The STEM field has always been part of my life starting even before I entered school. My parents were always encouraging me and opening my eyes to math and science which drove me to work even harder by myself and to strive to be better. There are not concrete events that immediately inspired me to explore the field of STEM. However, I believe that the most important and influential moments that sparked my enthusiasm in STEM were the encouragement of my parents, my enthusiasm in the math team, and a multitude of other smaller activities that contributed to my overall passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
My parents were the main driving factors of me being enthusiastic about STEM. My dad graduated from university studying biochemistry and received a doctorate in mathematics. Starting from an early age, he encouraged me to study math and introduced me to the many wonders of math and science by showing me his research. My mom also helped me build an interest in the STEM field. She signed me up for summer camps and online courses that furthered my love for STEM. Both of my parents helped me build a strong foundation in math and sparked my interest in science that carried over to school and helped me become successful.
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What I especially loved about the math team was the environment and how different it felt from the standard math class I was in. Compared to school, the math team was far more vigorous and exciting which challenged me to become much more astute in math so I could perform well in competitions such as Mathcounts, the AMC, the JHMC at IMSA, and most recently the NSML and the ICTM contests. These competitions truly were a challenge, but they only made me work even harder to become better than other schools and outperform my