Written 5/12/2025
In my degree program at Berkeley, many students pursue academic careers after graduation either by attending graduate school or working for university research labs. When I envision myself in those roles, doing the work that they are interested in, I don’t see myself being motivated to go to work. Whenever I have elected to take a different path from those around me or taken initiative to learn a new skill, it has led to a wealth of remarkable personal growth and unique opportunities.
In high school when I needed a new computer or phone, I could only afford older or broken devices which led me to develop strong repair skills. My use of this skill translated into a tech support business where I would troubleshoot and repair electronics for people in my community. Often, many of the fixes I would perform involved simple updates or a factory reset which saved my customer the time and cost of hiring a professional. This skill became especially important while I was working on my Eagle Scout project at my church. I was tasked with developing and operating a live streaming setup to be used during the COVID pandemic. I used my repair skills to fix the main video processing unit after it had been dropped which saved the church about $1000 and allowed them to continue serving the community without interruption. These experiences, enabled by my repair skills, demonstrated the value of learning a skill on my own and how it could be used to serve others.
In my first year at UC Berkeley, I decided to develop a lighting system for my dorm room. This project grew into a business where I designed and assembled light installations in offices around San Francisco. Through these jobs, I practiced project planning and management skills in completely unique environments that are often only discussed in business textbooks. During one of my trips, I met the head of sales at Roadio on the BART subway. Our conversation led to me becoming a summer intern and joining their team of three people. As the team grew, I educated new hires on how to use the dashcam product from the company. This experience taught me how to communicate with a variety of personalities and explain complex topics in an accessible manner. This wealth of experience and skill development, initiated by a weekend project, offered more growth than I would have found in the typical social life of a college freshman.
Repeatedly, I have decided to do things or learn new skills separate from most others around me. The abundance of opportunities and experiences I have gained by making these decisions has given me confidence to continue with them. I have written essays about my desire to help restore the energy grid of my home state, California, back to a robust and foundational system for its future growth. The Nuclear Navy offers a rare opportunity to gain practical experience with nuclear power systems and develop skills that will be in high demand as countries commit to expanding their nuclear energy capacity. I believe that joining the Nuclear Navy is the next step that will help me grow personally and professionally and will be invaluable in working towards my own career goals.