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Last year I was really busy with a lot of things: studying, activities and some college preparation. During this, I did not give myself time to relax or give the people in my life. I used to visit my grandma each Friday, but as I was busy I did not visit her for like 2 months. She was always asking about me and my mother told her I am studying. Then it was my exams, and I visited her after I finish my exams immediately, but the day before my exams she passed away. I was choked, sad because of a lot of aspects. She passes away before I visit here; I hadn't seen her for like 2 or 3 months. Until now I didn't know how I went to school and finished my exams, but this period was so hard and changed my life. After this, I started to realize how dumb I was and how I destroy all my relationships either with friends and family members. I realized that even my future and studying are important, but the people in my life are of the same importance. I can't just ignore them because I'm confident that they are here, existed, and whenever I want them, I will find them because it is not. When I want my grandma, she was not here, and when I was sad and wanted my best friend, she was not there because I destroyed any connection between us. I just want to tell you please don't destroy your relationships but the idea of (they will be always here) give yourself a time to break, relax and talk to your friends, your family and ensure that the bond between you is still strong.

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You are responsible for the pursuit, not the result

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You are responsible for the pursuit, not the result

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İ think that is my first lesson in my life that İ have learned
So.... How when ?

The story begins since İ was a hard worker in my secondary and preparatory school
So i used to study hard to get a high results and it was happening alhamdoleallah
Then while i was in Grade 9 İ began to think about studying more to get a higher and higher results because as i thought it is not an easy year and it requires a big effort
So all of my friends were thinking about how to enroll in STEM schools i wasn't like them i just wanted to get best results
So then i got a good results and the year passed and it's time to prepare to the acceptance test for STEM school
Then I prepare for it.........
After that The day that i was afraid from it had come
I take the 4 test I felt like i didn't answer well and i won't be accepted so then I continued my life with no sadness with no care about what will happen
And what will be the results "for the first time"
Then after few days the results have emerged
And guess what.....
I 've been accepted!!!
From this day I learnt that we must do all what we can do and don't think about the results
Because God will reward you as much as you worked hard❤️
Note : My mom helps me a lot and that made me stronger❤️

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Actually I wish I could  stop bullying in my community. I am calling for facing and stop bullying. When I was a child I was bullied by many collegues and they usually made fun of me infront of my all friends. Even my close friends were affected and they also began making fun of me! And that really was hurting me every day when I go to school. When I come back, I spend a lot of time crying!. I felt with deep pain inside my heart whenever someone bullied or made fun of me infront  of everyone and that probably was reducing my self-confidence day by day. BUT I always wanted to show for them that I am strong and not broken easily by what they do and I usually managed in this but the when I come back home, I remember all of that and I cry!
My contribution: I always try being with the people who are bullied and not liked by anyone and they know and feel that so I make friendships with them , I laugh and try talking a lot with them or even playing, I do that to make them feel that they're still beloved by many people. And from my experience those people who are bullied usually have lack of self-confidence , introverted and sad.
We can face bullying by many ways: one of them is :for example: when a bully tells you: "you are an idiot " ..you can answer  saying " oh! do you  think I'm an idiot , yeah  sometimes I do stupid things that's true,.. you are awesome"😁
Always remember fighting back is not the solution for stopping a bully.
Here's a video that will help deal with a bully in a smart way!
And also guys there is a very good video on YouTube called: How to stop a bully ...it's really nice .I recommend you watch it.

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A year ago, at the end of January 2020, I had a breakdown that I am still suffering from. For many years, I have been storing many mental health issues that I've never thought they would leave me wanting to do nothing after I couldn't pass a day without finishing my to do list and more. And what made it worse is that I realized what I had done to myself too late.  So, what change do I want to make? I want people to stop taking their mental health for granted! It's not. Stop taking care of every little physical scar you get while ignoring your shredded mental health! I want people, especially in Egypt, to understand what mental health is. I want parents to understand how to boost their kids' mental health, not destroy it, and I want to normalize going to psychologists or psychiatrists. After I began to realize all of this, I thought of going to a psychologist. But my parents would never understand, so I decided to help myself on my own. I began to give time for myself to love, and appreciate her, cause in the end, she is the only person that will be here for me. Little things like spoiling yourself with a breakfast made with love, skipping your daily routine, and doing something fun really make a difference. This led to me being a more mature person capable of understanding myself. Yes, this awful period is still going on, but it has been great for myself discovery. I would never ever know how vulnerable, caring, persistent, and sensitive I am without this time. So, now, I am thankful to it, yet trying to get it over. In the future, I really want people to stop their awful periods, I know people suffering from it for years, and they are still not realizing what is going on. I have joined a mental health NGO aiming to spread awareness all over Egypt, and all over the MENA Region as well. I really hope I can make a difference for at least one soul.

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Being a human gives you massive powers that can change the world. You should never underestimate neither yourself nor others. Everyone can make a difference only if they want to. I will give some examples that hopefully will prove my words because some people to this day do not understand how much power they have within them.
1.A musician: a musician to some people isn't important. Although we have to mention that some type of music that is listened to by teenagers don't spread an important message so I am not talking about these. I am talking about music that has lyrics that send powerful messages. Some of them do work on some people by changing their perspectives, boost their confidence or even changing their mood. So that means that musicians can indeed make a difference.
2. Doctors, nurses: Being a doctor requires a lot of skills. It's far from being an easy job. Imagine taking responsibility for a person's life regardless of who that person is ( a mother, a father, a sibling, an elder, a friend,....etc). Imagine this patient's family or friends looking at you with eyes full of desperation to take care of their beloved one and keep him alive. That's why not anyone can become a doctor. A doctor has to have morals and has to be a reliable person as he can be the reason why you have another day to live ( if God wants to ) or be the death of you if he wasn't a person with morals and good intentions.
2. A student: like us we have power, we can solve some of the problems that our community is suffering from. We just have to put it in our minds. I have participated before in different competitions to try to take part in solving the communities problems by proposing ideas and inventions that may be of good use. Like " "Taqqadam" or "Intel ISEF" these are some examples. Although I have won some of them, I am not satisfied as I can't see them implemented in my community but I think that is because the community or authority are not taking us seriously and these competitions aren't taken seriously either but when you know that you can implement them in the future yourself when you can be heard you will realise your power.
There are a lot of different examples, I can go on for ages. Now I am aware that I can make a difference and that no idea is silly or stupid, it may need improvement. Remember that all the inventions now we're only a thought that people thought were stupid like the phone in your hands who could have thought back then that you will have a device the size of your palm that you use for absolutely everything? The moral of the story is that you have to believe in yourself and do your best in every experience or opportunity you are granted/given. Realise how you can be of good use. Try to prove your power by helping people/ community not by destroying them. Peace and good personalities always win.

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When I was young I used to be a little bit shy and I didn’t feel comfortable when I was surrounded by a lot of people I remember that I used to sit by myself at school because I was afraid of people judging me or finding me not good enough, I also remember that I was seeking perfection to satisfy the people that I am surrounded with so I wasn't acting like what I feel most of the time so that’s why I never felt comfortable. One day I told my parents that I don’t want to go to school anymore and I kept crying and then they taught me an important lesson that changed my life completely they told me as long as we’re living we must communicate and that communication is the key to solve any problem and dad told me that if I want to enjoy my life I should step out of my comfort zone and I did! The following day I went to school and I sat with my classmates in the garden, It was hard for me but I made it, they were friendly and I remember making my first friend there we’re friends for 11 years now! I went back home and I was really happy and since then I became more confident and more courageous to try something new and take the risk! I will always be grateful to my parents for always pushing me forward and having my back. Finally, my advice for whoever is reading this is to never waste your time on expecting how people think of you, make them know who you are and yeah never keep yourself trapped in your comfort zone cause you’ll be missing out a lot ;) .

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Growing up as black in America I always say things through a different lens than other people who may not have experience and there was a point in my life where I moved schools and was the only black child in my grade. I immediately noticed the difference in education available when I compared it to the school I used to attend in a predominately black area. The resources available were so plentiful and there was an abundance of everything but in black neighborhoods it isn't like that. Education is the foundation for everything and I felt like why aren't certain people given the same foundation in order to succeed. I want every student of color to have a fighting chance in America and to be able to compete with their white peers without their parents having to "move out of the hood". They should be given this same education no matter where they live and how much money their parents make.

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August 27th 2017. That is the day that turned everything around. I had just received the news that my grandfather had passed away in a car accident due to a doctor not detecting some medical issues. My grandfather's death is what led me to realize that I want to make an actual impact in this world. I want to become a part of the healthcare force and prevent things like that from happening. Knowing how large of an impact an event like that has on a person, I now feel as though I am responsible for at least trying my hardest to save lives or at the minimum be a part of something that improves one's quality of life. Whether I end up in the medical field or not does not matter, all that matters is that I bring some good into this world.

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It is not a story but something that I really think about a lot.

the most thing that I want to be totally not present in that world is poverty.
I always feel so sad when I think about poverty because we live in such a world that has people who are so rich and people who are so poor and don't have even access to food, what makes me angrier that those rich people there a great number of them doesn't think about how harsh live those people think and don't even help them.
there are families who grew and found themselves poor, and there are other families who weren't poor but because of wars and some non-sense political arguments they damaged their lives and make the citizens of these countries not just poor but also feel in fear every day.
I am not saying to be all of us rich because I think that is non-sense but I want all humans to live the life that a human deserves.
why I am talking about that because in Egypt the poverty percentage increases and every day you find people who are homeless and sleep in the streets why is that happening that is heartbreaking, That issue is not just in Egypt that is in the whole world.
Getting rid totally of poverty will be achieved by our collaboration to save those who need our help and by achieving peace in the whole world.

