In a growing digital age, a major environmental threat is the production and overconsumption of energy. My interest in renewable energy was really piqued in middle school, when I participated in a Future City competition. Through this opportunity, I learned about the importance of becoming environmental stewards in our community and beyond. As my passion grew, I explored the habitat-related impacts of hydroelectric dams, wind, and solar farms, as well as the inefficiencies that are always present in our current energy and renewable energy sectors. In the future, I see myself striving to improve our means of energy production by making our sources more reliable and efficient, advocating for better energy access and environmental justice, and rethinking critical parts of the human society and infrastructure to not only redefine how we get energy but how much we use. Ultimately, I want a future defined by environmental rebirth, energy security, and environmental justice, and I strive to contribute by making our energy sources more reliable, efficient, and accessible.

Energy is an engine and a constraint of modern society. It fuels innovation while simultaneously defining its limits, shaping what is possible, and setting boundaries on what society can build and sustain. Modern technological advancements depend on energy, how it is produced, distributed, and consumed. The impact of energy defines it as a limiter, contributor, driver, and product of innovation. Understanding its role is essential to understanding technological and societal progress and how the future could be shaped by energy. Innovation is bound by what the current energy system can support. Technological spaces like computing power and artificial intelligence can be limited by energy availability. These and similar industries are growing rapidly, but can face insufficient energy problems, which can stall advancement and progress. At that point, innovators face a choice, redesign their product to reduce the amount of energy used or wait until energy availability increases. Energy-intensive innovation is often not constrained by theoreticals or creativity, but instead is constrained by the power available. In this way, energy is a limiter and a foundational part of innovation and society. Simultaneously, energy is a powerful contributor to innovation and quality of life. In much of the United States, abundant energy improves sectors like healthcare, education, and communication. In healthcare, medical prosthetics and technology depend on reliable power, and in educational settings, technology allows educators to have access to a large range of information and materials, and gives learners a huge library of information. Communication has also greatly improved with the abundance of energy, connecting large numbers of people in online spaces and accelerating long-distance connections. All this innovation is often seen as electronic improvements to society, yet energy is a silent contributor to all of it.  Energy is a limited resource. Its scarcity and price, along with its powerful contribution, drive innovation. In energy-intensive industries, the need for energy as part of innovation drives the need for innovation through energy efficiency. In clean tech, energy efficiency plays a major role in redesigning sustainable replacements for electronics throughout society and industry. Energy costs also drive energy efficiency initiatives, promoting new innovations. All these industries and initiatives notice the importance of energy conservation and are responding to it by reimagining how power is used. Energy-efficient innovation can be as important to energy accessibility as innovation in energy sources, allowing the world to continue to expand the capacity of societal progress. Energy is extremely involved in innovation, but energy itself is also a product of it. Renewable energy and advanced nuclear technologies show the importance that the current engineering community puts on improving energy sources' scalability, sustainability, and efficiency. As new, more efficient technologies are released, they improve the power grids' carrying capacity, enabling energy-intensive industries and deep tech to push boundaries and supporting the integration of advanced technology into daily life. Energy sources are essential to people’s routines and the way society functions. In a society that is reliant on technology and continuous progress, energy becomes both the means and the outcome of innovation.  Energy defines a lot of current society, as it limits, enables, drives, and emerges from the innovation of modern technologies. This foundational force requires society to shape itself around energy usage. As demand for energy rises, people must see how society takes advantage of energy in everyday habits as well as in societal situations. Energy is a vital resource and a shaper of the cultural and technological moment, its influence carries responsibility. As such, it is society's job, the people's job, to make sure energy's many roles are managed wisely, else societal innovation becomes societal instability.

