I have grown up in McMinnville Oregon, on a small 10 acre farm in the mountains. My family raises chickens, goats and rabbits. My community has shaped me by giving me an appreciation for natural and caring for others. I hope to blend my interest in building with my love of the natural world in my civil engineering career to work on projects large and small. Coming from a family of nurses and first responders, the desire to help others and serve my community has been instilled in me from an early age. Growing up in Scouting has also given me many opportunities to serve others and I consider myself “service minded”. My Eagle Scout project was to bolster the safety and privacy of fence around a playground at our church. The same playground I used; I am proudly making safer for the next generation of children to use it. My growing up years in rural Oregon taught me the beauty of the natural world and the obligation we all share in preserving it. During many family camping trips and summer camps with my Boy Scout troop, I have hiked miles of trails and swam in clear lakes. I took it for granted when I was younger, now I understand the responsibility we have to preserving the environment for us and for future generations. I would like to use my education to consider the impact of building on the environment, working on teams focused on functional structures with a small carbon footprint. From the planning of storm water runoff to green building practices, my service to others will be local with a global impact. In rural Oregon we take clean water for granted, we often have too much of it. But as temperatures rise, the need for water management and equality will be a new aspect to city planning and building. I would use my education to contribute to the ideas to solve these kinds of problems. Affordable housing, sprawling warehouses, new waste treatment facilities need to be built. Constructing these new projects, while considering the quality of life for the community and the natural world is a challenge for civil engineers of this generation. For the next generation, these problems will continue to be more complex and I want to face them head-on. Acknowledging the trade-offs for economic development and environmental impact of new construction is a balancing act. I want to contribute my effort to tipping the scales in favor of the environment and the people in the local community.

Thank you for offering the Ward A/E/C scholarship. My college education will prepare me for a career as a Civil Engineer. I chose this path because I have enjoyed building from an early age – Legos, Snap Circuits, blocks. Any material was just asking to be stacked on itself and form something new. My mom would get frustrated with me at times because I HAD to have the correct shade of grey for my creations. She would find me a piece that fit, but the wrong shade and we would need to keep searching for just the right color. Now I am finishing my senior year of high school with several engineering projects completed and I understand how brains that work like mine can be of service to others. I hope to blend my interest in building with my love of the natural world in my civil engineering career to work on projects large and small. Coming from a family of nurses and first responders, the desire to help others and serve my community has been instilled in me from an early age. Growing up in Scouting has also given me many opportunities to serve others and I consider myself “service minded”. My Eagle Scout project was to bolster the safety and privacy of fence around a playground at our church. The same playground I used; I am proudly making safer for the next generation of children to use it. My growing up years in rural Oregon taught me the beauty of the natural world and the obligation we all share in preserving it. During many family camping trips and summer camps with my Boy Scout troop, I have hiked miles of trails and swam in clear lakes. I took it for granted when I was younger, now I understand the responsibility we have to preserving the environment for us and for future generations. I would like to use my education to consider the impact of building on the environment, working on teams focused on functional structures with a small carbon footprint. From the planning of storm water runoff to green building practices, my service to others will be local with a global impact. In rural Oregon we take clean water for granted, we often have too much of it. But as temperatures rise, the need for water management and equality will be a new aspect to city planning and building. I would use my education to contribute to the ideas to solve these kinds of problems. Affordable housing, sprawling warehouses, new waste treatment facilities need to be built. Constructing these new projects, while considering the quality of life for the community and the natural world is a challenge for civil engineers of this generation. For the next generation, these problems will continue to be more complex and I want to face them head-on. Acknowledging the trade-offs for economic development and environmental impact of new construction is a balancing act. I want to contribute my effort to tipping the scales in favor of the environment and the people in the local community.