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A Teacher  diagnosised with cancer in  a late stage
When i was in 7 grade, i found  a difficulty of understanding math good , but  the way that my teacher was explaining it  and solving the complicated equations ( He was solving it playing puzzels) made me love math and want to challenge myself to solve these equations like he did. gradually  i became execllent at math. He  has supported me a lot of times. Actually, i couldn't forget his look to me when i solved some difficult equations.  Unfortunately, my teacher was diagnosised with cancer in a late stage and it's known that  there aren't any cures for cancer in a late stage  althrough it was a really hard and painful, in addition that was so tired be cause of it my teacher  didn't stop teaching and making jokes with us. Unfortunately, he losed his battle with cancer and died. It  was really such a tough time for me, But at this time i  have decided that i want to  a doctor,  i want to do my Best to save more people lives as i can. I hate to see someone loses his life as there isn't  an effective cure for that disease. I  also realized that when someone loses his life, we don't  lose his soul only we also  lose many  souls and hearts of his beloveds

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I want to bring peace to this world. I am tired of witnessing the brutality of this world suffocating those who are weak. I am tired of seeing refugees seek shelter in the agonizing cold. I am tired of seeing small children watching their houses get bombed. I am so so tired of seeing them live in constant fear of not knowing what this world has in store for them. I can never convey the ache they go through, it has become a routine, to fall under injustice, to be treated poorly because of your race, religion or anything that makes you "different". Yet, I am determined to change that. I am fixated on doing everything in my power to aid them. Thought, I might not currently have the power to entirely change how things are at the moment, I believe every little action could make the difference, leading to the vision I have, leading to world peace.

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in 29 August 2019, my mother was waking me up to tell me the best thing in my life. It was the change point in my life My mom told me this time that I had been accepted to my dream high school which students apply their learning in scientific research projects. I remember My happiness in that time is not forgettable. Before STEM, I was an introvert who is sitting alone most of time. After STEM, I became more extrovert because of all the support I was receiving from my friends that I must interact with them in the dorm and school projects. I learned that the adaptation is the theme of anything in our life. The environment around us imposes us to communicate and contribute.

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When I was young, at the age of ten, I faced a problem, which was my inability to make friends at school or with neighbors.  Personally, I was very introverted, but I was not happy with this situation and I was always sadly watching the rest of my colleagues laughing and talking and having a good time together, but I was still alone.  So I went to another class in the school and met my first friend (he was called Faris), and when he saw me sit alone, he came and sat with me and started talking to me and laughing, so he was my first friend and he made me get to know the other students in the class and on this day I got to know me  Many friends, and I was very happy, and I got rid of loneliness and made wonderful friends for me and became aware of how to be new friends.
I kept this way until I reached high school in the school and went to a new school, and from the first day of school I was able to make many new friends in this school, but I found a boy sitting alone in the classroom, then I remembered myself when I was young and when I was facing the same  The problem, so I rushed to him and sat with him and talked to him, and he told me that he is happy that I spoke with him and that he feels that he is now a new person. Then I understood that this problem is not easy and it is faced by many young people, which affects them negatively in their lives, their psyche and even their work!  We have to take care of these people.  They really suffer a lot, and we can help them just by going to them and getting to know them. They wish to have friends, so we must take the initiative and talk to them and make them feel that they are not alone and that we are all with them and we are their friends.

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Broken glasses, football and good greats.

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Broken glasses, football and good greats.

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First, I fell in love with football when I was 6years old, my cousin was a very big fan of the beautiful game.
so, we played together in the street, at the school I wasn't the best or even good at football and the more I aged, the more I fell in love with football and the more I played football in school.

Till one day, I was playing with people who I barely know, and the ball was high, and I jumped to get it with my heel and suddenly I heard the sound of glasses breaking, I looked back and a guy was angry because his glasses were broken, so I ran away for the rest of the day, and before I tell you what happened after that I will go back to my academic life, It was pretty good and my parents were really satisfied by my grades and it was easy at the time management , back to the broken glasses after the school my dad called me and we talked together and asked me "Why did you play with them?" , so I replied "BECAUSE I LOVE FOOTBALL", he offered me to train at the football academy of a certain club...…and that's how it all started.

I trained for 1 year and I knew that there was try outs after 1 month, actually it was a very hard month 30 days working out for 5 hours at least daily, when that day came I was really nervous, I tried hard but I wasn't accepted.

Continued training at the academy for another year, till the next try outs at the same club and other club, trained for 1 month this month I worked harder than the other month.
This try out I was determined to succeed but I failed at one so I told myself "this one will be the one".
failed at the other and my friend succeeded even though I worked harder.
when I went home they expected that I failed "again"

Then the miracle happened!!!
my mother told me that a coach wanted me to play with his team at the next season at the league, after lots lots of tryouts and I leveled up to play with the older guys, played a very very awesome season, but at the academic level the time management was very hard at this point for example: every Sunday I woke up at 6:00 am, went to school, after I had a lesson at 1:00 pm then, a training session at 5:30 pm so I finish the lesson and the club was very far from the school so it took me 2 hours to get there but, at this moment I realized that god saved this opportunity for me, to test my passion.
After that season.

The corona pandemic came!
I worked out for 6 months 3 hours daily, and the results were amazing.
and continued the JOURNEY to becoming a pro football player

Thank you.

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On 11th Oct 2018, my mother took an overdose on acetaminophen. Suddenly, she fainted and we took her quickly to a nearby hospital. The emergency crew faced a really complicated decision. They couldn’t determine whether my mother needed a liver transplant, as they couldn’t know how much of the drug was ingested. Luckily, an experienced doctor did some math and decided promptly that my mom required a liver transplant to survive. I thank god that she was well after the surgery. I was interested to know the doctor saved my mom’s life. He told me that using only four common medical lab tests, Fred Adler, a biomathematician, created some calculus equations to estimate how many painkillers patients took when they swallowed it and
whether they will require a liver transplant to survive so it becomes easier for doctors to save them.
This doctor’s passion for research distinguished him among others which drove me to take interest in scientific research. I saw biomathematics as a precision world that saves people’s lives. Accordingly, I decided that biomathematics would be my major. Helping people conclusively has become a principle that will never be dispensed with.

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It was back in May 2020 when the largest oil spill ensued; had it not occurred, I would have never had a glance at my inner intellectual that was unfolding and unprecedently unleashed to be at the forefront and retaliate the water resources global disaster.

Despite my incapability to synthesize any immediate alteration in the course of events back then, this has altogether implanted a seed that gave birth to new ambitions, objectives, and a new entirety: I had a glimpse of the dynamics of this world, witnessed its agitation in the ocean acidification, the wildfires, and the ice thawing rendering extinction of precious habitants. However, had a glance of its blooming in the rainbow mountains, felt its generosity in rainfall nourishing arid lands, and saw it shelter its wanderers.

Ever since I have been bestowed upon with this vision, I relentlessly devised numerous plans to assist in wetland conservation, and luckily when I first stepped into the gate of researching, my first-semester project at school was surrounding the combat of water scarcity, which essentially relies on wetland conservation.

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As a child, I was drawn to breaking toys, seeing how they work and what they consist of, and trying to rebuild them and show if they will work or not and try to make them work again. Growing up did not change my curiosity to solve the unsolvable. When I was in grade7, I heard about STEM school in Egypt. I studied hard to be part of this community; overnight, I woke up from my sleep, found myself away from my home, shared my room, and lived with other people. In the first year in a STEM school, I knew what exactly is the technology and how we can make a mobile application, website, or even a robot, and I saw the technology in a different look not like when I was a child many wires connect to a circuit to make a toy. So I decide to change myself, and I learn many things about technology. I solved many challenges using it in just one year. So I decided to improve myself and complete what I began.

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I've always been alone. I'm an only child and while I had a good childhood, it was spent mostly alone, playing by myself. I found that, even if I tried to make friends, they always left. They left and never came back. So, I relied on myself. Perhaps that's why I now struggle with keeping friends, as I'm able to make them but now I'm the one who leaves in order to make sure they don't leave first.

After moving to my new home, I lost almost everything. I not only lost my friends, but also the thing I thought I'd have forever; my home. I was all alone. So, I grew closer to my family. As I did this, as well as just growing up, I began to learn more about my family. I saw beyond the masks they put on for me as a child and instead saw the loneliness that they all felt. Especially my grandma. She's nearing 95 years and over the past 4 that I've spent with her, I've watched her drift more and more and I've seen her lose her ability to be with others, not only because she can't move, but also because she can't stay in the conversations that we all have.

Now, with my interest in robotics, I'd like to create something. A thing that fills the gap that loneliness makes. Not necessarily a person, but something that acts like a friend. Whether that's a robot or an animatronic human, I'd like to make it. I think engineering and robotics are really my only friends now, and because of this, I'd like to share that with others so that they don't feel so alone either. While I may not be able to figure this out in my lifetime, I'd still like to work towards my goal.

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I can't think of a specific story on the certain topic that I am going to talk about but I have experienced this a lot.

Everybody talks behind someone's back at least one time in their life. I've noticed a lot of people in my school who I talk to talk behind people's backs all the time. Commenting on anything they don't like or think that is weird. Whenever I hear this or am apart of this kind of conversation I try to say I am uncomfortable speaking behind someone's back but I am definitely guilty of it too. Doing this makes me feel very uncomfortable when I'm around the person who is being talked about and feel guilty and bad even if I was not particularly apart of the conversation. I just really want talking behind people's backs to become less common at least in my community and want people to be more honest. Nowadays whenever a conversation like I have been talking about pops up I try to end it with the other people knowing that it is important and that it can cause harm.

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It's hard for me to come up with a specific story about my life.

However, one important lesson I have learned over the years is to just believe in myself and to put in the hard work to achieve what I want. A lot of students in my school are competitive and do so many things to get into colleges. I learned to just focus on doing and what I am passionate about, not worrying about everyone else. For the past 5 years, I have been doing robotics. I fell in love with robotics when I was part of FLL (First Lego League) robotics competition team in 5th grade. Robotics, and STEM as a whole, was an inspiring subject for me. It is so powerful and so many things can be done with it. Now, in the high school robotics team I am part of, I hope to give back to the community by helping organize outreach events to the local community to inspire younger students to pursue engineering. Currently as well as over the past summer, I have spent hours learning to code. I self learned coding languages, such as C++ and Java, and am learning to use app frameworks, Android Studios and Qt. Last month, I applied my knowledge to build an app which I released to the Google Play Store. In the future, I hope to apply these skills to build a mobile app to spread awareness on environmental issues such as littering and how to recycle more.

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I love helping people and taking care of them. When my Grandpa got sick and had to go to the hospital I took care of my Grandma. When my Dad gets sick I take car of my mom. I believe that is why I want to be a doctor. Helping people has always been something I've loved. Ever since I was a small child. A lot of people think I put too much pressure on myself. Maybe I do. But if I have to work a little bit harder to but a smile on the face of someone I love I'll do it with no regrets. I work hard and make my family proud.

My story is no where close to done. I have many goals and hardships I will have to face. But I believe that they will only make me stronger.

