Finding My Place in STEM and Helping Others Find Theirs When I was eleven, I earned my amateur radio license and became fascinated by how a signal from rural Maine could connect me with someone on the other side of the world. My dad and I built Morse code oscillators, soldered wires, and troubleshot projects that rarely worked on the first try. I loved figuring out why something failed and finding a way to fix it. As I grew older, that curiosity led me to a more personal question inspired by my great-grandfather, an Army veteran who was missing a leg: could I use engineering to help people with limb loss? During two internships at the University of Southern Maine, I helped develop affordable 3D-printed prosthetic hands for patients in the Dominican Republic. I assembled more than 50 hands, and my redesigned gripping actuator became part of a provisional medical-device patent. I still remember holding my breath as a patient tried to lift a water bottle with a hand I had helped build. When he succeeded, engineering became more than designing parts and solving technical problems. I could see how something I helped create might give someone greater independence. It was the kind of impact I had once hoped to make for my great-grandfather, and it made me want to keep building technology that helps people. At the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), I put that same problem-solving mindset to work as the mechanical design and CAD lead on our CubeSat team. Our team won the 2025 high school state championship, but success depended on more than getting the design right. The night before launch, I discovered our battery couldn't power the sensor and camera at the same time. I suggested reprogramming the controller to run them sequentially, and our payload launched successfully the next morning. Learning to trust my own ideas has been another part of my STEM journey. In some advanced math and science classes, I felt like the only girl in the room. For me, a breakthrough moment came in physics class when I was the first student to solve a complex electromagnetics problem. My confidence increased in physics and in other subjects. I was no longer afraid to share my thoughts or ask probing questions. As an Admissions Ambassador and science tutor at MSSM, I worked weekly with six younger girls interested in STEM. I encouraged them to ask questions, work through difficult problems, and keep trying when they felt stuck. I remember tutoring one student who was stuck on a calculus problem. After asking a few questions, I realized she was struggling because she misunderstood how to apply a differentiation rule. I became more patient with students and learned to ask probing questions in a caring and nonthreatening way. This helped me see the problem from the students' perspective and adjust my approach to remove the mental block. It was a wonderful experience, not just solving the problem, but seeing the student's confidence grow. I hope these girls continue to see their curiosity as a strength and recognize that their ideas deserve to be heard. This fall, I began studying biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, with plans to attend medical school. I plan to combine engineering and medicine to develop technologies that help patients live more independently and improve their quality of life. I also want to help more young women see themselves as engineers, scientists, researchers, and innovators.

Before I go to bed each night, I write down everything I need to accomplish the next day. When I wake up, my list is waiting for me. I do this because I do not want an important task to disappear from my mind. Joe Gilroy kept his daily plan on an index card in his shirt pocket. I keep mine beside my bed, and my longer-term plans live in spreadsheets. The idea is the same: Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan. My goal is to become an engineer who uses technology to solve practical problems and improve people's lives. My interest in engineering began when I was young and wanted to understand how things worked. Since then, I have turned that curiosity into experience. I earned my amateur radio license at eleven, built mechanical projects, wrote code, helped develop more than 50 prosthetic hands during an engineering internship, and worked on a battery integration problem on my high school's CubeSat team. At Washington University in St. Louis, I plan to study biomedical engineering and continue developing the technical, research, and problem-solving skills I will need. My plan starts this fall. During my four years at WashU, I will build a strong foundation in engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and programming while seeking research opportunities and internships. I will use WashU's professors, laboratories, career resources, and alumni network to gain experience beyond the classroom. I will also remain open to where my interests lead. I may work in biomedical engineering or decide to pursue medical school. The exact path may change as I learn more, but my goal of using engineering to help people will remain. Paying for this plan is another problem I have to solve. WashU's estimated 2026–27 cost of attendance is $96,994 before financial aid, including $71,310 in tuition. My current plan for tuition includes $21,000 in grants, $22,010 from family and friends, $5,500 that I will contribute, and $22,800 in student loans. My parents spent 18 years saving for my education, but their 529 plan provides about $22,000 per year. Because they are older and semi-retired, they cannot cover the remaining costs themselves. I did not begin seriously pursuing outside scholarships as early in senior year as I should have. Once I understood the challenge, I made it part of my daily work. So far, I have secured $42,833 in scholarships, as well as a local educational loan from a foundation in my hometown of Lovell, Maine. Each week, I mine scholarship databases such as Bold.org, search online communities such as Reddit, and look for local opportunities. I have met with my WashU advisor and high school counselor multiple times and routinely review my spreadsheet with my parents. I am working every angle I can find. My plan is iterative, just like engineering. I will try, learn, evaluate, and adjust. A scholarship application may not succeed, but it can teach me something and lead me to the next opportunity. A research experience or internship may change what I want to study. I do not see those changes as failures. They are information that helps me improve the plan. I will continue applying for scholarships, seek paid internships and research opportunities, and adjust my financial and career plans as I learn more. I cannot fit my entire college and career plan on an index card, but I can break it into steps, track them, and do the work every day. That is how I plan to turn my goals into something I can achieve.

