Engineers: they turn coffee into buildings. Ever since she could play with wooden blocks, Serena has been brewing up creativity and innovation. This playful start fueled her passion for engineering.
From the age of 8, Serena delighted in building cardboard dollhouses with her cousin. She fondly recalls trips in her aunt’s car to purchase a vibrant assortment of cardboard—from baby pink to royal blue. Serena meticulously selected materials, measured them with rulers, and used hot glue to assemble her creations. Her dollhouses featured two stories and even had a functioning door crafted from a folded section of cardboard. These simple yet imaginative structures housed her dolls for many years.
This passion for creation persisted throughout Serena’s teenage years: she was awarded merit in both the Hong Kong Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition and The “Safe Cracking” International Physics Tournament, and placed top 5 in the international EngineerGirl: Writing Contest among hundreds of applicants. Outside competitions, Serena is deeply engaged in academic research. Her published works include a poster on the environmental impact of menstrual pads for the American Geophysical Union, and a poster and paper on utilizing JOVE radio telescopes for enhanced analysis of thunderstorms, Jupiter, and solar activities for the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional organization, respectively. Academically, Serena has consistently achieved summa cum laude (top 5%) and magna cum laude (top 10%) among her cohort.
Attending a prestigious university will enable Serena to further hone her engineering skills, collaborate with like-minded innovators, and access advanced resources. Her career vision extends to merging creativity with technical expertise to address global challenges and make a meaningful impact on the world.
