I live in a world that is on fire. On the news I hear about ice caps melting and sea levels rising, about pollution choking the air and trash piling about. I am surrounded by natural disasters from hurricanes and tornadoes decimating towns to heat waves and snow storms plunging cities into a new normal. Every summer I dread the days when I have to stay inside because the air is thick with smoke from wildfires all around. I am terrified about my future, about the state of the planet I am inheriting, but I am not going to sit around and let it get worse. In college I want to study environmental engineering, a field that is a combination of the subjects I have loved for a long time. I have always been surrounded by science, technology, and math. From a young age I began my adventure into the world of coding and technology, proudly showing off my text adventures, basic scratch programs, low-quality apps, and lego robots. I remember science projects with my mom, learning about surface tension or plant growth, and math homework with my dad, tears shed over long division, or integration years later. Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to fighting climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. In combination with my major and degree, I want to travel the world. I want to meet new people, discover new places, and learn about new cultures. I want to be a part of this world I love so dearly, and gain knowledge about it. At university I want to continue my progress in studying topics from outside of STEM. I am a musician and an artist, a public speaker and a leader, an athlete and a teacher, and all of this will make me a better engineer. I am passionate about my education, and I am passionate about the impact I want to make on the world.

I live in a world that is on fire. On the news I hear about ice caps melting and sea levels rising, about pollution choking the air and trash piling about. I am surrounded by natural disasters from hurricanes and tornadoes decimating towns to heat waves and snow storms plunging cities into a new normal. Every summer I dread the days when I have to stay inside because the air is thick with smoke from wildfires all around. I am terrified about my future, about the state of the planet I am inheriting, but I am not going to sit around and let it get worse. In college I want to study environmental engineering, a field that is a combination of the subjects I have loved for a long time. I have always been surrounded by science, technology, and math. From a young age I began my adventure into the world of coding and technology, proudly showing off my text adventures, basic scratch programs, low-quality apps, and lego robots. I remember science projects with my mom, learning about surface tension or plant growth, and math homework with my dad, tears shed over long division, or integration years later. Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to fighting climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. In combination with my major and degree, I want to travel the world. I want to meet new people, discover new places, and learn about new cultures. I want to be a part of this world I love so dearly, and gain knowledge about it. At university I want to continue my progress in studying topics from outside of STEM. I am a musician and an artist, a public speaker and a leader, an athlete and a teacher, and all of this will make me a better engineer. I am passionate about my education, and I am passionate about the impact I want to make on the world.

I live in a world that is on fire. On the news I hear about ice caps melting and sea levels rising, about pollution choking the air and trash piling about. I am surrounded by natural disasters from hurricanes and tornadoes decimating towns to heat waves and snow storms plunging cities into a new normal. Every summer I dread the days when I have to stay inside because the air is thick with smoke from wildfires all around. I am terrified about my future, about the state of the planet I am inheriting, but I am not going to sit around and let it get worse. In college I want to study environmental engineering, a field that is a combination of the subjects I have loved for a long time. I have always been surrounded by science, technology, and math. From a young age I began my adventure into the world of coding and technology, proudly showing off my text adventures, basic scratch programs, low-quality apps, and lego robots. I remember science projects with my mom, learning about surface tension or plant growth, and math homework with my dad, tears shed over long division, or integration years later. Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to fighting climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. In combination with my major and degree, I want to travel the world. I want to meet new people, discover new places, and learn about new cultures. I want to be a part of this world I love so dearly, and gain knowledge about it. At university I want to continue my progress in studying topics from outside of STEM. I am a musician and an artist, a public speaker and a leader, an athlete and a teacher, and all of this will make me a better engineer. I am passionate about my education, and I am passionate about the impact I want to make on the world.

