I have always delighted in solving technical problems. My appetite for
   this type of intellectual challenge has led me into many activities
   and projects. At school, I am the backstage manager for drama
   productions. In Boy Scouts, many of my community service projects and
   activities have had a technical or engineering component, most notably
   my work as an audio/visual technician. Combined with my computer
   programming skills, my experiences have prepared me to participate in
   the challenging educational atmosphere at UC Berkeley.
   Ten to twelve hour school days are normal for me during drama
   productions. As backstage manager, I am responsible for the entire
   stage crew: a team of about ten dedicated individuals that are in some
   ways more tightly knit than the cast. The stage crew does sound
   effects, lighting, scene changes, and we even help the actors with
   costume changes and props. Everyone has a job, and we all have to know
   where everything goes on the stage, in every scene. Because of this,
   we must quickly adapt to changing situations and come up with feasible
   solutions to any problems.
     Audio/visual work requires much of the same devotion and hard work as
   being on the stage crew. With my Boy Scout troop, I have worked twelve
   to sixteen hours a day, setting up, running and taking down
   audio/visual equipment for banquets, lectures, and outdoor events. I
   normally work with a couple of other scouts and the assistant
   scoutmaster, who does audio/visual work professionally and volunteers
   for these events. Everyone in our troop works well together, even when
   faced with difficult technical problems. We all stay in good spirits,
   and this helps when things do not go exactly as planned.
   I know many computer programming languages, and of these, HTML is one
   of my favorites for exercising my design, writing, and drawing skills.
   After teaching myself HTML, I made home pages for my fathers business,
   and for my Order of the Arrow Lodge. Now, along with maintaining both
   of those pages, I also chair the Web Page Committee for the Mock
   Convention at my school. I have a committee of five people who get
   content for the page and do publicity. I put the content on the web.
   As committee chair, I am also responsible for reporting to the history
   teachers and making sure everyone on my committee gets their jobs
   done.
     Many tasks that need to be done in technical work must be accomplished
   under tight deadlines, and the final product has to be as close to
   perfect as possible. What contributes most to the pressure is Murphys
   Law: What can go wrong, will go wrong. I am an optimist, but Murphys
   Law definitely applies, especially in technical and engineering work.
   Because of this, there is pressure even before the performance: the
   pressure to be certain that nothing can go wrong. Making sure that
   nothing can go wrong has to be one of the hardest problems I have ever
   faced, but the feeling I get when a production goes off without a
   hitch is more than worth the aggravation of solving tough problems.
   My reason for applying to the School of Engineering at UC Berkeley is
   to learn how to solve tougher technical problems. I have found that
   computer programming provides a great way to solve tough problems,
   work in teams, and make things that can be enjoyed by many. Software
   is not my only interest, however. I enjoy building and working on
   computer hardware as much as I enjoy programming. Working on hardware,
   as I did during the recent Net Day at my school, allows me to do all
   of the things I can do with programming, but in a more tangible
   manner. After college, I intend to work in the fields of software and
   hardware design, and maybe even start my own company.