Service

How to better impact people's lives if not through public service?

Although I dedicated most of my life to serve others, I fully realized it at the Bush School. Service is a virtue that I performed since an early age, but I acknowledged its impact on people's lives so much later. I sometimes had the impression that being independent, my goals are individualistic. At the Bush School, I realized how my plans increase the impact on other people's lives. Immediately after the Institute of International Education recommended that I apply to Texas A&M, I found that my sole institution is the Bush School of Government and Public Service. When I opened its website, I saw the quote above of former President George Bush Senior. I found myself in that description because I always wanted to make a difference through my activities. Since I moved from Moldova, a very small republic, to bigger and bigger countries, I always adapted my professional strategies to impact the lives of more people.

In my first years of school, I dreamed of being a teacher and then librarian to impact the lives of many students. I voluntarily replaced my class coordinator every time my teacher had longer meetings than expected. Eventually, I was assigned as a class leader because of my coordination and organization skills. After I started to read more books, I dreamed of being a librarian. I wanted to impact the lives of not only of a class but also of all school readers. When I was 10, I finished reading all the books in my language from the school library. Being born in a former Soviet state, most of our books were written in Slavonic and very few selections had writing using the Latin alphabet. The librarian was surprised by my achievement at such an early age and offered to teach me to read in Slavonic. Also, she suggested that I participate in a contest designed for passionate readers. I immediately accepted and participated in all my lessons with her. I was impressed by the amount of motivation she cultivated in me. At the contest, I received 8th place in the competition out of 50 students, despite being the youngest participant and without having access to all the books from the reading list. I was disappointed, but the librarian and school director were very proud of me. They invited me to organize a conference to share the knowledge gathered for the contest with other students, and then ask them questions based on that information. I really enjoyed leading that symposium and wanted to become a librarian to inspire readers every day. Since the librarian was approaching retirement, I wanted to impact the lives of other readers after she finished her career. However, very shortly after she was replaced with a younger librarian. I was disappointed because she rarely had time to spend with us and this reduced my motivation to visit the library as much.

Starting in high school and throughout my bachelor's studies, I dreamed of being an economist to improve the living standards of my all citizens. In high school, I was attracted by subjects that required math knowledge, such as chemistry, physics, and IT. Since my grandfather was a math professor, it was also easier for me to understand those classes. After graduation, I pursued a degree in Economics - Finance and Banking to become a Ministry of Finance who improves the financial situation of many citizens. This dream contributed to my experience as an intern and honorary advisor at the Romanian Parliament, where I had the chance to attend events with the Ministry of Finance and the meetings of the Committee for Finance, Banks, and Budget.

During graduate school, I have projected a career in space governance for the well-being of the current and next generations. Also, it offers me the chance to give something back to all countries in which I studied and helped me achieve my career goals. To accomplish this goal, I became a founding member of a space governance institute inside my university. During this experience, I published my first article about space, I joined the Space Governance Research Group, worked as a research assistant of its leader during the summer. I am still working hard to pursue this career no matter the obstacles to ensure the peaceful use of outer space for the well-being of the current and next generations.