Stiger Technical Scholarship

The field of study I am choosing to pursue is Automotive/ Heavy Medium Diesel Technology also known as Diesel Mechanics at the University of Northwestern Ohio. Afterward, I will be taking their High-Performance Technology courses as well. I have always had a passion for all things automotive from a young age. When I was younger it was mostly street vehicles and high-performance cars such as NHRA and other similar organizations. My interest in diesel didn't start until I was exposed to and around them. This was a truck-pulling event I was invited to by a friend of mine, that already had knowledge of them. Due to attending this event, I gained an interest in the field of diesel. I am passionate about Diesel Mechanics because it is a topic that is a mystery to me. I don't know very much about diesel-powered engines in general nor how they work. I only truly know a few things about them. This includes the use of glow plugs in place of your typical spark plug like you would on a gasoline engine. Along with this you also use different fuels, colored cans, and use of multiple batteries instead of just one. With this being said my lack of knowledge only makes me want to learn about it more. In addition to my willingness to learn the idea of being able to work on something that is bigger in comparison to myself. Diesel engines can be absolutely enormous almost four times the size of a human being, especially with the big truck engines. I find it almost captivating to get to have the opportunity to work on something so large in scale. Being able to begin my career in the diesel field would absolutely be a jump start into future success and countless hours of hard work. This is the critical first of the many stepping stones needed to have a successful career. Along with having a successful career, I would have the opportunity to have an extremely fulfilling work life. This field is not very common for young people to be entering into and is essentially a dying field. In correlation to the lack of people entering, these people are very few and far between will be women making representation in this field even less. However, due to this, the opportunities will be more abundant, and more options along with multiple different pathways for work.

I’ve always heard “do what you love and the money will follow”. So therefore, I want to have a career that I absolutely love so that I can actually enjoy going to work. With my career I would also love to help out other people since that’s what I love doing at heart. Factors that have influenced my decision to become an electrician is the fact that it’s affordable for me, it’s a good career, I get to help other people, and the best part in my opinion l; not having to go to school for a long time. With affording post secondary education being a main concern of mine, this was one reason I chose to go to trade school to be an electrician. I’m honestly scared to death to be in debt and want absolutely nothing to do with it. This would be an alternative for me right now, then I may go to college to pursue electrical engineering. I then would be able to have both of the careers I always wanted without being in debt by hundreds of thousands of dollars. As far as financially, this would be a good career for me to pursue. My personal values and interest plays a role as to why I chose to pursue becoming an electrician. I love to help other people and make others around me and what better way to do that than to get a career that allows you to do what you value. My interest has also always been with electricity and putting things together since I was a kid. Being able to do something and actually have interest in it is also something I highly value due to the fact that I want to live what I do. Being interested in my career is something I definitely value. Some short term goals I have in mind is to graduate high school, save up enough money to get myself a car and finding a good trade school to attend. I plan to graduate high school by keeping my grades up and handling other school things. I plan on saving up about $200-$400 a month so that I can have a car in about 3-5 months and I plan on either going to a community college that provides trade school or do research to find the best trade school for me and how much it’ll cost for me to go. As far as my long term goals I want to have multiple sources of income, and start investing into my retirement. I plan on having multiple sources of income by learning about e- commerce. With getting my own place I also plan to save until I have enough money to be on my own as as far as my retirement funds, I want to open and Roth IRA which would be free of tax by the time I pull out all of my money. These are things that I value most and are the main reasons on why I selected the career I did. I want to be happy doing my job while also being able to help the people around me. I also want to be free financially be able to build the dream life I’ve always wanted to have. This career would be valuable for me too so that I could help my family as well. Like the saying goes, “do what you love and the money will follow.”