Dear Sir/Ma’am,

I, Dipika KC would like to express my interest in the well-designed course Master of Science in
Environmental Engineering through this letter in Idaho State University. I am an Environmental Engineer
by profession, graduated from Kathmandu University, Nepal. Since my childhood I had never thought of
getting a degree in such an interdisciplinary course like environmental engineering until I passed my high
school. I was in dilemma about my career goals, my family wanted me to compete for the scholarship in
medical school but it had never been my cup of tea because I had always been fascinated towards by
technical field rather than by medicine but I started my preparation for the entrance examination of the
medical school for the happiness of my parents. However, at one point I used started to feel felt miserable
for myself and lose the lost hope but I tried and gave my best to see my parents in the state of elation.
However, destiny had planned something else for me, I wasn’t selected for the scholarship. Coming from
the middle class family we could never think of paying all those expensive bills for medical school. I felt
awful realizing that I have wasted all my effort and time until. One day, my bench mate suggested me to
attend I attended a career counselling seminar about the technologies related to environmental
management. The seminar I attended It not only showed me the direction, and that but also motivated
my predilection towards environmental studies. The entire seminar was about the technologies related
to environmental management. The presenter compared past and present environmental issues in Nepal,
we were shown a decade old portrait of our holy river, Bagmati about 10 years ago, along with the current
portrait. I had never imagined that holy river would have been so pristine back then but I was astonished
by the present portrait of the same river because it is I was amazed to see the contrast between those
two images. The river which was so pristine back then had now become full of floating garbage and one
can barely stand and breathe around the river. I also heard came to know that after arduous effort, waste
water treatment plant was built, however, the efficiency of the treatment plant is not satisfactory and the
treatment plant is in horrible state. The entire country is polluting the Pollution of environment has been
going on in the name of development but there are and only a few project are going on that work for
environment. and Currently there were are very few environmental engineers working in Nepal which
means our country is lagging behind of lacking experts and man power in this field. Then I thought of
getting This motivated me to get into this profession because there is no future of this world if we only
work for hapazard development, if the environmental issues are neglected, the world will die out of
suffocation one day.

My journey for Bachelor’s in environmental engineering started in 2013 AD. I got through one of the
competitive entrance examinations in Kathmandu University and I succeeded to get in getting an
admission in one of the best universities of Nepal. Though it had been really tough for me to convince my
family for this because we live in the male dominating society, according to typical Nepalese society no
female can compete with male in such technical domain, where a technical domain like engineering is
never assumed to be the relevant profession for women. In spite of these obstacles, I somehow convinced
I was successful in convincing my parents and got the enrollment for environmental engineering. I had a
wonderful learning experience in this 4 years of time. I even got selected to attend the workshop
organized by JST Sakura Science in Tokyo, Japan. This workshop bolstered the interest inside me in
towards technologies, I was completely impressed by the clean surrounding despite of its position in one
of the developed country. I and it furthermore helped me to realized the extent to which Nepal was
lagging behind in development, I felt pinched when I happened to compare Japan and Nepal. The
development and pristine surrounding was beyond comparison, I didn’t see any trash around the road
while I remembered the solid waste piled up in each and every corner of Kathmandu city, despite of being
rich in water resource Nepalese people die of water borne disease every year because of the poor
management and the effective water treatment facilities, the fertility of soil is degrading everyday
resulting in decreasing number of crops production, holy rivers and lake are polluted, In most of the
remote places in Nepal fecal sludge are not treated, instead it is mixed with the flowing river, the
industries emitting harmful gases still has no idea about purifying those harmful gases before releasing it
into atmosphere. All these issues that my country has been facing made me feel that I have so much work
to do but the knowledge I had gathered in this 4 years of time was simply not enough. As a final year thesis
I got the chance to work in the largest drinking water treatment plant of Nepal which improved my
practical knowledge and I got the exposure in the real engineering. The treatment plant was the main
component of the largest drinking water supply project till date in Nepal named “Melamchi drinking water
supply project”. While working in that project I noticed none of the leading engineers were from Nepal,
questions arose in my mind: “What if we had enough expertise in Nepal? Why there are no Nepalese
engineers in the leading team?”. I realized that it is going to take a longer time to reach the goal of
development for Nepal if we become dependent to foreign aid and manpower, I have to contribute from
my side so that my country could be independent in the sector of manpower. After the completion of
dissertation I got an opportunity to present my work in the International conference of water and climate
change and this was one of my precious achievement of my life because I got the positive feedback from
all the national as well as international audience and specially my professor was very happy to see me
presenting my work in the best way I possibly could. That moment has been my motivation to do things
even better that before.

After completion of my undergraduate studies I started working as an intern in Environment and Public
Health Organization (ENPHO) which is one of the renowned non-governmental organization and I had a
great experience in the water and sanitation project after that I worked for an engineering company
where I gained experience in environmental impact assessment for the construction of mega projects like
hydropower. Everything was going well I was learning new things and gaining experience but whenever I
met my seniors I noticed there level of knowledge was beyond my limit and I realized that I have to
continue my studies in this domain as soon as possible so that I can take the position as one of the
expertise in my country. Well, all these experiences and interest guided me as the source of inspiration to
get into immense exposure and to pursue the post graduate studies in environmental engineering.

Since my college days I have been hearing from my lecturers and professors about the excellent education
system in United States of America. Renowned for its excellence in providing quality education and best
research facilities for environmental engineering students, I have chosen Idaho State University to pursue
my career objectives and aspire to be one of the qualified engineer and devote my knowledge to solve
the environmental issues. I vouch that my commitments and vigor will make me one of the deserving
candidate to attain the post graduate degree in this university. In addition, getting an opportunity for
graduate research assistantship would definitely act as the valuable support to complete my studies, I give
the assurance to give my best to perform the work that I will be assigned and I will prove myself to be a
responsible and enthusiastic student throughout the entire length of program. I believe the entire journey
in Idaho State University will be most fruitful and learnings from this university will sharpen my theoretical
as well as practical knowledge which will add the points for the future endeavors.

Thank you!
Sincerely Yours,

Dipika KC