After graduating from Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS), I focused my attention to achieving a bachelor’s degree from a college/university. My overarching goal is to graduate from Georgia Institute of Technology with a four year degree in Aerospace Engineering and complete the Army ROTC program.   From there, I will complete my required time in the Army since I completed the ROTC program and then pursue a career at Boeing that is geared towards innovation of current aircraft.

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       Throughout the years of DRSS, I grew in my ability to tackle any obstacle, any challenge, or any task I encountered. While I was a student of DRSS, I grew in Persistence.  I believe the two endeavors that aided my growth the most would be the Healthy Living Unit and the Usability Testing and Instructions project. The Healthy Living Unit was an endeavor I went through during my sophomore year of high school. The major objective was to teach the sophomore class both the biological and health concerns of the food or drinks we intake and how they can either positively or negatively affect our bodies. This endeavor improved my persistence by the means of the presentation. We, my group members, were supposed to present a PowerPoint to both the Biology and Wellness/Fitness teachers outlaying the significance of our health based product, chips that were made of veggies and fruits, and how it will benefit society as a whole. In this particular situation, I was supposed to present with two other group members, but due to one not being present for most of the unit, my first partner and I had to present the PowerPoint by ourselves including the other person’s information. We overcame this fiasco by writing the notes of our missing partner on notecards and presented his information. We ended up getting an A overall on the presentation and project. So the major lesson I learned from this unit, was you can overcome any situation by acclimating to the environment and refocusing on completing your objective.

 

       In addition to the Healthy Living Unit, the Usability Testing and Instructions project enhanced my persistence as well. The Usability Testing project was a group assignment I completed during my junior year. This endeavor focused on developing our ability to write clear and concise instructions that even sixth graders could follow. The usability testing comes in when we let the sixth graders perform a basic chemistry experiment by following our directions. And based off their performance, we, my group, had to either reword or cut out pieces of instruction, so they could easily be followed. The major obstacle throughout the process was having the patience to deal with the constant revising of the instructions. I overcame this by making sure our instructions were as clear as possible for each draft, so we didn’t have as many mistakes. This proved effective and we ended up finishing the project and earning an A. But the major reason why I completed the project, was because of my persistence. I was determined to complete the project, and I ended up finishing it with excellence.  

    

       In conclusion, persistence is the quality that I improved throughout my four years of DRSS. Persistence is crucial for the job force. To the point, where you can’t expect to advance far in your job or career if you don’t have persistence. When you have persistence, you know that you can conquer any task and complete any project that is given to you no matter how difficult the objective may be. Personally, I feel I have an ample amount of persistence and this will help me advance my career and progress through life.