My studies are centered around mitigating pesticide use in order to protect both environmental health and human health, and I hope that through my work I can create a more sustainable world for humans, wildlife and the planet. I work with people who are exposed to chemical pesticides through their occupations to learn about the hazards exposure can cause, as well as how to create more sustainable alternatives to pesticide usage. We are highly dependent upon pesticides in our agricultural industry, in our basic land management efforts, and we are exposing people to hazardous materials every day because of this dependency. My work, research and academic drive is centered around Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, a method that decreases chemical dependency and finds more sustainable alternatives to manage landscapes and agriculture. IPM is a pest management system that uses biological, physical and mechanical controls as alternatives to chemical pesticides, and uses methods such as introducing natural predators to control an invasive species population. These interventions are significantly less damaging to the planet because they don’t degrade soil or threaten biodiversity, they actually do the opposite, as some IPM methods encourage crop rotation, intercropping and other methods that are beneficial to the environment. It also improves human health because it prevents workers, consumers, and people who spend time in parks, on lawns, and on campuses from being exposed to carcinogenic chemicals. I choose to study and work in this field because it impacts both people and the world around us. Chemical pesticide use is as much a public health crisis as it is an environmental threat, and recognizing the connection between human health, environmental health and safe labor practices is vital. Some of our most vulnerable communities —youth and agricultural laborers— are the most exposed to these chemicals because they are sprayed on our food, on farmland, and on many schoolyards and campuses. Our current management practices are unsafe for people and the planet, but IPM remains underresearched and under-invested in, meaning it has yet to become a viable alternative to the huge agrochemical industry. I see the necessity in this kind of work because there is a lack of research and a lack of conversation about the harm being done to our communities and planet. Solutions already exist but are not implemented on large scales because it takes research, investment and reshaping a large industry in order to create necessary change. I’m currently the student representative on the University of California Systemwide Pesticide Oversight Committee, where I represent the student body’s interests when it comes to all matters dealing with pesticides and transitioning away from their use on all UC properties, including campuses, hospitals, and agricultural land. Creating conversations about the impact of these chemicals is the first step in building more sustainable alternatives, and I want to be a part of the transition away from pesticide use. I hope that my studies and passion to create a safer environment through replacing pesticides will encourage more efforts to change how we use chemicals in many aspects of our life, so that we can begin working towards our own wellbeing and the planet’s health.

In order to combat the climate crisis our planet is facing, I believe that we must collectively organize and recognize the intersectionality of the issues that are harming the planet and people. Humans are at the forefront of climate change, and we are also the only ones who can combat it, so we have to gather across our differences to mobilize actual change. Through unionization and collective action, people are able to make demands of corporations that are polluting the planet and governments that are falling short of making sufficient change. There is a lot of power in the collective, and I truly believe that the mobilization of people is the most effective way to hold institutions accountable for the damages they are doing to the planet. The process it takes to become an organized collective is the real challenge, because people must overcome their differences and polarization to do so. Through the recognition of the intersectionality of climate change, people can recognize that this is a collective struggle that impacts everyone to a degree, and overcome their differences through this lens. Acknowledging the very real impacts of climate change that touch all of our lives, impact our quality of life and threaten our futures is how we will overcome polarization and be able to work productively towards change. Climate change is an existential threat to us all as people, and its impacts have already reached so many people through increasing natural disasters and more extreme weather patterns, as well as biodiversity loss and poor air quality. These effects harm our most vulnerable populations, and many of the communities most impacted by climate change are low income communities or communities of color, and these environmental injustices can only be minimized through the unification of our communities. Climate change is truly a battle against sociohistorical injustices that have transformed into adverse environmental impacts upon our society’s most vulnerable. People must mobilize against injustice and come together across their differences to demand change, and this can be done with increased conversation about climate change and connecting with other people who are facing the same environmental and social challenges. We cannot wait for a technological invention to save us from the climate catastrophe that we all actively contribute to every day, the best way to combat it is to demand change and accountability from those in power, and to do so as a unified people.

I was raised in an incredibly diverse community and had the privilege of attending the Spanish program of a language immersion school, which fostered my interests in learning about different languages and cultures. My elementary school also had a Japanese language program, and I was able to celebrate the annual cultural festivals of Japan and Latinoamérica since I was very young. In fourth grade, I had an opportunity to further explore new cultures and languages by becoming part of the National Children’s Chorus. The music we learned broadened my interests of other cultures, since we were able to sing in Mandarin, Japanese, Tagalog, Korean, French, Italian, Hebrew, German, Armenian, Hindu, and Latin. All of the local performances I participated in reinforced my love for languages, culture, and understanding. In 2019, I had the opportunity to tour with the choir in Japan and South Korea. In South Korea, our choir sang at the Lindenbaum Peace Festival in the Demilitarized Zone. Originally, we were supposed to perform alongside North and South Korean orchestras in an international performance asking for peace in a place that was haunted by decades of separation and suffering. Surrounded by minefields, signing alongside the South Korean youth symphony in the DMZ was an unforgettable experience and one of the most incredible things I have done in my life. There is so much power in understanding the histories and cultures of a place, and this performance was really transformational in my life because it made me want to understand the history of other countries. Being able to partake in a historical moment somewhere with such a profound history was so moving, and it encouraged me to take on AP history classes throughout the rest of high school. While traveling through South Korea and Japan, I was also able to experience cultures very different from the American one. Everyone cooperated with and respected each other, and both countries were shockingly orderly. In Japan, we had the honor of collaborating with a children’s chorus in Kyoto, where we performed and made origami together. Meeting students from other parts of the world was incredible, and despite the language barriers and cultural differences, we were able to connect through music. Interacting with Japanese students, I was inspired by the respect that they had for public spaces and their environment. Everyone carried around their trash until they got home because Japan doesn’t have public trash bins. Students also shared the job of cleaning their classrooms, which is why there is such an effort to keep public spaces clean, starting with having separate school shoes and outdoor shoes. Traveling with a large group of Americans who had no interest in respecting Japanese culture was incredibly eye opening, because it made me confront just how little we respect our shared environments. I was able to observe the faults of our American society by being exposed to another culture that was much more respectful of the world we live in and share. This trip to Japan was what sparked my interest in environmentalism, which I was first introduced to as a sociocultural movement. I aspire to learn about how global cultures interact with and respect the environment, and hope to bring back that knowledge and those practices to an American society in need of cultural and environmental remediation.