When I first stepped into the meeting room for iD Tech participants, I initially felt overwhelmed by the number of kids there that I didn't know. Fortunately, I did find a staff member that I'd seen in another program previously and we caught up with how we've been doing since then. I got assigned to a group shortly after which focused on creating maps in Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 . The first day focused on creating Portal 2 maps, but for the rest of the week my group focused on creating TF2 maps through a program called Hammer.

For the first two days, I struggled. The people I worked with were totally different from the people I'm usually around. The other reason had to do with the difficulty of utilizing the Hammer program compared to creating Portal 2 maps, especially with the constant crashing.

However, with the help of my other group members and my own adaptation to this new environment, I began to grow a fondness for the program. I went away from iD Tech realizing that I have to continue taking risks throughout my life, so I can grow in self-confidence and sociability with others. Even if I ended up not liking the computer programming part of the program, I would have known from that point that computer programming wasn't for me and I should look for another interest. It also wouldn't have tarnished the bonds I formed with the members of my group. Becoming friends with every one of my group members is a testament to that, and I hope I can meet other great people like them from here on out. Thank you Wishbone staff members and donors for granting me this grand opportunity, and I hope other kids my age had and will have amazing experiences as well.

I would like to start off by thanking the Wishbone community for allowing me to experience yet another STEM opportunity. I will be attending iD Tech Camp at NYU this summer to spend a week learning about the computer programming for the development of the game Portal 2 and the Unreal Engine. My main reason for choosing this program out of the hundreds of others was that I believed that iD Tech Camp would provide me the best computer engineering experience. My dream career of becoming a computer engineer is now closer to fruition due to this opportunity. My two passions are writing and coding, but I chose to follow my coding passion for two reasons. First, I had two amazing English teachers to help me develop my writing skills this school year. My second reason is that I have fond memories of two coding trips I had from last school year. I had to create a video game and an app with other kids I didn't know. However, I developed strong and long-lasting bonds with some of them which I still hold dear to me today. I hope to have a similar experience at iDTech Camp and I look forward to meeting new people and developing bonds that last long after the program is over.