Above all, I am a servant of God. My name is Austin and funny enough I grew up as a middle-class kid from the great state of Texas whose loving parents taught me to put others before myself. I thrived in this practice as I obtained my Eagle Scout rank where I completed hundreds of hours of service across an entire decade. But I'm not here to brag and I don't wish to slow down now. Currently, I'm daydreaming in class as I'm a global business and sustainability (minor) student here at the University of Oregon, I'm trying to do everything in my power to eliminate my parents from their current financial burden by applying for scholarships but I also want to reobtain the great balance of completing service while keeping busy with school. "Love your neighbor like your brother" is a common phrase shared down south that I truly try to take to heart. Eugene, Oregon is a tainted community riddled with homelessness issues that while being a college town has a severe lack of ready volunteers. This massive homeless population has even begun to make its way closer to our campus as students are actively complaining that their presence is disturbing their on-campus life. This homeless population is seen as less than human and that kills me inside knowing another human life is being is being viewed as such. Although I am just a sophomore student, I want to help alleviate this issue before I graduate in 2026. Recently, I have gained insight into Eugene's local food assistance program "FOOD for Lane County" as I've had the pleasure of serving within their "grassroots garden, " a local farm that contributes to FFLC's supply. Although this program exists and offers many positions for service, I never really see FFLC's practices in the field (around Eugene's downtown area/UO's campus). Since my first day on campus, I've been inspired by how "green" Eugene truly is which is my source of inspiration for wanting to study sustainability. Coming from the south, I never really saw green cities in practice. Rather, my home city of Houston contributes largely to oil & gas production. Being a global studies student, I've gained key knowledge into how other countries provide more sufficient aid at a more effective rate and I want to bring some of that to the US. Overall, I want to combine my ambition for green practices with FOOD for Lane County's current practices to create a better-structured and better-available outreach program within my community. A lot of this food is left to waste as Eugene's outreach programs are less than desirable. While helping distribute this food more sustainably and efficiently, I want to provide quick education by use of information on packaging to assist in getting our homeless population back on eir feet. If successful, I wish to implement my green practices in starkly less green cities to educate their local population on the importance of sustainability while helping the homeless.

I absolutely hated Boy Scouts growing up... It always proved to be a relentless thorn in my side that prevented me from getting free time after my long grade school days. Although that’s not the complete truth (I love camping), it felt like a rabbit hole that would drain my time the further I became involved. The main issue was that my involvement was never really my own decision. I’m a 3rd generation scout meaning I HAD to reach Eeagle or else I’d eternally disappoint both my father and grandfather who take BSA way too seriously. The pinnacle of this rabbit hole was when I fell in love with ceremonies for our lodge-wide weekend events. Within the BSA's honor society, there are “clans” within each major lodge where young men find their niche to stay involved. This “Divergent” esque selection was more forced upon me due to the ceremony clan’s lack of help. THIS WAS A NIGHTMARE FOR ME because I was as introverted as you could get. My overweight yet awkwardly tall self was also soft-spoken, and these ceremonies required me to act out long performances in front of 70+ people. Pages of scripts were immediately thrown in my direction, now balancing memorization and long practices on top of my high school studies. Fast forward to my first ceremony performance, I was thrown at the front of our candle-lit circle, legs shaking with nervousness. Quickly trying to refresh the script, I realized I couldn’t make out the beginning. Freaking out, I asked our representative if I could take a glance at our script packet, but it was too late, we could hear the Scouts traveling through the trail. I tried my best to keep a calm demeanor, but inside I was crumbling. As confident as I could muster, It was my turn to speak, squealing “W-W-WELCOME SCOUTS”. Stuttered my opening line made me fall into auto-pilot mode for the duration of our ceremony. I ate my dinner quietly back at base camp, wanting the weekend to just pass. After all, I still had homework. As I was making my way to the trash can to clean up my scraps, an older gentleman I’d never seen before approached me. It turns out I had seen him during the ceremony earlier but I was doing everything I could to forget my mediocre performance. “Brother man, I just wanted to tell you how good of a job I did earlier.” What the f**k?? For real?? I was so disassociated on autopilot earlier that I couldn’t tell how I did after my bad opening. Smiling, I gave him my thanks and internally self-celebrated. Pride was something new that I felt especially when it came to Boy Scouts. Throughout the weeks of the season, I began to dive deeper, but I now spent summer days creatively analyzing what I could do better. I continue to mentor young hopefuls to help scouts that were like me, without direction. Many kids forcefully join scouts and therefore close themselves off throughout the process. My goal is to show younger kids that it’s a good thing to be outspoken and to excel in your niche talent within BSA. For the first time in almost a decade, my team and I earned the ceremony clan sash award which was awarded to members who participated in every type of ceremony. Now in college, I noticed that there is a scouting office right around the corner from Autzen Stadium. I’m involved with multiple clubs and organizations, but I’m attempting to assist this scout chapter to help expand their important personal growth.

