I have always been ambitious, and I have dreamed of becoming an engineer ever since I was old enough to understand the word. My stepdad wanted to shatter my ambition, and he did everything in his power to convince me that I was worthless and incapable of achieving my goals. My brother was only seven when we were first introduced to our future stepdad, and his close bond with our biological father naturally led to resistance against a new man in our lives. My future stepdad’s way of addressing this opposition was to have unnecessarily lengthy and painful conversations with my brother and me about how awful our dad had been to our mom. He expected enthusiastic praise for supporting her, but constantly rehashing our painful experiences only kept us from healing. For my brother especially, enduring hour-long lectures about our dad’s deplorable actions was like repeatedly reopening a nasty unhealed wound. These conversations persisted throughout my mom's entire relationship with our stepdad and became a constant source of resentment. As our dislike for our stepdad grew, he lashed out, seizing any opportunity to criticize us. Whenever there were dirty dishes in the sink, he would lecture us about how much our mom sacrificed for us and how the least we could do was to keep the house from being filthy. Whenever we did the dishes, he would lecture us about how we had done a poor job. He would lecture us about our rooms not being clean enough, the laundry not being folded neatly enough, and the mopwater not having the right amount of soap. When I didn’t have a job by age 14, I was lazy. When I got a job at 15 and wasn’t home as much to help with chores, I was a terrible daughter. When I excelled academically, he told me I had no common sense and therefore my book smarts were worthless. Nothing was ever enough. My mom finally left him when I was 18. Soon after he moved out, he came into our house when he knew I was home alone and sexually assaulted me. It was the worst day of my life, and it created neverending anxiety. Even after changing all the locks and obtaining an order of protection, I lived in constant fear. He partially blamed me for the divorce, and this punishment was his way of continuing to hurt me long after he was gone from our lives. The constant criticism started when I was barely twelve, and when it finally stopped it was replaced by constant fear. I internalized the things he told me about myself over the years, and I only recently realized they’re objectively ridiculous. I’m not a bad daughter- I’ve supported my mom and brother through the divorce and everything since. My achievements aren’t worthless- they’ve earned me a co-op position for the most valuable private company in the world. I’m not lazy- throughout high school, I worked 30 hours a week while maintaining perfect grades and an impressive resume. For the past five years, I worked myself half to death to prove my worth, and all the while I believed I was falling short in every way. There were times when I felt like I would never be enough and believed him when he told me I couldn’t possibly make it in the world. Being free of him has allowed me to begin to understand my worth, and despite everything he threw at me, I’ve emerged even stronger and more capable. I know that there is nothing that can stop me from achieving my dreams.

I was the type of kid who was always outside. I was constantly covered in scratches from climbing trees, and all my clothes had grass stains all over them. I loved to collect plants and flowers, hunt for bird feathers, and dig in the dirt for worms. I grew up going to Douglas Lake and the Great Smoky Mountains almost weekly, which instilled in me a deep love for the beautiful region of East Tennessee. I was always deeply in love with everything about the natural world, and I have known that I want to dedicate my career to the great outdoors since I was a little girl. I have also always had a great passion for science and math. Calculus is my all-time favorite class, and my favorite feeling in the world comes after puzzling out a really hard math problem. Because of my unusual enthusiasm for calculus, several of my teachers pointed me toward the field of engineering, and I decided that I wanted to pursue an engineering career where I could use math to solve problems. In the second semester of my junior year, I enrolled in my school’s AP Calculus AB and AP Chemistry classes to earn credits toward an engineering degree. I made a 5 and a 4 on the classes’ respective AP exams and earned each class's AP award. Taking these classes made me realize how much I enjoy and excel at learning about these concepts, and I became cemented in my goal of becoming an engineer. The best conjunction I have found between engineering and the great outdoors is the field of biosystems engineering. Biosystems engineering majors learn to combine both their mental and hands-on skills to develop solutions to problems the environment faces. I want to use a degree in biosystems engineering to combat the environmental crisis that is plastic pollution. Tons and tons of plastic waste are produced every day, and plastic can take lifetimes to break down. The amount of plastic accumulating in our land and oceans is unfathomably devastating and has increasingly ominous implications for humans and wildlife. I feel called to take part in fighting against this disastrous problem. One piece of hope for this situation is new research being done on genetically engineered bacteria. Scientists across the globe are experimenting with bacteria by genetically altering them to be able to digest plastic and break it into usable materials. Naturally, plastic never leaves the environment; it only breaks down into smaller and smaller microscopic pieces. However, if we could genetically engineer bacteria to quickly recycle plastic into useful chemicals, we could put an enormous dent in the amount of plastic that ends up in our soil and water. This could save the lives of billions of animals and protect many ecosystems from this pollution threat. I believe that this research represents hope for our planet and has tremendous potential to reduce pollution. I plan to get a degree in biosystems engineering and become a genetic engineer, and my life’s goal is to use my career to help the planet overcome the enormous weight of plastic pollution. I truly believe that by working as an engineer in this field, I can make our world a better place.

Once upon a time, Andrew and Lois were in love. After dating for two years, Andrew bought a $15,000 big fat diamond ring, got down on one knee, and asked Lois to marry him. She was delighted. Two years after that, they were married, and they were blissfully happy. However, it wouldn’t last. Lois and Andrew were both business owners, and one difference between them was how they ran their respective businesses. Lois fought for her success like a starving tiger. She was always learning, working, and studying to grow her business and was overwhelmingly successful. Andrew was a different story. With Lois’s help, his business grew to a certain extent, but he didn’t feel the need to work to grow it any bigger. He had a sizeable passive income and a plush net worth, so he spent his days relaxing and working when he felt like it. Once they moved in together, this created a problem. Due to their difference in nature, Andrew had much more free time than Lois, and it annoyed him to see her always working. He wanted to be her first priority, and he often accused her of prioritizing her business over their marriage. Once, they had a big fight because Lois wanted to get a little white puppy. Andrew said she didn’t even spend enough time with him, so she wasn’t allowed to devote even more attention to something else. He insisted that if she wanted a dog but seemed to not want him, she must not have loved him. After years of fighting, Andrew told Lois he wanted a divorce. He said that she was making no effort to help their marriage, and he didn’t want to be with her if she didn’t want to even try to be with him. Lois was devastated. She had never been a quitter and felt like she had failed her husband and marriage. She wanted to work it out, but Andrew’s rage would be satisfied with nothing short of a divorce, so he bought a new house and began moving out immediately. In fact, in a bought of fury, Andrew took all the money out of their joint bank account. It was a sum of over $10,000. Lois asked why he had done that since she had contributed the majority of that money to the account, and he said that it was expensive to move and buy a new house, and if she had wanted to keep that money, she should have put their marriage first. This made Lois angry. Andrew had shoved a knife into her gut with the divorce, and by draining their account he had shoved that knife in even deeper and twisted it. Before, Lois would have handled the divorce with as much grace and amiability as a saint, but after that, she decided she didn’t owe him anything. Once Andrew had finally moved into his new house, he and Lois met one last time at their old house to sign the divorce papers. On this day, Andrew had intended to collect the beautiful diamond engagement ring he had given Lois those many years ago. However, when he asked for it, he was shocked to hear Lois say that she had sold the diamond for $10,000. Lois explained that now that she didn’t have to devote all of her free time to her husband, she had decided sell the ring and use the money to buy a little white puppy. Andrew was speechless. Lois smiled, said, “I named her Diamond!” and left her ex-husband with his jaw hanging slack.

My great-grandmother was addicted to pain pills from her early twenties until her death. They wore away her mind more and more as she got older, and by the time I was old enough to know her, she had deteriorated entirely away from the person she was before the pills. She died last year at age 86, but her mind was gone long before that. Her son, my grandfather, was crippled by his alcoholism. He did court-mandated community service and time in jail on several occasions for his DUIs. He never moved out of his mother’s house and died an early death in her basement at age 55 because he mixed too many pills with his liquor. His daughter, my aunt, ran away from home with a man at age 16. A few years later, her two infant children were found filthy and malnourished, abandoned in a hotel room. My aunt had disappeared. We didn’t know where she was until she turned up dead of a heroin overdose over a decade later when my grandmother was asked to identify her body. She was only 32 years old. My mom showed me the picture of her corpse. As a fifth grader, that photo of her withered, scab-ridden body affected me deeply. That story was too heavy for such a young child, but it was important to my mom that this generational line of substance abuse and death stopped with my generation, and she wanted to ingrain the severity of the danger of drugs upon me from a young age. She succeeded. After seeing that picture and learning about how addiction has chipped away at my family through generations, I resolved to never touch any kind of drugs and to avoid people who use them. Though I stay away from drugs and alcohol, many of my friends do not. Over the years, I’ve watched people I’ve known since middle school become consumed by marijuana, mushrooms, nicotine, and alcohol. It always starts small; just a little on occasion can’t hurt. Once it starts, though, it doesn’t stop. Eventually, even “harmless” drugs like weed can consume someone. When getting high becomes a part of someone’s daily routine, they change as people. I’ve seen three of my closest friends become more and more dependent on weed and alcohol to feel happy until they constantly need to be drunk or high. They aren’t the people I used to know because they’re never sober. It’s sad to watch them change, and it’s scary to wonder if they’ll ever regain the traits their constant highs cost them. As much as I used to treasure our friendship, I just don’t want to be around them anymore now. Addiction has ripped my family apart across generations, and now it is chipping away at some of my oldest, most significant friendships. I’m afraid for my friends and their futures. I fear that they might be drawn to stronger, more dangerous drugs, get arrested, or drive intoxicated and crash. I don’t want to lose our friendship, but more than anything else, I don’t want the influence of drugs and alcohol in my own life and future. I’ve seen years of evidence that drugs kill people and families. I want that cycle of tragedy to stop with my generation, and I will do anything to ensure this goal.

