The future...

 1. What are your professional goals, 1 year, 5 years and 10 years into the future? What will accomplishing these goals let you do? How will accomplishing these goals impact those around you and what will it make possible for those in your community? 

My professional goals for 1 year would be to be enrolled in grad school and to have an internship in cybersecurity secured. For 5 years, I would say that my goal would be to have a stable career that continues to grow. I hope that I continue to learn and develop my skills. In 10 years I hope to be in a position of leadership, wether that is in industry or in academia. Accomplishing these goals would mean socioeconomic stability and independence for me and my family. Accomplishing theses goals impacts everyone around me, I intend to be in a career where I can make a positive difference in peoples lives. I want to protect all people form cyber threats.  

2. What are societal challenges that matter to you that you think it's important to deal with now? What do you think are the challenges that will matter 10 years in the future, and 20 years in the future? How do you think these challenges will be addressed, and what will need to happen to make sure that they are?

I think that global warming and micro plastic contamination are the some of the most important challenges that face everyone on the planet. I believe that these two issues will still be a major concern in ten years and even twenty years, even if we make changes to mitigate the issue. I think education is huge here. If the average person cannot understand basic terminology then they will not be able to address the issue. If people can't understand the issue how can they fix it and why would they care. 

3. What is something that makes you optimistic about the future, and why? This could be something big and impersonal (improving price of Li-ion batteries) or something small and personal (a new pet). Please describe how it feels to focus on this thing that makes you optimistic, and discuss whether you think it is a good idea to be intentional about being optimistic. 

Something that makes me optimistic is that most people understand that progress is the answer, that we must continue to evolve and that change is nature. We can not stagnate as a species, we have to come together and continue to push civilization forward, whether that means new governments or completely new ideas for society, I feel pretty certain that we will continue to raise humans that want more and want to move forward.