Biography: Since high school, Aaron has shown an interest in economics. He enjoyed the critical thinking and analysis of business decisions and strategy, how different components of both individual and international businesses interacted and how it was this one big complicated system. The theories he learned gave him a new way of thinking and allowed him to really consider factors that no one ever really did. Although initially deciding on becoming an accountant, he quickly switched aspirations to become an analyst on the business side. To help support that, he chose to minor in Data Science Engineering and to learn more about tech and computer science. His journey in tech and computer science was faced with struggles as he never coded before in his life but after a few classes and YouTube videos on python, R studio, C++, and SQL, he quickly built a portfolio of projects. He applies what he’s learned with Foundations Choreography, a dance organization on campus examining data of members, financial health of the organization, and managing data of audition processes and deliberations. Aaron’s current goal is to further enrich his knowledge in tech by obtaining a master’s in CS and hopefully become a data scientist or engineer.

 

Future Plans: Although initially wanting to become an accountant, Aaron has long since steered away from that career goal as he feels more fulfilled doing analytical work for companies instead. Wishing to pivot into the field of data science and computer science, he has taken courses in C++, R studio, data science, and self-taught himself python, SQL, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript. Currently, his aspirations are to become a data scientist or engineer, working around data and analyzing data to create models predicting trends, analyzing behavior, or discovering new patterns. After undergrad, he intends to be working as an analyst for a company whilst taking courses in computer science at a community college. Hopefully, he will also take the GRE and apply for grad school and obtain a MBA/MCS.

 

What this scholarship means to me? Coming to UCLA, I knew that college would be expensive, and living in LA would be more expensive and realistically, I couldn’t just stay in my apartment, attend class, eat at home and sleep or else the college experience would’ve been one with regrets and misery. I believe that no college experience should solely just be for educational purposes, part of the implicit monetary value in going to college is the unique experiences and people you will meet. Memories are part of the college experience one could say. I am in a very privileged position in which my parents and family are able to fund my entire college journey with the help of some financial aid and grants of course, but I can see how this is creating a toll. Recently, my family accumulated costs as my family down-sized and moved back into our small house in Rowland Heights and needed to pay for renovations. My sister is also starting grad school soon and family members overseas are facing health issues which requires us to send money over there. With me still going to college, I wanted to be able to help my family so I applied for this scholarship. I am forever grateful to receive the Patricia and Harry L Bruce scholarship to help afford my tuition and lessen the burden on my parents. Furthermore, this would help me with my goals as I took this summer to take classes in order to prepare for grad school as I realized towards the end of my junior year I wanted to enrich my skills and knowledge and take my academic and professional career to the next level by obtaining a MBA or a MCS. I realized the opportunity cost of working would’ve given me money to help my parents, but they are so proud of me for wanting to go to grad school and assured me that there is no financial issue with me choosing to go to grad school. This is why I am very thankful to receive this scholarship, It will significantly help me achieve my own goals while simultaneously helping my family.