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How I will eventually spend every single day of my life is a question I have contemplated since I could properly think. I think that most people can relate to this and maybe undergo the same pressure, fear, and angst as I do. I grew up (am still growing up) in a family of extremely talented and wonderful people who all have either made it or are most definitely going to. Both my parents are high achievers and expect nothing less from their children. Consequently, my older brothers are no different. I think around age 8 was the first time I began to panic about not measuring up to my family's standards. My brother Owen was only in middle school, but I remember him freaking out about any grade below an A+. My parents didn't pressure him or even mean for this to happen, but their perfect role modeling set him up for outstanding expectations. Being a hard worker himself, of course he graduated high school as valedictorian and got full rides at multiple colleges. Yes, it sounds like I'm bragging, I know, but his massive success actually gave me an underlying anxiety and pressure of being enough. All my life I've had every opportunity I could hope for and every support and encouragement from my parents that I should be able to do anything and everything. At the end of the day, however, I just don't have the motivation to, and the failure will be my very own fault. I want to enjoy life, and set myself up for years of happiness and productivity, but the "perfect" environment I grew up in has given me a million fears of "What happens if I can't?" Even now that I am able to recognize this in myself, I still doubt myself everyday and it is a struggle I am constantly working to overcome. I hope that other people who share the same gut-wrenching anxiety about their futures know that it is okay to not be perfect, and it will be alright. Life is not a never-ending system of tests and daily work load- it is a blank canvas waiting for you to make it yours.

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It is hard for me to pinpoint my story. I feel like I have done so many things but also not done enough. When I was little I always believed that I would be able to do everything I ever wanted in life. I could be a famous singer and actor and an amazing doctor and an author and that I could do all of that while secretly saving the world. As I've grown a little more I still believe I can do whatever I want. But I also realized that what we do or what jobs we have don't determine our impact or quality of life. I now know the most important things in the world to me which are, traveling, meeting people, having conversations, and helping others. My dad is the biggest inspiration in my life. No one believes me when I tell them that he's never told a lie, but it's true, he hasn't. He lives life so purely, authentically, and always with the intentions and determination to help others. He also puts his all into all that he does, and I feel blessed that I get to know him and know such a pure-hearted amazing person. I don't really know how to tell my entire story but I hope that one day that people could think and speak of me as I do of my dad.

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In a typical American suburb and a typical public high school, everything seems perfectly fine at the surface level. But if you look closer, you see a whole host of issues. Growing up, I have witnessed more and more of my peers suffering from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, low confidence, and many other mental health disorders. It has become apparent to me that my generation has the highest rates of mental health issues compared to any other. This is a problem I observed in my community, but it is a global concern. The root of this problem is social media and more broadly, the digital/information age.

As a Gen-Zer (zoomer), I want to be part of the driving force that brings an end to the devastating side effects of social media. I hope to study psychology and healthcare to better understand the diseases we face now, and fields like public health interest me all the more.

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How the environment I live in determined the way I live my life

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How the environment I live in determined the way I live my life

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I live in a city called Newark, which is known for being pretty poor and kind of dangerous. My family personally isn't poor (we're not rich either though), but there are many impoverished and homeless people around me. There are many areas in Newark that are especially bad, where there are a lot of abandoned houses, trash on the streets, and drug addicts walking around. I am so greatful to not live in these areas, but they are not far from me. It is so terrifying to think about growing up and ending up like the people I see in my environment. Because of that, I have turned into a super-perfectionist. My expectations for myself are impossible, whether that's my grades in school, my social interactions, everything. I am constantly seeking personal validation which has led me to many mental health issues and stressors throughout my life. I don't like to talk to other people about my problems because I'm such a guarded and independent person, which has often caused me to feel trapped in my emotions. I always tell myself that the challenges I go through will all be worth it when I grow up and am able to take care of myself and my family financially, but it gets very hard at times. Nevertheless, I push myself every day to be a leader in my community and stop the cycle of poverty and failure that plagues the people around me.

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..And after the final trial, we eagerly waited for our name to be called, but it did not and all hope was lost

Well, that was a bit anticlimactic…

Imagine being assigned a mission whose success or failure would determine the future of humanity, now imagine being put in a team where you all had to work towards that life-altering goal with no prior experience. The stakes are high, so are the risks, nonetheless, you accept the challenge. I did not have to imagine for I went through that during my participation in the MineSweepers Robotics competition, where my team and I had to build a robot using raw materials to detect minefields in a 20-meter by 20-meter field.

Indeed, the minefields were not actual explosives but were instead metallic cube, however, the theme did not fail in making my heartbeat race, for we were responsible for ridding the world of landmines. During the preparation, while tightening the screws, planning our route on the field and researching the best fast food restaurant in the area our team leader was slowly losing his grip on reality due to falling ill, till he announced he was unfit to lead anymore.

The team elected me as their leader, they believed in my abilities to guide them towards our target, however, I was hesitant, although I end up in various leadership positions I was still unsure about my skills and qualities. Regardless, giving up was not an option, despite the hard work our robot -ramy- was a bit "wonky" yet he was our child that we nurtured and created so we loved him unconditionally however we still had our doubts about his capabilities.

Fast forward to judgement day, the competition day. It is essential to mention that we have to play 3 trials to qualify for the actual judging (giving a presentation), only the top 10 teams will win awards. Aaand our robot broke down as well as the metal detecting sensor, hope was gradually seeping from my eyes, yet my team needed me, for it was my duty to eliminate those morbid doubts and try to salvage what was left of ramy, loving him till the very end, yes he may have kept beeping and giving false positives while detecting mines, but we still cheered at the top of our lungs. We never expected to qualify to the finals. Nonetheless, if we were going to qualify we would be 10th place.

However, after the final trial, they started announcing the qualifying teams starting in descending order, we eagerly waited for our name to be called, but it was not and all hope was lost…

That is until they announced 9th place, for we were ecstatic to qualify, however, this meant we had to prepare a presentation overnight which did not go well. Yet, we won "best team spirit award" which was more fulfilling than winning first place.

Although my team and I worked hard in the technical aspects, what mattered and what impressed those around us was our connection, our trust, our passion, and our spirit. Which heavily altered my outlook on life and my approach to solving problems.

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I'd always wanted to delve into fashion, and better express myself through clothing but I didn't feel worthy. Anything objectively good brought attention I was scared of, so i instinctively pushed aside my inclination for the craft. This troubling duality ridden my life of purpose and expression, until began to feel more comfortable with who I was. I had all the ideas, but without the medium they were useless. That is until I received the xmas present of a sherpa jean jacket. It fit perfectly, and looked even better. In it, I felt the best I had ever felt. MY outwardly appearance also saw inward growth, I spoke more emphatically, and was more amicable, and I truly felt seen.

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I was always a fan of cinema. Since I was young and father always watched Hollywood movies and consequently I grew up with the same connection with movies.
2 years ago, I wanted to be more cultivated in the history of movies and its evolution. So, I set a watchlist of all the famous classics. Some of them I liked and some I dindn't . And one day I watched a film called Amadeus. It is based on a play with the same name. I won't spoil this beautiful film for you but let's just say it is abou Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART. And with every piece of music played in this movie, I witnessed my soul elevate and fly around the room. The music of the prodigy Mozart touched my heart. And made me realize the greatness of the classical music.
So, I was hooked to these beautiful pieces of music and played on repeat all time. And then I took the decision of relearning piano. And ever since I've been playing piano for t least 4 hours a day. Now, I not only appreciate classical music, but I also perceive music in general in a totally different way.  I am now having a diploma in piano performance.
And I think that me and Einstein have something in common: We both are music and physics enthusiasts. And as he said: If I won't be a scientist myself I think I would be a musician.

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It all started when I was in the 9th grade and my exam results came out. I wasn't able to enter STEM school which was my one and only goal. Everything was bad at that time, I felt the worst feeling ever. I felt hopeless. I was always that dreamy girl who always talks about what she intends to do once she achieves her dream. I felt that the shield which I used to face moments of despair with had smashed. From my experience, hopelessness is that moment when we stand unable to change a concrete reality, where we stand and can do nothing, and in the worst case, it's when you even can't stand. But I learned that hopelessness is not bad! as it has its disadvantages, it also has its advantages. Like a heavy rain, you cannot control it, but you can prevent a flood, just as you cannot control your feelings but you can control yourself. It may take a lot of effort, but it's enough to prevent a catastrophe that could engulf you. If your shield which you used to face life's difficulties, became cracked and worn out, do not give up! Make a new shield made with passion and fight! Search for a new way to achieve your goal and enjoy your journey to it. It's cool to know what you want to achieve but you better do not restrict yourself in one thing and put a limit on your life. That feeling was one of my greatest blessings. Hopelessness was a radical change in my life. Of course, I gave up for a while, but because of my friends and my family's support, all of sudden I decided that I could achieve what I wanted to achieve inside STEM school but outside it on my own, I've taken courses in STEM fields. I'm interested in Japanese culture so I decided to put all the things I love together in one pot and try something new. Since my sister has majored in Japanese, she encouraged me to join an NGO that aims to spread lifelong learning and community education similar to the Japanese Komikan Centers, I became a social education coordinator, organized a 3R workshop and I was a coordinator for a session about education for SDGs with Okayama University Which I'd never imagined myself to do! I'm still on my journey to achieve what I wanted but in a different way.

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It hurts when I see you cry

You think I don’t see you

But I do

And I feel every tear

Sometimes you cry with your words

Sometimes you cry with your smile

Sometimes you cry with a wave goodbye

I see people crying

All the time

And I feel lost

What can I do to make you stop?

