Volunteering has played a significant role in shaping my values and aspirations. I started volunteering for my local church during middle school on the weekends in elementary school and have taken every volunteer opportunity that has come my way since. Volunteering within my community has taught me so many lessons that have shaped me into who I am today. When I was asked what career I planned to pursue after high school, the only thing I knew was I wanted to pursue a career to help people at a mass scale. I often found myself feeling insecure and comparing myself to my peers that expressed their dream careers from childhood. Their dedication and confidence in pursuing a specific career made me feel as though I was missing out on a keystone experience needed to pursue a career. I knew I wanted to pursue something related to STEM but was well aware that was a vague path. This doubt carried into how I viewed myself and sparked uncertainties about my future. During my senior year of high school, the Mountain Fire in Ventura County affected my community leaving them unsure if they would be able to support themselves after the fire. Seeing this happen so close to home gave me reassurance in my decision to pursue civil and environmental engineering as a means to address one of California’s most pressing environmental concerns: water resource allocation. The state’s ongoing drought conditions and poor water distribution have been proven to be ineffective for major fires as seen recently by the Palisades and Eaton fires. Through engineering, I aim to develop sustainable water management systems that optimize the distribution of water resources, reducing the risks posed by dry conditions. In order to do this I plan to start off my career interning at the LADWP in order to gain experience of the current water allocation methods used by the government. By studying the current method I plan to work with other experts in the field to develop more innovation and effective ways to prevent mass tragedies from happening again. My experiences with volunteering and my ambition to address California’s water crisis through civil and environmental engineering have solidified my career aspirations. Witnessing the destruction caused by wildfires and understanding the role that water mismanagement plays in exacerbating these disasters has fueled my commitment to finding solutions. Although I feel as though I made the decision to pursue this career a little later than most people my age, I feel confident in the reasoning behind my choice of career. By dedicating my education and future efforts to sustainable water allocation, I hope to create lasting changes that protect both the environment and the people who call it home. My journey from volunteering to pursuing a specialized field in engineering is a testament to my determination to not only understand the challenges we face but to actively work toward solving them.