In my community, the largest contributors to food waste are local businesses and restaurants. These small businesses, often times through no fault of their own, will find themselves tossing out leftovers from their customers alongside ingredients that spoiled before they could be utilized. This issue is possibly most prominent in the casinos located in my city, which contain dozens of restaurants, including several high-end establishments. These venues will produce a considerable amount of waste as a result of the volume they have to serve along with the high standards required for the presentation and freshness of the food. While the problem is on a large scale, the infrastructure to address it remains limited. Sadly, my city has neither a strong network of communal gardens nor of composting centers. Their being no alternative for the organic waste, it ends up in landfills instead of being redirected towards the community in some way. To effectively address the food waste inside my community, I think the most impactful step is to establish a city-supported composting system. This system would provide a centralized location where restaurants, casinos, and local households could all deposit their organic waste. This waste would then be processed into more nutrient-rich soil. The resulting compost would provide a direct benefit to the few communal gardens already present in the city, allowing them to thrive and maybe expand. It also could provide new green spaces, which could encourage more residents to grow their own food and prove a greater connection to sustainable practices. Already I have seen a model similar to this kind of initiative succeed. Currently a program exists where several local restaurants will donate their leftover oyster shells. These shells are then collected, cleaned, and deposited onto local oyster beds, bolstering the local populations and oyster fisheries. I think this program is a perfect demonstration of how businesses, community organizations, and local government can collaborate to generate tangible environmental benefits for all. I think a similar system for food scraps could be achieved with a similar closed-loop process that could allow waste to become a resource for local gardens, providing fresh produce to our community. I also believe that more could be done than just composting. I would also encourage all of our local restaurants to participate in services such as "Too Good To Go." The benefit of such platforms is that they allow for businesses to sell their surplus food for discounted prices rather than throwing it away at the end of their day. I believe that such services do provide small businesses with a way to potentially offset some of their financial losses from their unsold food while offering more affordable deals to the local community. I believe it is a simple yet effective solution that will reduce waste and strengthen the relationship between both restaurants and the people whom they serve. Lastly, addressing household food waste would have to be an essential part of any comprehensive strategy. Here a communal composting system would make it easier for any families to responsibly dispose of their food scraps, and educational outreach could perhaps teach residents how to plan meals and repurpose their leftovers. In combining their infrastructure with education, we as a community can shift our ideas of food from something disposable to that of a resource. Ultimately I would say that reducing the food waste in my community will require both practical systems and collective commitment. With investments into composting infrastructure and partnerships between local businesses, I believe we can strengthen our local gardens, turn waste into a renewable resource, and improve my city and community.

To me, I think that being a good citizen is a collection of responsibilities and duties that will bind a community together. It is through being a great neighbor who is always present, helpful, and invested in the well-being of his community and local environment. Being a good citizen also means treating the local environment with care and recognizing that all the parks people play in, the water everyone drinks, and the streets we all walk are shared resources that need to be and deserve to be protected. Beyond their everyday acts, being a good citizen also means properly exercising all of the civil duties that are given to us: voting, serving jury duty, and contributing to our communities through service. When you think about it, none of these obligations are to be grudgingly fulfilled but are opportunities to participate in processes larger than ourselves. The foundation upon which effective citizenship is built is staying informed. Knowledge is power, and without a genuine effort to understand the issues, the candidates, and all the policies at stake, voting can lose all its power our forefathers died to protect. Information allows the voter to utilize their vote to its maximum potential, ensuring that everyone whom we elect truly does represent our beliefs and perspectives. Whenever I think about voting, I try to think about how it is not just a right but a voice, a voice which must be exercised thoughtfully in order to carry any weight. Often times people will focus all of their civic attention towards large-scale elections such as the presidential race and midterm elections; these are undeniably important. But I have come to understand local governance to be just as vital when it comes down to making your voice heard. City councils, school boards, and zoning committees are all bodies that are responsible for what happens in our own neighborhoods. They will determine the quality of our schools, how our civil infrastructure is maintained, and the development of public spaces. They can shape the environment in which we live out our everyday lives. This is why voting in every election, from the highest offices to the most local of elections, is important. It will ensure that your voice and the voices of our communities are not drowned out in the endless buzz of national politics. To me the Constitution is where all of the founding principles and ideals of this nation are found preserved through time. It was the product of intense debate and compromise among people who understood that they were building something fragile and unprecedented. Its pages contain the rights that define our freedoms as Americans: the right to assemble peacefully, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and the protection against the quartering of troops in our homes. The Constitution is more than just a list of our rights. As it also represents a living document that requires attention and defense in order to interpret its meanings over time. It sets a framework for how all 50 states and additional American territories are to govern themselves, and it is a constant reminder of how freedom is not free and must be protected by every generation. All put together, being a good citizen, participating in the electoral process, and understanding the Constitution together form a three-part commitment. That asks everyone to participate and remember all freedoms that you may enjoy were never and have never been freely given. They were all hard-fought for and must be protected, and that is the citizen I hope to be.

In Atlantic City I grew up between the skyline and the shoreline. Growing up by the ocean in South Jersey, I navigated between the dense energy of a city and the quiet calm of the ocean in equal measure. From fishing along the old dilapidated bulkheads of my neighborhood to surfing the Atlantic swells with my brother, I was able to develop a thorough appreciation for how intimately the natural world is intertwined with various built environments. Many of my favorite animals have been and continue to be marine creatures: whale sharks, harbor seals, and jellyfish. My connections to the ocean stem from more than any simple admiration of its beauty. My experiences of reeling in Spot and Bluefish from my neighborhood's back bays, the frustration of catching the worst wave on a deceptive set, and the bond made with my brother as we tried to learn the ocean's rhythms. The dichotomy of a city kid who can hear the call of the ocean is the driving force as to why I have chosen to pursue engineering, whether civil or environmental. I think to me engineering can mean more than the memorization of formulas and the simple development of infrastructure; I think it can be more than an act as a form of service. My chosen major, Environmental Engineering, and my backup, Civil Engineering, both come from a desire to solve problems that may affect people's lives as well as the ecosystems that maintain everything. I personally have both experienced and seen how others interact with a city's infrastructure impacts its relationship with the local environment. The old rotting bulkheads surrounding my bay that I fished from as a child have begun to be replaced, an example of the constant work that is necessary to maintain the boundary between the natural world and the human habitation. I have seen the construction crew stabilize the shoreline with their materials, and that brought a realization that someone had designed a solution on how to protect the community from flooding and the water in the marshes the community relies on. This kind of work, the unseen labor that holds up a community's quality of life, is what I wish to build. I will make a positive impact through building fully and sustainably. I am of the belief that it is always harder to build something up than it is to tear it down. Whether I am designing a drainage system that would protect low-lying neighborhoods from flooding, or working on coastal restoration projects that preserve habitats like the estuaries near me, or perhaps planning urban spaces to be both functional and environmentally conscious. My goal is ultimately the same: to serve communities by creating solutions that are in harmony with all elements that surround them. My ambitions extend beyond just the technical. Listening and learning to address community members and all of their concerns along with all of the subtle environmental cues that can't come from textbooks. I think that surfing taught that the best waves often take the most patience to recognize. I believe engineering has its similarities, as the best solutions won't always be the most obvious but will come through careful observations and a genuine commitment towards people and the communities in which they reside. Utilizing my future degree, I hope to build a career that bridges both the urban life I love and the natural world, which I am firmly committed to protecting, doing this one design at a time.