I can dry your eyes

I can wrap you in a hug

I can listen to your story

But tomorrow you will cry again

You will cry again because it still hurts

And there is pain all around

And you are drowning

I am drowning too

The world weeps

As it holds broken souls

Who chase away their pain

With artificial happiness

I can give you my love

And when you cry

I will help you feel better

So you can cry again

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The title sounds weird isn't it,but i have heard this sentence before,when i was little i loved to play a lot, make noise and jump everywhere,so some people from all ages called me a boy specially when they know that my favourite colour is blue, back then the colour pink was for girls and blue for boys,so that made me very sad  and makes me hate myself and don't want to be a girl anymore, i stopped going that place and went to a new place and there was the suprise, i saw people like me, love to play,jump and make noise and more importantly accepting me the way i am and taught me that being a girl is something beautiful,you aren't weak and being strong or fearless doesn't make you a boy, but this conclusion didn't come that easy, i have been through a lot since childhood, then in preparatory i was so confused am i a boy or a girl and is being a boy is better, i decided to be a boy in first prep and after this confusing year,  in second prep i decided that i am not a boy, i am a girl with different personality and i am proud of myself and I won't change except for myself not for people and their opinions, i would love to tell the children to be proud of themselves and to the the older people not to say such things to little children because they never forget and it stuck with them forever, so be a good talker , specially with children, they don't deserve to be disappointed or confused in life before even begin their life💙

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Even though I was born in America, I really never felt like I belong until I started putting myself out there. This included by not hiding my differences and starting to show people where I came from, and what meant to me. Once I started these things, I started gaining people who have the same interest as me. This was the moment I realized that my differences are what make me, me. Those differences that I felt that were bad, were actually the way I created a bridge between myself and others alike.

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My story about how car accidents changed our ways of thinking 

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My story about how car accidents changed our ways of thinking 

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At the last few weeks, I and my friends had three accidents. The day of the first accident was my friend’s birthday. At their way to their home they drive fast and they crashed into the wall on the fast road but fortunately the car moved away of the road. My friends are fine but if the car wasn’t move away of the road, there would be a very big accident. The second accident was with one of my friends. In his village, Mohamed and his cousin were driving the car and they play with it. They were driving it fast in cramped places. It is very dangerous. Suddenly, other car locked their way then they crashed into the pole. My friend Mohamed is fine but his cousin was hurt. His life was saved at the last seconds. Now, he is in the hospital and his health condition improved. The third accident with my friend Ahmed. Ahmed is crazy with cars. He like cars very much. He drives fast every day in the fast road. last Friday, He went with me and my friends to drive cars. He drives it so fast and in his way to his home he falls into the lake. Fortunately, man was behind the lake and saw the car when it fall
s into the lake. The man saved him miraculously. So driving cars is not easy. It needs training and we shouldn’t drive cars fast. I and my friends promised ourselves that we will not drive cars on this way. We will go out on foot rather than driving cars. When we return back to drive cars again, we will drive carefully. I and my friends think about a program to educate people about the dangers of driving quickly. These accidents make us very careful and care because we saw the die with our eyes.

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i always believed in the power of believing. believing in yourself that you can achievement something ,you will achieve it even if it is far from reach because your brain will believe anything you say to it and will try so hard to achieve because it does not have a personality of it is own and I have tries both. Trusting myself and i achieved the impossible which was to enter the STEM Alex school in Egypt. i didn't trust myself and failed to get accepted at a certain precollege program. believing in yourself it a true super power use it!

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Transgender people are one of a the groups at the highest risks of hate crimes in America. They face discrimination in healthcare, employment, education, sports, and in day to day life. This is because so many people do not understand trans people, and so they become hateful towards them. Last year I realized that I myself am transgender. I was relieved to understand myself better, but I was so scared for my future because I knew that many people wouldn't accept me. Thankfully my family and close friends were accepting, but I know that many trans people are not as lucky as me. I have so many fears for the future, being bullied, harassed, or discriminated against. But I am also hopeful for the future too. Trans people have been fighting for their rights for decades, and we will continue to fight for equality. I know that things will continue to get better.

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When I volunteered at a garden, it felt good giving back to my community. The garden would be used to grow food for the shelters in the area. It was also very fun working in the garden with my friends. I also go to volunteer at a food pantry where I would set up bags of food for people who need it. In both instances, I was glad I got the chance to give back to my community. I also learned to appreciate the things I have more.

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Since the very beginning, I believed in the power of solitude. My community never made it easy for me to make a friend, or share passions, or problems, or offer solutions. And the feeling that I was stuck in a small bubble with no one included but my mother, sister and grandmother, made my life feel so bad and depressing. But it also taught me something: observing, and concluding. Thinking and imagining. That’s all I do as someone who is 24/7 NOT included in any conversations about a girl’s hair routine and relationship problems, because those are the topics that interest people of my age so much. So, instead of going into the normal stage of ‘teenaging’ as a ‘normal teenager’. I found myself being an observer of everyone around me as they go through it all. The stages, changes, who has found their friend, who hasn’t. It made me feel like I was looking at everything from a television screen. And what I concluded, as an outcome, was how ignorance, and the lack of appreciation of anything beautiful or anyone who is different, has affected culture, and people. The guy who drove the car that made me chock on the road is ignorant. The person who decided to cut down a whole garden with trees that aged more than me and you, to turn it into football fields is ignorant. The people who are always trying to make you feel small and unimportant and forgotten, are ignorant. The fact that there is not one bookstore in my community or anywhere near it, and I have to go across the city to buy a book or two, proves ignorance. As an artist, all I can do is express this problem by a brush and a set of pencils, or maybe a few melodies on my guitar. I came up with suggestions, for specific fields. I read, and attend this program, because I will not be ignorant. And I believe that by trying hard enough, I will solve this. We could solve this, and bring back manners and knowledge that have been long lost for over centuries.

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Since the very beginning, I believed in the power of solitude. My community never made it easy for me to make a friend, or share passions, or problems, or offer solutions. And the feeling that I was stuck in a small bubble with no one included but my mother, sister and grandmother, made my life feel so bad and depressing. But it also taught me something: observing, and concluding. Thinking and imagining. That’s all I do as someone who is 24/7 NOT included in any conversations about a girl’s hair routine and relationship problems, because those are the topics that interest people of my age so much. So, instead of going into the normal stage of ‘teenaging’ as a ‘normal teenager’. I found myself being an observer of everyone around me as they go through it all. The stages, changes, who has found their friend, who hasn’t. It made me feel like I was looking at everything from a television screen. And what I concluded, as an outcome, was how ignorance, and the lack of appreciation of anything beautiful or anyone who is different, has affected culture, and people. The guy who drove the car that made me chock on the road is ignorant. The person who decided to cut down a whole garden with trees that aged more than me and you, to turn it into football fields is ignorant. The people who are always trying to make you feel small and unimportant and forgotten, are ignorant. The fact that there is not one bookstore in my community or anywhere near it, and I have to go across the city to buy a book or two, proves ignorance. As an artist, all I can do is express this problem by a brush and a set of pencils, or maybe a few melodies on my guitar. I came up with suggestions, for specific fields. I read, and attend this program, because I will not be ignorant. And I believe that by trying hard enough, I will solve this. We could solve this, and bring back manners and knowledge that have been long lost for over centuries.

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The first time I have every participated in a food pantry was in November. It made me happy to help people and hand out food. I enjoyed handing people food knowing that I could take the weight of their shoulders so that they could have a less stressful Thanksgiving weekend. I also was able to use thee small amount of Spanish skills that I had to help those who spoke Spanish. I was so happy to help them when no one else spoke Spanish at the pantry.

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( alert , this story may contain blood and some violence ) When i was 14 , on my way home while i was walking with my friend , i found like almost 4 kids and there's a cat in front of them ... and two of them were holding a stick ... i was watching them from far .. i didn't notice what they were doing , but after a few minutes i saw the cat shaking and trembling ... until it suddenly stopped moving and i saw blood under it...i was really shocked , especially that those kids' parents were watching them too but they did nothing about it ... they just hold the cat ( the dead body ) and put it beside some rubbish ...:) that was really scary to me , and i was so mad of their parents... i wasn't really shocked cause i'm used to see cats died on streets and lift beside some trash or sometimes they don't even lift them... not just cats , but dogs and even rats ... i'm just so mad how could people be so insensate ... don't they have any mercy ?! , this phenomenon is really common here in Egypt , maybe not in Cairo or the touring areas... but i wish i can change something... i can't forget what i've seen , and i wish the government starts to do anything about that ... when i grow up i want to open a shelter for those animals ...

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Life is like a movie, it has its start, its end and its climax. Every small event in your life, there is something you come out with, whether a new sight, an opinion or a new moral. Eventually you get closer and closer to full maturity and you start to understand life and accept death. I was that nerdy kid at school, my parents would always enroll me into courses and sports and I would always show interest at the start, but that interest would always fade away gradually and I would go back to where I started. On top of that, I changed schools and as many new kids, I was bullied. I didn’t have a character back then, I had no personality and was troubled, I could never control my anger and emotions and it destroyed me. After two years in the same school, I was not a new kid anymore and I had many friends, but the bullies were still in the school and I still considered them as bad people even though they stopped bullying me. I was also in my rebellious phase and I was always in trouble with my family. I got depression and felt alone, I also hid my depression, I started to store my feelings since showing them got me in a lot of trouble, but it was a bad decision and it made me feel more depressed. Come the summer vacation and I could finally process things by myself and not have choices to take with my classmates at school. I took a decision that I would fill the needs of my introvert personality and spend most of my time with myself. I started to leave my depression and when I left it, I became a different person. At that time, my goal was to get the best grades the coming year. At school, I tried to stay with myself most of the time and it ended with me being far away from my friends and my social life was really limited. Did the introvert me feel good about it? Yes. But every person needs people around him and needs relations and I certainly needed them, but I had to change the way I interact with people and start to feel that friend group around me. Yes I was happy but that happiness wouldn’t last long if I stayed the way I was. And so I decided that I would meet people, make friends and have fun. I learned that dealing with emotions wasn’t just two choices, it wasn’t either showing them all or storing them, you could just throw some emotions away or even express them to yourself. When I am with my friends, I release myself and say what’s in my mind. If I want to be alone, I just share my emotions with myself and stay in my mind and swim in my thoughts. If someone tries to be mean to me, I don’t give it back and instead I would find it funny and ignore it and go on with my life. My brain was the one in control but my heart was always there to come out when it was his turn. Now, I can talk to anyone and have fun with anyone. I learned to forgive everyone that hurt me and now my old bullies are my friends and no one tries to be mean to me as they know I wouldn’t get mad about it and would forget about it after a couple minutes. I have a lot of friend groups and I go out with many people. Currently, I’m looking at my future and am trying to shape it the way I want and this program is part of my way to shaping my future. Your way of thinking can easily change in small time intervals and living every part of that change is what gives you a unique mind and grants you long term happiness.

