Emily Sandford

Hi my name is Emily Sandford, not Samford, Sanford, Standford, Stanford, or even Standiford, you may be asking why that’s included but I have gotten all of these and hated it. Now that you know I can’t stand it when people misspell my last name let’s move on to some more stuff about me, I’m incredibly awkward and shy, unless you start talking about things I really like then I won’t shut up. Also I like to explain myself but it mostly ends up being me rambling and nobody likes that myself included.

What’s another thing people don’t like? Failing. That’s why one of my academic goals for this year is not to fail. I know it’s nothing special but it’s a good goal especially when you miss a lot of school like me. I would also like to at least get some threes on my AP tests, but isn’t that everyone?

Some people already know this but over the summer I participated in Women in Engineering (WIE) workshop series hosted by the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Admissions. So to most this would sound really boring, but that’s just the name not what happened. So the WIE went through six areas of engineering Civil, Electrical, Computer Science, Minning, Chemical, and Biosystems all of which were tons of fun. I started with Computer Science which is coding, in the workshop we made apps for androids and they worked, they all had the same outline which was press the button and get an answer, mine was “Which Disney Song Should You Play?”. I then went to the Civil Engineering where we built catapults and trebuchets, my group’s catapult failed a little, but it had a maximum distance of 40 feet, so not too bad. Then it was time for Electrical and Computer engineering which I had heard a lot about at this point, the day started out by soddening a circuit board for a piano with the parts made from a 3D printer, then it was time for the main event creating and programing ardino boards to be pianos specifically grape pianos. Yes you heard me right grape pianos. The next workshop I went to was biosystem engineering where we made cheese from scratch and ruined several foods such as Cheetos, did you know to get the shapes on the crunchy Cheetos that they just fry the puffy ones. Then came Mining Engineering where we went down into the limestone mine in Georgetown, and learned what true darkness really is, and detonated ten different kinds of explosives, oh and I mention that all nine of us got to pick and set up and detonate an explosive, cause we did, and not to brag but I detonated the dynamite. The last workshop was chemical engineering where we made acetate membranes and learned about desalination and how it affects water.

There was a lot in that one I know but I’m not exactly finished talking about my summer yet. Before any the workshops had occurred I had gone to the Kentucky 4-H Teen Conference and interviewed for a spot on the State 4-H Science, Engineering, and Technology Leadership Board. To my surprise I got on and I’m now a part of this lovely group of people.

Moving on, if I could have any superpower I’m not sure what it would be, but it wouldn’t have to do with engineering. I say I would like control over snow and ice like Elsa or control over fire, but these would definitely lead to consequences in the unforeseeable future like freezing an entire city or arson because I’m not capable of trusting myself not to do these things, and controlling and hiding these things would be a pain and eventually too stressful. So it’s because of this that I would have to go with the classic power of invisibility because I’m good at being quiet.

As you’ve seen throughout this I’ve mentioned some stuff such as Disney, Engineering, and 4-H. All of these add up to my favorite things, and I hope to combine these into future careers, such as Jungle Cruise Skipper, and Audio-Animatronic Imagineer. How does 4-H play into this? I participate in Ham Club, Shooting Sports, Dog Club, Teen Council, and the SET Board, I’m loving every second of each of these and I’m becoming better able to reach the requirements of these jobs because of it.

Before I forget my favorite site is http://blogs.disney.com/ shocker right?

I know that was a lot to go through so I'll leave you with a video of the mysterious grape piano.