Category: Life

Lane Smith Memorial Scholarship

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I was notified today that I was the recipient of the Lane Smith Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship had very demanding qualifications and carries a monetary award of $1,000.00.

I am very grateful for the award, but more so for the selection. This scholarship was personally important to me because of the story behind it. In a nutshell, unfortunate things can happen to anyone – at any time.

The importance of life – no matter what it may bring – is something many take for granted. It is easy to do. In hearing about this scholarship, I was reminded not to.

FIRST finished

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Well, after thousands of dollars from a NASA grant, hundreds of hours from student and mentors, and a few days of competition – Salmen’s (and my own) FIRST experience is finished. The competition was grueling, our robot erred quite a bit, but our team feels good about the whole ordeal. Our voices have been to the cheers for OBSIDIAN (our robot), our minds are thinking of next year’s competition, and our moral as a team is amazing.

We made it into the quarter finals – for our first year, that is not too bad. We know what we can do to help us next year, regardless of the game. All in all, FIRST was a wonderful experience. One that I hope I can be a part of again.

MIT – ? – U of C

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Well, the decisions are all final and I’m packing my bags… I’ll be headed to the University of Chicago for the next four years of learning. I’m actually very excited. Chicago is a wonderful school and my family is fairly close. I can’t wait to get to know the city and experience life in a new place.

I’ve already picked the classes I want to take. I’ll be double-majoring in Computer Science with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence and Economics. Needless to say – I’ll be taking lots of math courses (my favorite! (HA HA…)) – How does discrete mathematics, calculus one though three – statistics – and some other course using proofs for algorithms sound?

I’ll also be taking some wonderful philosophical courses – programming courses – drama courses – and “civilization” courses. Who knows – I may come out of this well rounded after all.

As for the news from MIT – I’m not too upset. I now have a guaranteed single dorm – with an uncle and a huge bedroom to myself – only about an hour away. The only bad news – I won’t have quite as many math courses ;)…

Well, I’ll keep the world posted – here I come Chicago!