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I always knew I had a passion for helping others, but my love for it really expanded on the first day of my job as a caregiver for the elderly. My first client had a mental disability and she was of 50 years of age. I spent many days with her and giving her companionship and I learned so much. For me it raised awareness for those with mental disabilities and how they could have a hard time finding quality care. It also raised the question of how their brain is functioning. It is interesting the things she remembers and the things she doesn't. This had led be to be extremely interested in the brain, particularly the area of neuroscience.  I continue to work with patients with mental disabilites and even Alzheimer's. It has changed my outlook on behaviors and has motivated me to dive deeper into the power of the brain. I feel like we have so much potential as people and I feel as though we honestly do not know how to utilize our whole brain power.

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When I joined Scouts it was not just about shaping my character better It was also to serve my community and my environment in a lot of areas and  What made me sure of my desire to serve the community was my feeling of happiness when I was visiting a hospital that treats children and we made donations and we gave them gifts, I saw the joy in the children's eyes, and I felt the difference I make And I am very grateful to my chefs who used to serve the community before me and made me able to serve the community as well , And now we are all trying hard to help the community in many areas .

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Why are you overreacting? You know I didn't mean it right. Why do you act like this? Smile more. It sucks that society is already divided. Many people go through many different experiences and many people are not able to relate. We live in a society that is so diverse yet so divided. Where is that sense of community anymore. I believe its gone because people fail to understand each other. Many kids these days struggle mentally and physically. Adults do as well. But how come when it is a kid who says they have anxiety or depression Adults look down upon or say that they have not faced any hardships to have that condition. Many teens find it difficult to relate to each other so they tend to single each other out. Whoever is "nerdy" or "crybaby" or "ugly" or "fat." Many people fail to empathize and be supportive and tend to make others feel isolated. It's not right that just because you are "different" from the rest that you have to be targeted. People need to be more accepting.

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I have always felt very passionate about animal cruelty.  Whenever I hear about a case of animal cruelty, I feel very angry, because in most cases, the animal can not stand up for themselves and is very helpless. I learned that black cats are the least likely to get adopted from shelters because a lot of people believe they are bad because of the superstition that cats bring bad luck. I also learned that during October, some shelters don’t kept anyone adopt black cats because some people sacrifice them during rituals. It made me very sad to hear that because I have had 3 black cats in my life and they have always been so perfect and awesome. I also can barely believe that people believe in that superstition. I also hear about cruelty towards pit bulls and it makes me very sad, because the only reason people view pit bulls as dangerous is because a lot of pit bulls were raised as fighting dogs, but they can actually be very sweet if raised in a loving environment. I haven’t done much to make a difference, but I always adopt black cats when I can, and I try to tell people I know about it when I can.

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Peace is very important in our lives it makes our relationships stronger and makes us happy as well.

Since I was a kid I always loved to have peace between people, so for an example if a fight has happened between my friends I like to solve the problem and make them apologize to each other. A story that happened to me is that when I was a kid ( 6 years old ), I changed schools and actually it was a surprise because I didn't know about it, so when I knew it, I was so sad that I will leave my old school. I went to the new school and there was a bad kid who always bullied me, so I tried to figure it out and I found out that I could apologize to him even though he is the one who made the mistake ,but then we became friends and now he is my best friend.
This story was an act of peace which is trying to be good with others and be peaceful with them, but one important thing is that apologizing to someone even if you are right is not a sign of weakness but it is a sign of being strong and peaceful.

That made me a person who is loved by many person and a person who has may friends. Right now I'm looking forward to make a world without fights and wars and a world that has people who apologize easily because apologizing is something which is very hard for a lot of people, but apologizing (which is a way of being peaceful) is a very strong weapon that can make you a grateful person.

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“Change”, one of the most common fears in society. When I was in 6th grade, I had come to a point when I HAD to change schools because the pressure was becoming too much. My mom was the first one who noticed that the pressure of the school I was in was affecting me in a bad way, and she told me that she thinks it’s best for me if I changed schools. At first, I refused the idea completely like any other child my age would; I was scared I wouldn’t be able make new friends, people wouldn’t would like me or accept me and I mean no one could blame I was in the school for 8 years I couldn’t just leave. When I thought more about why my mom wanted to me to change schools, I noticed that she was right the pressure was affecting me in a bad way, but I just thought that all students my age were under the same pressure, until one day I decided to look at the school my mom wanted me to go to. When I looked at the school, I was very surprised, the students there that were in my grade weren’t under the same pressure, and they actually enjoyed school. When I saw that I was immediately intrigued and I started becoming more flexible with the change. By the end of that year, I was finally fully convinced and I did change schools. When some people think of change, they automatically think it’s bad, or they’ve been doing something bad that needs to change, when it doesn’t have to be that. Change can be good. It’s okay to fear change, but we can’t refuse change completely because if someone thinks that change should happen, most of the time it’s for the better.

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it all starts with, "you did that on purpose"  but it usually turns out to be  "i'm sorry i didn't notice". the brain, your mindset changes everything you see, everything you interpret and hence it changes your feelings. for as long as i can remember, i never forgave anyone, i always took things the complete opposite. it shocks me how your mindset and how you see things changes everything about a person. everyone has two eyes, and everyone sees 2 of every little detail of your life. you either choose to see it negatively or positively. and it will affect you either negatively or positively. i had a friend who hit me once in training and i chose to see that it was in purpose. after months of deep sadness, i've come to the realization that it is me who affects me, it is how i see things, it is not  what happened, it is in fact how you take it. this hit was nothing more than just by mistake. how you perceive things changes everything about a person. it has made me become more and more forgiving and giving people the benefit of the doubt. because at the end of the day it is me who is affected. forgiving people, and giving people chances makes you a better person and makes you a happier person. at the end of the day, it is you who matters, and for that to happen you must let things go.

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I rarely ever looked forward to going to school during my time in high school. I felt insignificant and unimportant throughout my first two years at high school, I never attended any after school events or clubs because I didn’t have friends to attend them with. There were days when I would go to school and feel frustrated. Frustrated when I would overhear people in the hallways talking about how much fun they had at social events with their friends, and being unable to relate. Frustrated when the P.E. teacher didn’t have any activities planned for the day, so I would walk laps around the track while everyone else was talking to their friends or playing a sport with their friends. Frustrated every time a teacher told the class to pick a partner, then waiting for the teacher to put me in a group once everyone had already made their own. Frustrated that the people I spent lunch time with never invited me to spend time with them after school. I spent the first half of my time at high school dissatisfied and furious about my broken social life.

It was only until 11th grade when I finally managed to become close with a classmate, and he introduced me to his group of friends. I finally began attending school dances, joining clubs, and spending time with people after school. It seemed as if my social life was miraculously resolved, but it had come at a cost, the circle of friends I made bonded by teasing each other. To this day I am still unsure if I’m just overly sensitive or if I was justifiably upset by some of the disrespectful things they “joked” about me. Instead of telling my friends about the way they made me feel, I contributed to that feeling of disrespect by participating in the same disrespectful humor. I was afraid that if I didn’t behave the same way they did, all of my friends would abandon me and I would return feeling lonely and disconnected from everyone again.

Even though I did feel disrespected by my friends I still shared a handful of genuinely beautiful moments when I enjoyed their company, such as when they would invite me for a drink after school. Which is why when my school had to shut down for the pandemic I returned to feeling lonely again.

Neither my friends or I messaged each other and I felt miserable yet, at the same time relieved. I felt very conflicted with myself as I missed my friends, but I knew that if I returned to them I would feel uneasy with the way we would “joke” with one another. In the end, I finally made the decision to remove myself from my friends and cope with the frustration of loneliness again.

Although I felt lonesome once again, it wasn’t as burdensome as when I was lonely at school. The pandemic forced everyone into a somber lifestyle, including my family. Alongside with them, we were all able to share our pains and sorrows, and depend on each other for support. After months of support from my family I was able to grow and get over my personal failures and frustrations. I feel extremely grateful for my family as they always made themselves available to listen to my struggles despite them all going through their own unique struggles. During high school I was too focused on finding a sense of belonging and validation with my peers, that I lost focus of the love and affection I received from my family.

Because of this pandemic I have a greater appreciation and understanding of how important it is to offer support to those who are going through intense frustrations. I have personally experienced how lonely and powerless it feels to be frustrated, and due to that experience I also know how meaningful it is to support someone who feels frustrated. The pandemic has taught me that people can’t control the misfortunes and disasters that occur to them and others around them, but we do have 100% control of our choices. We can seek out the support from others when we feel hurt and alone, and we can also give our support to those who feel hopeless and frustrated.

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When I was younger, I saw a documentary about people living in impoverished areas. What stuck out to me most was how some people didn't even have electricity. That really surprised me, as my life is filled with electric appliances. I couldn't imagine what it was like to live a life without electricity. I felt really sad for those people and decided to become a scientist, so I could invent another form of energy that is cheap and easy to get, so no one would have to live without it. I did some research and found that nuclear fusion was our best bet, so I decided to become a nuclear physicist. Later on, I learned that global warming was in part caused by fossil fuels, and that reaffirmed my decision to become a nuclear physicist and create nuclear energy.

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From as early as I remember, goals and ambitions have been ingrained into me. Academics from the Philippines to me moving America, I was expected to be one of the best. I have strived to reach those expectations to the point that spite itself has been my source of motivation to reach my goals. However, those expectations has been a double-edged sword towards me.

My achilles heel has been my pride. While success has truly been my pride, failure was something I don't take well to. It took a long time for me to learn this but perfection in everything isn't worth it if it comes to expense of my mental, emotional, physical health.

It has taken time for me to come to terms with stereotypes, expectations, and my ego to realize that I do not need to be the best and that sometimes, I need to fail before I can master something.

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My father suffers from beta-thalassemia, a blood disorder that limits the amount of hemoglobin that one has in their body. He has about half the amount of oxygen that a regular human body should have. Because of this, I see him having to have a blood transfusion almost every other week. His blood disease has intrigued me greatly into physiology and hematology.

However, as much as I am intrigued by physiology and hematology, I am much more intrigued in computer science, specifically machine learning (artificial intelligence).

When I first became interested in machine learning, I did not fully understand what it was. Although I did have a firm grasp on computer science, I did not have the fundamental math concepts required to understand what was going on (Calculus 3, Linear Algebra, etc.). Although it was a month long process, I eventually did grab a grasp of the math required for machine learning as well.

I started off with beginner projects. This included predicting stock prices, real estate prices, and etc. However, once I was introduced to Computer Vision, a subset of machine learning that is able understand images and videos, I was instantly hooked. It felt unreal for me to be able to understand visual information and relay the processed information back to the computer for it to generate even more predictions.