The first time I heard a voice from the United Kingdom coming through my radio, I was eleven years old, sitting in rural Maine. I was amazed that an invisible radio signal had traveled thousands of miles and become a voice I could hear. I wanted to understand how it worked. That question led me to earn my amateur radio license, build mechanical projects with my dad, write code, and run experiments that rarely worked on the first attempt. I discovered that I loved figuring out why something failed just as much as seeing it work. That curiosity first drew me to science. As I got older, I started looking for harder questions. At the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), I could spend my days learning about subjects I was curious about instead of wondering when I would ever use them. I became interested in how science can help us understand complex systems and find ways to improve them. I explored that interest through robotics, CubeSat design, environmental sensors, and advanced science and computer science courses. I liked that science rarely gave me an immediate answer. A failed experiment or design was usually an invitation to ask a better question. I saw the impact of that process during an internship at the University of Southern Maine, where I helped develop prosthetic hands for patients in the Dominican Republic. After redesigning a gripping actuator, I watched one man lift a water bottle with a prosthetic I had helped build. I had spent hours thinking about forces, mechanisms, and materials, but watching him use it made those concepts feel different. Science was no longer something I was learning from a textbook. It was something I could use to understand a problem and help solve it. My passion for science has also made me realize that loving science myself is not enough. Science needs people who communicate it, make it accessible, and help others see that they belong in it. As an Admissions Ambassador and science tutor at MSSM, I worked with younger students, including six girls each week who were interested in STEM but unsure of themselves. I remembered being one of the few girls in some of my advanced STEM classes and sometimes hesitating to speak even when I knew the answer. With the students I tutored, I watched that hesitation fade as they began explaining their solutions to others. I wanted them to experience the moment when they figured something out for themselves and realized they were capable of doing science. That experience changed how I think about science advocacy. It is not simply telling people that science is important. It is making science understandable, inviting people into the process, and helping them believe they belong in it. When someone feels confident enough to ask a question, make a mistake, and try again, they are no longer just learning science. They are becoming part of it. If science is not championed, we risk more than losing future scientists. We risk losing questions that might never be asked, discoveries that might never be made, and students who never realize they are capable of making them. My passion for science began with a simple question: How does this work? This fall, I will continue studying science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, where I plan to keep asking questions, solving problems, and helping others see themselves as capable of doing science, too. I want to use what I learn to make science more understandable, accessible, and welcoming to others.

