David A. A. Balaban
Balaban Inc.
85 10th Ave,
New York, NY 10011
13 February 2019
Ms. Davidow
Professor at the City College of New York
160 Convent Av
New York, NY 10031
Dear Ms. Davidow,
My name is David Abreu Alyanak Balaban, I am a Computer Engineering student at the City College of New York (CCNY) and I am currently working as a concierge for a luxury building. I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil and I moved to the United States on December of 2015. My current plan is to get my undergraduate degree and move onto a graduate school while already trying to make a name for myself on the job market.
Growing up in Brazil was amazing, but also riddle with challenges. Brazil is an amazing country that is full of natural resources and an incredibly rich culture, however its been managed by the wrong people that only care about their own interests. Its one of the countries with the highest monetary disparity in the world, in other words, 1% of its population is extremely rich, while the rest is in complete misery. That created an extremely corrupt environment where people only look for themselves, on a desperate attempt to survive. Growing up in such environment showed how much the world needs to change, the US is amazing and the quality of life is incredible here, but only here.
There are many reasons why I decided to move to the US, but I believe the one that speaks louder is to further myself in a different environment, which should give me a new perspective on how the world works and how I should behave on such world. Quality of life and job opportunities are also part of those reasons of course, however I understand that living in a foreign country, where the culture is not similar to mine, will better prepare me to tackle any challenges that may arise.
Furthermore, Computer Engineering is the right path for me. Not many people can say they chose the right major, but fortunately I can. I wanted to be an engineer, the versatility of engineering really attracted me, I could be an engineer and work with Marketing, Construction, Manufacturing, Finance or even the medical field. Engineers are problem solvers, regardless of the field they are acting on, and I always wanted to be one. Similarly, I have always been interested by computers and electronics in general, both the programming and physical part behind them, hence Computer Engineer was the right choice for me.
Currently, I am still not sure what field I want to dedicate myself to. I’ve already worked for one year and a half as a web-designer and IT support for a startup called Cascade.FM, which is a new music streaming platform, that only deals with independent musicians, and a streaming licensing company, for businesses to stream music legally, and even though I was doing web design I had the chance to see how is the work life of a programmer, which I really enjoyed. However, I have a big passion for hardware and hands on work, the idea of working on a creating new systems or helping to build embedded systems makes me excited for the future.
Regards,
David A. A. Balaban
