The Power of Resilience: Navigating Challenges and Pursuing AI Goals

This essay details a student's profound experience dealing with their grandmother's cancer diagnosis, which became a catalyst for their passion for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The student describes the emotional impact of the illness on their family and how they actively supported their grandmother and parents during this challenging time. This experience sparked a keen interest in the technological aspects of cancer treatment, leading them to pursue multiple accreditations in AI, Machine Learning, and Data Structures. They interned with a firm developing early cancer detection technologies and found mentorship to guide their learning journey. Now a computer science scholar, the student is determined to develop impactful and scalable AI/ML innovations, emphasizing the importance of empathy in technological advancements. The essay also highlights the student's academic achievements, including high scores in academic contests and standardized tests. The author concludes by emphasizing the transformative power of their experiences, their family's strengthened bond, and their aspiration to contribute to original research at the Master's and PhD levels.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success.
Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and
what did you learn from the experience?
Life is fragile, precious and unpredictable. What keeps you prepared for life’s adversities is
not the might; academic or otherwise, but simple things. A caring touch, a loving family and
a few words of kindness, are what makes us stronger. The crisis in my life also taught me
that applying a Schumpeterian logic in life is not always a prudent choice and that the
technological enablement sans empathy is just a mundane algorithm.
My grandmother, who has nurtured me since my infancy was diagnosed with a third stage
Colorectal Cancer about four years ago. Overnight, our lives were turned upside down.
While my father was running pillar to post, looking for the best hospice for her. I, as a young
child, simply could not bear my grandmother’s plight.
The woman who has delighted me with some of the best tiffin meals, taken care of me as
her own, was now a child herself. Over the next few months, her condition only
deteriorated. The Chemotherapy and radiation exposure changed her appearance and made
her weak to the point of utter helplessness.
I proactively worked with my family in these difficult times. Whether it was tending to her
day-to-day needs or accompanying my father to hospitals and doctors and spending time
with my grandmother in clinics and at home. The episode made me first-handedly witness a
world that I was not aware of, yet.
I was superbly impressed with the kindness and the empathy of the doctors and nurses that
treated my grandmother.
The positive will of my father and my mother, their constant efforts, and the sheer
endurance with which they helped my grandmother fight the deadly disease. It was a side of
my parents that filled me gratitude.
They were my new heroes.
When visiting doctors or in internet forums, I took keen interest with the diagnosis and
discussions between medical professionals and my father. I started utilizing my academic
keenness to research on the topic of cancer from a technological point of view.
In the last four years, I have completed multiple accreditations in Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning, Data Structures and Algorithms. I also interned with a firm that is
deploying Data technologies to develop prototypical innovation in early-detection of cancer
cells. The learning journey regarding these complex domains was an up-hill task. I was
fortunate in finding an AI/ML leader as my mentor, who guided me immensely on this
learning path.
Today, as a scholar of computer science, I have a strong resolve to develop innovation in
AI/ML that can have a positive impact on people’s lives and is scalable. To the success

imperative of my ambition, I have worked hard to develop my coding skills and
understanding of Data Structures. I have repeatedly broken the perimeter of my school class
to learn neo-modern technologies.
In 2021, I participated in the Brain-Wiz contest conducted by Indian Institute of Technology
and achieved 92nd rank out of 1600 participants. The contest tests technological skills at
solving real world problems. This year, with practice and determination, I was able to rank
60th out of 1358 participants in the HPE CODE Wares, an online Hackathon and Code Battle.
Recently, I have appeared for my SAT and scored 1480 (730 in English and 750 in
Mathematics).
Although, I have been a top scorer in my class since formative years, but the ailment in our
family has led me to a develop a genuine hankering to develop a specialist know how as a
Technology Innovator spanning the domains of ML/AI and Deep Learning Algorithms but
driven with empathy.
As a family; we are now closer than ever.
As humans; we are better than before, and for me, the learning mission has just started; a
spark yearning to transform in a raging fire. The application at your university is certainly a
right step in that direction subsequently enabling me to develop original research at
Master’s and PhD level.