Christmas of 2006 found my family crossing the border into Mexico. We had decided as a family to forgo a traditional Christmas and instead spend it rendering service. Through the organization, Charity Anywhere, we were able to find a family in need of a home near Tijuana Mexico, and decided to use our time and resources to build one for them. Although I initially thought it to be the right thing to do, feelings of doubt and fear of what lay...

Coming from a small extremely diverse student body, I have learned of the importance of understanding other cultures and of being part of a diverse community. The different views of varying backgrounds have enriched my high school experience and I want to continue to be able to benefit from and contribute to such a community. Columbia draws a wide range of cultural and ethnical backgrounds and so provides such a community where significant learning, outside the classroom, can be achieved....

What attracts you specifically to the study of engineering Throughout my life I have enjoyed and subsequently excelled in math. Early on I decided I wanted to study as much as I could that related to math. For this reason as a sophomore I was allowed to enroll in the Honors Physics class. My instructor was Vip Gupta, a Columbia alumnus who had an enormous passion for physics. Through him I discovered the exhilaration and joy of finding an elusive...

Books read for pleasure in the past year A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking, Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Fermat’s Enigma by Simon Singh, In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat by John Gribbin, My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien Required reading most enjoyed in last year The Aeneid by Virgil, Beowulf by Seamus Heany, The Crucible by Arthur...