Determined to win the annual Rosewood Elementary School Halloween Costume Contest, and as the avid NHL fan that I am, I threw my heart and soul into constructing the ultimate “Stanley Cup.” The LA Kings had won the championship cup twice at that point and I couldn’t think of a better costume than dressing up as “the cup.” Strutting, jumping, cheering, and flashing #1 gestures to the judges, they ultimately mistook me for an overly-excited salt shaker and I was devastated. In that moment, I vowed to never let my work fall short of epic again. I returned in 2017 as a self-constructed 15-foot-tall giraffe, and I won.
I’ve been a maker, a nerd, and have loved STEM for as long as I can remember. I can solve a Rubik’s cube, I watched “Myth Busters” repeats and thought Alan Pan was the coolest guy on Earth when he invented the first real-life methanol light-saber. When going to clear out the Joann’s Fabric inventory of giraffe patterns, or coming up with any project, it was never without an outlined plan and a goal to aim for.
I carry this sentiment forward today as an engineering college student. When I was 9 years old, my dad brought me to his work and showed me the unfinished James Webb Space Telescope. I stared through the glass mesmerized, watching the men and women, dressed in their clean suits, climbing on ladders and being lowered by cranes onto the towering gold mirrored satellite. I couldn’t comprehend what I was looking at, but what I did immediately know was that I wanted to be one of them.
Since that day, and watching that telescope come together over my lifetime, eventually launch and change our understanding of our universe, I have dedicated my studies, my summers and my focus to STEM in ways that will not only hopefully pave a career for me in engineering, but will educate me in ways in which I can give back to society.
Watching the Webb Telescope on tv, drift toward its orbit that ridiculously early Christmas morning in 2021 reinforced my goal of becoming an aerospace engineer and helping humanity.
Sam Ugolnik 