I am interested in civil engineering because, as cheesy as it sounds, I want to help people. When I was younger I wasn’t sure how exactly I wanted to do that; but then, I experienced a series of natural disasters and infrastructure failures that reshaped my life and how I see the world. At thirteen, I had to evacuate the Oroville dam. At fourteen my hometown was razed to the ground by a wildfire, rendering the groundwater unusable for months. At fifteen the still scorched earth was plagued by flash floods and the roads around me were washed out completely. It was then that I realized I was far from the only person who was going through this situation, or would in the future. This is what drove me to pursue civil engineering and disaster preparation and mitigation. I want to be able to make these events less completely life-altering for someone else like me. Civil and environmental engineering have, in my opinion, always been the foundations of our societies. They’re the reason we don’t have to think about how water gets to our faucet and wonder if that water is toxic. In today’s society, as our built environments continue to grow, they only become more foundational, especially as we see more effects from climate change. We need engineers who are dedicated to making sure that people never have to think about engineering at all, because they know it will keep them safe, and won’t fail. In ten years, civil engineering will be fundamental to how we move forward as a society. It will be on the forefront of changing our power systems away from fossil fuels, the driving force behind updating our infrastructure, and it will ensure everyone has water in the face of increasing and worsening droughts. To not only be more resilient in the face of extreme events, but also better for the people that it serves. Specifically, my study of disaster preparation and mitigation will hopefully save lives and people’s properties through improving the infrastructure around them. In ten years hopefully civil engineering will have made it so that our society not only endures extreme events, but that every part is well equipped for them. This scholarship will open up more career possibilities after I graduate. Without that burden of student debt, it is easier to go directly towards public service, such as the peace corps, without having to worry about paying off debt. This scholarship would also help to allow me to continue my studies into graduate school, and a PhD program to be able to study my field in depth. In my academic career I have pushed myself academically; in my civil classes, as well as in mechanical engineering and political science classes; and outside of academics. I have gotten real world experience in my internships with the LA Department of Water and Power, which will help me to jump straight into applying my studies to helping people after graduation. I have also pursued studies outside of school, attending conferences such as the Society of Women Engineers and Floodplain Management Association conferences. These conferences gave me engineers in the industry’s perspectives. On campus I have also pushed myself and taken on leadership roles in every organization that I’m a part of, preparing me to truly apply my skills and work with people across all walks. All of this combined has made me into a candidate that has the perspective of many people across industries and has the experience and the drive to use that perspective to make our built world work better for them.