About Me
Good afternoon,
1. I hope that this message finds you well. My name is Winston and I am writing in order to share, if the inclusion of this additional information might not be intrusive, a brief overview of my educational background.
2. I was born at the United States Air Force Academy hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado, into a family which has a legacy of service in the United States armed forces. For example, my grandfather, Royce Winston Sanks, retired in Colorado Springs as a Master Sergeant after having served for twenty-four years as an aviation fuels maintenance specialist in the United States Air Force. My mother and two of my uncles served in the Air Force as well.
3. Because Colorado Springs is host to the U.S. Air Force Space Command, NORAD, several aeronautical
defense contractors, and the United States Air Force Academy my family frequently exposed
me to aerospace-oriented activities. For example, we visited the Air and Space Museum at Peterson
Air Force Base each summer and we attended the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony every year. As a
result of growing up in Colorado Springs I engendered a fascination with flight at a young age.
4. My family and I moved to southern Florida in the summer of 2003, and two years later during my sophomore year of high school in Cooper City, Florida, I learned about the ancient hellenic city-state of Sparta in world history class, one year before the movie 300 came out in theaters.
5. The culture of a people so hardy, so brave, and so efficient was fascinating to me. For years following, I read literature from the library and online about the Spartans.
6. For example, in his Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Plutarch relates an example of my interest as demonstrated by King Agis.
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7. When some Athenian laughed at their short swords, King Agis answered him, 'We find them long enough to reach our enemies with;' and as their swords were short and sharp, so, it seems to me, were their sayings. They reach the point and arrest the attention of the hearers better than any (Plutarch 110).
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8. I grew fond of laconic speech and writing. I found that the adjective spartan encapsulated well my desire to live with no more than necessary, be that in material wealth or indulgence in food. Athletically, I strove to emulate the training of those hoplites who fought across the Peloponnese and I discovered that I enjoy physical challenges. At age fifteen I enrolled in the South Florida Boxing Club gym which was located on one mile south away from my home in Cooper City, Florida, on the upper floor above the Pines Ice Skating Arena.
9. I studied the warrior ethos of the Spartans and I realized the value in living by a code in order to serve the needs of a team. My commitment became then to develop myself into a warrior-scholar such that I may contribute to a cause bigger than myself.
10. Beginning in the fall of 2008 I studied aerospace engineering for 1.5 years first at Broward College and thereafter for two years at the University of Miami with the benefit of a competitive full-tuition scholarship which I was fortunate to earn.
11. In the spring of 2011 I applied to transfer to the United States Air Force Academy in order to potentially take advantage of the professional development opportunities offered there, and I was fortunately admitted as a member of the class of 2015. I entered Basic Cadet Training at the Air Force Academy in June of 2011 and I graduated from the Air Force Academy on 28 May 2015 as the outstanding cadet in citizenship with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. I was also able to gain a beginner-level proficiency in both French and Khmer through taking part in a one-year language class and a cultural immersion summer semester in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Kep, Cambodia, between June and July of 2014.
12. The Air Force Academy program is similar to the training experienced by the young citizen-soldiers in the agoge of the city-state of Sparta: the agoge was a compulsory military boarding education system which began at age seven and was completed at age thirty for all Spartan males.
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12. At the completion of the agoge each graduate swore a promise to defend his home against all enemies foreign and domestic, and this oath paralleled the responsibility that I accepted upon graduation from the United States Air Force Academy to protect the safety of the citizens of the United States of America as an officer of the U.S. armed forces.
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14. In the fall of 2017, after pilot training, I moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in order to serve as a weapons purchaser at Hanscom Air Force Base. While in Boston between 2017 and 2020, I was grateful to have gained admission to the Master of Supply Chain Management program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, and the Harvard Business Analytics Program.
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15. Since beginning the study of the law I have learned that Criminal Law and Contracts are my favorite legal courses, and I am thankful for the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the American jurisprudential tradition.
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16. Beginning in January of 2020, on the weekends and while in business school, I served as a historical interpreter at the Museum of Concord, Massachusetts, which preserves writings of authors Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Louisa May Alcott. The Museum also hosts an extensive gallery documenting Paul Revere’s midnight ride and the Battle of Lexington and Concord which took place at the initiation of the American Revolutionary War.
