I am a biology student at Santa Barbara City College and work at a local native plant nursery. I grew up in a rural area of California, a town called Bishop in the Owens Valley, where I discovered my love of the natural world and my passion for caring for it. As well as being enthusiastic about the biological sciences, I am also a creative person who loves to read, write, and play music; I have published four short stories in literary journals and newspapers, and have also played keyboard with a jazz band and a rock band. I am financially independent, and though I have worked since age 14 to save enough to attend college, the cost of living has skyrocketed in California, and I need to use my savings to pay for necessities along with my monthly paycheck from work. That being said, to add thousands of dollars in tuition for a university on top of that would not be feasible. This scholarship would be essential to my ability to attend university and meet my educational and career goals. I would be extremely grateful to be a recipient. As for my academic goals, I plan to transfer to a four-year university and earn a BS in the biological sciences. I have applied to UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, and Cal Poly Humboldt, and I am awaiting decisions. Upon graduation, I plan to work as a biologist in the field. I am open to a wide range of experiences; I would be excited to work as a botanist, biological field technician, or any opportunity to do hands-on work outdoors. Above all, I want to work to conserve nature; to protect our natural spaces and fellow species, as well as work to restore damaged environments and habitats. I mostly contribute to my community by volunteering, which I have been active with since high school. During high school, I volunteered at Wildcare Eastern Sierra, a wildlife rehabilitation center in my hometown of Bishop. There, I rescued and released injured or sick animals, and once they were at the center, I worked to feed them, clean their pens, and dose their medication. I also volunteered with the California Native Plant Society working at plant sales and potting plants. Upon moving to Santa Barbara, I started volunteering at Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute, where I do hands-on rehabilitation work with sick and injured marine mammals. When I played the keyboard in bands, I had more than one failed performance. It might have been the worst feeling - to hit one too many wrong notes, playing to a disinterested crowd that talked over you, to check the tip jar and find it empty. It was embarrassing, not only to fail but to fail so publicly. At the time, it was devastating to me; but it has made me stronger because I understand that mistakes are inevitable, and failure is unavoidable. What matters is the resilience to get up again and keep trying. My greatest strengths are my creativity, determination, and resilience. When confronted with a problem, I can think outside the box to find ways to solve it, and I won't stop until it's solved. Sometimes it's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the problems in our world today, but I know that each small step forward, even if it's slow, is still forward movement. I am not someone who will give up, and as an aspiring biologist, I see the massive challenges ahead of us in conserving nature and decide to work for a sustainable future anyway.

Until recently, I didn't know that it wasn't normal to be scared every minute of your life. I can't remember a time that I didn't feel overly anxious; I remember waking up screaming from night terrors as a child, going to the doctor for pain that turned out to be anxiety-induced, and as I got older, always having something that made me feel sick with anxiety. Even to this day, in my early twenties, I still find myself with my heart pounding and lightheaded at things that may seem simple and easy to others. External difficulties in my teenage years didn't help - I bounced between houses and couches, got caught up in my parents' arguments after their divorce, and struggled to fit in with my peers. In high school, things got so challenging that I became too depressed to keep going to classes. Even though I had always been a good student, I started falling behind, feeling I had no purpose to keep going. Then, one day, I saw an advertisement for a local wildlife rehabilitation center that desperately needed volunteers, and I thought I would check it out. From the moment I walked into the repurposed mobile home they were using as a center, my life changed direction completely. Previously, I had been somewhat undecided about what I wanted to do with my life; I had considered many careers but had hopped between them without feeling much decisiveness about anything. Now, I found a place in caring for the natural world. At the wildlife rehabilitation center, I responded to calls from locals who had found an injured or sick animal and drove to untangle them from a fence or pick them up from someone's living room. I helped to feed the patients and clean their pens, performed intake exams, and learned to administer medication. Nothing ever felt as rewarding as releasing the animals back into the wild, knowing that even if it only made a small difference, it still counted as a difference. I still struggled with the anxiety, but when faced with a little animal who needed help, I found the strength to push through it. I found a new passion for my education, and after graduating high school, I began pursuing a degree in biology. The highest goal of my career is to work towards making our relationship with the natural world more sustainable. Today, I am about to earn my Associate's in biology from Santa Barbara City College and am preparing to transfer to a four-year to earn my Bachelor's. I work at a native plant nursery and assist in restoration projects, and volunteer at Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute, where I help rehabilitate sick and injured marine mammals. Many days, I still feel that fear that held me back for so long. But most of the time, I don't let it. I have a passion and a dedication to work that is meaningful to me and is extremely necessary in a world suffering from the effects of climate change. Each day, I choose to set aside my fear and do my best to make a difference - even a small one.

