Please describe any travel or experiences that have prepared you for the Global Engineering RAP. This can include international travel and study abroad or any travel or experiences within the US that have showed you new perspectives, cultures or languages. If you have not had the chance yet to travel, please share where you would like to travel and why. I have been traveling since a young age, so I have many experiences that have prepared me for the global engineering RAP. I first traveled outside of the country at a very young age. I went to South Africa to visit my mom’s family. She grew up there and she still has a lot of family who live there. Part of the reason my mom took me there was so that she could show me what it was like outside of America. She showed me that being in poverty means different things in America than it does in other countries. In America you could be in poverty but still have a house and a bed to sleep in. In other countries, like South Africa, if you’re in poverty you don’t have a roof over your head. You don’t have a place to sleep at night. You have to do everything you can just to get the bare minimum for survival. By traveling to South Africa and listening to my mom’s stories from there, I have realized that there are so many people who don’t have the privileges that we have living in America. My mom always wanted me to have a greater perspective on the world. This is what led her to get a job doing customer service at the airport. Her job at the airport gave us travel benefits that made traveling affordable for us. Since she’s had that job I have traveled to Mexico, England, Ireland, Spain, and Belgium. It was very interesting to see what life is like in all of the different countries. My favorite trip was my trip to Spain. It was a fun challenge to try and use the Spanish I was learning in school, to try and communicate with the people there. I really liked the culture in Spain. Unlike in the United States, in Spain they have lunch much later than we do. Their lunch is the biggest meal of the day. This fills them up so they are able to stay out later at night. Spain has a really cool nightlife. It felt like the city was alive at night because everyone was outside going to different bars and there was a lot of music being played out in the streets. I loved being able to experience a different lifestyle than we have back in the United States. Another experience that helped prepare me for the Global Engineering RAP was my trips to Mexico. I went to Mexico when I was 14 and again this year when I turned 17. Since I was older, I was able to notice the things my mom pointed out in South Africa. I noticed the extreme poverty and the people who aren’t as privileged as we are. This made me realize that I want to use my studies to help change the world. I want to help with these major global issues like poverty. I want to be able to use my privilege to help others who aren’t as privileged.