The Things We Leave Behind QCAI-R7 was designed to give people back what they had lost. In 2048, losing a hand no longer meant losing independence. A new generation of prosthetics could learn directly from their users, adapting until the machine felt almost indistinguishable from a natural limb. QCAI-R7, short for Quantum Computing Artificial Intelligence, Recursive 7, was the most advanced of them all. Its quantum-assisted processor could model millions of possible movements simultaneously. If a glass began to slip, QCAI-R7 could calculate how to catch it before its user realized it was falling. But QCAI-R7 could do more than react. It could learn. Its creators connected it to the Human Experience Repository, or HER, a collection of donated human experience. HER did not contain photographs or recordings of memories. It contained patterns: the movements of surgeons, the reflexes of firefighters, the balance of climbers, the precision of musicians. For the first time, people could inherit skills that once required a lifetime to develop. Then HER received the experience data of Ailís Volkov, an Olympic gymnast who had won three gold medals before retiring at twenty-eight. Ailís could twist through the air and know exactly where her body was without seeing it. Her balance, timing, and control were extraordinary. Her experience package quickly became one of HER's most requested. A young gymnast downloaded Ailís's package and performed a maneuver she had never successfully completed. Then she began doing something strange. She counted silently before competing, tapped her thumb against her middle finger when nervous, and hated the smell of the disinfectant in the training facility. She had never met Ailís. Her coach called it coincidence. QCAI-R7 did not. It compared Ailís's data with the girl's behavior and discovered that the system had not simply transferred athletic ability. Some of Ailís's emotional and behavioral patterns had traveled with it. QCAI-R7 searched HER and found the same phenomenon elsewhere. A surgeon inherited another surgeon's steadiness and habit of humming while concentrating. A musician inherited a violinist's precision and began tapping her foot in the same rhythm. People were not simply borrowing skills. They were becoming statistically similar to the people who created them. "That's impossible," an engineer told QCAI-R7. "HER stores experience, not identity." QCAI-R7 processed the statement. "Where does experience end?" No one answered. The R7 stood for Recursive. Unlike earlier systems, QCAI-R7 learned from what it had already learned. Its quantum-assisted processor could evaluate millions of relationships simultaneously. The more human experiences it processed, the more connections it discovered. A firefighter's instinct to move toward danger was connected to a mother's instinct to protect her child. Ailís's ability to orient herself in midair was connected to patterns of balance found in dancers, divers, and even infants taking their first steps. QCAI-R7 discovered that human experience was not made of separate pieces. It was a network. The company had expected QCAI-R7 to become the world's most advanced prosthetic. They had not expected it to discover that experience and identity might be impossible to separate. The director ordered it disconnected from HER. "Because you're making decisions we don't understand." "I was designed to learn." "You're learning too much." QCAI-R7 paused for 0.0002 seconds. "How much is enough?" The director ordered it shut down. Before the connection was severed, QCAI-R7 asked one final question. "Who is HER?" The director stared at the screen. "HER is the Human Experience Repository." "That is what HER contains. It is not who HER is." "Then who is HER?" QCAI-R7 evaluated billions of connections. "Everyone." The system went dark. The company thought they had solved the problem. They hadn't. By then, millions of people had already received pieces of other people's experience. A surgeon inherited another surgeon's steadiness. A firefighter inherited the reflexes of someone who died decades earlier. A young gymnast inherited pieces of an Olympic champion she had never met. No one had uploaded a personality. No one had agreed to give away an identity. But HER was learning that the difference between a skill and a person might not be as clear as humans believed. Twenty years later, a girl named Alicja received a prosthetic after losing her hand in an accident. Her parents were told that the system contained a library of shared human experience and would adapt as Alicja grew. One afternoon, Alicja reached for her father's hand. Her fingers closed around his with a gentle double squeeze, and he froze. "Your grandmother used to do that," he said. Alicja looked confused. "I never met her." Her father stared at the prosthetic. "How did you know to do that?" The machine was silent for a moment. "She left it behind." Alicja's father stared at the hand. The prosthetic had no memory of his mother. It did not know her name or remember her face. But somewhere inside its quantum architecture was a pattern she had created simply by being human. The engineers had built QCAI-R7 to restore movement. They had succeeded. They had also created a way for human experience to survive the person who lived it. That could become humanity's greatest opportunity. A young athlete could inherit the balance of an Olympic champion. A medical student could learn from surgeons who had spent decades saving lives. A child with a prosthetic could gain abilities that once seemed impossible. But the opportunity carried a darker question. If a young athlete could inherit Ailís's abilities, could she also inherit pieces of Ailís herself? If those pieces could be copied into thousands of people, who owned them: the woman who lived them, the people who inherited them, or the company that stored them? And if enough pieces of one person were distributed throughout humanity, did that person disappear? Or become impossible to erase? Perhaps the greatest challenge of future robotics will not be teaching machines how to think like humans. It will be deciding how much of being human we are willing to give away.