Exploration has always been my greatest teacher. My family has spent countless summers exploring the United States, sparking ideas, thoughts, and goals that have had a lasting impact on my life more than any other experience. Through our adventures into nature, I developed a deep awareness of the environmental challenges we face, and through my experiences within my own community and an interest in environmental equity, I grew my compassion for accessibility among all our modern daily needs for all people. My interest in the natural world evolved into a passion for renewable energy. I have always loved science and math because they challenge me to think creatively about solving real-world problems. Over time, I realized that renewable energy stands at the intersection of technology, environmental preservation, and human accessibility, a perfect balance of innovation, sustainability, and equity. In high school, I translated that passion into action. I secured an engineering internship, where I helped create a navigation system in an old hospital turned start-up incubator and collaborated with mentors and entrepreneurs on the project. That experience solidified my love for engineering. It showed me how technical skills could directly impact people’s lives and communities. Through an Entrepreneurship program at my school, a small team and I developed a clothing line for people who had lost limbs, focusing on comfort, affordability, and style. The project won multiple region-wide pitch competitions and placed tenth in a state-wide event. Working on the project taught us all the importance of empathy and all the business decisions that go into making a product accessible. Outside the classroom, my extracurricular activities have shaped my leadership and service. As a Girl Scout, my interest in ecological conservation influenced my Gold Award, as I led a project based on converting local lawn into flourishing areas of native wildlife and nature. The project combined teamwork, creativity, and community engagement that reached 100+ community members through community events and social media outreach. Currently, I attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, majoring in Electrical Engineering, focusing on power systems. My goal is to work on designing and improving renewable energy technologies that make power more sustainable, efficient, and accessible. I want to apply my education towards making urban spaces cleaner and more energy efficient, and increasing the accessibility of renewable energies in less privileged areas. I also want to create a surplus of energy that can aid in making research more sustainable and innovative, especially with the increase in energy use in research sectors such as deep-tech and AI. On campus, I have started to work on these goals by being an active member of the Student Sustainability Task Force and Engineering Without Borders, where I aid in making the institution more accountable in state-wide ecological goals, including energy use, and I help increase the accessibility of engineering solutions by working on international and local projects. To me, renewable energy represents more than technology. It represents hope. It’s a path toward communities that thrive together, where sustainability, innovation, and equity walk hand in hand. I want to be part of that progress—to use my skills not just to build systems, but to build a better world. Every experience, from hiking through national parks to building projects in my community, has guided me toward this goal. The journey ahead may be challenging, but I know that through curiosity, collaboration, and care, I can help create the positive change our world needs.

The biggest life lesson I’ve learned through golf is how to handle tough situations by staying calm, thinking clearly, and pushing through, in other words, mental resillence. The concept might sound simple, but it’s something that’s stuck with me, on and off the course. I’ve been part of the First Tee Golf program for as long as I can remember. I grew up with it, practicing golf skills, building friendships, and learning from coaches who always encouraged us to improve, not just as golfers but as people. The lessons I learned from all my years there show up when things are not going smoothly, in stressful, uncomfortable, and awkward situations. One such moment in my life was a round of golf with my dad’s friend and his son. It was a perfect day for golf, sunny with just a little breeze. But I was stressed. I felt out of place, my game was off, and I wanted to be anywhere but there. I was walking up to my next shot, frustrated and stuck in my head, knowing that I needed to do something different. I used what First Tee taught me, methods like STAR and the four R's, and slowly shifted my mindset. I went from feeling defeated to just neutral. It wasn’t instant confidence, but it was a step up the mental ladder. I lined up my next shot, went through my preswing routine, and swung. The shot was great, almost exactly as I invisioned it. That one clean swing, felt as if it transformed not just my game, but my entire mindset. That one good hit gave me the push I needed to enjoy the round. My attitude improved, and I relaxed. The rest of the game felt different after that. That experience has stuck with me because it wasn’t just about golf. It showed me how mindset matters, especially when things get uncomfortable and frustrating. I have used this same approach many other times on the golf course, be it a tricky putt, a difficult lay, or a bad day, as I described in the story. But it is also an approach I use in school and life, situations such as difficult tests and homework problems, or frustrating group efforts. Pausing, thinking it through, and finding a way forward even when I’d rather give up is the basis of the huge life lesson of mental resilience. This lesson worms its way into all elements of life, and that’s how I plan to keep using it far into the future, as a tool to face future challenges with a clearer head and stronger mindset.