Some kids are born with a natural inclination for academics. These are the kids to whom learning comes easy and who never have to try to get good grades. Other kids, though, are not born with this inclination. These are the kids who have to work hard to be able to succeed academically. Some of these kids slack off and don’t make an effort to close the gap between themselves and their peers, but some of these kids work incredibly hard, and they are who inspire me to give back to my community. My mom was a fifth-grade math teacher. She prided herself on giving her students the best education possible, and she earned the title of five-star teacher, which means that her students improved exceptional amounts in their learning each year. She was often given the lower-level students, and several of them struggled much more than others. Though she tried to connect with and lift each of these students individually, she often could not find enough one-on-one time in class to bring them to the level of the rest of the class. To bridge the gap between these kids and their peers, my mom would organize after-school study hall sessions for her struggling students to get help with their homework. I stayed in my mom’s classroom after school anyway because I was too young to drive, and I had always been gifted at math, so I quickly became involved in these sessions. I realized that though these kids wanted to succeed in math, they had a lot of trouble understanding the foundations of mathematical concepts. I felt almost guilty that I had taken what came so easily to me for granted while these kids had to buckle down and work to understand the same concepts. I found that I was able to help these students, and seeing their understanding improve was very rewarding for me. I began to look forward to these few hours a week when I could watch these kids become better and more confident in their math skills, and their growth through one-on-one coaching was astounding. I realized that there was a need in my community for individualized tutoring, and I believed I could make a difference. After that first year, I continued the program my mom had started, and I reached out to other teachers in the building to send their struggling students my way. I also put flyers in the boxes of my neighbors, and I started teaching a few of the children in my neighborhood from my kitchen table. I began tutoring multiple days a week. As I got older, my schedule grew exponentially busier, but I continued to keep at least one afternoon free per week to provide this service. In high school, in addition to tutoring younger kids after school, I started organizing study sessions before school where I could help my own peers understand our higher-level math classes. The feeling I get when I see someone have a “lightbulb moment” and make mathematical breakthroughs is like nothing else, and that is why I have continued to tutor all these years. I have always loved being able to use my gift for math to be able to help students who have to work harder than I do, and I like to think that through my years of tutoring, I have created a postive change in my school and my community.

Plastic pollution is an enormous problem. Tons and tons of plastic waste are produced every day, and plastic can take lifetimes to decompose. The amount of plastic accumulating in our land and oceans is devastating and has increasingly ominous implications for humans and wildlife. There is currently no real solution to this problem because of its unfathomably large span, and every time I see a piece of litter on the ground, I’m reminded of the situation’s hopelessness. Despite the constant, disheartening reminders of the severity of pollution, there are still sources of hope. About a year ago, I read a news article about a team of scientists who had genetically modified a strain of bacteria to be able to break down plastic into a usable chemical. This piqued my interest, and I began looking into the potential of genetically modified bacteria in waste management. I learned that many researchers are working on engineering bacteria to recycle non-biodegradable waste into usable materials. If scientists could industrialize this technology to use bacteria to quickly break plastic down on a large scale, it could provide a genuine solution to the plastic pollution crisis. The discovery of this technology is actually what inspired me to seek a degree in biosystems engineering. I was in awe of the possibilities this research presents, and suddenly I had a new hope for the future of our planet, a light in a sea of darkness. Plastic has infiltrated every corner of our natural world. It takes the lives of countless animals every day. Microplastics pollute all of our ecosystems and make their way into the bodies of organisms to dangerous effect. The situation seems irremediable, but this research and technology provide hopeful possibilities. To me, this technology symbolizes hope for a cure for the planet I love. Not only does it have the potential to make the world a better place, but it also has the potential to save it.