After learning the concept fairly quickly, I began to generate use cases of computer vision in the field of hematology and physiology including identifying different types of cancers/tumors/clots.

As the field of machine learning as whole begins to develop, so will computer vision. This means that new, stronger, and quicker techniques will come about. However, with what I have to work with, I am currently working a research project that entails identifying brain tumors given an MRI or CT scan using a newly created architecture developed by Google. Though there is no available dataset that is applicable to machine learning and that relates to blood, I hope that there will be one soon.

Although I may not be able to see my products in use to help my dad directly, I will try to make sure that my products help millions of people worldwide.

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Black women account for less than 3% of U.S doctors, this number initially sent shock through by body, but then I sat with it like one does with a cup of tea on a rainy evening. I let the smoke rise and settle and rise and settle until there was nothing left to do but sit with myself. I am not only a young black woman I am also a first generation American. Although I am proud of these things these are not the only things about me, but I know these are the things that will set me apart from my peers when I apply to Universities and med programs in the fall. I worry I will be one of  the only black girls in the room like I have been in classes at my own highschool. As a woman and especially a woman of color discrimination is not uncommon no matter where you are. I am often met with worries and there are times I feel inadequate or small, I worry that my dreams will fizzle out and I’ll have to settle for crude remarks and belittlement. Despite these concerns and prior experiences, I refuse to let them hold me back like they have for so long. I’d like to diversify the medical field and become a doctor, but I would also like to work towards making children of color feel more comfortable in the spaces they are in. I try to be active in my community and at school I am a part of “family’s” that discuss topics such as racism and feeling comfortable in “white spaces” talking with my peers has not only made me feel safer, it has also taught me that anything is possible. I continue to attend these discussions and I am active on social media regarding racism and other social issues. I hope I can make a change but it is also not a lone effort. I am just happy to be a part of it.

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Since I was a young boy I was special in many things, but I couldn't be the best in one thing or be an expert in a particular thing.
I was good at my study, sports, and somehow good at making friends. But I couldn't be that nerd guy, who is 100% into studying, or that athletic one, who doesn't care about school.  Also, I couldn't find a best friend or a gang that I belong to. I tried to fit in many times, but I didn't feel that is the real me.

I was scatterbrained Therefore, I decided to find myself and improve my soft skills by contacting different people with contrast characters, perspectives, and goals. Hence, I decided the best match for me is focusing on my study and get more knowledge about STEM-subjects so I can find my passion - or that's what I think now.

I have a goal in recent time that is I want to study computer engineering at UPenn, and hopefully, I will achieve it.

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“A lonely boy”
My journey began as a lonely boy that wasn’t interactive with other people and didn’t have any friends. I had a lack of confidence to talk to other people and make friends, but I felt happy and that was enough for me at the time. Later when I was 6 years old I was sitting like a normal day alone, away from other people, but someone came and started talking to me, at first I was afraid to talk to him but later he started meeting and talking to me every week, and we eventually became best friends, I learnt that having friends was actually really fun and important, I felt like I was missing out on a lot during my life. So decided that I wanted to make new friends, but I did a mistake as I lost myself in the process.

After I knew my best friend I wanted to have more friends, so I decided to start talking to other people, I knew that this was the road to be more sociable and communicative, I felt really happy but my happiness didn’t last for long as it all went downhill fast. I started realizing that I wasn’t the same anymore,
I remembered the moments I spent with these people that I’ve met, I was asking “Was that really me? Why don’t I feel the same happiness I felt even though I am surrounded with friends? ” I continued thinking about it and realized that I’d left my personality in the dark to get demolished completely.

I tried to rebuild my personality, I started out fresh with a little amount of people who I can call my true friends. I was recovering my personality, everything was looking better but my confidence talking to new people was gone, but I decided to once again redo this experiment but to be more careful this time around. I started participating in more activities in my church to meet new people and I now have a lot of true friends that support me in my journey to achieve my goals and I am grateful to be with them.

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I like music very much and play many instruments and I aslo sing but tw years ago I had not been this way, people said that I am not that good in music in general and that I should find another thing to like or practice but I didn't listen to them and currently I am a good singer and play drums, piano, guitar, violin and fluet record

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I want to change the action of taking down so much trees. Trees are very important, they give us oxygen, they improve soil and water conservation, and they especially serve as places where memories are made. In my past, when I was younger, my family, my friends, and I used to go to a playground that had a tree. My friends and family and I made good memories racing, climbing, and having water balloon and water gun fights at that tree. The tree was eventually taken down to make more space for buildings. I was pretty disappointed with the tree being taken down, but my parents encouraged me. Making a change is one of the reasons I joined this program, so I can learn more and look further into what I can do to change this problem.

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I have always been a high achiever in school, or at least tried to do my best and achieve the best I can. I have also played basketball for the past 10 years. I consider it a part of my life now. There was one thing that always caught my attention and that annoyed me quite a bit, people around me were always either really cared about their education and didn’t care about sports at all, or they cared too much about sports and threw their education in the trash.

I have always been very serious with both sports and school, and it was always very hard for me to find someone who shared the same experience with me, I always wished that I would have that one friend to relate to my everyday life and how hectic it is. At first I thought that going to school and maintaining a spot in a sports team is normal, because I believed without that without sports our bodies would be unhealthy and without education you cant have a bright future or career.

Then I realized that people are different, and people have different perspectives on sports and education, people have different tolerance to the stress in their life from lots of activities. I realized that maybe I see that they are not passionate about a sport or education when they are but in a perspective that is not visible to me. But the only thing I could do to help people change is to advise them, tell my story and whatever they decide to do its their life to live and their abilities. I can never know what is in someone’s life.

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Hi, My name is Rahma. I am 15 years old and I love art specially culinary art. I like watching the corners of my family member's mouths go up with each bite of my creation. Even if its basic, easy things like fried eggs. And so I wanted other people to taste and fill there tummies with the food we pour our heart into making, that's why we try to make a monthly budget to make meals and give them to people who can't afford it. Sometimes, when it's raining my mom would make hot chocolate and tea to be given for anyone...many reject our offer tho mostly because they believe that we are charging money for it or we drugged it lol. On Ramadan, many people do the same but mostly with water and dates after the call of prayer. I wish to have my career in some scientific field but I lowkey want to open a café .

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Human by nature is affected by the surrounding environment and it becomes difficult to keep his unique self without impurities. I moved to a boarding school with other peers and became away from home. I dealt with many different people who may have good and bad sides as any normal people. But, when the bad side from each one finds that there is someone else like me, this bad side appears and starting affect the others. For example, someone doesn't study or pretend that he doesn't study and watch movies all day, he can attract others to do like him. In the end, there is not little number who kill the time on useless things and a non-productive community. This is just an example to clarify how fast the bad characteristics are spread.
For me,  I'll not deny that I was affected by some bad things at first but I paid attention to myself. realized that I should not change, I should keep my own values and beliefs, I shouldn't do the wrong even if all people are doing. It wasn't easy anymore to be different. I tried and I'm still trying to be me.
I think this can happen to anyone when he meets different people
with different backgrounds. It's fine to learn from others but don't forget to keep your values and always see if you like what you are doing.

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I am a child who is very privileged. I have good parents with a strong moral code. I have two brothers that I'm able to interact with. I live in a part in the world where I don't need to be worried about the cleanliness of my drinking water, having a roof over my head, or the amount of food I have. I am also really lucky to have a really good education with teachers that care about me and where students have an input in classes. I never really  worried about the rest of the world because I didn't need to.

During the summer of my middle school years, I was lucky enough to be a part of a program called MSSD run by people at my church. This program gave opportunities for me to serve others and have fun doing it. We would go to Food Banks and just help out wherever we could. I got to talk to the elderly and listen to their experiences knowing the hurt that they face having their families pretty much abandoning them putting them into retirement homes. I got to see people who can't afford food and serve them while also being an observer. This built up my love for God and for my care of people. Sadly the one who led the first two groups got shot in the back and had to go through rehab, but he's fine now. Also, the one who led the last one passed away recently due to unsuccessful surgery. These experiences of knowing just how fragile human beings are that make me what others to live their best as well.

In the summer of 2019 (right before freshman orientation), I went down to Panama with a program called AMIGOS de las Americas and we worked with the people their to teach English and work on tiles for them while also learning about their cultures (and I will never forget about the food) In that area, the water is not good and we had to put drops of a solutions to make it drinkable. To know that the area that I stayed in was one of the good areas makes me wonder about the other areas in Panama and their drinking water situations.

As you can see, I have built my opinions on my own experiences. And although my experiences aren't many they are still important to who I am today. (Oh, man. Thinking back on this I would also love to squeak in more parts about my family, but oh well too late)

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about 2 years ago, I had an interview in a robotics institute, I really wanted to get on it to learn more about robotics and get to championships, in that interview I passed all the exams, but I was shocked that they gave me 0/10 in the IQ exam,,, I was like really!!! the IQ exam was a Rubik's cube that I didn’t solve, I was a little frustrated and I started searching for robotics courses online, I brought everything I need like Arduino board, etc..

I started teaching myself, and that really changed everything, why do I want to go to a teacher to teach me where I can teach myself from online resources almost for free and with better quality,

from that point I became kinda independent, I started taking a course called CS50 which is a computer science course that gave me a solid foundation in CS.

Now, I got a scholarship to study quantum computing in a one-year program called Qubit by Qubit, I started with some peers from that program a non-profit organization called meteoriteglobal where I’m teaching CS and QC, also we started a channel on medium called quantum untangled to spread the knowledge of quantum computing which don’t have a lot of resources actually and participated in the first-ever quantum computing school in Egypt, where I really want to be part of bringing that field to Egypt!

maybe the most important lesson from my story is

“when others say you’re stupid that means you’re just in the wrong place 🙂🙂🙂انت زي الفل ”

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“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard” - Tim Notke As a young kid I found I was ahead of my peers when it came to either academics or athletics. I was ahead of the curve and felt confident in my natural abilities. As a result, I never really felt the need to put in a lot of work towards things I wanted to be good in. However this changed very drastically. Around middle school when people started to specialize sports, I noticed that peers I had once considered worse than me at soccer had been steadily getting better. Meanwhile, I was not really putting in the work and consequentially not getting any better. Cut to eighth grade and I tried out for a competitive soccer club. During that tryout I noticed I was wayyy behind all the other kids in individual skills. They were my age, but yet their ball handling and confidence was a cut above mine. I didn't make the team, and this acted as a slap in my face. While I had done almost no practices outside of my team practices, it was clear these kids put in work after hours. I knew I needed to do the same. I started practicing by myself at my local park, frustrated at myself for being so behind. I knew that I could only blame my failed tryout on myself and I needed to improve.

