Submission Number: 59
Submission ID: 351
Submission UUID: 10e1c38a-0129-43c8-b7b2-2f48cd6744e7

Created: Mon, 05/03/2021 - 23:41
Completed: Mon, 05/03/2021 - 23:41
Changed: Tue, 05/13/2025 - 16:58

Remote IP address: 98.33.105.138
Submitted by:Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No

Flagged: Yes
Locked: Yes
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Jacob
Friedman
he/him
Palo Alto
CA
United States
94301
Computer Science
English (5), Spanish (4), Esperanto (2)
In the summer before junior year, I was accepted into a Spanish immersion program run by Middlebury College that took students to Granada, Spain for 4 weeks. When we arrived, we frequently conversed with the locals in Spanish, asking about their lives, about the history of the region, and learned new skills in the home, such as how to bake bread. Throughout the program, students were given increasing independence. We could explore at leisure, familiarize ourselves with the culture, and gain real-world experience navigating an entirely new culture and dominant language. I improved my accent and general fluency, and significantly deepened my Spanish comprehension, expedited by the locals’ thick Andalusian accent, which required deep focus to understand.
I hope to live in a community where people aim to have discussions in which each person brings their unfinished ideas, and we work to build a coherent framework from those early insights. I hope the person who lives down the hall from me approaches complexities with thoughtful analysis, logic, and a wide range of vantage points. I hope they would be able to substantiate their ideas with these qualities, even when they may go against social trends. I would want to interact with an independent thinker who trusts their own judgment enough to not pander to social pressure, but who is also willing to defer to the judgment of others when they recognize the merit in a counter position or new perspective.
I aim to positively impact poor communities by offering well-thought-out solutions built from solid moral and logical frameworks. I am drawn by two main elements in the program: the altruism and the opportunity to create detailed systems. This program appeals to me because I can combine those two elements, which are often portrayed as pitted against each other or at least separate: the logical, cerebral engineer as opposed to the emotional altruist that volunteers in soup kitchens. This program synthesizes the two in a natural way; using engineering to be altruistic. By pursuing this program, I aim to use my inclination to logic and systematic thinking to contribute to more good for the people most in need of it. I would contribute to the community through the exchange of diverse ideas for which it is designed, and by my investment of time, energy, and enthusiasm. I think this program will contribute to my training because I want to incorporate service throughout my career, and the meaningful work I hope to do as part of the Global Engineering RAP will give me practice in designing efficient solutions.
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