Conserving our oceans is more than work for me, it is both a pursuit and a passion that I carry out out of admiration for and passion for the ocean and marine life and the importance of the seas to the welfare of our planet. Ocean is larger known to cover more than 70% of the surface of the globe and is home to a bewildered number of living organisms. It is used for food, medicine, and economic activities for over two point five billion people from across the globe. One cannot underestimate the significance of oceans in helping to determine climate and weather conditions all over the world, therefore the health of oceans cannot be considered as an optional value but as an essential one for maintaining stability and development of life on the Earth. Perhaps the most concerning problem that our oceans face today is coral bleaching, a process through which the anemone-like coral polyps lose their pigmentation and become white and ‘bleached’ as a result of stress factors like rising water temperatures and water pollution. Coral reefs are considered as the ‘tropical landscapes of the ocean’ due to their immense diversities. They allow many marine organism inhabitants to breed, feed and find protection, are a source for commercial fishing and protect shores from wave and storm impacts. These are significant life-sustaining systems and when observing them being degraded because of people, it makes me want to do something to change it. Among the greatest enemies heard of marine ecosystem degradation is is the act of fishing that has been practiced and carried out illicitly. In this case, it threatens marine ecosystems, causes the depletion of fish resources, and affects the chain of food and nutrition for these creatures. Managing the fish stocks is a noble exercise that helps in maintaining the stock of fish for subsequent generations with an aim of achieving sustainable fishing practices for conservation of fish rich natural assets. Some common methods also used by rogue fishers include bottom trawling, a fishing method that has severe negative impacts on the sea bottom and the corals. Pollution is another important problem, with a focus on the pollution involving the use of plastics. In each year, large quantities of plastics are dumped into the sea, which poses a danger to sea creatures that either swallow this type of, or get caught in it. Through research, conservation activities and advocacy, plus community outreach, I hope to deal with these problems while utilizing a BS in marine biology earned from Texas A&M at Galveston. This education will equip me with knowledge about oceans through understanding their structure, life forms, and effects of activities human beings pursue on the ocean’s environment. To this end, I plan to concentrate my coursework and research interests on the processes of coral bleaching, fish stocks and marine pollution sources and with an emphasis as to consequences that stem from these phenomena. I am looking forward to participating in a fundamental research that will aim at developing some ways of dealing with impacts of climate change on the coral reefs, challenges of sustainability of marine products such as fish and oil and other effluents. This may include surveys of reef conditions, and engagement with inhabitants in crafting as well as executing conservation strategies, and engagements with authorities in the formulation and implementation of conservation legal frameworks to protect beaches and reefs.

I would say that I am a person that grows in a unique environment. Both of my parents were born in Mexico. When I attended elementary school in Mexico, I always wondered why I was born in the U.S while going to school in Mexico so I asked my parents that. I remembered they answered my question: ¨So you can have a better opportunity¨ they said, and ever since they told me that I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity they gave me. As a result, I wanted to move to the U.S, but there was one problem, I had no one to live with in the U.S, so the only option left was to cross the bridge every single day so I can go to school. Since that day, I've crossed the bridge for almost 6 years. I already got used to it but there are times where I mentally struggle a lot to wake up at 4 in the morning and deal with the line at the border bridge every single day. Ever since I moved schools, I’ve been called with ugly racist names because of my deficiency in speaking English back then, but I learned how to deal with it and move on. During freshman year, it was when covid hit all of us, and back then it was when the same repetitive cycle, and most of us didn’t take that year seriously how it was supposed to be. But then I realized if I stayed with that mentality I was going to throw all of the effort and sacrifices my parents did to me to the trash, I was not going to become someone by keeping those habits. I started to hang out with the people that were more successful than me, that had better grades than me, that had better goals than me, just so that I can become like them and even more. I started joining sports, clubs and organizations. In my sophomore year I joined football only. In my junior year I joined my school dance team, I also joined NHS and English NHS. And in my senior year I am currently on the swimming team, which I made regionals at Lubbock. I became an officer of the English NHS, and president of Science NHS. My daily schedule is different from others, in the way of the things that I have to do. I wake up at 4 in the morning and ahead to the bridge at 5:30AM, then I arrive school one hour before it starts because of the vet program, we have to go assist the veterinarians at El Paso Animal Shelter every day so we can get our veterinary assistant certification. After that I concluded my school. After school I used to go swimming practice at the pool until 7PM, and finally get home around 8:30 and 9PM because I still needed to cross the bridge again, and then repeat that every single day until the weekend, which I used to work at a supermarket so that I can financially help my parents. As the swimming season ended, I was now able to work after school. and that's what I am doing right now, I am currently saving for a car and helping my parents with money and groceries. I remembered when I was little, my parents asked me what I wanted to be, and I answered them that I wanted to become a marine biologist, and I know that by attending Texas A&M and becoming a marine biologist will help me get on my next step for success.