Ari Brown

NSA Stokes’ Scholarship Application Essay

	I read somewhere that “if you’re the best in the band, it’s time to find a new band.” I am not the best in any band of programmers or mathematicians, but since I am given the opportunity to join the best band of minds in the world, I feel that I am encouraged, if not obligated, to fight tooth and nail to get in to that band. That band – consisting of the brightest minds involved in computer and cryptography – is the National Security Agency.

	Working for the NSA would enable and encourage me to advance my computer science abilities, which is something that I am eagerly looking to do in my college years. I am thoroughly interested and deeply involved with programming, as demonstrated by my resume and the classes that I have taken at Dartmouth, and I am looking for a university to attend that has a great Computer Science department from which I can learn. I took a cryptology course at the Center for Talented Youth program from Johns Hopkins University, and since then have loved what the NSA does with cryptology. For many, cryptology is a hobby, but for those at the NSA it becomes a profession to which they devote their professional lives. Working for the NSA will allow me to get that keystone education to supplement what I have learned in school. In addition, it would afford me a lot more freedom in choosing colleges to attend.

	The NSA is a government institution doing work for the government and the safety of the population. My family has instilled a sense of pride as an American. I have been imbued with a sense of duty, and therefore feel the compelling need to perform government service. I have applied and been conditionally accepted into the US Naval Academy, but I am not certain it is my choice of school; being enrolled in the Naval Academy would also make it  hard to work for the NSA. If I get the Stokes’ scholarship, then I would be able to serve my country, study the field I love (computer science), and be able to select from a broader field of universities.

	The NSA is a collection of the greatest people in the country working in my favorite field doing great things in the service of our country. I would advance my education in the realm of computer science immeasurably, I would be around the smartest people alive today, and I would be faithfully serving my country. I am at a point in my life where I have to choose among a plethora of roads to take. Each one will affect my life in a significant manner, and each one is accompanied by certain people. Why would I want to take any road less than the best?