I hate Chat-GPT. It's a controversial opinion among college students, I know. But the tool that's "so helpful" and "so easy" and "just fun to play around with and see what it says" is killing our planet. A single conversation with an AI model like Chat-GPT uses the equivalent of a whole bottle of water. It frustrates me to see students like me, fellow environmental science majors, playing around with a "harmless" large language model and unknowingly wasting more water than they drink in a day. Knowing how many students use AI for unnecessary tasks becomes horrifying once you factor in the water usage required to keep these tools functioning. While I'm not perfect, sustainability-wise, I make a conscious effort to avoid and opt out of any AI usage unless it's required for a class in order to conserve water. Our planet is literally running out of clean, drinkable water, and yet people think nothing of wasting it. Similarly, they ignore the carbon implications: how much electricity goes into keeping those servers running? How much of that electricity was produced sustainably? How much fossil fuel energy goes into "helping" you with that essay, that outline, that email? Is it really worth it? Reducing your personal carbon footprint is deeply important in the world we live in now. Global temperatures are rising. This was the hottest fall in history for almost everywhere on Earth. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are skyrocketing, and the ocean and biosphere can no longer absorb the amounts they had in the past. There is no other option to slow or stop climate change than reducing humanity's contribution to the carbon cycle. While the actions of individuals are small compared to the huge impact of industry, large-scale agriculture, and fossil fuel corporations, it's not nothing. It's like voting: it might not feel like it makes a difference on an individual scale, but every single person's actions count for something. Everything you do matters. The action of one individual might have a small impact, but the actions of all 8 billion of us have huge impacts. We have a responsibility to each other to create and maintain a livable world for ourselves and future generations, and reducing your carbon footprint is a way to limit your contribution to climate change and keep conditions on Earth livable for a little bit longer. It's unrealistic to think that taking the bus instead of driving will singlehandedly end climate change, but it's also unrealistic to act like it does nothing. Each choice you make every day does have an impact on the world.

Supernatural changed my life. I'm not kidding. My best friend recommended it to me during November of my senior year of high school, and it became my solace from the stress of college applications. From the first episodes on the highlight reel he created for me, I was hooked. The high-stakes monster hunting combined with some truly silly plotlines makes it a classic monster of the week genre show, and it's such a major cultural force that once you watch it, you realize how many other things were inspired by it. The lo-fi, low-tech horror of the first few seasons stands out as unusually cinematic for the time period: it was one of the last major studio shows to make the transition from film cameras to digital. It's a work of art: frequently cringe, occasionally nostalgic, suspension-of-disbelief required art. Supernatural is perhaps most famous for the chemistry between the leading characters: even if you don't know the premise of the show, if you've heard of Supernatural you've almost certainly heard of the fans. Viewers obsessed over the dramatic tension between leading man Dean Winchester and the angel who pulled him out of hell, Castiel. After sharing the screen for 12 years, raising a son together, and dying for each other more times than could possibly be counted, the characters confessed their love in the final season before unceremoniously dying. This came as an absolute shock to anyone who had been watching the show, although not for the lack for chemistry between them. Supernatural frequently poked fun at its fanbase, going so far as to devote an episode to making fun of fanfiction written about the characters. Fangirls were portrayed as delusional weirdos, and the idea that Dean and Castiel were anything other than friends was mocked in the actual text of the show. After all that, to have an explicit love confession? Shocking! It gets worse. In the original script, Castiel confesses, but dies before Dean can say anything. The only reciprocation was in a Spanish-language version with dubbed audio. Despite this frankly insulting treatment of the show's core audience, I can honestly say that there was no higher-stakes drama than the combination of the US Presidential election and watching people online lose their minds about a TV show I had never watched. A year later, I would finally understand the driving force behind so many memes, in-jokes, and at least one actual graduate thesis. A show that drove people to create so much art, interpretive written work, and academic research was clearly a must-see. For weeks, I would go to school at 7 am (surely you remember these horrors), attend class for eight hours in a row (as a college student, this is unthinkable now), and stay at the library after school until they turned the lights off (actually, this part stayed the same). Then I would go home, finish my homework, work on my college applications, and watch three episodes of Supernatural with my best friend. It was a ritual that was sorely needed, and provided a grounding moment of comfort after the daily stress and struggles that came with being in high school. When I left for college, watching Supernatural together was one of the things that kept my best friend and I in touch. We're in different time zones, but thanks to Netflix and Discord we can still chat to each other while we watch the show that brought us closer as friends. And, because it's ridiculously long, we're still working our way through season 11. It's been three years.

