I dreaded Mondays during the winter of 2004–2005. I dealt with problems: we ran into the wrong silo, ruining 150,000 pounds of material (a $75,000 mistake), Line 4’s motor blew, and the 1600 jammed.

One day in 1989, not long after my parents and I set foot in America, we stumbled upon a piece of furniture that would come to define our early years as immigrants.

Marines learn thirteen leadership traits at boot camp. I stress two—integrity and loyalty—during initial counseling sessions with junior Marines.

One of my greatest struggles has been with my speech. I had a stuttering problem from age four that was a constant source of self-doubt until recently.

Four years after I had initially set myself the goal, I succeeded in winning the National Mathematics Competition in Germany.

I drop reagent into vials containing my skin cell scrapings and the chief scientific officer nods approval. Due diligence is always engaging, but it rarely provides the opportunity to purify one’s DNA.

Google went from college dorm project to search-engine hegemon in twenty months. It took Steve Jobs only a short while to figure out the stickiness of the iPod.

Attending an all-woman’s institution has instilled in me the self-confidence, the self-assuredness, and the core belief that, as a woman, I can excel in any field that I choose to pursue.

In my senior year of college, I was selected from a pool of more than fifty applicants to serve as one of ten student directors for the Big Siblings Program.

While I share what I have done and hope to achieve, my story is incomplete without explaining the “why.” Alone and with no resources, my mother fled the religious persecution of the Baha’is in Iran to ensure the safety and education of her four children.

The automotive industry is under duress. Company executives are cutting healthcare benefits, freezing pensions, and laying off workers.

My first project at Accenture consisted of an SAP implementation for Chile’s largest copper mining company.

It was fall of my senior year, and I was attending one of the few financial services interviews I’d secured. The interviewer glanced at my resume, shoved it in a binder, and packed his belongings as he asked, “An English major—why aren’t you going to be a teacher?”

Since graduating from college I have played various roles in various places, including a law student in Boston, a school teacher in northern Spain, and an investment banker in New York, London, and Frankfurt.

When I was an infant, Shanghai’s air pollution poisoned my lungs.

I like to joke that I chose to study history in college as a career move. After all, history is a growing field.

R. J. O’Leary, a retired Marine and three-war veteran who mentored my father, presented the offer: “Son, how ’bout I find you a real job next summer.”

A quick proofread of the other five essays suggests that they don’t entirely capture me.

I believe strongly that American industry needs to stay on American soil for our workers’ sake and our economy’s health.

A scaffold bolt had just whistled past my ear. It was my third day on a construction site and I had been assigned six men to complete the foundations.