When I was 15, I had a close friend pass away in a car accident. At her funeral, her parents gave away a list she had created titled "Things we have to do before we turn 18." She had listed 20 goals that ranged from using a fake name at Caribou Coffee to ziplining. My friend group was rocked by the sudden loss. When her parents asked people to complete things on her bucket list in memory of her, we knew we had participate. I have completed a little over half of her bucket list items both individually and with friends. Together, my friends and I created a time capsule which we buried at the camp where we all met. We also had a "legit picnic" which included a checkered blanket, a picnic basket, and fresh fruit. We also went night swimming, and cliff diving (I don't think I'll ever do that again). Alone, I have danced in the rain, watched a sunset in Iowa, and left a note in a library book. I still have a few things left, like trying on wedding dresses for fun, seeing the northern lights, and rope swinging into water. She had listed ziplining, but I am not sure that I am as brave as she was. I'm trying to be. I have a few bucket list items of my own, including graduating college, adopting a cat, summitting a mountain, running a half-marathon, moving out of the midwest, and feeding a horse a sugar cube (the movies make it look so fun!). I am so grateful that my friend gave me the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and start dreaming big, while also admiring the small things that can make life a little more enjoyable.

To me, water is everything. I grew up in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, and spent my days surrounded by water. I developed a deep love and appreciation for it at a young age. Even now when I am having a bad day I will sit by the creek in my backyard and watch the water move. In 8th grade, I learned about the ongoing water crisis affecting millions of people worldwide, and learned about the Flint water crisis. I was outraged, and shocked that not everyone had clean water available to them, when I had always been able to go into my kitchen and turn on the faucet. I already loved my math and science classes, so I decided then that I wanted to be an environmental engineer. 7 years later, I am a sophomore in environmental engineering at the University of Iowa. I am also minoring in environmental policy, and pursuing a certificate in public health. After taking some of my engineering classes and diving into water pollution and all of the contributing factors and consequences, I realized that humans and the environment are extremely intertwined. I hope that adding these extra classes will allow me to think about the bigger picture when solving problems through engineering. I need to be able to consider the different routes that could be taken with projects I work on, and how these different routes will affect the people in the community, and how they will affect the natural environment. I want a lot of things from my future career in environmental engineering. I want to go to work everyday knowing that I am making a difference in a field that I am passionate about. I truly believe that everyone deserves access to clean water, and I believe that this is one of the best ways to create a healthier world, and provide people opportunities that they would not have had otherwise. I hope to eventually work for a nonprofit designing wells, drinking water plants, and/or wastewater treatment plants for low-income communities. Often times, these communities are the ones that don't have clean water, and their residents suffer because of it. In order to accomplish this career goal, I am doing as much as I can now to gain experience in the field. Throughout high school, I worked for the Conservation Corps of Minnesota during the summers. I lived and worked outside with other high-schoolers and completed environmental projects across the state, while learning about contemporary environmental issues worldwide and discussing solutions as a group. My third summer, I was a crew leader. I lead my own lessons, which allowed me to learn how to effectively communicate about environmental hazards. This is a skill I will use throughout my career. I also enhanced my ability to work in a team, which is essential for engineering. The summer after my freshman year of college, I had a water resources internship with a local municipality. Here I performed many construction site inspections and learned more about the policies in place to protect surface water sources. I also learned how to write reports and use AutoCAD, both of which I will do throughout my career. Additionally, I got to practice advocating for the environment. When the sites were not in compliance, I had to explain clearly what was needed to be in regulation with the laws. While in school now, I have two jobs. I am an undergraduate research assistant in an environmental engineering lab studying how pharmaceuticals and personal care products are removed during the wastewater treatment process. Through this experience I have learned about different treatment methods and how effective they are, as well as gained experience in reading and comprehending scientific articles. In addition to this job, I am a student employee at our campus drinking water plant, where I work for a group that tends to water systems across my campus. This has given me hands on knowledge of how various water treatment machines function, which will be extremely useful in my future career. Overall, I believe I am building towards a successful and impactful career. Education and experiential learning are the key to growing and I plan to continue this throughout my life. Overall, I know I have chosen the correct field because I am passionate about it. Even when things get hard, I will know that I am making a difference. Everyone needs clean water, and I can't wait to start working to make that happen.