This philosophy has carried over into debate. I would say my say my two main passions are playing soccer and doing debate. I was pleased when I made my high school soccer team because I knew it was a result of the work I put in. Debate wise, I put in a ton of extra hours, not wanting to fall being in the middle like in soccer. I noticed the results were that I was doing a lot better at tournaments. To sum it up, don't try to ride your talent. Hard work will always prevail.

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the change that i want to make is that i want to make a change in women's life in my community. i am passionate to make that change because people in my community put an image for the perfect woman from their perspective and they want all women to be exactly like this image. there is an experience that i wanted to share, in the last vacation me and my friend decided that we want to go to a boarding school my parents agreed after i talked with them but in the other hand my friend's father refused and called it a shame and a reckless decision just because she  is a girl and he wished that his son enter this school and encouraged him. that situation taught me that there are thousands of girls like my friend who were taken away from their future plans just because they   are women. i decided that i want to show the world what a woman can do if she find someone to encourage her and a community to support her and i want the girls to fight for their dreams even if that led to big problems just because they think she doesn't deserve to try, fail,try and succeed. and nobody has the right ever to ignore or comment on their hard work just because of their gender.

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Growing up in America, I was raised by immigrant parents. I have always loved my family's culture but in a lot of ways at school, I felt too different from my classmates because of my background. Even still, I continued to embrace my differences and my heritage. Now that I am older and I am looking back, I am proud of myself for staying true to my identity. I love to listen to my family's stories about what they miss from home and what changed for them when they came to the USA. This experience has made me more interested in other cultures as well and I look forward to travelling  to learn even more when I become an adult. Eventually, I hope to travel to all seven different continents! I want to also help guide initiatives in my own town to amplify the voices of first and second generation immigrant youth.

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traveling the world has always been my ultimate passion, especially when it comes to getting into different experiences and interacting with people who have different cultures from mine. However, as a hijabi girl, I'm somehow different for other people from other cultures who are not accustomed to the hijab. I never felt like that until the last year when I participated in a 2-months virtual program in which there were people from different countries around the world in a zoom meeting where everyone is on his camera where I was shocked with the fact that I'm the only hijabi girl out there. I hated thinking like that but I was concerned with what people may think of me and started thinking of how could I travel and interact while I'm not even confident about my culture and personality?

At the beginning of the 2 months I was hesitant and worried but as the days went by I started getting used to this situation and recognizing that my difference distinguishes me and I should be proud of it because it actually reflects who i am. Although it may seem like an obvious thing, this experience has exposed me to a different aspect of my character that I've never been aware of and made me passionate about traveling and exploring cultures even more.

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Oscar Wilde, a renowned poet, once said, "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.". I have learnt Wilde's advice the harsh way. While going through the high school application process, I felt nervous. I felt as if I was getting sucked in a constant rush to faster submit my application to get accepted to high schools of my choice. I sent the finished application and received the results back in a few months. "You have not been accepted to any high schools". The news of rejection sent me into a never-ending black hole of miserable thoughts. Yet, there was hope. So, I started to question if these results really define me as who I am or who I want to be.
First, I started to realize that it is imperative to follow my own passions and not let others define who I am. Therefore, I started to research math and physics because they became my favorite subjects. As I got better and better in math and physics, I couldn't just stand there and not give back the knowledge to my community. As a result, I launched a STEM club and currently it is doing pretty well because I get to run it in my high school and simultaneously teach concepts in math and physics in an interactive way.
Taking the rejections as an opportunity to learn made me stronger and made me learn to follow my own passions instead of letting others define who I am. I became myself instead of being like someone else. All in all, I encourage my friends to be themselves and pursue what their heart tells them because external opinions can only hurt them.

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Ever since I was a child, I was horrible at making friends. I would usually catch interest in someone but never have the courage to talk to them. My only friends at the time were my neighbors and anyone who took the action of talking to me, so simply just a few. Middle school was not a very pleasant place to enhance my communication skills, as, though I thought of some people as friends, I believe they didn’t think of me as their friend. I would hurt people I cared about, not understanding that it would, and have trouble apologizing or simply notice that what I said hurt them. By the time of 8th grade, my only friends were from my outside-of-school program and I was lucky enough to have them. When it came time for high school, I took the initiative and talked to people, and now I have such a great friend group. For me, this was such a huge step forward as we often or always visit each other’s rooms (on-campus), sleep-over, and joke around well with each other. Though I sadly don’t have many middle school friends that I communicate with currently, I believe I have changed as a person in terms of communication, but I still continue to lack the ability to express feelings. I now take into consideration how people think of me, and whether or not I care about them. I still have some sort of individualistic identity that I love about myself, and that gives me the confidence to take actions that I would otherwise not.

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Uniformity.

Such an unassuming word. It can mean safety, security, normalcy. But it’s also so very constraining. In an ironic sense, I feel more alone than ever, a random face in the crowd. I don’t want to be a random face in the crowd. But in such a stifling society it’s hard to distinguish myself. To say: here I am, Vishnupriya Alavala, bookworm and dancer and crafter and clumsy but fiery science geek. But all they see is my skin color. All they see is my gender, or my glasses, or my middle-class family status, or my transcript. They don’t see my passion or my hard work; how can I share my smiles with the world when it’s not even looking? We need to stop seeing stereotypes and categories when we look at people and start looking at their aspirations and commitments. Regardless of race, gender, intelligence, sexuality, and age, I believe that there is something distinct, bright, and beautiful in every one of us. I say we celebrate our differences and unorthodox beliefs. I say we mend our notions about uniformity until they become something more eccentric like the patchwork of human society.

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from the start of my life  i used to be noisy, energetic, lack of passions, sometimes rude to others. but that all changed cause of my lovely family and my good old friends.although i used to be energetic and noisy, i would be shy in some places, and super quite like a completely different me.
at first my family would try to change those characters cause it really didnt suite who i am, but i wouldnt listen, my friends tried the same and some how it really got into me, i dont really know why but i could say cause i was inspired by them. they would always try to get the best out of me, they see a different perspective of who i am not what i currently am not also that but also correct my decision making, to be myself,open minded and always have faith on what i am doing.by time, i started to really see who i am, not that type of noisy, carefree guy, but to be calm, always positive ,open minded and have passions. and for all that i am really thankful to have such a great friends like them.

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I was born and raised in a middle eastern family and one of biggest problems that you’ll find in a middle eastern society is “Gender inequality” and “women rights”. In our society women are seen as the weak members of the society, we are raised to believe that men are the alphas and we are the omegas even in some parts in my country families don’t educate their girls and force them to get married at a really young age to spend the rest of their lives working as maids for their husbands cleaning and raising the children without having and goal in life. As a woman in my country, you get judged every day people are always judging the way you talk, the way you walk and the way you dress because you have to meet the standards that they have put for women. We are not allowed to do simple stuff that men do and when we ask why we get the same answer “Because you are a woman” and I have suffered from this problem for years because I am the only granddaughter in our family and all my siblings and cousins are boys and it really hurts seeing the guys of the family being allowed to do anything but I don’t. Sometimes they make you believe that being a woman is some kind of a sin that you are being punished for and we are not allowed to a speak out and our voice is never heard. I started gaining more interest in this problem when I started volunteering at several organizations who made me visit villages in the outskirts of Egypt and I saw how unfairly women are treated there and how girls my age don’t get educated and while I was working with the R&D team I remember asking one of the what is her dream and she teared up and said that her dream is to go to school and have a career but her parents don’t allow her to do so. This encouraged me to try to make a difference to help those girls and other girls in my country so I decided using my skills in graphic design to make some art that shows a message and that art has caught the attention of some organizations and I was able to make a collaboration between an initiative called Her story which was funded by the UAE and the NGO that I was a volunteer at which is called “AYB” and the “Her story” initiative gave us a fund to make a project for girls education in a village in Egypt called “Ezbet nasser” and we give girls there the money that they need to join a school and we started making campaigns there about women rights and this something that I’m really proud of and when I get older I will try to make a bigger difference and hopefully change the way women are treated in my county.

Here is some of my graphic design work👇

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My Passion Towards Learning Mandarin
I know that the story I'll be telling isn't as powerful as the others, but it was a huge turning point in my life. here in Egypt, having an interest in Chinese culture is pretty rare, considering that there is a lot of hate towards Chinese people here in Egypt; I had to keep my interest a secret as I knew I wasn't going to be able to face what the people here will have to say. I've had a huge interest in it for about 3 years now and I decided to tell my father a couple of months ago, because I really wanted to learn Mandarin and I knew I needed his help. I was very skeptical about telling him and how he would react, but surprisingly he supported me and helped in get into a certain course that teaches Mandarin and even contacted some people that he had worked with in the past in China to help me master the language. I'm working hard on learning it and spreading my knowledge about the Chinese culture and language here among the people I know. I've been learning Mandarin for the past 4 months now; I'm good with having a simple conversation, but I'm still not that good with writing, I'm working hard and hoping that by the time I go to college, I'll be fluent and go attend college there, but this is my personal goal. My general goal is changing how my surrounding people think of not just the Chinese culture, but all cultures and learning to accept the differences that are in cultures; hoping that through the people who are surrounding me, eventually the whole world will have a completely different approach and way of thinking towards differences

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I'm weird, I'm different, I'm neurodivergent.

