one hand, there is a Baltimore presented by the TV show “The Wire,” on the other you have my reality. As a white, upper-class, male I haven't had to overcome any significant obstacles to follow my dreams. The most important question from my perspective is how do I leverage my privileged position and help people outside of my own community? How can I, as a computer science graduate from the Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley, use my analytical skills to impact the other reality in Baltimore? During the last few months of my senior year at Colorado College, I received a call from my parents telling me that the National Guard was being called into Baltimore to quell the riots after the death of Freddie Gray. I remember how unsurprised I was at the news; the two realities in Baltimore had been on edge ever since I was born. Three months later, I would get the opportunity to work in Colorado and leave my childhood city behind. I often hear stories similar to this from the people I grew up with. We grow up in Baltimore cheering for the Ravens and the Orioles

The advantages my parents and mentors gave me reiterates how different my experience has been from the young adult who grew up five blocks away from my neighborhood. I see my role as a graduate student at UC Berkeley as an opportunity to use my position to make a difference. I will have the ability to make an impact by working on the next generation of algorithms and solving complex problems. The opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others motivates my desire to work hard and solve the challenges impacting not just one, but both Baltimore