Alicia Griffin 

    Why do people pursue a life where the job is to get things wrong? It’s to solve them is what my parents would tell me. I never took an interest in it because it simply was an annoyance for me. I've always thought that trial and error problems were just for a headache. I never understood why somebody would want to get something wrong multiple times for the rest of their lives for something they aren't even passionate about. I realized people don't do it to fail, they do it to have the feeling in their hearts after success. The multiple failures, hours spent and thoughts on the project are worth it- because the sense of accomplishment is probably one of the best feelings in the world.

I've started taking engineering classes to further my education and help me achieve this career goal. I've recently started taking writing seriously as of these last few years. I've written and can firmly say I am a storyteller/ writer who can convey emotion in my work. I've taken advanced English every year joined writing competitions and helped others write regularly. I've honed my skills in drawing since I was young. I joined  (NHAS) the National Honors Art Society to improve my skills. I love every time we have to draw in our engineering class, I find that drawing is the best way to communicate something to everybody, no matter the language barrier.

  Boxing has taught me a lot, it’s taught me how leadership and teamwork are intertwined. A good leader has to work with the team, not just lead them and let them fall behind. It’s taught me that a good leader would assess everybody's positives and negatives while helping improve them. The term “leader” is usually used loosely but ever since I've started, I know the meaning of a true leader. It works with the team and not against it and helps the team combine ideas. I also have learned the importance of patience from volunteering for Mini-Thon. An organization for pediatric cancer. When in a team, a team is supposed to all move at different paces and the leader sees that and communicates it to the others.

As of now, I plan to go to two years of community college and then transfer to a four-year University. I plan to go into a sub-field of engineering. I want to go to the University of Maryland since it’s a fairly good college for the job field I would like to pursue; architecture. It’s been a dream of mine for years since I saw the Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School. I found it fascinating that with only $300,000 they managed to create a magnificent building that was self-sustaining. That was when I realized that I had an interest in the world of architecture; the world in which architecture lies in makes it possible for functionality to also apply to buildings. 

After going through the rigorous architecture program, I would like to get a Job in Japan at a non-profit organization. I would love to help underdeveloped or impoverished areas around the world as it seems that’s what my heart has always connected with. I believe that the infrastructure of what schools are built on is the main way children can nurture their brains to learn. My goal for this career path I’ve decided to take is to help build a self-sustaining school myself one day, as that’s the idea that led me to take Engineering in the first place.