Tell us your story.

What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced

throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

I participated in planning and was my school’s ambassador to the 2019 Climate Strike in

Austin, Texas. The Climate Strike was important to me because it’s part of who I am - someone

who cares deeply about the environment. I represented my school, we participated in an active,

orderly manner. We listened to speakers and discussed environmental concerns with

individuals, representatives from other organizations, and other students - some from the

University of Texas

But my interest in the environment started many years ago. Some of my earliest

memories involve me being outside to play in the grass, dig in the dirt, turn over rocks, and pick

up bugs. I learned in elementary school that what I played in is the environment, and we should

take care of it. I learned simple things like picking up trash and not wasting water. In middle

school I took environmental science classes, and these classes started me on the path to my

greatest passion, the environment.

In my high school career, I learned more about the sciences involved when studying the

environment and how humans impact it. I wanted to learn more about the sciences that make

up environmental science such as biology, chemistry, geology, botany, and zoology. But I

wanted hands on experience.

My sophomore year, I received a unique opportunity in the form of a scholarship for a

summer study abroad program on “tropical biodiversity conservation.” I enrolled in an intensive

3 week program in Costa Rica on learning about biodiversity in species, different ecosystems,

the sciences involved in their study, and how we humans impact biodiversity. My group stayed

mostly in biological stations run by the national parks service. I canyoned across cliffs, kayaked

through the swamps and dodged bullet ants (​never​ get bitten by a bullet ant), and worked in the

rain and mud collecting data for the research studies being conducted. I learned as much as I
could from the instructors. I spent long evenings discussing my work with my diverse group and

teachers. I learned that biodiversity is an integral part of environmental science. I learned

first-hand how all countries are impacted by the biodiversity and environment in another country.

It was an exhausting but life-changing and rewarding study program.

Back in high school, I continued to learn about the sciences, but I also learned about

how human behavior directly impacts our environment and can create climate change. I

learned how many of the environmental issues we face result from actions we took. We have

cars, so we make parking lots that involve destroying plants and natural groundcover exist

where the parking lot will be. The parking lot creates impermeable cover and runoff that

impacts our water quality. Driving to work in a car contributes to one of the leading causes of

climate change, the emissions of CO2 gases into our atmosphere. Trash creates methane that

is also released into the atmosphere. All of these are normal everyday sights and tasks that all

of us experience. I wanted to learn about sciences involved in studying the impacts. For

example, what is the chemistry of the emissions, and how do these emissions have biological

impacts.

I’m still in high school, but I know that the underlying sciences of environmental science

cannot be studied in a vacuum. All of us must also learn how we can change human behavior,

habits, and way of living. For example, just because we’ve always used fossil fuels in cars does

not mean we should continue to use fossil fuels. We like the convenience of throwing away

trash and food scraps together and dumping these items in landfills. But, the landfill trash rots

and creates methane and creates greenhouse gases. Just because we like the convenience of

landfills, does not mean we should not create widespread practices of composting to reduce

methane emissions.
 I want to build on what I’ve become today and study environmental science in college.

But after getting a degree in Environmental Science, I don’t want to take what I learn and stop

there. I want to work not only with other people studying environmental science, but also people

who develop products that we use in our everyday lives so we can anticipate how these

products may impact the environment. I want to work with our local, state, and federal

government and regulatory agencies to give them sound, scientific information to be used in the

development of laws and policies that impact our environment. I want to work to educate our

society with real, fact-based science that helps everyone understand that every one of us

impacts our environment and we must take action to protect it now.