I live in a world that is on fire. On the news I hear about ice caps melting and sea levels rising, about pollution choking the air and trash piling about. I am surrounded by natural disasters from hurricanes and tornadoes decimating towns to heat waves and snow storms plunging cities into a new normal. Every summer I dread the days when I have to stay inside because the air is thick with smoke from wildfires all around. I am terrified about my future, about the state of the planet I am inheriting, but I am not going to sit around and let it get worse. In college I want to study environmental engineering, a field that is a combination of the subjects I have loved for a long time. I have always been surrounded by science, technology, and math. From a young age I began my adventure into the world of coding and technology, proudly showing off my text adventures, basic scratch programs, low-quality apps, and lego robots. I remember science projects with my mom, learning about surface tension or plant growth, and math homework with my dad, tears shed over long division, or integration years later. Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to fighting climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. In combination with my major and degree, I want to travel the world. I want to meet new people, discover new places, and learn about new cultures. I want to be a part of this world I love so dearly, and gain knowledge about it. At university I want to continue my progress in studying topics from outside of STEM. I am a musician and an artist, a public speaker and a leader, an athlete and a teacher, and all of this will make me a better engineer. I am passionate about my education, and I am passionate about the impact I want to make on the world.

During my final season on my school soccer team, I began to notice changes in our coach’s approach. Critiques and commentary during games deteriorated from constructive feedback to yelling and harsh criticism. The climate on our team gradually devolved from an encouraging place to make mistakes and learn from failure to one where we were afraid of going to practice after a lost game. I felt compelled as captain to take on a broader responsibility of counteracting the cultural decline. On the field, I respected my teammates by keeping my critiques positive and deliberately supporting girls targeted by our coach. I calmed the players as they panicked and did everything I could to oppose the harmful behavior from the sideline leadership. After games, I sent texts congratulating each player for her hard work to ensure everyone felt seen. However, I realized a more lasting change would be necessary to protect the future of the program, so I organized a method where my teammates could anonymously report their experiences to present to our school’s administration. I invested hours editing this 14-page document and advocating for the team. I may not be on the team next year, but I feel accountable to leave an even better program for them than the one I inherited. I want to make an impact in college, and in my career, just like I have in high school. I want to learn, travel, meet new people, and use all of my collected knowledge to create innovative solutions to the problems I am passionate about. I want to be an environmental engineer. Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to an issue I am passionate about: climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. I want to impact the world on a personal level like I did with my soccer team, and I want to impact it on a global level, by working to stop climate change. I want to be useful, to give back to the people and places that have helped me become who I am today. I want to be a pioneer in my career, and inspiration to others, a problem solver.

1. I actually do not deserve this scholarship at all. You wouldn't believe it, but college is very cheap these days, and no one needs extra money to help fund their education. I spend very little time on this website trying to find scholarships to apply to, and every time I do submit something, I get the nonimportant money immediately. 2. I want to be a demolitions expert. I want to find ways to destroy solutions and work against those pesky engineers. I hate creativity and innovation, and it is my goal to stop people from using their education to make a change in the world. I don't believe in climate change and those who work together to impact our planet are never something I would aspire to be. 3. I have faced many obstacles in my life: hopscotch, raised bridges, big puddles, conveniently placed chairs, fences that are too tall to climb over, and so much more. Every day there are things that I encounter that block me from doing the things I want to achieve. One time I was trying to get into school, and the door would just not open. No matter how hard I pulled on the push bar, I could not get it to budge.