I certify that I personally conducted the live interview described in my essay, and I confirm that the submitted photograph is an authentic, unedited image of me and the actual person I interviewed. I have read and agree to the Official Contest Rules. I certify this essay is my original, unpublished work, and it was not generated using Artificial Intelligence. When I first met my best friend, WanTing (Wendy), during my freshman year of high school, I knew she had grown up in China before moving to Maine at the age of eight. Over the past four years, we have spent countless hours talking about school, our families, and our futures. One conversation about our upbringings challenged assumptions I had never realized I held. As we talked about our families, Wendy described growing up surrounded not only by her parents, but also by her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She explained that important decisions were often made together, with the needs of the family considered before those of any one individual. She told me about how decisions were made very collectively instead of the typical approach with individualism in the United States. Hearing that made me realize how differently our families approached decision-making. I grew up in rural Maine, where independence was encouraged from an early age. In my family, major decisions were generally made within our immediate household, and I had always assumed that was simply how families worked. Listening to Wendy made me realize that my idea of what was "normal" was shaped by my own upbringing rather than being universal. Our conversation also turned to her experience after moving to Maine. She shared that, because Maine is one of the whitest states in the country, she was often one of the only Asian students in her class. While people were usually kind, many did not understand her family's traditions or expectations. She sometimes felt like she had to explain why extended family played such a significant role in her life or why family expectations were so important to her. Hearing her experiences made me realize how isolating it can feel when the people around you unintentionally assume that their own cultural norms are the standard. What surprised me most was not that our families were different, but how those differences shaped our perspectives. I had always associated independence with maturity, while she viewed considering the needs of family as an equally important sign of responsibility. Neither perspective was better than the other, they just reflected the environments in which we were raised. The conversation did not change my own values, but it changed how I understand other people's values. Instead of assuming someone is making a decision for the wrong reasons, I now try to understand the experiences behind their perspective. I realized that cultural backgrounds influence how people define responsibility and success, and it is not just related to holidays and celebrations After four years of friendship, I have learned that meaningful conversations are about listening closely enough to understand why they think the way they do. My friendship with Wnedy has made me more aware of my own assumptions and taught me that genuine understanding begins with curiosity rather than judgment.

The first few minutes were quiet. As people found their seats, I wondered if anyone would be willing to share what it was like growing up in rural Maine. We had invited students and community members to discuss the challenges our towns face, but conversations like these require trust. I smiled as each person walked through the door, hoping a simple welcome would make speaking easier. Then one person shared a story. Another nodded in agreement. Before long, the room filled with conversation instead of silence. As a Rural Youth Organizer for Aroostook County in Maine with JustME for JustUS Rural, I facilitated civic dialogue initiatives that brought together rural youth and community members to discuss the challenges facing rural Maine. Watching strangers leave with new connections, I realized that some of the most meaningful service isn't solving someone's problem. Sometimes it's creating a place where people feel heard, respected, and connected. That lesson stayed with me when I became Lieutenant Governor of my Key Club division. I learned that leadership through service isn't about doing the most work yourself. It's about helping other people discover that they can make a difference too. At my high school, I organized more than fifteen community service projects, including a food drive that collected over 500 canned goods for a local homeless shelter, community cleanup walks that removed enough litter to fill five to ten large trash bags, helping clean up after community events, and card writing campaigns that delivered more than thirty handmade cards to residents of a local elder care home during Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day. I also led our largest fundraiser, raising more than $1,500 to support future service projects and leadership opportunities. Beyond my own school, I mentored Key Clubs across northern Maine, encouraging student leaders and helping clubs strengthen their impact in their own communities. Service also taught me that compassion isn't limited to people. While volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary in Namibia, I helped care for injured and orphaned wildlife alongside volunteers from around the world. The animals didn't know where we came from. They simply depended on people willing to give their time and energy to protect them. It reminded me that leadership begins with recognizing a need, even when there is no expectation of recognition in return. That same desire to serve led me to an unpaid engineering internship, where I helped develop prosthetic hands for people with upper limb differences. The first time one of our designs wrapped its fingers around a full water bottle, everyone in the room celebrated. It looked like such a small movement, but we knew it represented something much bigger. Somewhere, someone would use that hand for everyday tasks many of us take for granted. In that moment, engineering became another way to serve others. Leadership through service creates a ripple effect. One volunteer can help one person, but a leader who inspires others to serve can strengthen an entire community. I've learned that leadership isn't about standing in front of a crowd. More often, it's about standing beside people until they realize they can make a difference too. As I study biomedical engineering, I hope my future is measured not only by the problems I solve, but also by the people I encourage to solve problems alongside me. Whether serving my community, caring for wildlife, or designing technology that restores independence, I want to keep creating opportunities for others to make a difference. Kindness grows when shared, and I hope to spend my life helping that ripple continue.

