1. How did you discover your intellectual and academic interests, and how will you explore them at the University of Pennsylvania? Please respond considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected. (300-450 words)
  • Dual Interest
    • Business and CompSci
  • Business
    • Inspiration
      • Began watching Shark Tank and The Profit since elementary school
      • Interested in entrepreneurship
    • Worked to develop skills
      • Took AP Macro outside of school
      • Conrad Challenge
      • LaunchX
      • Founded Vetted and Mapability
      • DECA Legacy Project
    • CompSci
      • Inspiration
        • Realized that with industries shifting towards newer technology, compsci would be a necessary component for any startup
        • Learned compsci as a foundation for my business side
      • Worked to develop skills
        • Participated in hackathons
          • Used to build up general compsci knowledge
        • Took a Stanford machine learning course through Coursera
      • Wharton Undergraduate School
  1. Personal Statement

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? (600 words)

  • WA State Pres Campaign
    • Never participated in election style campaign before
    • 2 months of dedicated work
    • Spent $300 on campaign materials
    • Participated in DECA for 3 years
    • Ran after only being a part of Washington DECA for 6 months
    • Made it to the final four candidates
    • Didn’t succeed
      • Had to deal with failure
      • Perseverance
      • Went on to found startup

OR

  • Vetted
    • Idea creation
      • Saw FB
      • Veteran found a job through social media
      • Thought that veterans should not have to go through such a long, uncertain process to find jobs
      • Current solutions
        • Subsection on job searching websites
        • Confusing, long resources online
      • Created a website, with a streamlined UI, with both resources for veterans and exclusive job searching
    • Had to individually search and find teammates
    • First professional leadership experience
    • Lead relatively inexperienced team to create startup
    • Founded after moving to a new state
    • First startup
    • Worked with whoever I could get
    • Personal project
    • Did market research for 2 months
    • Began building website
    • Due to lack of participation from teammates, additional market research, and too many competitors, had to end the project
      • First professional challenge
      • Failure of first startup
    • Continued to found first startup next summer

Mapability/LaunchX

  1. At Penn, learning and growth happen outside of the classrooms, too. How will you explore the community at Penn? Consider how this community will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community. (150-200 words)*
  • Need help with this
  • Not sure how to approach it