Discus Award Winner
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PHOTOS
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Isaac Diamond
11th Grade, WA
ATTRIBUTES
Technology
I have always been interested in technology and It has always formed the backdrop of my life. When I was a small child, I would sit in front of my computer for hours, playing video games or teaching myself how to use obscure software. I first taught myself how to program when I was ten years old, first in Visual Basic and then later in Java, PHP, SQL, C++, C#, .net, and python. When I was in middle school, I joined my school's FIRST robotics team. While we didn't perform well at competitions, we were a dedicated group and it was truly something I could be proud of. After a short hiatus to focus on my grades, I joined a First Robotics Competition and First Tech Challenge team in high school. Technology is a huge part of my life and likely where my future career lies.
Work
I have had several jobs through high school. While none of them have been incredibly strenuous, I learned an immense amount from each one. My first experience with working was in 7th grade. I was hired as a TA at a ski school that I used to take lessons from. Learning to work with children is nearly impossible and dealing with parents is something else all together. I enjoyed my time at the ski school and it gave me a new appreciation for the value of hard work and dedication. Entering high school, I also worked at my synagogue as a Teacher's Assistant. Here, I performed similar tasks to being a ski instructor, albeit off the snow. In high school, I also started my own Web 2.0 company and am a partner at a tutoring company. To quote Andrew Carnegie, "My heart is in the work".
Faith
I am Jewish and this has always been one of the most important aspects of my life. I work as a Teacher's Assistant (or Madrich) at my synagogue educating the next generation of Jewish youth. I truly believe that a strong Jewish experience is one of the most influential and positive experiences a person can have and will help make one a successful person. I am active in two Zionist youth movements, AZA and NFTY and hope to join Alpha Epsilon Pi when I enter college. I am on the board of my Synagogue's youth group as the Communications Vice President and have learned an immeasurable amount about speaking to and relating to a large group of people. My closest friends are from these and I hope that my Judaism will continue to allow me to connect to others in unprecedented, new ways.
