There are over 440,000 children in foster care, overloading the system such that these children are not always given the proper care they require. All the information about these children (like court statements, family situations, phone calls with call centers, etc.) are kept in notes, 80% of which are unstructured and unorganized. When the time comes to make an important decision for the child that can affect the rest of their life, can they do it with just one fifth of the information about them? As a data scientist, my goal will be to create ways to structure data so no one will have to make ill-informed decisions. To achieve this goal, I will work for a degree in data science and continue to work on projects that involve having a database and analyzing data.
One of my greatest high school accomplishment was that I made it to the state championships for badminton. I played mixed doubles badminton for the school team in my freshman and sophmore year of high school, and I reached the sectional tournaments both years. In freshman year I tried out for the badminton team spontaneously and somehow made the team. I had always thought that I was above average at badminton but after going to a few of the practices and seeing my other teammates and competitors play, I was humbled. I realized the existence of this huge gap of talent between the best of the team and me, which motivated me to practice hard in order to get better. Throughout the season I was sidelined, never allowed to play the real games that counted. I sat there watching the others play, taking in their footwork, their strategy, their technique. I was determined to even build up my stamina by giving my all during conditioning and practice. And finally, for the regional tournament, my coaches paired me up with someone and let us play in the last spot for mixed doubles. We made it fourth place in the end and were able to go to the sectional tournament. My determination and work-ethic brought me to from the very bottom, to the top.
My greatest asset in my journey to become a data scientist is my analytical mind. From a young age, my father introduced me to math. For example, he taught me how to multiply when I was five. This nurtured my mind to think more analytically than most people. The most surprising use of my natural analytical thinking is when I play piano. Most people tend to write off piano as solely a form of art and expression, a mere hobby for a more STEM oriented student like myself. However, I have reached level 7 in the Royal Conservatory Piano Exams and would not have been able to get there without my analytical mind. I break down my pieces into different patterns and phrases that I categorize to understand their purpose. For instance, if a certain piece had two notes repeating in one hand for a few measures, this follows the pattern of background music to the melody. A part of the piece that is not as important as the melody in the other hand, therefore, must be played softer than the melody. Finding these patterns in piano furthered my proficiency to find patterns everywhere. I can find patterns in math and science problems so I can solve them more efficiently, but most surprisingly in english. I am able to recognize patterns in the novels we read in class, searching for symbols or archetypes that have a repeated meaning that simply must be applied to the context of the novel. This way of thinking is important for a data scientist because their job is to find patterns in data, find the correlation between two variables and figure how best to display this correlation.
Ultimately, my goal for becoming a data scientist grew from my analytical brain, to my determination to better the society we live in. Thank you for taking your time to read my letter. Feel free to visit the rest of the site in order to see my qualifications, motivations, and more. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions.