I have been planning on being more politically and socially active when I leave high school and I believe that one of the most important things that can be done when supporting a social issue is to spread knowledge and information. I am lucky to have gone to a school where the teachers stress the importance of understanding a source and their motive. I see posts on social media all the time where there is public outcry over a scandal and everyone wants in on it. Stories are told and shared, people click on the first link in google, and others only read the headline before posting their reactions. In this age of technology social media has turned us from the age of information to the age of misinformation and it’s slowing us down. When something bad happens in America we all get mad and rush social media to vent and shout our opinions, often villainizing anyone who doesn’t believe what we believe. We make snap judgments and barely glance at the facts anymore. Then once we have espoused our anger to the world we stop shouting and move on, and when we move on so does the government. The reason democracy works is because people care about the system and how it functions, but it moves slowly and needs time to react. When we mob social media and then disperse the government no longer has the support to justify the effort it would take to make new laws and change the system. What we need to do is to focus on spreading information, and encouraging others to do their own work so that they aren’t just reacting to the first thing they see. This way the information will stick in their minds and people won’t just forget about it in a few days. We also need to encourage people to talk to each other without screaming and actually listen. I attended an Asian student panel at my school where we learned about how our fellow students were suffering. It opened my eyes to the value of discussing tough topics and that just because you don’t see something, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I would use social media to post factual and as unbiased information as possible and list my sources so people can explore the topic for themselves. I would create a place for discussion where people can reach out with questions and talk without judgment. When we can talk together without fear of upsetting someone we can have candid conversations that are progressive. Our society can’t have a conversation on anything anymore without it devolving into screaming on both sides. That’s why I would create a social media account and have people ask me questions directly, which I would then research and respond back with all my sources. I would have other people comment on the questions to bring in new perspectives but keep out reactionary or extreme language to keep the discussion peaceful. My goal would be to educate and unite people so that we can stop fighting each other and instead come together to solve the real threats in our society.

When I was only a few months old I was adopted from FANA in Colombia and brought to America. My parents were white and I lost all ties to my birth community. It wasn’t until I recently took a 23andme test that I learned of my indigenous heritage. Having no specific information on which tribe I came from I tried to research and find out as much as I could about the tribes in Colombia but that was of little help. It wasn’t as if the internet could tell me which tribe I was specifically from. I moved on and found other ways to try and connect to my heritage. I researched indigenous people for projects in class such as the Red Power Movement that took off in the 60s in the U.S. While I know I do not share blood with them they face the same problems my birth community does and I want to bring them to light. As I researched I realized that the indigenous people of the Americas are extremely underrepresented in everything. Long after the Red Power Movement I had researched, I found that they were still battling over rights to land and clean water, and how they are the poorest race in America. When I earn my degree I want to help my own birth community, but not knowing much about them makes it hard to set a course of action, but I will do whatever I can for them. If they need money, I will give it, if they need access to resources I will fight for it, if they need people to spread and keep their culture alive I will learn and help others learn. I will also work to help the indigenous populations here in the U.S. I will use my vote and my voice to help them gain the place they deserve in this country. I will fight for their sovereignty, and their rights to the land their ancestors have inhabited for generation upon generation and spread the word of the struggles they face. I will help open the eyes of my friends and family to these struggles and work to invite more indigenous representation to the world. Lastly, I want to help those like me. Those who were adopted through FANA and have lost touch with their roots. I want to help know they are not alone in trying to search for their roots and coming up empty. That it’s ok to be impatient for having to wait until you’re old enough to go back and find out the truth. I will volunteer for FANA and talk with those who reach out for help, and support the amazing establishment they are. Though I lost connections with my roots, FANA found me a good home and has found good homes for so many young children. They are a bright spot in this sometimes dark world and I want and plan to do what I can to give back and spread that light further.

With all our modern day advancements with electronics like the iPhone, Laptops, Gaming Consoles, and many more I believe we as a people tend to lose our grip on the meaning of the word technology. Technology isn’t just items that need electricity to run or have screens and touch activation. Technology is also the hoe, the longbow, the lacrosse stick and the printing press, which all served crucial functions in society. The technology that inspires me isn’t the stuff we see and interact with everyday but the inventions used to build entire civilizations, my favorite being the ships made by the Polynesians which were used to settle the 64,000,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean thousands of years ago. The ingenious design of the crab claw sail which has an upside down triangular shape to catch the strongest wind high up, while also allowing sudden gusts to ‘spill over’ the top of them allowed them to sail the Pacific Ocean’s gyres, or currents, both wind and water. The boats were either double hulled or had a large outrigger to prevent capsizing due to the concentrated wind, and narrow shallow drafts increased their speed. While these boats were shallow they could carry 11,000 pounds of supplies for their voyagers across essentially a desert of water. They needed only a single oar in the back for steering and since the boats were symmetrical they could reverse course just by changing the sails. These fascinating vessels have absolutely captured my imagination. My mind could not conceive of a ship that was so far from the Western styles I had always known. They are an attestment to the inventiveness and creativity of humans and how adaptive we can be to our environments. If a group of people can make a boat that allows them to sail Earth’s largest and most dangerous ocean, imagine what a connected world can do. The technology that will spring from united minds around the globe to solve world problems and explore the farthest reaches will leave the children of the future astounded and dream of their own inventions. We can save our world from hunger, pollution, and pain, and inspire generations to come just as the Polynesians inspired me and as many others inspire people all over Earth.

Last September I got my first job as a Guest Advocate at Target, and it nearly broke me. When I was first offered the position Target called me to discuss my hours. I really wanted the job and so when they asked if I could extend my availability I said yes without question. Soon after I started my new job. It was good at first, and I worked to prove that hiring me was worth it. When I got my first paycheck I felt so good about myself. Soon they gave me more responsibilities and I was helping run drive up delivery. This is when the trouble started. I am on the smaller end of the physical spectrum and when doing drive up you have to push rather large carts, occasionally containing heavy items out to the parking lot and load them into a customer's car. It was demanding work and you had a timer for two minute to get the items to the customer. I worked hard to stay under the time and would come home from my shifts sweaty and exhausted. Worse than that I was scheduled to continue to do this for more and longer shifts. The work became too much and it was starting to damage my social, and academic life as well as my mental health. I was constantly under the strain of trying to manage everything. I decided to ask to lower my hours, I wanted to quit but I felt I owed it to the people who hired me to stick with it and just get through this rough patch. I talked to a higher up who I thought would help me with my schedule. After a brief talk with them they implied that my hours would be lowered next week. Great, right? But when I looked at the new schedule my hours had not been lowered. I didn’t want to complain but I was under too much pressure and needed some release. I went to the floor manager and told her the situation. They in turn told me who handled scheduling, as well as when they would next be in. Fine, I would ask them then, except they didn’t show up and I couldn’t contact them. Now the work was really taking its toll. I kept coming home late on school nights just to eat dinner shower and collapse on my bed. My homework was done in a frantic rush the next morning. I was working both weekend days and had almost no time off. I was starting to fall apart but I didn’t want to give in. When I still couldn’t get help to change my hours I finally decided to quit. I was physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted and I needed to do this before I self-imploded. I had given it my all, I worked long hours and tried to keep up with everything. I asked for help to fix the issue on multiple occasions only to be left drowning. In the end it was the only choice. I came out of the experience more aware and assertive of my needs and realized that putting myself before work wasn’t selfish but vital.You need to put yourself first because no one is going to do it for you. I know I have come out of that experience stronger, smarter, and more prepared for whatever life throws my way.

The most important thing to me about empathy is understanding, and I try to educate myself everyday in ways to see different points of views, not just on a small scale but a much larger one. We need to have empathy not just for individuals but communities. I’m taking a class called The Rhetoric of Race which is helping me to understand and empathize with all the issues that immigrants, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and more go through. Ignorance and apathy are two factors that prevent humans from helping each other and so to combat them I make sure I am empathetic by using knowledge and perspective to help me see the world through someone else's eyes. As a person who was adopted, I have watched a lot of content where an adopted character is abused, has horrible parents and other awful stereotypes. I know that almost none of it is true and I try to carry that mindset into areas I am not knowledgeable in. Many of my friends have different backgrounds such as being part of the LGBTQ+ community. If they come to me with an issue I try not to assume what they’re going through and ask questions to understand the situation and how it is affecting them. I keep in mind that they have a different life experience than I do and that the situation may impact them very differently than it would me but that doesn’t mean their reaction is invalid. Understanding and education are very important to me, and I use them to the fullest so I can better see through others' eyes and appreciate how their life experiences have affected them. We are all incredibly different but we all deserve to be listened to and treated with respect, kindness and empathy.

I’ve always loved learning about life and nature and have been a voracious consumer of educational content. From checking out dozens of non-fiction books from my local library, to watching videos and documentaries on the internet. I love participating in class and having real discussions with my teachers, especially ones that like to debate, and go back and forth on a topic. I even do my own research projects outside of school to see how much I can learn under my own power. Recently I did research on the history of comic books, and next I plan to do one on the government structure of Colombia, my birth country, as it is very similar to ours. My passion for learning has always been strong and I wish to integrate that into my future by being a researcher and working in labs with people to discover more about life on this planet. I plan to use my education to explore the different fields of biology like genetics and evolution as well as work to gain experience in research. As of right now I’m not sure whether or not I want to specify in a specific field or remain general, there’s just too much interesting stuff to learn in each field. My curiosity and inquisitiveness has always been supported by my amazing teachers. So many of them have fostered my love of learning and my interest in the inner workings of our world. I must especially thank my biology teacher, Mrs. Cocquyt who gave me hands-on experience in fun labs showing me not only how interesting but how fun science can be, and my elementary teacher Mr. Wells who demonstrated all the wonder that can be found in our world. Other inspiration has often come from YouTube videos. One of my favorite channels is called FilmTheory where they take something, usually unrealistic, from a movie and try to find a real world explanation. From the square-cube law to the diet of a lion to the best way to run, the channel covers a wide variety of topics in fun and engaging ways.The creator Mattew Pattrick says that the point of the videos is to encourage inquisitiveness in his viewers and to not accept everything at first glance. My friends and family have always supported my curiosity and passion to dig deeper and learn more. My teachers let me glimpse all that is out there to be discovered and investigated. Content creators from all over the world have infused me with so much knowledge. As I move forward as a STEM student and beyond, I know that it will have been all of them who helped me achieve all my ambitions in life.

During the pandemic my family has been looking for opportunities to help others and help our community. Both my parents are very conscious of their privileges in life and thought it was important to help give back to the community. They’ve always impressed upon us this idea of bettering the people around you. Unsurprisingly, me and my brother being teenagers, their efforts went unappreciated. We did volunteer work and it was for good causes but it was often boring or awkward as sometimes we would be the only teens at the events. Over the pandemic my parents tried to find more ways to give back, especially since less fortunate people were more harshly impacted by it. One day, last September, our neighbor, who was active in his church community, asked us to help volunteer at his church. An organization called Feed My Starving Children had reached out to them asking the church to provide volunteers and work space. Of course my parents signed all of us up. The organization had us prepare food to send to hungry children all over the world. We filled bags with all the essential nutrients and boxed them. My mom and I manned a packaging table while my dad and brother brought supplies to tables that were running low. Music was playing the whole time and everyone was having fun with the project. Unexpectedly I was having a lot of fun too. When it was over I was surprised at how much I didn’t want to leave. In the days after I thought about those moments and tried to figure out what made it so important and meaningful to me. Over time I came to the realization that I had enjoyed it so much because I felt like I was making a real difference. There is a lot of dark stuff in our world and sometimes it really weighs on me and I feel like I can do nothing about it. But while I was bagging food that would allow kids to focus on school and education rather than worrying where their next meal would come from I felt like I was truly helping someone. I wasn’t just an insignificant speck in the massive world we live in, but someone who, by bagging those simple ingredients, helped someone thousands of miles away. A child's belly might be full because of me. And it wasn’t just me. All the people who came and volunteered made a difference. All of them believed that they could make a difference, and believed that there was good in the world, or at least that they could be the good in the world. That experience, though nothing out of the ordinary happened, changed me. It helped me believe in good again, and reminds me to look for the light when I feel like I’m in the dark. It taught me that I can make a difference and be a part of something bigger. Since then I have been motivated to look for volunteer work on my own. Through my school I have found tutoring and a club called SciExcite where high school students inspire younger students to pursue STEAM through fun experiments and activities. I hope to carry that experience with me through college and continue to benefit my community. It can be easy to see only the evil, greed, and discrimmination in our society, but I believe it’s important to remember that we can change that if we choose to see and be the good in the world.