It all started when I was a very small kid, but i didn't realize what it was until 2 years ago. I had weird habits and kept mostly to myself growing up, and my struggles never ended till this day. One day i was watching TV and there was a mother on a live show complaining that her son wasn't accepted into the college he wanted, despite having really high grades, just because they didn't have a special program or a facility that supports his mental-state, because as a society in Egypt, we're not taught enough about Mental Health and neurodiversity isn't something people acknowledge that much. Just because we act or think differently and we have different approachs to life, people don't know "how to deal with us". And then I look at the people around me and think "why can't I just be like them?".. normal, outgoing, and not afraid of being who I am. But then i realized there's nothing wrong with me.. I'm smart, I'm passionate, and i deserve a place in my society, and that it's time the neglection and the bullying stop, and people start to learn to accept me for who I am and stop wanting me to change and live up to their expectations of what's a "normal" person is like. And that's why I started searching and learning more about myself; I started reading lots of books about psychology and found lots of amazing fictional characters to relate to, even discovered well-known people who are on the spectrum like me! And looking at how successful and accomplished they were, i was inspired to do the same, and so i decided to expand my knowledge in STEAM, in hopes that i would get accepted to the school this year! In addition, I've always loved computers, and have found peace through different forms of art making, just playing, editing, and creating stuff since i was 9, and that was the first seed that later bloomed to become an obsession with graphic design and computer science, and I'm working on improving my skills in both those fields at the moment. Moreover, I'm currently looking for more programs to join and organizations to support. I aspire to make a difference in my community, as i want people to look at me in the future and see only a smart, brave, and accomplished person who can achieve what they want, and still jump around the house like a toddler, and be inspired to do the same, and embrace who they are and be more outspoken and have the opportunity to be heard and recognized. I want them and everyone else to realize that I'm not weird in a bad way...
I'm special, I'm unique, and I'm proud of my neurodiversity ♡︎

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Its hard to express my feelings and tell my whole story so I chose the most turning point that has a big impact on me.
My dreams since I was 8 is to change the world and make it a better place and help as many people as I can. So when I was 15 I said to myself that I should do my first step to achieve this dream and The first thing that I thought about was applying to STEM schools and I did apply and got accepted. This acceptance is the biggest turning point in my life. I became a different one, I changed to the best, I changed my self. And since then I've participated in many competitions and ranked, too. My dreams became bigger and bigger. My view to the world has changed and I completely had changed.
I don't mind to change, but I hope this change will be to the better.

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I was 9 when i started playing tennis and it caught my heart from the first sight. I always wanted to be the best and by the time tennis started to be a big part of my life. when i was 10 i had to change cities but for me it wasn`t that hard because i would get the opportunity to train in a better place and to compete in a higher level. I moved from a city called zagazig to cairo. the coaches in Cairo kept telling me that i started tennis late an that i would never catch up but i never listened to them.
My mom always supported me in everything. She knew i love playing tennis so she started pushing me in that direction.
Last year i entered my club`s tennis team, the club that once refused to put me in any team. But i still wanted more, i want one day to play professional tennis. so the first step to take is entering my country`s tennis team. Unfortunately after the lockdown ended i ha a major setback but i kept pushing myself and training and doing my best. Even though i was losing a lot of matches i never gave up and that`s when i knew that i am sure that i want to be a professional tennis player. Because even though i was losing i never gave up because i love the game and i believed in myself. Now, i am happy to say that I am back. I overcame my setback and i came back stronger and i am ready to chase my dreams till breathe my last breath.

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When I was 11 or 12 years old and in sixth grade, I was a big risk-taker(and I still am today). On one random day, I decided that I wanted to run for Student government... as a sixth grader which is normally reserved for eighth graders since it’s just a middle school thing. I was terrified, but I adjusted, stood up on the stage in front of the entire school, and told everyone why I should be voted in. Even though I was terrified, I ended up winning the election and became part of the student government. This moment opened up doors and showed me that my passion is something in public speaking. Law, government, helping others: these are all things that I want to do in my future, and it’s crazy how this one moment in sixth grade showed me that this is what I want to do in my future career.

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I wish I were invisible. I wish I were invisible. I wish I were invisible. One of my biggest fears has always been going to an unfamiliar place, but each time I have had the satisfaction of knowing that at the end of the day I can go home. I am a shy person, and it has always been difficult for me to adjust to a new environment. Transitioning from ninth grade to high school was especially difficult for me because my high school was, in fact, a boarding school, which meant that that feeling of satisfaction was no longer present at the end of the day but postponed to the end of the week. Living at Ismailia was a completely new world for me and nothing I had experienced could have prepared me for it. With confused eyes and nothing less than a nauseous sensation in my stomach I entered my first day of high school. growing up, I had always gone to school with people who looked like me, sounded like me, and dressed liked me, but here I quickly learned that I was the minority. I was not alone in this. One of my friends came to Ismailia with me and, with this in mind, my shyness and I did not think it necessary to make new friends. Besides being one of STEM schools with its own ice rink and providing the latest technology for its students, it suddenly hit me that my new home had countless possibilities, but, before those possibilities could be realized, I had to take initiative. I learned a very important lesson at STEM: you will only get out of life as much as you put into it. Stepping out of my comfort zone allowed me to get involved in student activities and then, I became a vice head of HR in TEDx 6th October. After numerous all nightery, I developed a system where I could get all my homework done and still be able to get involved with sports at (Ennpi sporting club) and extracurriculars without having to sacrifice any sleep time.

The knowledge that I have gained from this schools is something I will take with me far beyond college. My roommate, across-the hall mates, and classmates have influenced my life as much as I hope to have impacted theirs. It is evident to me that they have helped me develop into the very much visible person I am today. I have learned to step outside of my comfort zone, and I have learned that diversity is so much more than the tint of our skin. My small mustard colored school taught me that opportunity and success only require desire. I will take advantage of every opportunity that is available to me and make sure to contribute as much as I can too. now I am visible. now I am visible. now I am visible, and I want to be seen.

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I am passionate about programming. It makes me feel that I have the power to create things from scratch. One day, a friend of mine called me for applying to ISEF competition. He told me about  his project idea, and wanted me to implement it in an application. I was delighted by how we could make a change. His idea was basically to create and application that motivates people to do good environmental habits. I didn't use to worry about the Environmental issues until I learned a lot from my friend. He essentially guided me to have vision and be more proactive. I had the skill to create, but didn't know where I could make true meaning of it that can have impact. I am know motivated for helping others and taking initiatives. We ended up passing 3 filtration stages, and I am currently in a summer program about AI, and I am trying to learn some models that we can use for improving our application.

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When I went to India in fourth grade, we went on a tour to many famous cities throughout India. I visited many famous Indian Cities such as Mumbai, Banaglore, Hyderbad, Chennai, New Dehli, Jaipur, Agra, and many others. When touring all of the different places, I really saw the affect poverty and money can have on entire cities. Seeing things such as the picture below in Mumbai and other areas really showed me the wide scale poverty throughout India. The picture below shows millions of people living in tent cities, in extreme poverty and living without a guarantee for basic needs such as food, water, and shelter. The caste system in India has played a huge part in shaping the poverty, as it has disallowed those in poverty from getting a respectable job, event if they are well educated and smart. Furthermore, the current situation that is arising regarding poverty in Charlotte and other major USA cities has really made me think about preventing the USA from going down the same path that India has gone down.

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couple years ago when i was 14 or younger there was that girl in school that was one of my friends, or at least that's what i thought , she would make fun of me in so much stuff like my body shape , size of my eyes , that i was so skinny and even how i talk and when ever i try to speak up about what she was doing , she'd say " i'm just joking don't be over reacting on everything " and i started getting older and knowing more about my self and opening up to people to let them know everything she said to me , i got some time to  learn more about my self and love me as i'm , to take care of me and it worked, i stepped away from her , i learned to watch out for what i'm saying to people , and took it as a chance to help who has been there before , to be friends with new comers to our school make them feel welcomed and be a friend when they need one , may be that girl didn't realize what she was doing at that time maybe i did mistakes too but , one thing i know that i'm glad i know that you can stand out for your self without hurting others  cuz one day they will grow up and maybe they will remember what they did they will remember that you didn't hurt them they will regret what they did , stand out for you self support humanity and love the people around you cuz nobody deserves to be hated or mistreated .

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Over the past few weeks there has been a surge of hate crimes against Asians and it has really saddened me that some people could be so cruel to perpetuate this. As a result, this violence has inspired me to step up for my community and advocate for change. It has also inspired me to volunteer and help defend the elders who have been hurt while innocently buying groceries at a place that used to be a haven for the Asian community -- Chinatown. Thinking about how this violence could be perpetuated on my loved ones as they enjoy the leisure of buying groceries for the family or going out on a stroll, truly breaks my heart. Overall just seeing how Asians have been treated throughout the pandemic has really pushed me to realize the importance of standing up for community and fighting for the equality and justice that we deserve. I hope to be apart of finding solutions to combat this violence against my community that we do not deserve.

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I don't relate with my other Chinese people whose parents immigrated here. My parents are American Born Chinese (ABC) and so I don't always relate to the same struggles others do. However, instead of trying to have the same story as others, I try to create my own by imerging myself in my heritage instead of avoiding it.

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When I was 11 years old, I heard about a language called HTML that makes websites, I was really interested in this topic so I learned some basics about the language, but, I wasn't good enough to write my own page so I mostly copied code. One day, my Computer Science teacher told me that I am not good at the field yet and I need to start again correctly, I refused to believe him and continued. But with time, I noticed I couldn't understand the code of any webpage that I see on Web dev groups, and I noticed that my teacher's words are correct. So, I decided to follow his advice and start again from the zero, and I learned both HTML and CSS correctly with applying after each session. Till I was capable of creating my own webpages and sometimes a whole website. Later, I learned about Desktop programming and I started learning C# till I finished the basics and the OOP and the UI in about 6 months. But I needed another 3 years in order to make really complex projects to improve my Problem solving and programming skills. In those 3 years I discovered a lot more about C# and I learned android app development using Xamarin. I heard about AI programming in the last year. I found my self having a lot of passion in this field. So, I decided to start learning it. But I made a mistake at first and I thought it's just about using frameworks to make models and so on, and I found my self repeating the loop again and writing code that I don't understand. I realized that it's very hard to learn AI thanks to my cousin, So I decided not to repeat the same mistakes and start correctly this time. So now I am following my passion and learning python and liner algebra and Calculus 1 in order to be able to understand the way an AI work. then later I can start creating my own models that I fully understand. My goal now is to finish the basics of the AI and study Neural Networks and Deep Learning in MIT.

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Collage:

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Ever since I was young,
I was told the Nile
was the source of all life
in Egypt. The Key of life
the Pharaohs called it.

Since then I have sailed
and loved our river,
our heart, but looking
at it I saw trash and
felt as though we have failed it.

I've joined fundraisers,
I've run miles,
I've thought of why
people often destroy
what they really need?

But I've realized
people put up illusions
to avoid the truth,
more often than not.

This is why we must
blaze the truth in
people's faces,
otherwise, humanity will be
it's own destruction.