The Starbucks Pumpkin Cold Foam Cold Brew is my fall drink of choice. Slightly unnatural orange foam with lots of cinnamon atop a layer of strong, iced coffee. Condensation slowly dripping down the sides. More caffeine than might be altogether reasonable. Sitting next to me at the library table, it keeps me company through the long hours of study, which are feeling longer once the temperatures dip and the sun sets earlier and earlier. At the Art Library, working on intro chemistry with my roommate. At the Business Library, studying for a geology midterm, headphones in and concentration at an all-time high. A little treat on a crisp fall afternoon. The temperatures might be dropping, but I'm still drinking iced coffee, even as the days sink below freezing. It reminds me of fall back home in California, where it stays in the 80s and 90s through all of October, and even into November. It's a little bit of normalcy in a new life far from home. Fall has always been my favorite season, and although I'm embarrassed to admit it, I am 100% a pumpkin spice girlie. This year, my best friend back home and I drove out to the nearest Starbucks in August so we could get the pumpkin spice drinks the first day they were available. It's a memory I cherish now that I'm back at school. Sitting in the passenger seat of their car, coffee in hand, I remember thinking about how much I would miss them. Now, with the same coffee in my hand as I walk around campus, it's a fond reminder that although many things have changed, some have stayed the same. Fall in Madison is beautiful: the trees lining the lakes all light up in brilliant color, losing their chlorophyll, and showing off the carotenoids and secondary pigments still in their cells. I remember when I first learned the chemistry behind the changing of the leaves in my first botany class. I felt like I had learned the secrets of the universe, the unspoken language of the world. The change of seasons was one of the things that motivated me to move out to the Midwest, where the leaves change to bright scarlet and yellow in autumn and snow falls all winter. It's magical, and almost makes up for the fact that soon it'll be well below zero. It makes a perfect fall day feel even more cozy and seasonal to have a chill in the air, a chilled drink in my hand, and a reminder of home in my heart.

To me, success is a life where I contribute something meaningful to the world, and spend time with the people I love. My passion is outdoor education: I am incredibly lucky to get to share my love of nature with new people every summer as a camp counselor and volunteer with Girl Scouts. To me, a life well lived is a life where I continue to work in the forests I love in the Pacific Northwest and California Coast ranges, whether that's in research, conservation biology, or the parks service. Spending time outside, hiking, and backpacking have been instrumental in my self-discovery and sense of mental well-being. My goals in life combine academic excellence, maintaining close relationships and strong mental health, and serving the environment that contributed so much to my childhood. I first knew I wanted to study mycology when I was nine years old: I read a kids' science magazine that featured articles on fungi and I was immediately hooked. The mysteries of their biology, from the seemingly impossible-to-predict emergence of mushrooms from the soil to the strange chemicals that could kill, heal, glow in the dark, or turn an ant into a "zombie" enthralled me. As I grew up, I kept reading and learning everything I could about fungi as a personal interest. When I was sixteen, wildfires destroyed huge swaths of forest in the Santa Cruz mountains, including the Girl Scout camp I grew up attending. The skies turned red, and forests and towns turned to ash. I wanted to know how I could fix it, and I learned about the concept of mycoremediation: using fungi to restore ecosystems and remove toxins and heavy metals from soil and water. I knew then that I wanted to study fungi and forest ecology so I could play a part in fixing things. Academically, success is something that can be measured in grade points or classes. Personally, success is finding a way to live that does the least harm to the world we live in, and hopefully does some good. I want to make the people I love happy, and do my part to remind them that they are not alone in this world. I want to encourage others to love the outdoors. I want to be able to afford to eat local and contribute less to my personal carbon footprint. This opportunity would help me finish my Botany and Environmental Science degree, and allow me to look for unpaid student researcher positions and internships while I attend school full-time. Currently I hold a summer job and a part-time job during the school year, and am applying for a second job. Receiving this award would grant me the financial freedom to start working towards my personal definition of success: undergraduate research, graduating from college, and applying to graduate school. I plan to pursue a Master's and PhD in Botany, specializing in Mycology. Learning everything I can about fungi and forests will help me make a difference in the world, one that's sorely needed in our changing environment and warming planet.

The world seems broken. Climate change is relentlessly destroying the planet, while wars raging across the continents seem set to destroy the people living on it. We've endured a global pandemic, rising sea levels, uncountable extinctions, and destructive wildfires. However, I believe in the new generations and our ability to take what we've been given and make it better. I have hope in the future, and specifically hope in Gen Z. I see my classmates fight for what they believe in, and I see them making a difference. I want a better world, and I believe we will be able to achieve one. I do not think all hope is lost. The number of Gen Z students I know who are planning to use their lives to help others inspires me. As a member of what will one day be known as the generation who stepped up, I plan to do what I can. My dream is to study mycorrhizal networks in the hope of understanding their relationship with plants, and use that knowledge to help restore forests damaged by wildfires. I grew up in California, watching the ecosystems I love go up in flames because of the actions of the generations before us. I know the cost of years of drought from misallocation of water, and years of abusing the planet that gave us life. It is Gen Z's job to fix what we have been given. After all, the point of living is to make the world a better place for those who come after you.