My name is Anjali Dave, I am currently enrolled at Clemson University. I am a Food Science and Human Nutrition major with a concentration in Nutrition and an emphasis on the Food industry. As of now, I am on track to graduate and hopefully obtain a job as a food product development scientist. This job has been a big dream for me. I am paying for college out of my pocket and have been working two jobs all summer plus a job on campus as a lab assistant for the chemistry department. I would love to obtain a job in this field because I have learned in many classes that the products going onto the market aren't always as good for us as they should be. In my career, I would be working hands-on with food products to ensure that the products we are using to can, freeze, store, and package foods are all in the best condition they can be so that we are still gaining all the nutrients from the food and make it as efficient as possible for consumers. In this century, there is a lot of craze about healthy food products. For a lot of consumers, this isn't always easy to obtain. Many areas are food insecure and efficiency is important to them. My ultimate goal is to give these communities efficient and nutrient-dense foods because no matter where you live or how much your family makes everyone deserves to eat foods that are good for them and have the best quality of life. I also want to make an impact on the world by obtaining a degree that allows me to do more than one thing. With my degree, I will also be able to work for companies like the USDA, FDA, and the National School Lunch Program. Having other opportunities like these is very important to me because growing up I struggled to be able to eat school lunch, I grew up in a Hindu family so eating red meats was not a part of our diet, which meant that getting a proper amount of iron and finding a school lunch with proper nutrients was difficult. Being able to help support and create new items to help other students who grew up with food restrictions is also something that I will strive to do. I will always go for the best and will continue to work for my degree each day in hopes that I can make a positive impact on the world and help families that need it.

In my day-to-day life, I choose to recycle products, walk more than drive, eat less meat, and donate my clothes and household items that I no longer use. I make these choices because it makes me feel as if I am helping the country I live in and hopefully reducing any waste that I can to ensure our country stays beautiful and clean. I grew up in a household where recycling wasn't important and we would normally toss all products in the trash, as I started to grow up I learned that it is important to recycle because recycling helps to reduce waste. After beginning to recycle I found that it made me feel good to be doing good things for the world, this is when I started to pick up more sustainable choices into my life so I could continue to help the world. I also have been thinking about picking up composting because it will help reduce food waste by reusing it to grow more fresh vegetables and fruits. This will help me to reduce the spending at grocery stores and to help reduce the amount of waste I have in my trash by eliminating food waste. Living sustainably is extremely important in my opinion because no matter how you do it, in a big or little way, the world will always be better off and each step towards a sustainable life is already better than the lives we had before. Overall being sustainable also helps with reducing carbon footprints, I believe that it is of utmost importance to reduce our carbon footprint because it will help reduce the effects of global climate change. I think this is important because global climate change is making lives harder for humans but also animals. Climate change is hurting more than us because the animals around us are losing their habitats. After all, it is causing increased storms which can be harmful if severe enough. I think it is important to reduce our carbon footprints because it will make our lives better overall. Carbon footprints are things many people don't learn about in school or their households. Most people do not think about how their choices affect the world around them and I believe that the faster we can show people how it can be beneficial to reduce our carbon footprints more people will follow and hopefully make our world better.