Eliana Salinas 1

Eliana Salinas

salinas.eliana@gmail.com

2208 Lindell Avenue, Austin, Texas 78704

(512) 913-1180

My Scientific Melody

Every Saturday morning I found myself in practice rooms. Some were just large enough

to fit my six year-old self, my violin, a music stand, and my teacher, and others so large that they

engulfed, intimidated, and yet inspired me to fill them with my own music. Through the years, as

I grew up, I grew into these spaces, finding my own rhythm and discovering who I was

becoming. At age eleven I started playing in new circles at school and within my local music

community, which exposed ​me to new realms of learning and musical styles​. ​The soundtrack of

my car rides slowly morphed from the classical Suzuki violin pieces of my youth to the

sophisticated Jazz of John Coltrane and the lively fiddle tunes of Tommy Jarrell, contributing to

my feeling at home with all genres. M​aking music with others, across all ages, backgrounds and

political views, now resonates deeply within me. In a jam session, for example, ​as we each play

our instruments with our own unique style and skill, our individual sounds intertwine to form a

deeply profound music. This synergistic ​transformation never fails to entrance onlookers, as they

grin ear to ear with wonder and awe, their hearts dancing in tempo with our own. Playing music

with others has taught me a lot about teamwork and collaboration. It has trained me to look for

patterns and, while it is a structured practice, it also allows for individual freedom of expression.

I believe these characteristics have transferred to my interest in Math and Science.

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There was a time when I didn’t particularly enjoy these subjects the way I do now. In

middle school and into my Freshman year, I was identified as “the music girl” who didn’t like

math; everyone knew it, and I was convinced too. But as I craved a wider array of perspectives,

academic rigor and diversity, I fought to switch to a larger school. At Austin High ​I joined the

Academy for Global Studies and chose to be a part of the Project Lead the Way engineering

program - a decision that shocked many. But with ​each new widget I designed on 3D CAD

software, each robot built in our class workshop, my love for engineering and design grew.

When I think about my early childhood and my current passion for math and engineering,

it only makes sense. The daughter of a Montessori teacher, I was frequently in the classroom as a

child, free to explore the various learning materials. Working with binomial cubes, math rods,

and chains of beads, I learned to grasp​ fundamental mathematical concepts ​from a young age.

These self-driven experiences of deep learning were the building blocks, quite literally, to my

current love design and the exploratory nature of engineering.

Music and design-focused problem solving are my favorite expressions of creativity. By

working within those frameworks, I can be transported and achieve limitless freedom to explore.

Moments after beginning a design draft, a math problem, or the first notes of a melody, I often

slip into a portal that takes me to a deeper part of myself. External influences disappear and I

become focused solely on working on the task at hand. When teams collaborate with this kind of

focus, the result can be a richly creative and productive environment. What emerges from these

spaces - ideas, product designs or music - are some of the most beautiful elements of life. By

tessellating our desire for creative solutions with our human need to feel deeply, we can

transform a delicate mixture of rigor and structure into purposeful creations.

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Any task with these elements coupled with a holistic, sustainable, and ethical approach

has me engaged for hours on end until I believe I have reached the closest thing to perfection that

can be obtained in that one sitting. Work is my play, and creation is what I love.