In eighth grade, I was embarrassed to ask anyone to come over for a sleepover. How can you have a friend over for the night when your bedroom is a living room couch? It won't fit two people, and the odd slippery material makes it easy to find yourself sliding onto the floor in the middle of the night. So I do not ask anyone to come over. Throughout my middle and high school years, my living situations were always a source of shame. There has always been some silent expectation to be sworn to secrecy about adversity from financial troubles, and I can't help but follow it. This is one of many ways in which financial insecurity affects your mental health. As a teenager, I felt humiliated over my situation - whether that was lack of privacy from sleeping on a couch or in a one-room apartment with my mom and brother, not having the stylish clothes that everyone else did, or sometimes even not having reliable access to a shower. This quickly morphed into persistent anxiety that I still carry with me today. How are others perceiving me? Do they view me as inferior? What if I'm not good enough? The one place I have consistently been able to turn to is the natural world. Growing up in a small rural town in the Eastern Sierra, I always had access to the open desert or the towering mountains. There, I felt no societal pressure, no fear of the world around me; only my place on this earth and my responsibility to give back in return for all the care I have received. My passion for a degree in the STEM field, specifically in the biological and plant sciences, comes from this place of love for our planet. As a Californian, I have had a front-row seat to how climate change ravages our communities; I have evacuated from wildfires, stayed home to avoid floods, and sweltered in temperatures over 110. My current job while in school is at a native plant nursery focused on restoration projects. In addition to gaining hands-on experience for my future career and education, I have been learning about the connections between native plants and these crises. If we change our relationship with the natural world, acting as stewards instead of owners, many of our concerns with the climate will start to dissipate. The hills covered with dried invasive plants that act as tinderboxes for our wildfires could be replanted and maintained with controlled burns; the places that so often flood could be repopulated with the native wetland plants that store carbon and water underground and hold the soil together. In my education, I hope to be able to study these ideas further and learn about how they could potentially become a reality. During my time at Santa Barbara City College, I have financially provided for myself by working part-time and relying on savings from working throughout all of high school. In university, my financial situation would be much the same; although high tuition costs are not something that can be covered by taking extra shifts. Financially, scholarships like these can be the difference between attending university or deferring my admission to save money. I am very grateful for the opportunity to apply and receive financial aid to support my education and make my career a reality. In a chaotic and uncertain world, I am certain that turning to our roots in the natural world is the only way to sustain humanity and build a better future.

I've always had a strong passion for working with the natural world, and one aspect of my experience is in wildlife rehabilitation. I grew up in the Eastern Sierra, where I volunteered with Wildcare Eastern Sierra, and continue my work at Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute since moving to Santa Barbara to attend college. Working with wild animals is an extremely rewarding experience, whether with songbirds, owls, foxes, or elephant seals. Interacting with a diverse range of wildlife has given me the chance to expand my skill set and learn about each of these animals, as well as the environments where they live. Mostly, my volunteer work consists of caring for sick or injured animals at the rehabilitation centers; cleaning pens, feeding, and administering medicine. However, the work also extends to teaming up with other people, both during rehab shifts and rescues. During a rehab shift, working together is essential to making sure every animal gets cared for correctly and that both humans and animals stay safe - when dealing with an annoyed 200-pound elephant seal or a group of scared raccoons, it's of the utmost importance to keep calm and communicate with your fellow volunteers. Outside of the centers, when we are out in the field doing rescues, we often interact with people who are interested in what we are doing and want to be a part of it. I've had total strangers stop their day to help catch an injured duck or wave down traffic to stop other cars from hitting a sick fox, and it's wonderful to see how many people are enthusiastic about caring for wildlife. In recent years, I've seen the narrative about humanity insist that we are all selfish, desensitized, and heading towards our self-caused destruction. And there's no doubt that our world is facing some very serious and terrifying problems. But working out in the world, with wildlife and other volunteers and strangers who jump in to help, I've seen much more beauty and compassion than anything else. Part of working in wildlife rehab is dealing with injury, sickness, and death, but the other part is the intensely rewarding experience of saving a life. And not only saving a life, but working with other people to solidify a sense of community with each other and compassion and love for our natural world. I believe that in today's climate, the greatest kindness we can do for the world around us is to help one another to the best of our abilities. To support our community is paramount - and our community doesn't just include the people around us. It includes our wild animals, our plants, our water and air; all of which we cannot live without. Every time a person goes out of their way to help another living creature, they accomplish so much more than saving a single life. They show their care for every living thing around them, their capability for love and selflessness that we all have. I am so grateful to have these opportunities to see this kind of compassion up close, to take part in it myself; and in growing my skill set with the natural world, to also see and share in other people being the best they can be.

It seemed like the rain would never end; each weekend, a new storm rolled in. Just a few years ago we had been dreaming of an end to the drought, but throughout California, rivers broke their banks and flooded into the streets. As a student at Santa Barbara City College, we were not spared from the downpour; classes were canceled and roads were closed due to the floods. And unfortunately for future citizens of California, this is a problem that will only worsen as the years march on. California will continue to face rapidly increasing flood risks as climate change fuels stronger storms and heavier rainfall. Scientists from the University of California Los Angeles estimate that damage costs and deaths as a result of flooding could double and even quadruple in some areas of the state. Along with the important tasks of flood management such as maintaining levees and dams, an older solution could assist in quelling the floods. Rather than implementing new infrastructure, we can literally go back to our roots - by utilizing the natural resource of native plants. Native plants can be surprisingly impactful when it comes to flood management and reduction. A patch of native grasses may look innocuous, but these plants have developed root systems that improve the soil’s ability to retain water and therefore reduce floods. Additionally, deep root systems prevent erosion - an issue that showcases itself in California, with houses and roads tumbling into the ocean. As well as being a viable part of the solution to flooding, native plants are integral to their endemic ecosystems; they promote necessary biodiversity and are much more low-cost and low-maintenance than the non-native plants usually planted in urban or suburban areas. As a botany student with a passion for fighting climate change and environmental collapse, I believe that in protecting our natural world, the tools we need to move in the right direction are already available to us. In my education and career, I want to work for solutions that allow us to care for our ecosystems as well as ourselves. As we work towards healing the many ways in which we have damaged our planet through the process of global warming, it is essential for us to realize that we are not separate from nature, and that the only way to live sustainably is to embrace and care for nature and humanity as a unified whole.