When I was a child, I told my mother that my greatest fear in life was running out of books. While I have since overcome that fear, now knowing that I may never finish every book I want to read, my love of books has never dwindled. To name my favorite book is a challenge - I keep lists of books I read and love, broken down into categories by why I liked them. However, if I had to name just one book as my favorite, it would be Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Most are familiar with the movie adaptation of this biography entitled The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the British mathematician who broke the Enigma code in WWII. The book is quite different, and far more in depth, even including Turing's equations and proofs throughout. However fascinating those are, the reason that this book is my favorite is because of the way in which it allowed me to progress as a person and develop my interests. I first read Hodges' biography as a freshman in high school, struggling to accept who I was and figure out who I wanted to be. The intersection of identities presented in the novel - being a gay man, a mathematician, a part of the war effort - allowed me to understand that I could be whoever I wanted to. Despite its length, I still reread this book regularly, and it will likely always be one of my favorites.

As an LGBTQ+ student in STEM, supporting equality and diversity is integral to how I navigate the world. From working to support collaboration between my university's LGBTQ+ group and STEM student groups to exploring how LGBTQ+ topics can be more clearly integrated into STEM courses, I am passionate about making STEM a more equal and diverse field. To elaborate on my actions a little further, I have previously worked to create two events that aimed to make LGBTQ+ students feel more welcome in STEM. First, I ran an LGBTQ+ STEM forum with my university's LGBTQ+ group and the Biology department diversity and inclusion coordinator. This event allowed LGBTQ+ students in STEM to discuss shared experiences and bond with each other. Second, I worked with my university's LGBTQ+ group and our arboretum advocacy group to hold an LGBTQ+ centric nature walk, giving LGBTQ+ students the opportunity to explore the outdoors with those who held similar identities to them. Although these things may seem small, I believe that any steps that allow students to cross boundaries and feel comfortable in their identity are incredibly important in increasing and supporting equality and diversity.

I grew up in a fairly accepting area, but it was not until I got to college that I truly accepted myself for who I was. Being an environment with other trans people, where using correct pronouns was normalized, where being queer was normalized, allowed me to feel fully accepted for the first time. As an executive board member for my school's LGBTQ+ group, I am working to make sure everyone gets this opportunity. Through events and outreach, as well as working with faculty and administration, I hope to make my school an inclusive environment for everyone, even if they are not lucky enough to find the niches of queerness that I did.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been passionate about helping people. I chose to study environmental science and political science in college to further this passion, hoping to work in non-profits or government once I graduate. However, in between the completion of my undergraduate degree and the beginning of my career, I would also like to pursue a law degree. My reasons for pursuing this degree are that it will help me be more effective and impactful in my desired career areas. I am considering environmental and human rights law foci, and I believe that this degree will allow me to be as successful as possible in my desire to help others. I don't envision myself being a corporate lawyer, or even working in a job where my role is specifically "lawyer". Rather, I hope to use my law degree to be more effective in careers in the nonprofit or government sectors. Knowing the legal system and laws of our country allows for a deeper understanding of what needs to be improved and how to improve it. It is a degree that I plan to use in an applied manner rather than direct. I am pursuing this scholarship because a. law school is expensive. While I hope to get as close as possible to a full ride scholarship, and may postpone my attendance if this is not possible, I need to do well on the LSAT for that to happen, which can be expensive between testing fees and prep materials. For many, the high cost of law school is okay because of the high salary they will recieve after they attend. I don't plan to pursue these type of positions, and so every bit of money I can save along the way makes a difference. Law school is a dream of mine, and this scholarship will help me pursue that dream.

As an environmental science major, with a concentration in earth system science, my degree is what I feel will allow me to fulfill my dreams of helping others and saving our planet. While solutions to the climate crisis should, in my opinion, be largely based in policy, there is no effective climate policy without science to back it up. Pursuing higher education in this area is something which I am passionate about, and feel I can make effective change with. In my career, I hope to use my degree in environmental science to inform action and policy around the issue of climate change, as well as contribute to the ever-growing conglomerate of climate change research. I think that many students in STEM degrees see limited options for themselves - working in a lab, pursuing medical school or other graduate education, or teaching - but I see STEM as something which can be applied to a variety of careers. We live in a world that is increasingly "post truth" and "post science", but I believe that can be rectified through the unity of science and policy. Science needs not only to be studied, but communicated, and that is where I hope to make my difference.

As an environmental science major and political science minor, I am most interested in how climate change impacts people across the globe in unequal ways. Depending on where you live, your socioeconomic status, race, and many other factors, climate change will affect your life differently. Through my coursework and extracurricular activities, I have explored several solutions to this issue. There are many ways to go about it, but over time I have noticed some common themes. First, the people impacted must be involved. You have to know what people's needs are, and hear it from them, if you want to create impactful solutions. Second, factors of systemic oppression, such as racism, must be considered. If you ignore this aspect of the differential impacts of climate change, you ignore the problem itself. Finally, solutions must be accessible. If you decide that the best way to combat climate change is to install solar panels in an area that cannot afford to pay for them, that's not accessible. People are both the root of the problem and solution in this area, and their voices must be heard. After I finish my undergraduate degree, I plan to pursue a MS in environmental science and policy, and potentially a JD. However, that is still a ways off. In the meantime, I hope to continue being a part of organizations that are fighting for change and solutions to climate change, and continue learning about the roots of this problem. Combatting climate change requires everyone to be all in, and I hope to create solutions, policy or otherwise, that address people's ability to do that.

Self-love is something which I believe we all struggle with, but for those who belong to the queer community, it can be even more difficult. As a non-binary queer individual, self love is something I struggled with throughout my high school years. As I came out of the closet to friends and family, I still did not always feel confident in myself. I struggled to accept who I was. I worked with three LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, talking to others about how they could be proud of who they were, but I struggled to do so myself. It wasn't until college, when I had a fresh start with new people, that I truly began to accept who I was. I was surrounded by other trans people, other non-binary people, other queer individuals for the first time, and I knew that if there was ever a safe space to be myself, this was it. My first year of college was a time in which I became unafraid to speak up for myself, to correct people on my pronouns, to wear whatever I wanted, and to be unapologetically myself. Through this transformation of self-love, I was finally able to really dive in to the parts of my life less directly attached to my identity. I took classes that I was interested in and loved, I took up leadership positions not just in LGBTQ+ groups, but in environmental advocacy groups. I had friends who respected me, and I respected them, and instead of being afraid for the future I was excited for it. As a queer person, self-love has come to mean accepting my identity, and no longer letting it limit me because of fear. I am a more confident and ambitious person today because my queerness cannot hurt me, it is a part of myself in which I take pride and find strength.

The disappearance of massive amounts of species, and the degradation of the environments in which these species live, is a massive concern for the future of our planet and everything that lives on it. Many species - plants, animals, fungi, and more - provide what are known as ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are actions performed by organisms that make the world more habitable and healthy. For example, plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. As we lose species, we also lose many of these services, either partially or altogether. While not all of them are as essential as the formation of oxygen, quality of life and the survivability of our planet decreases with their loss. Additionally, many species are being lost due to habitat degradation or destruction. This means that we are losing biodiversity not only in species, but also in ecosystems and environment. A less biodiverse world is a less resilient one, with disease and natural disaster being more likely to cause long-term issues. If we don't do something to mitigate these issues, most of which are both caused by and increase the impact of climate change, we are looking at an increasingly uninhabitable world. However, not all is lost. Yes, there is a lot that must happen to prevent reaching a point of no return vis a vis climate change and environmental degradation, but there are steps we can take now to start chipping away at our past ill-advised actions, at a variety of scales. On the individual level, for example, we can do things such as reduce the frequency at which we purchase items we don't need, buy sustainably produced merchandise, switch from single use options to reusable ones, power our homes through renewable energy sources, cut down on shower time and our consumption of meat and processed foods, carpool or bike instead of drive alone, and just generally be more mindful of what our actions mean for the world. On a community level, there is power in everyone taking part in the previously mentioned individual actions. However, this is ultimately not enough. Big corporations and governments are the ones truly responsible for the predicament in which we now find ourselves. Communities can pressure those entities to take action that will protect the environment, rather than harm it. In terms of endangered species specifically, communities can push initiatives that, for example, reduce habitat fragmentation via roads, clean up pollution in rivers and lakes, remove or reduce competing invasive species, or provide legal protection to endangered species. Countries, however, have the most power to combat the climate crisis. Through global summits and agreements, countries can work together to make change for everyone. Even on their own, as individual nation-states, governments of countries can pass legislation such as the endangered species act, the clean water act, and more, in order to ensure the protection of threatened organisms and the environments in which they live. Countries can also pressure the corporations within them to reduce pollution and other environmentally detrimental actions, and ultimately have a lot of say in whether or not we can mitigate climate change. Global environmental change is a massive issue, and there are many ways in which we can deal with it. However, in order to make progress, everyone has to step up, and the higher up you are, the more responsibility you have to solve this crisis.

As an environmental science major and political science minor, I hope to be a part of solutions to climate change, food insecurity, and systemic inequality. As a college student, I have lead projects on food insecurity, initiatives to foster community between environmental and LGBTQ+ activists, and spent countless hours phonebanking for politicians who I believe can help make change. Through further studies and activity in my areas of interest, I hope that my influence over areas I care about will only grow. I have held various leadership positions at my university that have enabled me to take action on issues that I care about, but the action that means the most to me personally has taken place outside of that. Currently, I am interning with my town's natural resources department, working with them and an ad-hoc advocacy group to improve trail access and provide historical context for the conservation lands that these trails reside on. I live in an area that was home to many indigenous groups prior to the arrival of colonists, and through this internship I have learned about how often their presence is overlooked, even today. I have been able to do work that highlights their contributions to this area, preserves their creations, and allows others to learn about them as well. All of this work has only grown my passion for solving issues of systemic inequality and environmental problems. I plan to take what I learn from this internship into my future experiences, and hope to one day lead initiatives to make sure that everyone, as well as the environment in which they live, gets the respect that is deserved.

My relationship with nature is something which has drastically changed since I began college. As a high school student in suburban Massachusetts, I was never a big fan of outdoor activities, especially if it involved going more deeply into nature. I would go on the occasional walk or bike ride on a rail trail or in a conservation land with friends, but spending time outside was not my priority. When I was a senior in high school, I decided to take AP Environmental Science, and with that class my views of nature began to change. Through field trips to local rivers and waste management facilities, to soil science labs and research on endangered species, nature shifted from being something I was vaguely aware of to one of my biggest interests. As a college student studying environmental science in an urban location, my appreciation of nature has only grown. The environment, encapsulating every blade of grass, insect, bird, bear, snowflake, human, and more, is something which I feel many people are not taught to appreciate. In a world focused on achievement, money, technology, and success, we often fail to see the value of the world around us. This was certainly the case for me, and it only changed through education. I went from someone who would have to be forced to get outside to someone who goes hiking in the middle of winter. My appreciation of nature comes not only from my education, but from the places I've lived. Going to college in an area with far less green outdoor space than where I grew up made me realize how much I appreciated it, and when I do get to experience wilderness in the city where I go to school, I am always so grateful. Becoming more aware of the value of the great outdoors through education and personal experience has influenced me permanently and made me want to be able to give that value to others. I chose environmental science as my major because I wanted to learn everything I could about the world around me, and I wanted to be able to use that knowledge to help others. My experiences in the wilderness - both for fun, like hiking and exploring with friends, and for work and leadership positions, such as leading a queer-oriented hike with my college's queer alliance and outdoor advocacy group and putting up trail markers, clearing trails, and writing educational pieces for my internship with my town's natural resource department - have only made me want to do more. I believe that access to green space and a habitable future planet is something which everyone deserves. Basic needs are often only considered in the scope of food, water, and shelter, but I have personally witnessed how important it is that people also have access to the great outdoors. Historically marginalized groups, such as low-income BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals, have often been restricted from the experience of the great outdoors, at the same time as they experience amplified effects of climate change, and in my career it is my goal to change that. In the future, I hope to pursue experiences that can lead me to a career in nonprofits, outdoor education, government, or research. Through one of these careers, I feel that I will be able to enact either policy change that increases access to the great outdoors and decreases the impacts of climate change, or help people on the ground get the access to resources that they deserve. Nature is a wonderful thing that often goes unappreciated in the modern world, but if we don't work to preserve it, we may lose it altogether.