My mom used to threaten me that she would ship me off to live with the circus. Except it wasn't that I'd be forced to become a clown or an acrobat if I misbehaved, it was that she wouldn't send me if I did. I have always loved participating in those weird activities, not a lot of other kids tried. I know how to unicycle, and I've ridden in parades teetering on the 6ft tall giraffe. I know how to walk on the big rolling ball, and my juggling may be a bit iffy, I'm working on it. Despite all of this, my favorite hobby is flying trapeze. Picture it: swinging through the air, holding on to a bar, just to release at the perfect moment and flip, falling, falling, just to be caught by someone else right before you hit the net. Ever since I was gifted a single try at it for my 8th birthday, it's all I've asked for. Christmas? Trapeze lessons. Birthday? More trapeze lessons. Christmas again? Trapeze lessons, and also grips to keep my hands from ripping on the trapeze bar. I started with a harness, like all beginnings. If you let go at the wrong time, you get to float down like a fairy, to land gently in the net like resting on a bed of moss. With my safety line, I learned how to do a flip trick, a planche, a gazelle, the splits. I rotated and stuck my leg at weird angles, I hung from the bar and sat on top of it. I perfected my skills and caught each trick at the end of my lesson. After about 4 years of going whenever I received more of the expensive sessions as a gift, I got a new challenge: learn how to swing. Another benefit of having the harness is that the lines help to keep your momentum while swinging. You can focus on whatever new trick you want without worrying that the bar will stop moving. The swing was a series of movements, timed to perfection, that allowed you to keep the bar moving without help. The sequence of positions is called out like this "Swing forward, backward, forward, now hollow, sweep, seven!" In order to fly without the harness, you must know how to swing. Practicing a swing for a trapeze artist is like practicing throwing for a football player, or stitches for a surgeon. It is a skill that is essential, that must constantly be improved, that can never be completely perfect. Now whenever I go to my trapeze lessons, my first few jumps I do nothing but swing. I make sure I get my legs back far enough on the backward call, I tighten my core on every hollow, I try to get parallel with the bar for every seven. Only after will I take off my harness, and fly through the air.

My entry is not a drawing, but a photo I took as part of a school assignment. The challenge was to find a random object in our house and shoot it in unexpected and creative ways to make the photo stand out. My friends chose pencils, hairbrushes, flowers, and utensils. I chose a stuffed gnome named Wilson. I took photos of him in trees, reading books, looking introspectively into the mirror. I gave the gnome life, ambition, a bit of depression. Wilson's past, present, and future were mine to mold with my camera. Each photo gave him 1000s of words worth of experiences. I turned my work in and left Wilson on my desk where he is to this day. At school when it was time to showcase everyone's work, the photos were presented one by one. There were fantastical shadows created by forks, professional-looking advertisement photos of matchbooks, and regular books. There was a photo of a really bad zoo that only had a single dog in it. (It really was a Shih Tzu). And there was Wilson. Sitting in a red cup, staring into your soul.

One by one I watched as my friends floated away from me, disappearing into a torrent of water. I wanted more than anything to be strong enough to join them, but I couldn't make myself take that final step off the bank of the river. Swimming the Class Ⅲ rapid named Buckskin Mary was the pinnacle of the summer trip that had taken my friends and me through the twists and turns of the Deschutes River Valley. But now, the end was here. I had to swim the rapid. Just me versus 300 cubic feet of water per second. Before me to go was a girl who I looked up to, who I believed could do everything effortlessly. Despite my heroic image of her, she was scared. She was terrified like me, but whispered a quick word of encouragement to herself and stepped into the flow of water. I stood, now abandoned on the bank, shocked at what she had just done. I have been afraid my whole life. Day to day it takes the form of anxiety. I worry about what will come next, how to face issues, how to talk. I am afraid of what the weekly weather forecast implies about our changing climate, and whether a failed test ruins my plans for college. I am frightened of getting into rivers and swimming through rapids. I used to think that because I was anxious that I couldn't be brave, that it was not an attribute that I could achieve, that I would be left with my fear and have nothing else. My courage comes from my fear, because I am scared and anxious but do not let it stop me. So, water and fear coursing around me, I stepped in and swam the rapid.

Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to an issue I am passionate about climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. In college, I plan on studying environmental engineering, the perfect niche of engineering to equip me for this fight. During my time in college, as well as when I am beyond it, I want to travel around the world and see new cultures. Having a deeper understanding of our planet, and the people I am fighting for will help me create better, more impactful, solutions. When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor so I could join doctors without borders, to travel and heal people in need. Unfortunately, needles terrify me, and medicine is not for me. I do have other options however, engineering without borders provides me with the same opportunities to travel and use my skills to help people, without me having to deal with bodily fluids. My dream for my future career is that I will be working for something I believe in and that I will be surrounded by people and places that inspire me to keep fighting, no matter the challenges I face.

During my final season on my school soccer team, I began to notice changes in our coach’s approach. Critiques and commentary during games deteriorated from constructive feedback to yelling and harsh criticism. The climate on our team gradually devolved from an encouraging place to make mistakes and learn from failure to one where we were afraid of going to practice after a lost game. I felt compelled as captain to take on a broader responsibility of counteracting the cultural decline. On the field, I respected my teammates by keeping my critiques positive and deliberately supporting girls targeted by our coach. I calmed the players as they panicked and did everything I could to oppose the harmful behavior from the sideline leadership. After games, I sent texts congratulating each player for her hard work to ensure everyone felt seen. However, I realized a more lasting change would be necessary to protect the future of the program, so I organized a method where my teammates could anonymously report their experiences to present to our school’s administration. I invested hours editing this 14-page document and advocating for the team. I may not be on the team next year, but I feel accountable to leave an even better program for them than the one I inherited.

When I was a freshman, the qualities of the varsity captains appeared to be an unachievable goal. They were girls who had dedicated their lives to soccer, and who were so respected that their peers voted them into the position. I could never picture myself the same as them. I was new to this high level of soccer and preferred to stay back and watch others lead. And yet, I am looking back on a season where I had the same title as those girls I idolized. I put in the necessary hard work, made lasting connections, and earned a reputation as a role model and good leader. Still, I feel relatively the same as my freshman self, and it’s hard to picture girls viewing me the way I once viewed those in my position. My season was an unexpected experience. Our coaching and the culture of our team slowly deteriorated: Our coach yelled at any mistake, causing girls to shrink and panic, eroding the team’s morale and performance. I did everything I thought a captain should. I led summer practices, set an example with my attitude and effort, organized program-wide communications... Circumstances and my desire to do the role justice propelled me to step up to lead with empathy, often in juxtaposition to our coach. I calmed players on the field as they panicked, sent texts after games congratulating each player for her hard work to ensure everyone felt seen. I consulted my team and wrote a 14-page document that ultimately led to our coach’s removal. Looking back, I hardly remember actually playing soccer. Instead, I remember the investment I made in my teammates, how I grew into a role I never could have imagined, and the people with whom I bonded along the way.

When I was in third grade I was deemed a "gifted child" by some arbitrary test. I got moved to a new school and taught at a higher level than I would have elsewhere. I am incredibly privileged to have had access to education at that level, but because I never struggled in school until later, I never learned how to study. Topics came easy to me, so I never had to work to understand. Scene change: high school. Suddenly classes were challenging, and I didn't get everything the moment I learned it. My grades saw an immediate impact. To avoid a failure I had never faced before, I experiment with how to learn. To find what worked was mostly trial and error. I got bored rereading textbooks and worksheets and would forget it the moment I needed it in the test. I went through stacks of flashcards, knowledge piling up on my desk as I desperately tried to memorize it. In the end, my answer was surprisingly simple: re-write my notes. I've always envied those students who brought 50 highlighters and pens to class, creating note sheets that were beautiful works of art. My binders and notebooks were filled with my handwriting that resembled a chicken trying to draw as I tried to keep up with my teachers. Before tests, I would rewrite them, going through my notes like a cipher, using highlighters and pens to color code and label. I was proud of the little textbooks I would create before finals, a single organized place that contained my collected learning from the semester. The act of writing the content multiple times helped the information stay in my brain. It probably didn't need to be pretty, but the act of making my notes beautiful helped me remember it.