Civil engineering is, to me, the most community-based discipline of engineering. I want to develop SMART cities and help protect our most precious resource - water. Many places in the world, including the U.S, are currently dealing with issues related to water. Everyday, I grab an ice-cold glass of water and take a hot twenty-minute shower. I take these simple pleasures for granted. Many places in the world, even in the US, are currently dealing with water issues. In South Africa, a country that is considered highly developed, loses 25-35% of its clean water due to water leaks and failed infrastructure. States like Texas and Nevada are experiencing a megadrought that scientists predict will only worsen over time. Famously the governor of Michigan inflicted lead poisoning on his state’s poorest residents, which led to the necessary replacement of the entire system. My own grandmother who lives in Jackson, Mississippi didn’t have running water for months because the water treatment plant failed. Scientists predict that in the near future, water will be more valuable than gold. When I complete my undergraduate studies in civil engineering, I’d like to obtain a PhD in water resource engineering. Water issues are countless and listing them all would be exhaustive. Even Chicago, though we have comparatively “good” water due to our proximity to Lake Michigan, is fighting aging infrastructure like old lead pipes. It can feel discouraging or hopeless when you realize the magnitude of water issues in the US, like David and Goliath, but I want to be part of the solution. My career will consist of research on behalf of the government to look for new solutions such as investing in technology to capture water from the air, desalination, or reversing the effects of climate change on the Colorado River. My contribution to society will consist of scalable devices to desalinate ocean water using less energy and creating less pollutants. I will continue to build on the current advancements until desalinated water is available as easily as fresh water. This would ease the stress of many areas where scarcity of water will truly be alarming. The impact would positively affect many areas of quality of life, agriculture and restoring ecosystems. Water is this planet's moat valuable resource. Society will need a dedicated and educated workforce to solve the mounting problems. This scholarship will help me with the first step of starting my undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering.

I’m a Black, female senior at Whitney Young Magnet High School in Chicago, Illinois. I love soccer, foreign languages, and physics. I’ve currently been accepted into the civil engineering programs at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard University, and Northwestern University. I want to pursue a career that will improve our way of life and the infrastructure of our cities. More specifically, I’m interested in getting my PhD in water resources engineering and conducting research. My grandmother lives in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson is a great, predominantly-Black city where I spent most of my summers growing up. Recently, she’s had difficulty getting adequate water because of the city’s water supply being contaminated with lead and the pipes being outdated. She and the rest of my family down there have been using water bottles to drink and bathe with. In February of 2022, the NAACP accused the state of Mississippi of racial discrimination in funding allocation. The first time I formally learned the term “environmental racism” was during my internship with Argonne National Laboratories. We were discussing how the neighborhood that you live in Chicago, sometimes quite literally from one block to another, your life expectancy can increase or decrease up to 20 years. Chicago has a history of redlining and racial discrimination in their housing practices. That same week we were learning about Chicago's history of redlining and racial discrimination, there was an explosion on the Southside. On the news that day, the city engineer prefaced the footage the implosion was planned, and pointedly “not toxic”. No one in our class believed him. We watched the coal power plant explode and its sand-colored dust circulate through homes, parks, and schools. The explosion took place in Little Village, a predominantly-Mexican neighborhood where some of my fellow interns lived; the dust remained in the air for three days afterwards. Being a great example of what we were discussing, our instructor had us research the situation independently. One thing I found that will always stick with me was an interview with a man from Little Village visibly upset, saying he couldn’t stand the constant disregard and pollution of his community, and he would leave as soon as he could afford to. As he spoke, the video cut to an aerial shot of the neighborhood still recovering days after the implosion, and then to Bridgeport, a predominantly-White neighborhood on the Southside. It became clear that inequity is built in Chicago’s very infrastructure. By the end of the internship, I was able to lead my team in developing a plan in utilizing renewable energy in part to extend the city’s public transportation system (CTA) in Washington Park. Overall, there's a lack of oversight when it comes to these planned demolitions and a general disregard for the health of communities of color. Civil engineering, to me, is the most community-focused discipline of engineering. I plan on using my education to be an active voice, and use my research to improve everyday life. I’d like to be a leader in my city, and speak on the behalf of those who are unaware of the consequences of a coal power plant moving in next door. Companies and city governments take advantage of communities of color by not giving them the full context of what it means to live next to a highway for years; the serious effects that are under researched because the health of brown and Black residents is not a priority to them. I want to make a difference in my city and improve our current strained infrastructure.