I’m a pushover and it’s easier that way. Growing up as a middle child between two very spirited sisters created a dynamic that made me fall further into the background despite my position being the only son in the family. This was because I realized my parents can be easily stressed and taking myself entirely out of the equation was an easy way out. As my family fell deeper into financial doom, my lack of presence became even more apparent as I let my sisters’ needs come before my own more than ever, now fully refusing to be added to the equation. This became the unspoken norm as my own personal being began to lose character due to my lack of attention. I had begun to lose myself and it was all my fault. Thank God for Sara Knight. I was never a consistent reader in any previous period before I picked up “The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**K” by Sara Knight, of course. I had a lot of time on my hands, recently donating my childhood books, creating a colossal gap in my bookshelf. It’s shameful to say, but a leading reason I made the out-of-character decision to purchase a book was because I saw a cute girl reading it on TikTok. God works in hilarious ways. However, this was a massive change from the grueling required books I had the displeasure of reading. This book was dynamic and relatable despite the contrast between a high school boy and Mrs.Knight, a middle-aged married woman. More importantly, it taught me how to be my own person. In the cliche saying, I am the master of my own universe. It’s useless to try and control something that is out of your hands if you’re simply not present. she highlighted her relationship with her parents in which she learned way too late in life that you can’t inadvertently help them without being there for them. Sometimes it takes a sick child for parental instincts to kick in and that was the exact case for me during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was beginning to have full conversations with my parents again despite me being half awake from sickness. It was extremely selfish of me to isolate myself which took time away from my building the relationship with my parents.

“Score run in by number 8 Marcus Mariota! Touchdown DUCKS!!” My stomach sank as I helplessly observed the Oregon ducks score another 6 points. I grew up a fan of the University of Texas and this was my first-ever football game. But aren’t we supposed to be winning?? This was my first-ever introduction to the University of Oregon. Funny enough I write this as I’m sitting in the University of Oregon’s Lundquist business complex. Truthfully, I didn’t grow up as a member of the Disney cult. I had the massive blessing of getting to see both major Disney parks, but my relationship with Disney is more complicated. See, I’m a middle child between sisters and my older is a Disney FREAK. She chose Disney culture as the biggest part of her personality and she recently got back from her time being a Cast Member. But this isn’t anything recent, this has gone on since my grandmother bought a copy of The Little Mermaid. Being the oldest, she made her passions only hers. She felt envy even when she saw my little sister enjoying a parade at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Both of us younger siblings struggled with our identities because she was so passionate about this company that we had nothing in comparison to in our own lives. College is a massive way to show personal identity because of the struggles one has to go through to reach admission. Despite the light trauma I faced as I kid from UOs athletics, I landed on the University of Oregon as my new home due to its stellar business program. However, Disney still seems to follow me everywhere. The UO is the only university with a Disney-branded mascot. Puddles the duck is a direct copy of Donald the duck, one of Mickey’s best friends. This discovery gave me a true sense of identity as to how I have my own place in Disney culture now that I am loyal to Oregon. It may be corny to write out, but Donald gives me identity. He shows me the struggles that I conquered to get into university. He also is a constant reminder of the universities individuality as well as my own, being the middle child. Despite my sister’s greediness in sharing her passions, I now truly have an identity that I can use to relate to her to help repair our bond.

After a nine-mile walk around the noisy yet spirited Austin, Texas, Elise and I felt a refreshment like no other after biting into our Cava bowls. It was Saint Patrick’s Day and my friend decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment hike around Austin’s Green Belt trails. Because we had both applied to the University of Texas at Austin, we took a much shorter route to save time which we would later use to tour the campus ourselves. After we strolled through our respective buildings, the bustling downtown scene drew us in from the rowdy parades and Saint Patrick’s Day festivities that we could audibly hear from campus. To put it lightly, we were exhausted. The only food I personally had was an Alamo Sandwich from the legendary gas station “Buc-ee’s” and I knew Elise was starving as well. We finished the loop from the Frost Bank building back to our parking garage in front of the university’s co-op. I recalled on that same strip center lay a place called “Cava” that my father and I visited some years back. I put up a pretty good argument to go eat our dinner at Cava. Not just because I had been there in the past, but because we had just finished up a unit on superfoods in my AP Environmental Science course at Klein Cain. Moreover, as a class, we were also comparing the daunting manufacturing and processing that goes into non-superfoods. In this the class found that most superfoods are also whole foods, meaning that there is little to no extra processing and chemicals put into the foods. For example, some superfoods include nuts, berries, and leafy greens which already come as the final product to customers. I'm a pretty big fan of the make-your-own salad joint “Salata” which helped me fall in love with superfoods when including them in my meal. Cava I found was a great Mediterranean twist to the make-your-own formula that included superfoods like leafy greens and nuts but also included amazing hummuses and falafel. Superfoods give me confidence when eating because I know that they will factually improve my body. Superfoods also make me feel extremely energized after eating because it is a pure and less processed food option. Because of this, I have started incorporating them into my regular diet in moderation. For example, I love getting extra energy from the sliced almonds that go into my oatmeal. Elise and I didn’t want our exercise to go to waste by eating a cheaper option like Burger King. But the great thing about superfoods is that they can be an inexpensive product depending on which type of superfoods you turn to. It was an easy choice for both of us to spend the slight extra cash on something of much higher quality. Clearly, there was no better option within reach than our superfoods provider Cava.

