Hello, my name is Danny and I’m pursuing a Bachelor’s of Earth Science degree. I am autistic, and I collect stamps, coins, and fossils. I am interested in the environment and clean, renewable energy, so that’s why I’m getting a Bachelor’s of Earth Science degree. I think that we should protect natural resources from pollution and invest in solar and wind energy. I enjoy hiking and the outdoors. I enjoy reading about the relations of chemistry and biology with ecosystems. I recently read a study about the history of solar panels and wind farms. I am autistic, which brings both problems and benefits with regard to interpersonal relationships and studying for school. I have trouble understanding figures of speech and non-verbal communication. I also have really strong hearing and eyesight, so I can get sensory overload. Over the years I have gotten better at communicating, and improved upon understanding the emotions and perspectives of others. I wear sunglasses and noise-canceling headphones frequently to cut down on bright lights and noise. I have also gotten better with eye contact and hand gestures. I try to be more social and communicate more effectively. A good benefit that I have is my strong memory. This comes in useful when learning and studying. I’m very good at note taking and visualization. I have a large collection of stamps, coins, and fossils. Over the years I have collected both individual stamps and books of stamps. I have an old stamp with Queen Elizabeth on it, and a lot of WWII stamps with planes on them. More recently, the post office had books of stamps for the Chinese New Year, so got one and added it to my collection. I have a large collection of both ancient and modern coins. I have some bronze coins and silver coins from Ancient Greece and Rome. I have a particularly nice bronze coin of the Roman Emperor Constantine. I also have some modern gold, silver, and platinum coins, including some Australian gold coins with pictures of wildlife on them. I also have an extensive fossil collection. In my possession are various trilobites, ammonites, pieces of dinosaur bones, dinosaur teeth, shark teeth, Mosasaur teeth, plant impressions, fish, and mammoth ivory. I really enjoy my collection and I like looking at them with a magnifying glass in order to see the details. Thank you for taking the time to read my essay. It was a pleasure explaining my studies and hobbies.

Hello, I am pursuing a Bachelor’s of Earth Science with a Minor in French. My great-grandmother was French, so I studied French from a young age. When I was little I read lots of books about French from the library. I took French classes in middle school, high school, community college, and at my current university. I’ve made friends from other countries whom I converse with. I’ve read a lot of French philosophy and literature, as well as poetry. I enjoy reading Descartes, Pascal, Molière, Camus, and Valentine de Saint-Point. Saint-Point has a great poem called «Ses mains» about the sculptor Rodin. The poem describes the fiery creative process of the art of sculpting. I enjoy French music, and I listen to classical, rock, and rap. I like the classical French language composers such as Bizet, Rameau, Massenet, Satie, Lully, Poulenc, Gounod, Délibes, and Hahn. I really like Massenet’s opera Le Mage. It’s about a Persian Zoroastrian priest. Hahn produced a great opera titled l’Île du Rêve about a romance in Tahiti. I like the French rock band Tentation and their song Conquérants. They have a really unique sound. The Québec rapper D-Track has a lot of great songs including La forme de l’eau. He has great musical talent. Over the years I have overcome challenges on pronunciation, grammar, and the use of slang by speaking with native speakers. For example, I learned the correct pronunciation of the similar words anguille (eel) and aiguille (needle). The second word has a [w] sound, and the first does not. I learned the word order for negative past tense reflexive verbs, for example: Je ne me suis pas déguisé (I didn’t dress up as) has the subject pronoun, first negative particle, auxiliary verb, second negative particle, and past participle. Slang is another example. A French speaker told me that instead of cheveux (hair), vêtements (clothes), and manger (to eat), people will say tifs, fringues, and bouffer. Contractions are also important to learn: Je ne sais pas (I don’t know) is often contracted into j’sais pas. I went on a trip to France for nine days years ago. We went to Paris, Normandy, and the Loire Valley. I enjoyed seeing the Louvre museum in Paris, the vineyards in the Loire Valley, and the WWII D-Day beaches in Normandy. I also got to see the Bayeux tapestry. It is a long ornate fabric from centuries ago that details the history of the region. The Louvre museum is gigantic and holds many famous works of art, including the Mona Lisa, Wingèd Victory, and the Venus de Milo. I also want to improve my foreign language skills in order to help other people. (I like to do volunteer work.) I want to combine my foreign language skills with my geology studies and perhaps work in another country. Thank you for taking the time to read my essay. I really appreciate it.

