I have owned my home for two years. Which means I have only been gardening for two years. This past summer, I also went back to school. As a mother of two, working full time for the United States Postal Service, and taking on two advanced paced summer courses, my schedule was already full. Yet I needed my garden. Not only for the vegetables and herbs that make every dish divine, but for the connection to nature I get when my hands dig in the earth. This summer, my children were able to help me in the garden more. Like the bulbs planted in the chilly dark fall, they too grow and bloom in my garden, enriched by the soil and the sunshine. My youngest loved to pick the organic cherry tomatoes from the plant and sit in the soil, picking marigolds as she ate her garden snack. My older child, not much a lover of anything that resembled a vegetable, found peace tending to the native flower patch we started this summer. "these flowers will make pollen that attracts the bees and butterflies," I told her when we planted them after the last frost. Later that summer, she yelled "Mama! the butterflies are here!" when she saw a monarch butterfly taking a bite out of the native milkweed we planted. Was my garden a success this summer? If measured only by the amount of vegetables produced, no. My tomatoes were mealy, my squash became rabbit food, and my herbs all flowered. But if we measured the success of my garden on the growth of my children, it was the most successful season yet.

Josie Clement August 5, 2021 Women in STEM Scholarship Splash. Sip. Soak. Splash. The memories of my childhood in Lake Michigan are so vivid I can hear the waves crashing over my head as I dive down to the sandy bottom, searching for a Petoskey stone more precious to me than gold. Sip. The cold water drains down my throat as I accidentally take my first breath before surfacing, emerging with a cough and a laugh. Soak. I recline and rest my body atop of the water’s gentle sway. The sensation on my skin feels like mother Lake Michigan herself is swaddling me in her love and protection. Now grown and a mother myself, I take my daughters to her shoreline. I thank her for the memories I had as a child, and I thank her for the memories my children have yet to make. The scenery looks different today than it does in my recollection. Is that building new? I thought I could see Power Island from here before. Ouch! A zebra mussel, an invasive species to the Great Lakes, slices the bottom of my foot. Is that – garbage? I try to find a spot to lay out our beach towels that is not littered by trash. I watch my toddler sift the sand, she picks out tangible plastic pieces and puts them in a separate pile from the rocks, sand, and mussels. I must do something. I’m back in school. Determined to make a difference for my children, my community, and my mother’s shores. Focused on a degree in Freshwater Science and Sustainability, I plan to work with different conservation projects and waste management companies in my area to care and protect the Great Lakes. I see myself taking water samples, reporting erosion sights, removing invasive wildlife, and establishing habitat protection areas. I want to utilize my higher learning to prevent further destruction and privatization of life’s most precious recourse – clean, drinkable water. Clean and drinkable water is a privilege in Northern Michigan, I take for granted its abundance and easy access. Companies like LifeStraw saw that for much of the world, water is difficult to get and purify. LifeStraw (partners with Vestergaard) created a straw with a filter that can separate out disease causing microorganisms like bacteria and parasites, chemicals, and microplastics, leaving the user with safe drinkable water. In 2019, they used this technology to produce a filtered pitcher, this product has the potential to provide safe drinking water for households globally as the need for clean water grows. This technology is vital because it doesn’t require an energy source like electricity to use. The technology cannot yet filter out salt from ocean waters, but hopefully the world will see an energy efficient resolution to that problem soon.