To say that the military has impacted me would be an understatement. More clearly, my life and my family unit are products of the military. Therefore, it has more than impacted me; it has shaped me. My father, an Air Force brat himself, met my mother in Tokyo while he was serving as a chief in the Navy. They had my brothers and me in Japan; no sooner was I born than my dad was away at sea for months. My Japanese mother was left to raise my brothers and me throughout most of our childhood as my dad was constantly at work. As a result, my father’s absence—dictated by the military—encouraged me to look towards my mother as I built my identity in those formative years. Consequently, I most strongly identify with my Japanese culture despite being half-American. This is something that I believe most people in Hawaii can understand as a lot of us are children of immigrant or multi-cultural parents. We are forced to confront our cultural identity and sense of belonging and place. Fortunately, the military is what moved our bicultural family from Japan to Hawaii. As my father continued to rise through the Naval ranks, our family was finally allowed to settle down. We got lucky in that Hawaii is easily the best of both worlds—we could be closer to my father’s family but with access to such a large Japanese community. Japan itself is still closer to us than my father’s family. Eventually, I forced my father to retire because I could not stand moving any longer. I may have hated it but moving around so much with the military taught me how to make friends more easily as it was an exercise I was constantly practicing. Being the child of a military veteran has impacted me in numerous subtle, indirect ways such as that. For example, I was born with a passport, essentially. As a result, I love to travel, and it has never seemed to me like a distant or difficult-to-achieve activity. More importantly, however, being the child of a veteran has impacted me in numerous much more direct ways. For example, I must reiterate that I would not exist were it not for the military putting my father in the same city as my mother, thousands of miles from his home. I am also a huge proponent of military benefits. As a child, I was incredibly clumsy, and I was falling constantly. A few of these times were very bad incidents, my father was always at sea. I am not sure what my mother and I would have done were it not for the health care that is provided by the military. I doubt they would have been able to afford me, otherwise. Finally, as a child of a veteran, I have been lucky enough to grow up in Hawaii, of all places. I am incredibly fortunate, but not simply because I live in paradise. Because I am half-Black and half-Japanese, I have a very real sense of fear for the political climate on the mainland. I am so lucky that by chance, the Navy placed us in a location where I could be free and safe from the hatred in our own country.

Anyone would be hard-pressed to convince me that higher education is not one of the greatest things out there. As someone in their thirties who has been in school their whole life, I may be education’s biggest fan. I have always been awed by the fact that diligent reading or studying can open your brain. More and more, simple as that. The flip side of this simple gift of life though, at least in America, is absolutely insane student loan debt. Moreover, the legal jargon attached to the loan paperwork ensures you do not understand how thoroughly you are signing your life away. I am speaking from experience. As a marine biology Ph.D. candidate, I absolutely love my life. However, as a graduate student in today’s America, I am suffering. I have no room for financial security. I owe the federal loan providers my life. In fact, when I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, I remember finding it morbidly humorous that the life insurance policy they provided me with would not even have covered a quarter of my student loans. I have had relationships end over my debt. To say it is a dark cloud hanging over me every minute of every day would be a severe understatement. However, I am being as proactive as I can about it. I will not let the broken system take away my future. I have worked very hard to be where I am and will continue to do so. I firmly believe I should not have to give an arm and a leg to receive the education I have--education is a right--but I will if I have to. There are a few ways I am trying to relieve my financial burdens. First, of course, are scholarships. I have applied for countless scholarships, I have written numerous essays. I apply for scholarships for research costs as well as the cost of living, the latter of which goes towards my debt. Additionally, I invest money where I can. I believe this type of passive income can help me pay off my debt faster if I do it carefully. Thirdly, I am looking into another passive income project with a financially literate colleague. I have been told that one job does not make you money. To accrue any sort of wealth (or reduce debt), I will need to have multiple sources of income. My primary goal right now is to complete this degree so that I can get a higher-paying job that fulfills me. It is my sincere hope that these collective efforts will afford me some sort of financial security moving into the future.