I really enjoy fishing. My relatives live in Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa where there is lots of fishing. We also go on fishing trips to Minnesota and Wyoming. Southern Wyoming and western Minnesota have lots of amazing lakes. My dad and uncle have a lot of large taxidermied fish on the walls. We all own scores of fishing books. I am pursuing a Bachelor’s of Earth Science degree to ensure that future generations have access to clean water and renewable resources. My favorite food is seafood: I love salmon, trout, halibut, sunfish, crappie, grouper, tilapia, flounder, cod, walleye, crab, lobster, and shrimp. I really enjoy cooking, and have made all kinds of seafood dishes over the years. I like making baked salmon with shrimp pasta. Years ago, I worked at a tilapia farm that had large tanks of tilapia that we would feed by putting handfuls of pellets in. Aquaculture is a very interesting science. I was recently studying how people farm crustaceans called yabbies for food. Fishing is a very relaxing activity. My dad owns a large fishing boat that we sail on various lakes in the summer with. We like to spend a whole day fishing while reading and listening to music. My family really enjoys visiting Cabela’s. They have a lot of good products and interesting displays. I like to collect different kinds of fishing lures. I have tried fly fishing a few times, where you wear those special boots and use those unique fishing rods. Colorado and Iowa have really great rivers and creeks with great scenery. Another reason why I want an Earth Science degree is to study pollutants and nutrients in ecosystems. I’ve read a few peer-reviewed scientific journals about how toxins can spread through the food chain. I study commercial fishing as well. Studying animal populations for sustainable fishing is important to ensure that fish stocks aren’t depleted. An interesting topic I’ve read about is sea animal evolution and the history of fishing. I studied extensively about the development of boney fishes, cartilage fishes, and lungfishes, as well as crustaceans and mollusks. The development of crustaceans is particularly interesting because they are related to land arthropods. The ancient Minoans, Egyptians, Greeks, and Phoenicians developed fishing boats, nets, fishhooks, and spears for obtaining various types of fish. There are ancient frescos and statues portraying groups of people fishing and enjoying themselves. In order to assure that future generations can enjoy themselves sport of angling, we must study and protect ecosystems.

My mother recovered from inflammatory breast cancer. This is why I want to get a Master’s of Biology degree to study cancer. Currently, I am two classes away from a Bachelor’s of Earth Science. I took a semester off to try to get funds to pay my U-bill.( I cannot take the last two classes until my past due is paid.) I chose Earth Science because I wanted to learn about the impact of environmental toxins on human and animal health. I want to pursue a Master’s in Biology and eventually a PhD to study cancer and other diseases. My mother got stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer all of a sudden (the skin changed color), so she underwent chemotherapy and a mastectomy. She recovered, but they found a tumor in her brain and removed it also. (She has also had West Nile and meningitis, so she has been through a lot.) It was very frightening, so it inspired me to study cancer and the environment. (I believe that an important part of research is identifying carcinogens.) I read extensively about inflammatory breast cancer, how unchecked cell growth packs up lymphatic vessels in the skin. My other relatives have sadly also gotten cancer. My aunt (mother’s sister) unfortunately died from uterine cancer, and several of my relatives have died from lung cancer, which is terrifying. It has motivated me to study a lot. I’m a natural book worm, and I’ve read hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific journals and medical books. Because I believe that everything in biology is intertwined, I’ve studied everything from cloning to the evolution of sex chromosomes to prions. I’ve read extensively on various genes, carcinogens, antioxidants, and the role of the immune system in cancers. I’ve read a lot about the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which repair DNA damage under normal circumstances, but mutations change their role as tumor-suppressing genes. Another topic that I’ve read about extensively is how HR+ cancers tend to grow more slowly than hormone negative cancers. (Hormone-receptor positive refers to cells that possess hormone receptors that can be stimulated by estrogen.) I read an interesting study about telomerase, an enzyme that prevents cell death by extending telomeres, and is found in (most) cancer cells but is generally inactivate in regular cells. I believe that this should be researched more. We should also study cancers in other animals and environmental connections, to see common causes. I learned about an interesting feature of shark livers. The livers of certain sharks contain a steroid called squalamine, that helps stop the spread of cancerous cells. (It inhibits growth by by making endothelial cells too acidic to divide.) Another interesting feature of certain species of shark livers is the Alkyglycerol family of compounds which stimulate white blood cells and combat infection and disease. I am an avid reader with an excellent memory. Thank you for taking the time to read my essay. I look forward to hearing from you.

