Six years of The Dayton Regional STEM School have passed and I have found myself a senior, my future being patched together in these upcoming months. I am inspiring to major in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Electrical Engineering. I have also been looking at Robotics Engineering when offered within my list of colleges. This year I have simply grown in my preparation. A skill crucial when looking into how much my world is going to change soon.

Of course, over the years here at STEM every student plans ahead to some extent, whether it is in our projects or within our school year. But this year, I have taken English 1100 and have been immersed in the College Prep and Exploration Endeavor. I have been guided through how to prepare and plan for my future on a larger scale.

To start off with, we have been guided through the process of feinting a list of colleges. A feared task within the senior class. When you make that list, it is incredibly intimidating to know your future is listed in there and you just can’t point it out yet. When I got it narrowed down to ten there was a sense of balance between realistic and unattainable. The follow up huge assignment was focused on college essay writing. These assignments are easy to procrastinate on, however, these essays were a major step toward my growth in preparation. Not only was it due to college’s months after we started in class but there was an army of them to get done. Endless essay prompts and scholarship outlines.

We spent several classes filling out packets drenched with our personal experiences and memories. Moments that defined our personalities as much as it would appeal to a college. We then took that information and used it for class projects, like the Where I am From Poem (displayed in Figure 2). I took the several states I have lived in and let them represent different directions of a compass. Practice like this got me comfortable with answer personal college questions, and I found myself able to submit these college applications on Common App before anticipated. Being able to see this process and receive the benefits from my preparation influenced me to keep planning, to take work ahead and make sure I complete everything I can get done now.