I had never seen eyes that big before, and they were looking right at me. I froze for a second as we shared 3 seconds of the most intense eye contact of my life. It then turned its head and went back to chewing on the shrubs on the side of the trail. I looked around at the rest of my crew. We were all frozen, mesmerized. We had been there for almost 20 minutes as the biggest, most beautiful creature I had ever seen blocked our path. Mike, our favorite National Parks Service crew member had told us to never bother a moose, and now I could understand why. We had been on Isle Royale National Park for nearly a week before this first encounter with a moose. We saw several more throughout our 6 week project on the remote island, including one that joined us for breakfast in our campsite at 5:30 a.m. We woke up at this time everyday and made breakfast and lunch, and pumped water at the small creek near our site. At 7 a.m. we left for our 4 mile hike to our worksite, where we worked until 3, when we hiked home. Nights were filled with chores, friendship bracelet making, and learning about environmental conservation. My summers in the Conservation Corps of Minnesota were long and hard but were also the most formative experiences of my life thus far. At 15, I felt lost. My best friend had just died in a sudden car accident, and I felt like I was wasting my life away. I wanted to do something important and meaningful. I was already passionate about the environment, so I took to google. After combing through the results of a search for “environmental internships for high schoolers,” I found the Summer Youth Corps program of the Conservation Corps of Minnesota. Youth aged 15-18 could work on crews of 8 youth mentored by 2 18-25 year old crew leaders and travel around Minnesota working in state parks on conservation projects. I was so excited. This sounded like the perfect opportunity. The only issue was that I had never been camping before, or really even been hiking before. My parents weren’t really the outdoorsy type, so I had never experienced the outdoors. However, I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I felt called to nature, for some reason. After talking with my parents, they hesitantly agreed to let me apply, and that June they dropped me off in the middle of the woods. My first summer, I worked in 3 different state parks on a very diverse crew of youth. We were all from different places, had different experiences, and all learned a lot from each other. I still keep in touch with some people I met this summer. We spent 8 hours a day doing hard physical labor, and one hour doing learning activities. Through these we built leadership skills, learned about environmental issues, and learned how to work as a team. We spent the weekends exploring nature, going on hikes, canoeing down rivers, and going to nature centers. I went home a different person. I was calmer, and had an even deeper appreciation for nature. When my crew leader reached out to me and asked if I would like to join a Wilderness Crew for the following summer, I knew I had to do it. Wilderness Crews are made up of youth in their second year in the Corps, and are more intense than first-year crews. This is when I had the opportunity to live on Isle Royale National Park. We were backcountry camping, and hiking upwards of 10 miles daily. It was physically demanding. Days were long without much break time. However, we got to see some of the most beautiful things. This area is almost untouched by man, and I felt so whole. The next summer, I knew I had to go back. I applied to be a crew leader, and was accepted. At 18, I was the youngest leader there, even younger than some of the youth on my crew. It was hard to find my leadership style, but by the end of the summer, I had learned so much about myself. I am stronger than I thought I was. I lead in a calm nature, providing support and trying to make sure everyone feels included. I found I was especially good at teaching about conservation. It was so rewarding to see my youth develop the same appreciation I have found for the outdoors. I am so grateful to have been a part of this program. After graduating high school, and graduating the Conservation Corps, I knew how much work there was in the environmental field. I am currently a sophomore at the University of Iowa majoring in environmental engineering, minoring in environmental policy, and pursuing a certificate in public health. I hope to work on clean water. I still think back to standing on the cliffs on the shoreline of Isle Royale and looking out at the cleanest water I have ever seen. It makes me feel alive and complete. However, there are so many people who will never experience this. Water sources worldwide are incredibly polluted, disrupting wildlife and human life. Industry often dumps waste directly into our water sources. I want to work to clean up these polluted water sources, while also working on policy that prevents further pollution. Humans and nature are so intertwined, and until we stop trying to control nature and start trying to enjoy and admire it, we will never be whole.

