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Stevens  /  Essays  /  Prompt 1

Stevens: Inspired by / Powered by

Each blank: 24 characters max. Essay: 100 to 250 words.

Stevens' motto is "Inspired by humanity, powered by technology." Complete the following: Inspired by: ______ Powered by: ______ Then, explain how your choices reflect who you are today.
What it’s really asking

Stevens wants two short, vivid phrases plus a brief essay that ties them to the real you. "Inspired by" is your why (a person, problem, or reason you care). "Powered by" is your how (a skill, habit, tool, or trait that drives your action). The 250 words should prove both with a specific story, not define them. There are no separate program-specific or "Why Stevens" essays this cycle, so this single prompt is your whole chance to show fit.

Why they ask it

Stevens is a small STEM school choosing students who will build and persist, often without test scores to lean on. This prompt is a fast read of how you think, what moves you, and whether you can be specific under a tight constraint. The 24-character limit is a design test in miniature: can you say something true and memorable with almost no room?

Three ways in
Start from a build

Begin with a real scene where you fixed, made, or figured out something, then pull your two phrases straight out of that moment instead of inventing them first.

Anchor on a person

Pick someone who shaped you for "inspired by," and name the concrete skill or tool they sparked in you for "powered by." The two blanks become cause and effect.

Hold two sides of yourself

Find a tension in you (soft and analytical, artistic and technical) and let the two blanks carry the two halves, then explain how they coexist today.

✕  Weak opening

“I have always been inspired by humanity and powered by my passion for technology and innovation.”

✓  Strong opening

“Inspired by: my deaf brother's hands. Powered by: a $4 microcontroller. I have spent two years trying to make a glove that signs back.”

✦ Annotated example · Grandmother's recipes, powered by a label maker. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
Inspired by: my grandmother's recipe box Powered by: a $9 thermal label printer 1My grandmother's recipes lived in her handwriting and nowhere else. 2After her stroke, she could read but not write, and I watched her panic when she could not find the card for the lemon cake she had made for sixty years. The card existed. The system did not. 3So I built one. I photographed every card, ran them through an OCR script I half-understood and debugged for a weekend, and printed a tiny barcode label for each. 4Now she scans a card with my old phone, and her own voice, recorded last summer, reads the steps back to her. The technology disappears. The grandmother does not. 5That is who I am today: someone who reaches for a soldering iron or a Python library only when a person I love is stuck. I am not powered by technology for its own sake. I am inspired by the people it can reach, and I pick up the tools because the people come first.6
  1. 1Both blanks stay under the 24-character limit and are concrete objects, not abstractions. Pairing a sentimental heirloom with a cheap gadget instantly signals the 'humanity plus technology' theme Stevens rewards, before the essay even begins.
  2. 2A short, declarative opening line. It states the human problem plainly and creates a small ache the rest of the essay will resolve.
  3. 3Specificity over polish: the stroke, the lemon cake, sixty years. The closing 'The card existed. The system did not' reframes a family loss as an engineering problem, which is exactly the maker's instinct the school looks for.
  4. 4The maker's instinct made visible: photographing, scripting, debugging, printing. 'Half-understood' is an honest admission that reads as authentic rather than boastful.
  5. 5The payoff ties the cheap label printer back to the human being. 'The technology disappears. The grandmother does not' echoes the earlier inverted sentence, giving the short essay a deliberate, designed shape.
  6. 6The conclusion answers the 'who you are today' clause directly and reframes the motto in the applicant's own words, putting humanity ahead of technology. Lands the essay near the 250-word ceiling at full length.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is a small thing you built, fixed, or optimized that nobody assigned you, and what pushed you to start?
  • Who in your life is the reason you care about a particular problem, and what concrete skill did they hand you?
  • If a friend described the way you attack a problem in two words, what would they actually say (not the flattering version)?
Before you submit
  • Could a stranger picture both of your 24-character blanks, and could only you have written them?
  • Does the 250-word essay tell one specific story instead of defining your two words?
  • Does at least one sentence clearly answer who you are today, in the present tense?

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