Submission Number: 39
Submission ID: 307
Submission UUID: b0d42dbc-bbc9-4481-a0df-386fb2a024eb

Created: Fri, 04/16/2021 - 22:53
Completed: Fri, 04/16/2021 - 22:53
Changed: Tue, 09/03/2024 - 20:06

Remote IP address: 38.75.239.10
Submitted by:Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
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Ian
Draves
he/him/his
Fort Collins
CO
United States
80526
Computer Science
English (5), Spanish (3)
For the majority of my life I had never traveled outside of the United States. That changed during winter break of my sophomore year of high school when my family went to visit my sister who was studying abroad in Beijing. During that trip, I was lucky to spend time in Beijing, Hangzhou, Guilin, and Shanghai over the course of two weeks. That trip was an experience that I believe to have prepared me for the Global Engineering RAP. Each of the cities I visited are major Chinese cities with millions of people. While China as a nation has focused on industrialization for decades while also facing overpopulation, I saw first hand the vast amount of development that was occurring. I also got to experience more rural parts of China by traveling just outside the urban areas of Hangzhou and Guilin. Very noticeable differences between the urban and rural areas illustrated a fascinating dichotomy that has stuck with me to this day. The urban areas appeared to have endless, similar-looking, and tightly packed high rises amidst a persistent layer of smog. Our flight from Guilin to Shanghai highlighted this, as there was not a single time during the two-hour flight that you could look down and see something other than hundreds of city buildings. On the other hand, the rural areas were like another country entirely, void of any large buildings or smog with an abundance of mountainous green. Upon reflection of the trip, I have realized just how unsustainable the type of rapid development being done in the urban areas of China is, especially as it has broader implications for an environment we share as an international community. Ultimately, I believe my travels to China have prepared me for the Global Engineering RAP, as it has inspired me to tackle such problems that affect us on an international scale using my passion for engineering.
As a learning community, I would like to leverage my experience in the Global Engineering RAP as an educational opportunity. Accordingly, I would want the person living down the hall from me to be someone I am able to learn from. Through a variety of personal experiences, I have learned that that kind of person is someone who has a vastly different background than myself. People of different backgrounds, whether it be nationality, cultural identity, gender identity, or sexual orientation, possess an entirely unique set of life experiences that provide a valuable lens for education, as a diversity of perspectives can be understood. Moreover, as an engineering RAP, I would like the person living down the hall from me to be someone I am able to collaborate with and relate to on an intellectual level. I have always been passionate about computer science and technology and would love to be able to discuss these topics with the people I am living with. That being said I am not singularly interested in engineering but also find myself interested in the humanities in subjects like philosophy, language arts, and political science. Because of this, I would hope for the students within the Global Engineering community to be well-rounded, allowing myself and others to engage in meaningful discussions and learn from our respective diversity of interests. Collectively, I would want the person living down the hall from me in the Global Engineering RAP to be a well-rounded engineering student and person who contributes to the community's overall diversity.
Having participated in the International Baccalaureate program since kindergarten, I have grown an appreciation for internationally-minded thinking. This means characterizing problems in the global context rather than on an individual or national level. Characterizing problems as such is important because too often people establish boundaries between one another that hinder international collaboration on society's most pressing issues like inequality, hunger, and public health. In the most fundamental sense, this is why I want to be a member of the Global Engineering RAP at CU Boulder, as I believe it epitomizes and advocates a similar way of thinking that I can utilize not only in my professional career but also as a productive global citizen. More specifically, I believe that being a part of the community will contribute to my training as an engineer as technology has increasingly become an integral part of modern society. This means that it is also increasingly important to recognize and understand the international implications of technology. As a computer science major, this means everything from addressing issues like the digital divide to employing machine learning algorithms to aid in resolving climate change. Additionally, I believe I will personally contribute to the Global Engineering RAP as a student with broad interests. Specifically, I have chosen the computer science Bachelor of Arts, so I can pursue my non-engineering interests like Spanish and philosophy. The humanities have a core interconnection to engineering that is too often neglected. However, from my broad interests, I believe that I will help bridge the gap between the two within the Global Engineering community as well as apply my Spanish language skills as a global engineer. Overall, I desire to be a member of the Global Engineering RAP at CU Boulder, as I believe it will contribute to my training as a computer scientist and as a person by advocating internationally-minded thinking and I believe that I will personally contribute to the community as a student with broad interests.
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