I have always loved the outdoors. There’s a calmness and beauty that is completely mesmerizing. This admiration grew into a passion for climate and environmental justice. When I was 16, I started doing summer work for the Conservation Corps of Minnesota. Here I got hands on experience with conservation projects like invasive species removal and trail construction while learning about contemporary environmental issues like climate change and pollution. This experience changed my life and truly strengthened my passion for the outdoors. I returned to the Conservation Corps for two more summers, and lead a crew of my own where I got to teach high school students about the environment. During these summers, I learned that climate change is a multifaceted issue. It affects air, water, ocean habitats, natural disasters, and so much more. It Is the biggest problem of our generation. Additionally, it is important to note that climate change affects minority groups and low-income countries and people more than anyone. This makes this issue that much more important. In order to do my part to mitigate the effects of climate change, I am first getting an education to learn all I can about the subject. I am enrolled at the University of Iowa majoring in environmental engineering and minoring in environmental policy and public health. I hope to focus on water. As the earth continues to warm, the earth's water cycle will be affected in many ways. After heavy rains, more soil, pollutants, and other contaminants are picked up off surface areas which contaminates water bodies. Additionally, natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes will increase in intensity and occurrence. The solution I am most excited about for issues of water resources and water pollution is wetlands. As cities in America become more urban, more impervious surfaces are put in. This contributes to urban island heat effect, which contributes to climate change, and increases runoff which contributes to water pollution. Wetlands in urban areas can reduce temperatures in cities, while removing pollutants from runoff, and replenishing groundwater sources. This also leads to less flooding. Additionally, wetlands can provide greenspace in cities and foster appreciation for the environment, which can increase support for policies on climate action. Wetlands are not as expensive as many other climate remediation tactics, and they can provide a multitude of benefits. They are relatively easy to install, and are functional only a few years after they are first installed. While wetlands cannot be the only solution, when coupled with other methods, they are a great way to reduce the impacts of climate change. More cities should consider implementing constructed wetlands in urban areas.

From a young age, I knew I wanted to have a big impact on people around the world, but I didn’t know how. In my eighth grade reading class, I had a moment of clarity when I suddenly understood the role I would play. In class we read a book called A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. This book described the true stories of two people from Sudan and how the ongoing water crisis impacts every aspect of their lives. One is a young girl that has to walk multiple miles away from her village everyday to collect water from a pond. This water isn’t clean, yet she and people in her village use this as their drinking water which causes many of the people in her village to become ill. Because she spends all day collecting water, she cannot get an education or a job. Her whole life is consumed with the exhausting task of trying to find water. At the end of the book, a nonprofit group came in and dug a well in her village. This book sparked my passion for helping others and changing lives through access to clean water. My goal after graduating college is to work for a nonprofit group like the one described in the story and design wells for rural villages. I am currently continuing my education at the University of Iowa, where I am a sophomore majoring in environmental engineering, and minoring in environmental policy and public health. My classes have already done so much to teach me about water treatment and understand how different pollutants impact human health. My school also has lots of opportunities for experiential learning through the Honor's program, which I have been taking full advantage of as well. I am currently an undergraduate research assistant in a lab where I am helping study the removal of pollutants through various water treatment methods. I am also a student employee for the university's water company, where I test water in various school buildings to ensure our filtration system is working effectively. My early education introduced me to my life's passion, and my continuing education is giving me the tools to do what I have always dreamt of. My classes has showed me new world perspectives, and have connected me with people who share my interests. I am so grateful for the opportunity to go to college, but I also know that many people don't have this opportunity. I strongly believe that working to end the water crisis will open up possibilities for other people to receive an education as well. I can't wait to graduate, and start working to make this happen.