Father Writes Heartfelt Tribute to Daughter Upon Her Graduation

There's a saying that if we surround ourselves with successful and supportive people, we will be challenged to be more, do more, and share. Here's the story of the three Kings:

Many immigrant parents require assistance in helping their children gain admission to reputable colleges and universities in the United States. My family, known as "We 3 Kings," had a specific plan. 


Our primary focus was on colleges and universities in California because we wanted Ecy to stay close to home in Clovis, California. 


My wife, Nina, has been a registered nurse at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, California for around thirty years, with twenty-one of those years spent at St. Agnes Medical Center. Aside from being Ecy's father, I am an entrepreneur, a business innovation author, and the inventor of the Fractal Grid interface. I hold a United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent-pending for the Fractal Grid Storage Technology. 


Ecy is a co-inventor of the Fractal Grid technology and an innovator of the Fractal Grid Comic format, which she used to visually write the "Bit by Bit" and "Una KushÉ›" books. She is also the software developer of the Fractal Grid Notecard software platform, an application that she showcases on her website.  


When Ecy applied to universities in 2019, her top five choices were Stanford University, the University of California Berkeley, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of California San Diego, and California State University Fresno. We decided to focus our efforts and resources on just a few universities. 


In 2016, Ecy won California's Central Valley's Academic All-Stars Award for 9th Graders and mentioned in the Fresno Bee newspaper that her dream university was Stanford University. 


When it was time to apply for college, Ecy applied to Stanford University for Restrictive Early Admission (REA). In early December 2019, she received an REA acceptance from Stanford, which had an acceptance rate of 4.8% that year, making it the most challenging university to get into. Ecy gladly accepted Stanford's offer. 


She also received acceptance letters from other colleges and universities, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego. Ecy was particularly drawn to UC Berkeley, especially after receiving the prestigious Regents and Chancellor's (RAC) Scholarship, typically awarded to only 0.2% of student applicants to UC Berkeley. 


Nevertheless, Ecy's decision to attend Stanford University was unequivocal, and we are pleased with her choice based on her performance at Stanford. She thrived at Stanford and graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems with distinction.

Ecy enhanced her college experience by serving as class president for sophomore, junior, and senior-year students. Additionally, she was a board member of the Stanford Alumni Association. 

On June 4, 2024, we traveled to Stanford University for the launch of her computer science book, published by Stanford University Press (SUP), which she wrote while still an undergraduate. I often tease her that she went to Stanford as a writer and left as an established author, especially being published by the renowned SUP. 

Ecy not only represents Sierra Leone by speaking Krio fluently but also features the colors of the Sierra Leone flag (green/white/blue) on the cover(s) of her upcoming book published by Stanford University Press, "Bit by Bit: A Graphic Introduction to Computer Science." 

She also created a follow-up booklet, in Fractal Grid Comic format, which she wrote and illustrated for Teaching Assistants at Stanford University. The booklet on inclusive leadership for TAs is titled "Una KushÉ›" in Krio.

Ecy's Master of Science Degree commencement ceremony took place on June 16, 2024. 

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