I first fell in love with storm chasing when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I saw my first tornado on TV, curled up on my family's living room sofa, watching a NOVA program that my grandmother had rented from our local library. As I watched the grainy VHS footage, I was transfixed by a group of scientist who struggled to place a strange device -the TOTO or Totable Tornado Observatory- into the path of one of the most terrifyingly, alluring meteorological marvels I had ever seen: the tornado. Immediately, I told myself that I was going to do what the people on the TV were doing- I was going to be a storm chaser. Content with my decision, I wrapped my blanket around me, rolled over, and fell asleep listening to the end of the film and secure in my dream for the future. Today, I've combined my lifelong passion for storm chasing with the desire to deepen my own education and help the public better understand severe weather and climate change. I am convinced that education holds the key to easing the psychological effects of severe weather and climate change by presenting our communities with the information and strategies need to protect themselves. If I had to narrow down my larger passion for meteorology and storm chasing into three distinct goals, these goals would include storm chasing on the Great Plains, earning a bachelor’s degree in Meteorology, and contributing to public education on severe weather.