8th Degree Personal Statement

Growing up in rural Ghana, my school days were often interrupted with frequent blackouts. I grew tired of missing school and wanted to be an “electricity superwoman” who solved energy problems. I noticed that anytime the electricity had to be turned on, a male engineer showed up. I did not personally know any female engineers, and there was a common belief in my school that men were more competent in STEM fields. Whenever I told my friends and teachers about pursuing an education that would allow me to solve the blackouts, they would say, “That is a man’s job.” Every time I was told this, I grew more determined to prove them wrong.
When I entered the 8th grade, I had to chose from one of three electives: Home Economics, Visual Art, or Technical Education. Of the seventeen male students, fourteen chose technical education while I was one of only two girls out of twenty female students who chose technical education. Even though the class was challenging, I was intrigued to learn about how the application of science and math could help me solve the myriad of problems affecting developing countries.
After my family migrated to the United States, a friend encouraged me to apply to the University of …show more content…
My goal is to pursue graduate studies in order to further develop less-expensive third generation thin film solar cell materials such as copper indium gallium selenide for multi-junction cells to increase efficiency and sunlight absorption. I want to research methods to develop new non vacuum processes to reduce the cost of solar cells’ production. With a decrease in production cost, solar cells may be manufactured in larger quantities so that students in developing countries can have uninterrupted access to electricity in their