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17. As a requirement of my employment, I read The Federalist Papers in addition to books describing the political philosophies of the founders of the United States of America. I also studied Louisa May Alcott’s essays with respect to the abolition movement and Henry David Thoreau's reviews of Plato and Sophocles.
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18. I found parallels between stories of antiquity; the rhetorical commands of the American Transcendentalists to: ‘afford to be just to all men, and to treat [each] individual with respect as a neighbor,’ (Thoreau, Civil Disobedience); and the Core Values that I was taught as a cadet of the United States Air Force Academy: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do.
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19. For example, in the Apophthegmata Laconia (Sayings of the Spartans), published in the first century A.D., Plutarch describes one mother’s commitment to the defense of her brothers and sisters in the city-state of Sparta, even after the loss of her sons.
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20. One woman sent forth her sons, five in number, to war, and, standing in the outskirts of the city, she awaited anxiously the outcome of the battle. And when someone arrived and, in answer to her inquiry, reported that all her sons had met death, she said, ‘I did not inquire about that, you vile varlet, but how fares our country?’ And when he declared that [Sparta] was victorious, ‘Then,’ she said, ‘I accept gladly also the death of my sons’ (Plutarch).
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21. As the result of these lessons, I have taken responsibility for the well-being of the citizens of my polis, the United States of America. I am now committed to equal opportunity for all members of our society inclusive of age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status such that each American might have an opportunity reach his or her highest ‘self-actualized’ manifestation as described by psychologist Abraham Maslow.
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22. During my undergraduate studies in Florida and in Colorado I worked in my sphere of influence to develop equity for marginalized communities. For example, on 24 April 2014, while I served as the president of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) outreach club, a 437 cadet-strong organization, I helped to conduct a school visit to Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy, a title one school (Jack Swigert Academy is located in an economically disadvantaged region of southern Colorado Springs and hosts an 80% minority student body of whom 90% are enrolled in a reduced cost lunch program), where students were able to ask questions live to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
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23. After the astronaut uplink conversation, Jack Swigert Academy students participated in hands-on science activities with Air Force Academy cadets for the remainder of the school day. Similar opportunities were given to students at the Atlas Preparatory School on 11 November 2013, Evans Elementary School on 22 February 2013, and Huerta-Chavez Academy on 12 November 2012. Our motivation for engaging with local schools in the community was singular: we enjoyed inspiring students to see a future for themselves as scientists and engineers that they may not have otherwise envisioned.
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24. While an undergraduate student studying aerospace engineering student at the University of Miami, prior to my attendance at the United States Air Force Academy, I served as a leader in an activist organization called Students Toward a New Democracy or STAND. The association worked with local religious parishes and trade unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to ensure that occupational safety regulations were upheld for grounds maintainers, janitorial staff, and food service professionals.
25. The members of STAND held marches with faculty, clergy, and labor leaders in order to secure benefits for the community of Miami as a whole. We each recognized that the prosperity of the city must begin first with adequate funding for those who provided the foundation upon which we all relied.
26. I held a passion for the protection of citizens in the community and, partly as a result of this experience as an activist, I was motivated to submit an application in the spring of 2011 to transfer from the University of Miami to the United States Air Force Academy.
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27. My community engagement activities also inspired me to consider applying for law school in order to find a role to protect the most vulnerable members of our society such as the infirm, the poor, the elderly, orphans, and widows. For this same reason I have applied to become a 1L legal intern for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office in the summer of 2022.
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28. I am loyal to the Constitution of the United States of America and as a professional of the law I will defend those values which guarantee each American’s right to pursue his or her conception of happiness.
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29. My hobbies include reading (books about the future colonization of other planets by Ben Bova are a favorite), tennis, vegan cooking, hiking, posting photos on Instagram, and working on my 2002 Subaru WRX. I am also a member the Freemasons and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in order to volunteer for charitable endeavors such as elderly visitor programs, food bank staffing, and park clean-up events.
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30. I am grateful for your time in reading this ‘about me’ section and thank you for your consideration. Please have a good day.
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Sincerely,
WINSTON A. SANKS
Anaheim, California