Despite living in Hawaii for most of my life, my identity has always resided strongly with my AAPI culture. Specifically, I am half Japanese. My father, who is black, met my mother while he was stationed in Japan with the United States Navy. My brothers and I were eventually born in Japan and spent a lot of our formative years there. We settled in Hawaii for good when I was around six or seven years old. In fact, we decided to stay in Hawaii because of the huge Japanese community which exists here. My parents felt it made a perfect compromise for their intercultural worlds. Since my father was in the Navy, he was at sea for a lot of my childhood. This meant that my primary source for teaching me about myself—my identity/who I am—was my mother. My very, very Japanese mother who spoke very, very little English. As one can imagine, she heavily instilled in me Japanese cultural values. The result is, I am a very Japanese American who grew up in Hawaii. In fact, I identify as Asian and American, rather than Asian-American. That distinction is what my culture means to me. Japanese was my first language, but English is my dominant one. Different languages can make people think and act differently, and so there’s no telling the magnitude of effects the simple fact of Japanese being my first language has on my identity. I believe it is important to go back to the fact that I am half-black. My black identity is an obscure shadow compared to my very clear Asian identity. Our family has very little cultural ties to our African culture since we are so removed as a result of slavery. Moreover, after moving to Hawaii my father thought I would not have to directly face racism and so he did not teach me about being Black. This made me lean more heavily into my Japanese identity. Another important aspect is that I grew up in Hawaii, but I am not Hawaiian, not Polynesian at all. I felt like an imposter living on Hawaiian land with no Hawaiian blood. Yet, the Japanese community is celebrated here which led me to embrace further my Japanese identity. In summary, Japanese culture means everything to me. It shapes how I approach things and people as well as how I receive things. It is my gateway to understanding my mother and her family. Importantly, it is the only link I have to a culture of my own since black culture was taken from me. It is critically important to realize that at any given moment, you are serving as an ambassador for your culture and your state or country. Therefore, I am always aware that I am representing both Japan and Hawaii. I am sure any minority knows that you cannot react, you must always proceed with professionalism and integrity no matter what is thrown at you—even racism or discrimination. Moreover, I know how vital one's community is, and I do whatever I can to give back. As a marine biology Ph.D. candidate, my goal is to do scientific research that can impact both places—research surrounding coral reefs. I volunteer where I can, to become a more well-rounded member of society with more experience to draw from. In all my activities, in every chapter of my life, I never forget where I came from or the beauty and virtue that is cultural diversity. Appreciating cultural diversity means appreciating that there are multiple ways of doing things and/or thinking about things. Multiple approaches to any given issue. There is so much beauty in being able to appreciate this. Ultimately, I try to use the teachings from my mother and our ancestors, as well as the teachings I’ve learned here in Hawaii, to give back to the communities that have given me so much.

Growing up in Hawaii, I have always revered and respected the sea. My father has been a diver my entire life and never failed to reiterate to me the sense of awe and wonder he encountered in the ocean. My early life primed me to become a marine biologist; the question was not whether I would go into marine science, but what area of marine science I would focus on. A wonderful series of events has resulted in me focusing on coral reefs. I am investigating the morphophysiology and resilience to stress in an endemic Hawaiian octocoral species. Sarcothelia edmondsoni has been noted to be the most common octocoral on Hawaiian reefs and is abundant in areas heavily impacted by human populations and was therefore deemed a bioindicator of anthropogenic stress. It has increased in abundance following freshwater flooding events and resists thermal bleaching. Many corals eject their symbiotic algae, or zooxanthellae, during prolonged periods of stress and bleach. However, S. edmondsoni appears to retain its symbionts and resist bleaching. One study noted that disturbance of a congeneric species reliably resulted in the movement of zooxanthellae from the polyp to the stolon, and from the gastrodermal tissue to the lumen in a process termed “symbiont migration”. Failure to understand the physiological limits of this endemic species threatens the long-term stability of Hawaiian reefs. As such, I will investigate the capacity for symbiont migration as a response to stress in the endemic soft coral. In addition to focusing on the physiological mechanisms related to this species’ bleaching response, I intend to investigate the taxonomic composition of its symbiotic algae community. Moreover, S. edmondsoni has two distinct morphotypes which occupy different habitat regimes but are genetically indistinguishable. It is possible that these morphs are in fact ecomorphs that are being selected and diverging as a response to the environment. I will determine whether the morphotypes respond similarly to stress and whether they demonstrate similar symbiotic algae community compositions. This is very exciting as it will allow us to understand a lot more about the morphophysiology of this endemic species. Coral reefs are one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet and one of the most threatened. Every day I am blown away by the diversity and the sheer complexity of corals, as well as reef ecosystems. The conversation surrounding the persistence of corals into the next century is controversial, with half of the workers I talk to believing it will work out and half having given up. Despite moments of extreme ecological grief and depression, I believe my efforts would still best be focused on reefs. There’s a lot of knowing that still needs to be done. I believe that the best way I can give back to my community and help protect our natural world is through research and application. It is my hope that any new information can then be used to inform practices or develop techniques that may delay or prevent bleaching in reef-building corals. It is my dream to help protect and preserve what’s left. Critically, I will not limit myself to corals but take what I’ve learned and apply it to the whole system. I have grown up in Hawaii and have spent much of my free time in our clear waters, chasing waterfalls, caves, and incredible mountaintop views. Similarly, I have seen the amount of nature continuously reduced as the island gets more developed. My dream is to live and breathe nature, to go to work in the field, and to absorb the world around me in order to understand and protect it.