Having just graduated from Klein Cain High School, I feel that I have adequate information to share on how you can better your own school experience. From personal experiences, I found that the school system can be more about expanding personal development rather than strictly cramming for good grades. I say this because I grew up in the Texas public school system where there are massive campuses with even bigger social attributes. As you traverse further through that system, your schedule becomes packed as you join more electives and pick up after-school jobs to support said electives. Because I felt so overwhelmed, oftentimes I sacrificed things that would further take away time from my schedule such as personal hygiene. This could range from not brushing my teeth, sleeping less, and even spending reduced time outdoors. This in turn crippled my confidence in these large social settings which caused my studies to crumble as well. It is so important to stay on top of personal hygiene so that a lack of confidence doesn't pollute any other aspect of your life. Living through these busy social settings is the perfect time to build solid habits so your personal development can heighten.

After a nine-mile walk around the noisy yet spirited Austin, Texas, Elise and I felt a refreshment like no other after biting into our Cava bowls. It was Saint Patrick’s Day and my friend decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment hike around Austin’s Green Belt trails. Because we had both applied to the University of Texas at Austin, we took a much shorter route to save time which we would later use to tour the campus ourselves. After we strolled through our respective buildings, the bustling downtown scene drew us in from the rowdy parades and Saint Patrick’s Day festivities that we could audibly hear from campus. To put it lightly, we were exhausted. The only food I personally had was an Alamo Sandwich from the legendary gas station “Buc-ee’s” and I knew Elise was starving as well. We finished the loop from the Frost Bank building back to our parking garage in front of the university’s co-op. I recalled on that same strip center lay a place called “Cava” that my father and I visited some years back. I put up a pretty good argument to go eat our dinner at Cava. Not just because I had been there in the past, but because we had just finished up a unit on superfoods in my AP Environmental Science course at Klein Cain. Moreover, as a class, we were also comparing the daunting manufacturing and processing that goes into non-superfoods. In this the class found that most superfoods are also whole foods, meaning that there is little to no extra processing and chemicals put into the foods. For example, some superfoods include nuts, berries, and leafy greens which already come as the final product to customers. I'm a pretty big fan of the make-your-own salad joint “Salata” which helped me fall in love with superfoods when including them in my meal. Cava I found was a great Mediterranean twist to the make-your-own formula that included superfoods like leafy greens and nuts but also included amazing hummuses and falafel. Superfoods give me confidence when eating because I know that they will factually improve my body. Superfoods also make me feel extremely energized after eating because it is a pure and less processed food option. Because of this, I have started incorporating them into my regular diet in moderation. For example, I love getting extra energy from the sliced almonds that go into my oatmeal. Elise and I didn’t want our exercise to go to waste by eating a cheaper option like Burger King. But the great thing about superfoods is that they can be an inexpensive product depending on which type of superfoods you turn to. It was an easy choice for both of us to spend the slight extra cash on something of much higher quality. Clearly, there was no better option within reach than our superfoods provider Cava.

After a nine-mile walk around the noisy yet spirited Austin, Texas, Elise and I felt a refreshment like no other after biting into our Cava bowls. It was Saint Patrick’s Day and my friend decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment hike around Austin’s Green Belt trails. Because we had both applied to the University of Texas at Austin, we took a much shorter route to save time which we would later use to tour the campus ourselves. After we strolled through our respective buildings, the bustling downtown scene drew us in from the rowdy parades and Saint Patrick’s Day festivities that we could audibly hear from campus. To put it lightly, we were exhausted. The only food I personally had was an Alamo Sandwich from the legendary gas station “Buc-ee’s” and I knew Elise was starving as well. We finished the loop from the Frost Bank building back to our parking garage in front of the university’s co-op. I recalled on that same strip center lay a place called “Cava” that my father and I visited some years back. I put up a pretty good argument to go eat our dinner at Cava. Not just because I had been there in the past, but because we had just finished up a unit on superfoods in my AP Environmental Science course at Klein Cain. Moreover, as a class, we were also comparing the daunting manufacturing and processing that goes into non-superfoods. In this the class found that most superfoods are also whole foods, meaning that there is little to no extra processing and chemicals put into the foods. For example, some superfoods include nuts, berries, and leafy greens which already come as the final product to customers. I'm a pretty big fan of the make-your-own salad joint “Salata” which helped me fall in love with superfoods when including them in my meal. Cava I found was a great Mediterranean twist to the make-your-own formula that included superfoods like leafy greens and nuts but also included amazing hummuses and falafel. Superfoods give me confidence when eating because I know that they will factually improve my body. Superfoods also make me feel extremely energized after eating because it is a pure and less processed food option. Because of this, I have started incorporating them into my regular diet in moderation. For example, I love getting extra energy from the sliced almonds that go into my oatmeal. Elise and I didn’t want our exercise to go to waste by eating a cheaper option like Burger King. But the great thing about superfoods is that they can be an inexpensive product depending on which type of superfoods you turn to. It was an easy choice for both of us to spend the slight extra cash on something of much higher quality. Clearly, there was no better option within reach than our superfoods provider Cava.