Scholarship Essay

Tell us your story. Who are you and who do you want to become?

Right now I am a 18 year old, male college freshman, and like thousands of other 18 year old, male college freshman, who I am right now is significantly dependent on what I want to become. Starting with my very first teacher asking the class what we wanted to be when we grow up, I began thinking of a myriad of things. Some of my fellow classmates to this day still don't have the right answer to that question, however, throughout my life I have had a impassioned idea of what I wanted to do - I want to be an industrial designer. While I called it many different things growing up, industrial design (ID) is a profession where you can design anything. From the complexities of a car to the relative simplicity of a thumb tack, the field of ID encompasses a staggeringly broad range of design. One of the most intriguing aspects about the field is that as an industrial designer, it is your job to create the ways in which a person interacts with their man-made world. The interaction between human and object is extremely important, and is such a intrinsic part of our everyday lives that the ability to artfully alter or create new ways of interaction gives one the capacity to fundamentally change the way in which our society conducts itself. Personally, I view ID as a responsibility, and I ultimately aspire to be able to express this responsibility, be it to the protection of the environment or the betterment of society, through ID. When I was born, one of the first things my doctor said to my family was, “Sam is going to be one of life's big people.” While I understand that he was referring to the fact that I would eventually grow to a height of six and a half feet, I feel compelled to reveal a significantly greater truth in that humble statement.