I have always enjoyed hiking and camping. My family really enjoys the outdoors. We should preserve the environment by seeking renewable energy sources and by creating biodegradable materials (including clothing, utensils, and containers). I would like to research clean energy sources such as solar and wind energy, and by looking into alternative materials to plastic, such as plant fibers. Plant-based diets can reduce our collective carbon footprint. I enjoy bike riding as an alternative to vehicles, and it also reduces roadkill and traffic congestion. I live by a wind farm and I admire how it produces clean energy sources. The university that I attend uses solar energy. There are solar panels everywhere. They have a greenhouse and forest preserve. Society should construct more electric vehicles and enhance public transportation. France and Japan have bullet trains, and I believe that the United States and Canada would greatly benefit from this type of public transportation. We can put barriers around subways and trains to protect wildlife. Part of environmental awareness is overseeing national parks and wildlife. All people can enjoy our national parks and help fund them. We can keep them clean and maintain their upkeep. Hunting can be ethical when done legally and moderately. Planting trees is an enjoyable and environmentally conscious. The city where I live plants trees in public and residential areas every year. Nuclear energy is another form of clean energy when it is done safely. France gets a lot of its energy from nuclear power plants. When they are constructed carefully and the employees are instructed in safety protocols, then they can produce energy with minimal pollution or impact on the environment. One area of interest to expand upon is using containers and utensils made from corn as an alternative to plastic. It is biodegradable and can be fed to goats and pigs. I was reading articles about making clothing, shoes, and purses from cactus fibers, so that the products require minimal pollution to create and biodegrade . We can reduce our carbon footprint by being conscientious consumers. I always examine and review products before buying them, since some companies are more conscientious than others. They use recyclable materials and use clean energy. This includes things such as cleaning products, detergents, appliances, cooking materials, and tools. Water treatment plants can find ways to process and distribute water in an environmentally friendly way, and we can measure how much water we all use. Together, we can all contribute to protecting our planet and being aware of our carbon emissions.

My major is Earth Science. I have five rescue cats as pets. I have owned a lot of cats over the years. I enjoy learning about the environment and how to protect wildlife. I would like to learn about animal health and how to help animals while protecting the environment that we all live in. I feel sad when I see domestic or wild animals dying from illnesses. We should study contagious diseases more and also nutrients that wildlife depend upon. I am an Earth Science major because I also want to learn about plant life and how it interacts with both domestic and wild animals. Studying and analyzing the soil is also important. I want to study mineral content in soil and nutrition depletion. It's also necessary to look at toxins and pollution in the environment. Ecology is very important. In addition to studying the outdoors, I am interested in veterinary science. I have known a lot of farm animals and people's pets who have died early, so I would like to learn more about domestic animal health. I've always liked animals since I was a child and had hamsters, rabbits, and goldfish as pets. I read lots of books about biology when I was young, so that I could learn about biological systems. I've read a lot about animal skeletal structures, inner organs, and neurology. It's important to see how similar and different animals are from each other. In addition to anatomy, I've studied a lot about natural selection and evolution, and how animals developed over time. For example, I wrote a paper about how whales evolved from land-dwelling artiodactyls. They gradually adapted to an aquatic lifestyle, as their skulls, limbs, and bodies adapted to the sea. They gradually lost their hind limbs. Their front limbs gradually adapted into fins. I have a couple books that I've been reading about inheritable diseases in animals and how certain genes cause defects. I think that this field of study should be researched more. I think that we should sequence the genomes of more lifeforms in order to learn more about them. We could do gene therapy for diseases and also manufacture news vaccines. There are a lot of cats and dogs in animal shelters, so another thing for people to work on is how to connect pets with prospective pet owners. I think that we should do more for stray animals and get them owners. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your time.

Hello, I'm an autistic student who is two classes away from obtaining a Bachelor's of Earth Science. I want to study botany, crops,medicinal plants, landscape cover, cultural gardening, and other topics. I have fallen behind on my university bill, so that it why I am seeking scholarships. I have had a good experience at the university so far. There is a large greenhouse on campus with exotic plants and trees, including papyrus. I enjoy going there to look at the various flowers and plants. The school campus has great landscaping. I would like to study which plants are best for ground cover and how to minimize weeds. The campus also has a nature preserve which has lots of trees and deer. A creek runs through it, and there is a lovely bridge. I enjoy going there to study, because I love nature. I am autistic, so I have difficulties with communication and understanding things sometimes. However, I have learned over the years to work on communication skills and interpersonal tasks. I have gotten better with group projects and working in groups. I have an excellent memory, which is a good skill to have for studying. I have gotten good at organizing notes and re-writing lecture information. I an interested in studying the nutritional and medicinal benefits of plants. I tend to eat healthy- I really like kale, eggplants, parsnips, and endive. It would be fascinating to study the nutrition of various plants and study gardening methods. I also want to study medical benefits of plants. Over the centuries, people have discovered the curing qualities of everything from roots and stems to leaves and seeds. The chemical compounds of these plants have been analyzed. Even poisonous plants such as foxglove have medicinal properties. Another reason why I like the Earth sciences are national parks. I have visited quite a few over the years. When I was little, I went to Medicine Bow in Wyoming. I really enjoyed the trees and scenery. I have been to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado several times. The wildlife (such as deer) and plants (such as wildflowers) are very relaxing to view while hiking. In Iowa there is the Effigy Mounds National Monument. Mounds shaped like animals make up the area. I also need to study water systems, such as ponds, creeks, lakes, and dams. I have studied koi ponds and aquaculture. I volunteered at a tilapia farm. It was interesting to see how the fish were fed and maintained. Thank you for reading and thank you for your time.