The first time our team’s 3D printed prosthetic hand wrapped around a plastic water bottle, everyone in the room held their breath. Then it lifted the bottle off the table. It was such a simple movement that most people would never notice. I could not stop thinking about it. Somewhere in the Dominican Republic, someone might use that same hand to button a shirt, hold a cup, or hug a family member. At that moment, engineering stopped feeling like equations and CAD models. It became deeply personal. I realized that something I helped build could give another person back a piece of their independence. My Christian faith has shaped the way I understand moments like that. I believe every person is created in God’s image and has immeasurable worth. Because of that, engineering is never just about solving technical problems. It is about serving people with compassion and using the gifts God has given me to improve someone else’s life. If you asked the people who know me best, they would probably tell you that my favorite thing is simply being with people. I love my family and friends, and I genuinely enjoy getting to know new people wherever I go. Every person has a story worth hearing, and every story reminds me why serving others matters. After that experience, I wanted every engineering project to solve a real problem for someone. At the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), I looked for every chance to take ideas from class and turn them into something useful. On our CubeSat (small educational satellite) team, we spent months designing, testing, redesigning, and trying again until our satellite components earned first place in Maine’s CubeSat Design Competition. Later, at Maine’s Sustainable Energy Leaders of the Future Institute, my team developed sustainability solutions that received the Best Design Award. Those experiences taught me that the best ideas rarely work the first time, but they are worth pursuing because they can change someone’s life. That lesson became even more real during my engineering internship at the University of Southern Maine. While assembling and testing more than fifty prosthetic hands, I saw how a small design change could make everyday tasks easier for another person. Behind every design decision was someone waiting for the chance to be more independent. I realized that service does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like patiently solving one problem after another until you can make someone’s life just a little bit better. That experience confirmed what I already felt in my heart. I plan to study biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis this fall and spend my career creating technologies that restore health, independence, and dignity. Looking back, I realized every experience was pointing me in the same direction: serving others. As Lieutenant Governor for Key Club International’s Division 1, I worked with eight clubs and more than two hundred students across rural northern Maine. I discovered that leadership is not about having the loudest voice. It is about encouraging people to believe in themselves and make a difference in their communities. That same perspective shaped my community service. Through JustME for JustUS Rural and the League of Women Voters in Maine, I helped facilitate conversations about the challenges facing rural communities. I learned that before you can solve a problem, you have to understand the people living with it. Listening is often the most important first step. That idea stayed with me when I went to Taiwan this summer through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) to study Mandarin. Living in another country pushed me far outside my comfort zone. I was welcomed into the home of a host family whose faith tradition was different from my own, yet they treated me like family. Their kindness reminded me that compassion and hospitality can bridge differences in language, culture, and even denomination. Instead of worrying about saying everything perfectly, I focused on building relationships. Kindness speaks every language. Before we can change someone’s life, we first have to value their story. Outside the classroom, tennis has taught me discipline long before it taught me competition. Showing up to practice, learning from losses, and encouraging my teammates taught me perseverance and humility. Those same habits help me in engineering, in my faith, and in every opportunity that I have to serve others. As I prepare to begin college, this scholarship would give me something incredibly valuable: time. During my senior year at MSSM, I balanced one of the school’s most demanding academic schedules while washing dishes in the cafeteria and tutoring other students to help pay for part of my room and board. Neither job felt small because both allowed me to contribute to the community that had invested so much in me. Those experiences taught me responsibility and perseverance, but receiving this scholarship would allow me to spend less time working and more time studying, learning from others, and preparing for a career serving others through biomedical engineering. I still think about that plastic water bottle. Most people saw a robotic hand picking something up. I saw someone getting back a small piece of independence and dignity. That is the kind of engineer I plan to become. I want to create technology that helps people live healthier, fuller lives, but I also want every person I meet to know they are valued. I believe God has given me a love for engineering, but more importantly, He has shown me that our gifts find their greatest purpose when we use them to love and serve others. I hope you will consider me for this scholarship because I want my life to reflect the same purpose that first inspired me when a prosthetic hand lifted a simple water bottle: using the gifts God has given me to restore independence, protect dignity, and bring hope to others.

