InnovateHER Engineering Scholarship

One of my most meaningful accomplishments has been growing as a leader within Key Club, from a local role to an international position. I began as my school’s publicity coordinator, learning how to capture and share moments of service, highlighting the impact of small actions. What started as posting photos quickly became something more: shaping how people saw service, and encouraging others to get involved. As District Editor for the New England and Bermuda District, I expanded that work by producing district-wide publications and managing communications connecting over 6,000 members. Now, as an International Trustee, I represent the Ohio, Texas-Oklahoma, and Philippine Luzon Districts on the International Board, providing resources, helping set policies and goals, and supporting district growth. Ohio feels somewhat like New England, though we still argue about calling rotaries “roundabouts” (they’re wrong, by the way). In Texas-Oklahoma, a powerhouse district, members joke that I speak with a “Baw-stin” accent. The Philippine Luzon District, twelve hours ahead, meets at my midnight. I sip coffee while someone inevitably jokes about my “vampire hours,” and we laugh. My community now spans the world. Through these roles, I have learned that leadership is not just about organizing people. It is about shaping systems that allow others to make an impact. I apply the same mindset closer to home through my work with my school’s math team. At my school, math has become the subject everyone loves to hate. Ongoing changes to math curriculum led to instability, which has created a culture where struggling with math is expected. Behind the jokes about “math trauma” is a real stigma around a subject that once excited people. The math team has been my community since eighth grade, where I found my closest friends and a shared love of puzzles and logic. Watching the team shrink, not from lack of talent, but because students have been taught to fear math, showed me how quickly confidence can disappear. I have tried to push back against that in small but consistent ways: writing competition problems for middle school students, running our team’s Instagram to highlight achievements. I have seen how quickly confidence can disappear. And how meaningful it is when it returns. Belonging in STEM is not about ability itself, but about confidence in that ability. That understanding shapes how I want to impact my community through engineering. When I open my closet, nearly every piece of clothing is thrifted. A vintage sweater, worn-in denim, a jacket someone else once outgrew; each item reflects a conscious decision to reduce waste rather than contribute to fast fashion’s environmental impact. What began as a practical choice became a philosophy: sustainability is about rethinking systems. That mindset draws me to chemical engineering. While chemicals are often associated with pollution, they are also central to solutions: clean water treatment, renewable energy storage, biodegradable materials, and carbon capture technologies all depend on chemical innovation. I am drawn to the challenge of transforming an industry that has historically contributed to environmental harm into one that leads sustainability efforts. I plan to study chemical engineering with a focus on green chemistry and sustainable process design. I want to learn how to replace hazardous substances with safer alternatives and design manufacturing systems that minimize waste from the start. Just as my leadership in Key Club has focused on building systems that amplify impact, I hope to apply that same approach to engineering, designing processes that not only function efficiently, but also serve communities responsibly.