Growing up in Hawaii, my father ensured that I knew the value of volunteering. As a child, he would take me to volunteer at shelters on Thanksgiving. From an early age, this simple act instilled in me the true beauty of volunteer work – of learning about yourself and others and feeling like you belong to something bigger than yourself. This feeling stayed with me and motivated me to join the United States Peace Corps as an adult. This experience allowed me to volunteer at a health center in a rural mountain village in Rwanda. Living in what has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, I bore witness to the successes and challenges of healthcare and foreign aid. I must admit, there was a period where my observations made me incredibly cynical, noting that a significant amount of care and aid was not effectively reaching the village communities. Someone with malaria is unlikely to hike miles on foot to the health center. Especially when that time could be used earning what little wages were available to them. Someone with HIV is unlikely to seek treatment due to fear of being judged. Foreign aid that delivers pigs or goats to villages in hopes that the community members will sustainably farm the meat wholly fails to understand the idea of “Poor Economics” (Banerjee & Duflo, 2011). Community members typically sell such aid for immediate relief. These realities distressed me greatly and I felt overwhelmed. However, I left out a crucial part of the story. The magical village I lived in is known as Bisate in the Kinigi Sector of the Musanze District. This priceless location meant I was working at the nearest health center to Rwanda’s endangered mountain gorilla population (Gorilla beringei beringei). Yes, my village had gorillas! Due to efforts to protect this endangered population, the conservation aid in my village was outstanding. This interface between human populations and wildlife populations is my favorite place to be. The health of both village members and gorillas is tightly linked. For instance, if the prevalence of a parasite or illness is reduced in a community, its transmission to gorillas will correspondingly be reduced. If village members receive access to clean water, pressures to enter the forest and engage in conflict with wildlife over resources (e.g., food, water, firewood) is alleviated. In my time in Rwanda, it occurred to me that this is the health field for me. One that addresses this intersection between humans and wildlife. I know now that the success of humans and the success of wildlife is coupled. A lot of communities in developing countries have a similar dependence on their natural resources and therefore are equally linked with the organisms around them. For example, the eutrophication of coastal reefs due to human activity can result in the bioaccumulation of toxins in species that are regularly eaten by local communities, having negative effects on their health. These are the issues that I would like to address. I believe that as global warming levels and local stressors increase, the link between humans and the natural world around us will get tighter and tighter. There will be no shortage of problem areas to address regarding the relationship between human health and wildlife health. I cannot stress enough the importance of this concept. I understand that this is not a traditional health field but, in my humble opinion, good science knows when it is time for change.