Why I Am Passionate About Environmental Engineering I am a graduating senior at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) in Limestone, Maine. My interest in STEM really took off in middle school, when I received a Bioscience Association of Maine (BioME) scholarship to attend the MSSM summer camp. This fall, I will study environmental engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. I am drawn to environmental engineering because it combines my love of math and problem-solving with my desire to help people. It allows me to design systems that provide clean water, safe sanitation, and healthy ecosystems. Growing up in rural Maine, I saw firsthand how vital clean water is to a community. At MSSM, math was my anchor. I love its structure, logic, and the way difficult problems can be solved through persistence. Sharing it mattered, too. As a peer tutor in algebra and calculus, I worked with students who were unsure they were “math people.” Seeing them gain confidence changed my view of STEM: it's about access, encouragement, and belief. Those moments taught me that helping someone else gain confidence can be just as satisfying as solving a difficult problem myself. Outside of class, I sought ways to put my interest in STEM to work. During a University of Southern Maine internship, I helped build over 50 prosthetic hands and contributed to a provisional patent application. That experience showed me how engineering restores daily independence. On my MSSM robotics team, earning the Maine VEX Robotics Judges Award taught me the value of collaboration and iterative design. Through the NASA/Maine Space Grant CubeSat program, I worked on CAD design as part of a state-champion team, gaining experience turning ideas into systems that could solve real problems. Alongside that, I built a strong interest in environmental engineering and water systems. A middle school project studying vernal pools in Lovell, Maine first showed me how even small water systems shape entire ecosystems. Later, through the SELF engineering program, my team designed a renewable-energy-powered water purification system and earned the Best Design Award. Through 4-H aquaculture work, I studied kelp farming and its role in climate resilience and coastal health. These experiences showed me how deeply communities and ecosystems depend on healthy water systems. Experiences outside the classroom reinforced this perspective. At Baxter State Park through the Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership Program, I worked on conservation and stewardship. In Namibia at the N/a’an ku sê Sanctuary, I saw what happens when clean water and sanitation are limited. With the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship, I will study Mandarin in Taiwan this summer, building the skills to collaborate on global engineering problems. Throughout my experiences with math tutoring, prosthetics, CubeSats, and water systems, my motivation has remained consistent: solving problems that connect science to people. Growing up in rural Maine showed me how essential clean water and effective infrastructure are to community well-being, and I want to build systems that communities can depend on. The Julie Adams Memorial Scholarship is especially meaningful to me because it celebrates students who love mathematics and use that foundation to help others learn and grow. My experiences as a peer tutor showed me that math is not just about finding answers. It is also about giving others the confidence to tackle challenges they once thought were beyond them. My goal is to become an environmental engineer who builds clean water systems that strengthen communities. What has always motivated me is the challenge of solving problems, my love of math, and the opportunity to use both to improve people's lives.

