In this blog post, I’ll summarize my academic experiences, club activities, and collaborative projects from high school, as well as my motivation for pursuing a career in marine energy and my career plans.
Academic Experiences and Reflections
When I chose the science track in my sophomore year of high school, I opted for Math Type B. While some of my friends chose Type A, I decided that since I was aiming for a career in engineering, I needed to study the more advanced curriculum. Because Math Type B covered a broad range of topics and was highly challenging, I felt that simply rushing through the material wouldn’t help me build my skills.
Therefore, I studied by comparing and contrasting concept textbooks and decided to work through multiple problem sets simultaneously. I believed that comparing different explanations would help me solidify my understanding of concepts, and to develop my problem-solving skills, I worked through at least five problem sets in a step-by-step manner. This method prevented me from merely going through the motions of each unit and helped me develop the habit of repeatedly summarizing the key points of each unit.
Specifically, I worked through the problems in order of increasing difficulty: “College Scholastic Ability Test Special Lecture” (basic difficulty) → “N-Type” (intermediate difficulty) → “College Scholastic Ability Test Completion” (advanced difficulty) → “SEN” (in-depth) → “4-Point High-Difficulty Workbook” (highest difficulty). I began with the assumption that the problems in the EBS textbooks were linked to the mock exams and the actual CSAT, and I focused on developing problem-solving skills by identifying recurring question types at each stage.
For example, in the Mathematical Induction and Flowcharts units of Math 1, I established the rule that I would not move on to the next unit until I had completed all five levels of the workbook. By studying this way, I was able to gain a deep understanding of the concepts and question types in each unit, and I felt that my skills became much more solid than if I had simply rushed through the material ahead of schedule.
Major School Activities and Reflections
The educational environment at general high schools often lacked sufficient support for technical and hands-on workshops. Since there was no dedicated technical workshop space and it was difficult to find teachers or peers who could provide expert guidance, I began a comprehensive search of school clubs and small groups to find a place to practice. As a result, I discovered a newly formed club called the “Professional Drafting Club,” and the mere fact that there were friends who shared my interests served as a major source of motivation.
From the very beginning, the club held lively brainstorming sessions, and I expressed my desire to join and actively participated in its activities. The club’s founding purpose was to work with professional engineers and use software like I-DEAS to create 3D mechanical models of items such as cell phones and cars, and to build prototypes. I proposed that we also incorporate creative design exercises by practicing reverse engineering and proposing new product designs.
Reverse engineering involves disassembling and examining existing mechanical products to draw design blueprints; while products are typically manufactured after blueprints are created, taking the opposite approach allowed us to better understand mechanical structures. We worked on form design and CAD-based component design in parallel, and once the design was complete, we assembled the components in three dimensions to test their functionality. The process of checking for collisions or interference and predicting the final product’s appearance through digital simulations enhanced the reliability of our designs.
To improve the quality of our prototypes, we needed specialized equipment. As a newly formed club, we lacked sufficient on-campus resources, so we actively utilized external resources. With permission from our technology teacher, we borrowed existing school machinery, and when more specialized equipment was required, we rented labs at a nearby Meister High School to use RP machines, high-speed machining centers, and CNC-MC machines to turn our design drawings into prototypes. Through these experiences, we were able to directly experience the gap between design theory and actual production, thereby improving our design skills.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and Our Reflections
Participating in the specialized drafting club involved overcoming various limitations. When tools were scarce, club members voluntarily solved problems by personally purchasing materials or sourcing necessary parts from large retailers. When we needed machinery, we rented a nearby Meister High School lab to conduct basic practical work, and through this shared use of external facilities, mutual trust and gratitude developed among us.
Even after completing design drawings, we often lacked the time to produce prototypes. Therefore, we decided to dedicate our evening self-study hours to technical study and hands-on practice; although we had to go through the complex process of obtaining school approval, we were able to take on this challenge because we had a clear career goal. In the evenings, we went to the Meister High School lab to borrow their equipment for hands-on practice and collaborated with a local mechanical engineering club to carry out our projects.
As part of our collaborative projects, we took on the challenge of creating six different models, including a remote control, a bicycle, a cell phone, a lighter, a PC phone, and an MP3 player. During the design phase, I reviewed and revised the blueprints together with my friends from the Meister High School, and during the production phase, we helped each other with tasks requiring physical strength or guidance on using equipment to complete the assignments. For example, when I was having trouble using the 3D pen while designing a bicycle, my friends from the Meister High School provided detailed instructions on how to use the equipment, which helped me solve the problem.
Through this process, I deeply appreciated the value of collaboration. The experience of sharing external resources, exchanging technical skills, and helping one another went beyond simply acquiring technical knowledge; it fostered communication, consideration, and a sense of responsibility in our collaborative work. Ultimately, thanks to each other’s support, we were able to utilize state-of-the-art equipment and successfully completed the six modeling projects, gaining a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
I prefer to blaze new trails rather than simply follow established paths. I believed that for Korea to pioneer new technological fields on the global stage, we need people willing to take on challenges, and I became particularly interested in developing technologies in the marine sector—an area where few others venture. I felt that the marine sector, with its potential for developing various energy sources such as wind, wave, and tidal power, is a field worth exploring.
My goal is to develop energy generation plants that operate in marine environments and to research the technologies required for such facilities. To this end, I have consistently challenged myself in mechanical design and fabrication since high school, and my submitted portfolio contains a compilation of the projects I have completed over the years. My experience—starting with small devices and gradually designing and manufacturing more complex products—has served as a foundation for broadening my understanding of system design.
I began with small devices like lighters and went on to design cell phones and headphones. I also learned a great deal about how things work by designing a bicycle and building a prototype. For my graduation project, I built a scale model airplane: I shaped the fuselage with a 3D pen and installed a motor and wings to create a functional model. This process was a meaningful challenge that allowed me to experience the entire journey from design to fabrication firsthand.
These experiences allowed me to assess my potential, and in college, I hope to bring creative ideas to life and further develop my design skills in the field of marine systems engineering. Moving forward, I will strive to gain practical design experience and strengthen my research capabilities so that I can become an engineer who contributes to the design and development of marine energy power plants.