As a Peace Corps volunteer in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda, I was able to work at the health center with the closest proximity to Rwanda's endangered mountain gorilla population. Such an incredible and unique opportunity allowed me to witness the intersection between wildlife conservation and community. For example, the village members received treatment for intestinal worms and parasites to prevent later transmission to gorillas. Since both populations (humans and gorillas) rely on the same forest resources, there is a lot of interaction and chance of infection. Living in the mountains for two years instilled in me just how interconnected every living thing is. It also showed me how beautiful such a connection can be. From that experience forward, I've dedicated my life to living more sustainably and to giving back to the natural world around me. After Peace Corps Rwanda, with the images of the gorillas fresh in my mind, I pursued my Master of Science degree in biodiversity and conservation. Again, it was ingrained in me that all of life is inextricably linked. Our actions have consequences down to the tiniest microbe. Awed and satisfied with the knowledge that this is what I am meant to do in life, I began the marine biology Ph.D. program at the University of Hawaii. This is where I am currently still, powered by what I've seen in Rwanda and what I've learned in my master's program. The future of the natural world is incredibly grim, and it is up to us to change or even reverse this direction. I know there is no second chance for us after this. As previously mentioned, Rwanda showed me that humanity and wildlife can coexist if done correctly and sustainably. This is the future that I believe in. To that end, I strive to live sustainably each day. This includes the usual: recycling, walking, taking public transportation, ocean trash removal, and using reusable items (e.g., water bottles, bags, etc.). I also actively research coral reefs--one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet, and one of the most threatened due to anthropogenic climate change. My research entails investigating how an endemic soft coral resists thermal bleaching events. I dream that one day I may uncover something that can enhance the health, resilience, and/or recovery of these remarkable ecosystems. I have learned that one of the most important daily choices a researcher can make is to disseminate what they learn. Sharing and outreach are potentially the most critical and effective parts of research. Data that corals are dying means nothing unless the people who are affected know and care. Most people that fish or snorkel on reefs don't realize that coral reefs cover less than 1% of the global ocean floor but support over 25% of all marine life, and over 500 million people globally. They're truly fantastic, with a global economic valuation of USD 10 trillion per year. Without the coral, we lose the fish, the biodiversity, the coastal protection, the megafauna we like to see snorkeling, the source of livelihood, etc. I am a huge believer in living sustainably. Sure, there are areas I could improve (e.g., I like hot water), but I would like to believe that other choices I make impact the environment positively. That my conservation research, my efforts with recycling and reusing items, and most notably my efforts to impress upon people how important coral reefs and the global ocean is, are further reaching. I would like to believe that in this climate, with this bleak future, I impact the environment as positive as I can.

Shortly after I received my undergraduate degree at the University of Hawaii, I signed up for the Peace Corps service. I was assigned to a beautiful mountain village in Bisate, Rwanda in East Africa. Here, I served as a community health volunteer, focusing on maternal and child health as well as food security and HIV/AIDs. When I first got to my village my job was to conduct a community needs assessment (CNA) in which I assessed as well as I could the needs and challenges of my new community through interviews, health center data analysis, observation, job shadowing, and priority ranking. To conduct this assessment thoroughly, I performed home visits and spoke to village chiefs and community health workers across all 29 villages under the health center catchment area, spending hours hiking the mountainous terrain that comprised my community. I quickly learned that one of the most effective tools when entering a new environment is integration. After spending a few months analyzing the community responses and comparing them with data from the health center and the Rwandan Ministry of Health, I made a final assessment and identified key community strengths and challenges, as well as future projects. Ultimately, my two years in the village consisted of measuring the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) in children (aged zero to five years) to detect malnutrition, facilitating trainings, speaking with community members regularly, sustainably building perma-gardens, de-worming, a voluntary male circumcision project (PrePex), and teaching my colleagues English. Additionally, I was able to successfully write a grant (for ~$3,566) for a water sanitation and hygiene project, and I collaborated with NGO Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI) to teach the village’s primary school teachers computer literacy. While this may not be a typical scientific research background, it was certainly a great learning opportunity for me. I believe the experience I gained integrating into a new community with a culture and language that is exceptionally different from my own is in itself an incredibly valuable asset as it allows me to approach a situation from multiple perspectives, as well as collaborate well with others, no matter the barrier. This experience showed me the true, inherent value of community service. It has made me internalize my debt to society and ingrained in me the notion that it is my duty to serve the community, in whatever capacity is best. I believe that this will be best performed through conservation research. Billions of people globally rely on our oceans--millions of them without ever having seen the ocean. As a marine biologist, I will consistently perform research that will protect our oceans and benefit human populations--both coastal and far away. When given the opportunity, I will contribute in a more hands-on approach--ocean clean-ups, community service, volunteer work, and outreach. I am of the belief that everything is connected.