Hometown: Washington, DC

Year: Sophomore

College: Branford

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Extracurriculars: Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association; Branford College Council

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Profile

Alex Hoganson calculates that he probably spends more hours in the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design (CEID) than in his own room. “I enjoy designing and creating things,” he says, shrugging good-naturedly.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Alex, who now majors in mechanical engineering, was passionate about the sciences long before he enrolled at Yale. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a renowned magnet school near Washington, D.C., that focuses on STEM. Alex says he’s especially grateful to his high school for the opportunity to meet people with whom he shared interests.

Prior to coming to college, Alex was heavily involved with volunteering and community service, racking up hundreds of hours and more than a decade of hard work. 

Unfortunately, Alex hasn’t been able to find as much time for community service as he had hoped he would at Yale.

When he’s not designing rockets in the CEID or keep ing up with his heavy course load, Alex pens the occasional humor piece for the Yale Record and frequents the Bran ford College Council. He also participates in Süperfly, Yale’s men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, and is heavily involved in the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association, which is especially relevant since he intends to pursue a career in the field. He says he dreams of designing the next generation of Mars rovers.

As a STEM major at a liberal arts school, Alex does sometimes feel as though his life and interests diverge from his peers’, both academically and socially. He classifies himself as “the type of guy [who] would much rather play board games than go out to a frat,” and his fondest weekend memories have generally involved staying in to continue interesting conversations with his friends and peers. He also frequently visits the Branford Tea Room, which provides a cozy, relaxed environment and is always stocked with hot beverages and snacks.

Alex’s essays include his Common App personal statement.

ESSAY 1 (COMMON APP):

Personal Statement

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it.

“So what’s your excuse for skipping practice this time, slacker?”

I cringed away from the belligerent voice of my track captain.

“I—I have a meeting. We’re deciding what activities to have for this year’s Global Youth Service day, and—”

He loudly cut me off:

“You know none of this service stuff matters, right? You’re not REALLY helping anybody. All you’re doing is padding your college resume and ditching practice!”

I tried to explain to him that I helped people, and that I honestly enjoyed volunteering and actually cared about what I did, but my opinions went in one ear and out the other. Conversely, his words settled in my mind and left a seed of doubt. Were all the years and the many hours I had spent volunteering making a meaningful difference?

The earliest time I can remember doing community service is third grade. My family and I went to play Bingo at a senior living center. I was terrified of being surrounded by scary strangers, but their faces lit up when I sat near them. I connected with the elderly residents and made them laugh and smile.

With my enthusiastic support, our family set a goal of accomplishing one hundred acts of community service. For years, I sacrificed soccer, weekends, and holidays to volunteer. I visited homeless shelters, Alzheimer’s patients, and food pantries. As I got older, I started doing more on my own, or with other teens. There have been some rough days; people slamming doors in my face and ripping up leaflets in front of me. However, volunteering in my community always has helped me to feel grounded and connected with others. Undoubtedly, I’ve come a long way since my first Bingo game, yet the emotional high I experience from interacting with people is still fresh and invigorating. Now, I am trying to volunteer on a whole new level by learning how to teach teens to start their own volunteer projects and to get them funded. Unfortunately, since that day at practice, Chris’s taunts have sometimes run around in my head. Am I making a real difference?

Recently, a brief conversation silenced those occasional doubts. Since freshman year, I have volunteered with my school’s Black Student Union’s TJ Inspire program, which seeks to inspire a passion for STEM in local, lower-income minority elementary students. I enjoyed spending my Saturdays engaging students in exciting, hands-on science experiments.

Last month, I was entreating incoming freshmen to sign up to volunteer with our program when a girl with a striking Afro boldly walked up to me. When I started to introduce myself to the freshmen, she cut me off.

“I know who you are!” she said, looking up at me excitedly. “I remember you!”

She then described how at a TJ inspire session, I had helped her to understand a potato-clock lab and encouraged her to pursue her interest in science by applying to my STEM-focused high school. As I continued talking with her, I had a hard time concealing my excitement. I had inspired someone to follow her passion, and helped her to change her life.

Captain Chris always used to say that nothing beats a runner’s high. For me, volunteering comes close. He’s gone now, away at college. I doubt he’d even remember our brief conversation—or care that he was wrong. But more important than proving a point to an old antagonist is my realization that while the rewards for my efforts might not be immediately obvious, they exist nonetheless. My passion for volunteering that began years ago has become a habit that, like running, I will continue throughout my life. I love helping others, and my volunteering represents an intrinsic part of who I am. My family still hasn’t performed 100 volunteer acts, but I look forward to celebrating each event.

From 50 Yale Admission Success Stories: And the Essay That Made Them Happen, edited by the Yale Daily News Staff. Copyright © 2020 by the authors
and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group.