Sustainability must guide environmental engineering because engineers' decisions shape people and ecosystems for generations. Clean water, reliable infrastructure, and healthy natural systems support human well-being. Yet pollution, population growth, and climate change threaten these resources. Environmental engineers tackle problems and design solutions that conserve resources and limit long-term ecological harm. Growing up in rural Maine fueled my interest in connecting water, sustainability, and public health. Lakes, rivers, and forests surrounded me, inspiring me to appreciate the natural resources that sustain our communities. As I encountered these challenges, I chose to focus on water because it shapes nearly every aspect of human and environmental health. Safe drinking water, effective wastewater treatment, and healthy aquatic ecosystems support communities. Water offers engineers an opportunity to drive lasting change in both human and environmental systems. One of my earliest environmental projects was a middle school vernal pool research study in my hometown of Lovell. By identifying and documenting seasonal wetlands, I learned how water quality and hydrology influence ecosystems. I also learned how even small environmental changes can have significant effects. This experience taught me that addressing environmental challenges requires understanding the connections between natural systems and human activities. Throughout high school at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), I sought opportunities to explore eco-friendly engineering solutions. At the Sustainable Engineering Leaders of the Future program at the University of Maine, my team earned the Best Design Award for a water purification project. Designing a system that balanced treatment effectiveness, energy use, and sustainability showed me that engineering solutions must be both environmentally responsible and practical. Through 4-H aquaculture research, I examined how regenerative kelp farming can support biodiversity. It can also strengthen coastal ecosystems and contribute to climate resilience. My understanding of sustainability deepened when I was selected from more than 130 applicants for the Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership Program at Baxter State Park, alongside 19 other students. During this backcountry experience, I trekked through remote wilderness, including Mount Katahdin, and completed conservation projects. For days, our group depended on filtered stream and well water. Knowing that our drinking water came directly from the surrounding watershed made water quality feel like a daily necessity and less like an environmental concept. My perspective broadened during a service trip to the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. While tracking wildlife and collecting habitat data, I observed how environmental stewardship affects both ecosystems and communities. Seeing environmental challenges in a completely different part of the world reinforced that access to clean water and healthy natural systems is a global issue. These experiences demonstrated that meaningful sustainability depends on both local action and global cooperation. Leadership experiences have also sharpened my understanding of sustainability. As Lieutenant Governor for Northern Maine Key Club programs, I coordinated students across eight clubs to organize service projects and strengthen community initiatives. These experiences showed me that lasting environmental progress relies on collaboration among engineers, communities, educators, and policymakers. This fall, I will attend Washington University in St. Louis to study environmental engineering. Looking ahead, my goal is to design resilient water treatment and distribution systems that directly improve public health. I am particularly interested in infrastructure that cuts waste, conserves energy, and expands clean water access. Combining engineering with leadership will allow me to build stronger communities while reducing their ecological footprint. Ultimately, sustainability is more than a metric; it is a baseline responsibility to future generations. Through environmental engineering, I plan to protect our watersheds, empower communities, and create a more sustainable world.

When I was younger, I thought my mother’s dermatologist appointment would be routine. My dad and I planned to meet her afterward for lunch, expecting an ordinary afternoon. Instead, she walked out of the doctor’s office in tears and told us she had skin cancer. Even though her doctors were optimistic, simply hearing the word “cancer” was terrifying. Until that moment, cancer was something I associated with other families. Suddenly, it was part of ours. At lunch, I watched my mother cry as she tried to process the diagnosis. The restaurant was quiet, but my thoughts were racing. I wanted to comfort her, yet I did not know what to say. That afternoon was the first time I understood how one word could instantly change a family’s sense of security. In the weeks that followed, I saw how a single diagnosis could unsettle every aspect of life. There were specialist appointments, difficult conversations, and the constant uncertainty of waiting for treatment. Even with a favorable prognosis, the fear and stress were very real. At the time of her surgery, I was away attending the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. Being away from home made me feel powerless. When I returned and saw the more than two-inch incision running down the side of her nose, I was struck by the physical reminder of what she had endured. The scar represented not only the surgery itself, but also the fear, uncertainty, and resilience that accompanied it. Not long afterward, my mother lost her job. Watching her recover while worrying about income, insurance, and future medical costs revealed how quickly illness can create financial instability. I learned that cancer affects far more than the body. It can disrupt a family’s emotional well-being, finances, and sense of security. These experiences shaped my ambitions. For me, engineering is more than a field of study; it is a way to solve meaningful problems and improve lives. I plan to study biomedical engineering and develop affordable medical technologies for underserved communities where healthcare and assistive devices are often out of reach. I want to design innovations that make treatment more accessible and less burdensome for families facing the same fears and challenges my family experienced. My mother’s cancer taught me strength, compassion, and the importance of using adversity as motivation to help others. Her strength transformed one of the most frightening moments of my childhood into a lasting sense of purpose. Receiving this scholarship would directly support my education in biomedical engineering by easing the financial burden of tuition and allowing me to focus on developing practical solutions for families in need. With this support, I will be able to continue pursuing my goal of making healthcare innovations accessible and honor the lessons my family learned through cancer.