2020 Scholarship Winner

Student Spotlight

Ethan Smith

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Name: Ethan M. Smith

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Grade: 12

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State:  Missouri

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Year you became member in Mu Eta Sigma: 2018

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Describe why you enjoy math: I love math because of how it directly relates to the real world. It is required throughout our lives, and without math, the world as we know it would not be. I especially love it because it can be used to change the world. By utilizing math, one can change lives forever.

 

Describe how you anticipate using math In your future: I plan to study civil engineering and use that knowledge to construct schools and Implement sustainable technologies in Impoverished countries around the world. I want to use math to positively change the world and enable those that would otherwise have little to no education to have the opportunity to study and have successful lives.

 

I have been Involved in my community through the following service projects: I helped in the construction of a home for troubled girls at Pearl of Grace Ranch In Oklahoma; I served as student team leader and coordinator of Project Christmas Blessing In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; I was on a small distribution team with Project Christmas Blessing, and helped to distribute over $45,000 worth of blankets and aid to indentured brick kiln servants in Faisalabad, Pakistan; I participated in three mission trips to Huruma Dolor Orphanage in Kenya, working with the children, implementing a hand pump for the water well, helping to replace the sanitation system, and constructing desks; and I have participated in several other youth outreach trips in various locations in Mexico and Africa.

 

My favorite project was: Project Kenya: July 2019. 1 had seen previously In Africa and Central America how engineering could make such a great impact on communities, and this was my first experience being part of this solution myself. It was a time of realization that engineering and sustainable technologies are the key to a brighter future in these communities, and the satisfaction that resulted from knowing the work I played a part in could have a lasting impact was overwhelming. This project gave direction to my future.

 

I have set the following goals for myself for the next:

 

1 year: t desire to have graduated from high school and be enrolled in Missouri State University studying civil engineering and Swahili.

5 years: I plan to have obtained my bachelor's degree in civil engineering and to have founded an N60 that works in the Implementation of sustainable technologies in impoverished communities around the world.

 

My parents have inspired me to consider: choosing a career path that allows me to serve those in poverty.

 

My favorite subject In school is, or has been: Physics

 

My favorite extracurricular activity is, or has been: Speech and Debate.

 

The most challenging thing I have ever experienced is: having my father almost die from Cerebral Malaria after a mission trip to Kenya.

 

My greatest accomplishment to date has been: helping raise over $21,000 for RGB, an international poverty relief program, to aid migrants and the impoverished in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The project provided school supplies and coats to over 1,700 people in the community.