The trait I value most in myself is both my greatest strength and my greatest weakness, and that is my competitive nature. I have wanted to be the best at everything I have ever done, and I have put in countless hours of work to “win” at all my pursuits. I study hard to be at the top of my class. I’ve practiced for hundreds of hours to be the best marimba player in my school’s band. I took ACT practice tests every day for weeks to bump my super score from a 34 to a 36. I studied all semester to get the highest AP score in my AP Chemistry and Calculus classes. I’ve stayed up way too late on way too many nights perfecting a painting. Even in middle school, I poured myself into books so I could get the most AR points in my school, and I consistently won my school’s spelling bees and art competitions. Though my competitiveness has earned me many achievements, it also comes with costs. I don’t like to lose, and I’ve had to do a lot of introspective work to be able to accept defeat gracefully. When I repeatedly fail at things, I tend to be frustrated with myself and try even harder, even when the outcome is no longer worth the effort. I often spread myself too thin by trying to “win” everything at once. This tendency has often led me to overwhelm myself with tasks and responsibilities, which wears away at my mental health. It’s taken me years to learn that it’s okay to fail at some things, but even now I still find myself biting off more than I can chew in hopes of being the best. I’ve found that if I don’t keep my competitiveness in check, it will do me more harm than good. Through different periods of my life, I’ve considered my competitiveness to be both an asset and a burden. However, one undeniable truth is that it has driven me to do great things, and it always will. I’m only seventeen years old, and I have no way of knowing what my future holds. I know life won’t be easy, and I know I will have to work hard if I want to succeed, but I also know that I will do everything in my power to get to where I want to be, and I will not stop until I feel I have won.

I can say without a doubt that I had a happy childhood. My life up to the verge of adulthood has been overflowing with joy. I’ve had all the love and support anyone could ask for, and I owe it all to my mom, who has worked her entire life to ensure my happy youth. Being raised by a single mom has shaped me more than anything else. My mom was shattered when my dad left, and seeing her heart break impacted me deeply. She was entirely alone, abandoned by her husband of twenty years, and met with nothing but judgment from her own family. Her world had come down around her. As a ten-year-old girl, that was hard to watch and changed me in ways I am still discovering. However, what impacted me even more was seeing everything she did for my brother and me to make up for our lack of two parents. She had to work doubly hard to provide her children with the life she wanted us to have. She pushed her own wants and needs to the side to make sure we were in no way limited by our broken family, and she succeeded. My mom has always surpassed expectations. She left her safe, secure job after almost twenty-five years to pursue her dream of being a real estate investor. No one expected her to succeed, and everyone told her it was a bad idea, but she believed in herself and earned her success and independence. She took a non-traditional path, a shot in the dark, and worked hard until she succeeded. This showed me that dreams shouldn’t be abandoned, no matter how unattainable they may seem. My dream has always been to make a difference for the state of the planet, and I want to do that by genetically engineering bacteria to break down plastic. Plastic pollution is an enormous problem. Tons and tons of plastic waste are produced every day and take lifetimes to decompose. The amount of plastic accumulating in our land and oceans is devastating and has increasingly ominous implications for humans and wildlife. If we could modify bacteria to quickly recycle plastic into useful chemicals, we could put an enormous dent in the amount of plastic that ends up in our soil and water. This could save the lives of billions of animals and protect many ecosystems from this pollution threat. I hope to give back to my community and my world by doing this research in the future. Unfortunately, this concept is very new, and there are scarce opportunities to make a career in this field. However, if there is one thing my mom proved to me, it’s that all things are possible through dedication and hard work. I have wanted to build a career working in this field ever since I learned about this technology, and I know that if I apply myself, I can make it happen, no matter how unrealistic it seems. I am motivated every day to work hard and take full advantage of everything my mom has given me. She has slaved for years to give me my best chance of having a successful future, and my biggest fear is one day looking back and realizing that I didn’t maximize the opportunities that she has worked tirelessly to secure for me. Because of my single mom and the example she set for me, I am determined to never be discouraged, no matter how hopeless things seem, and to earn all of the sacrifices she made for me by making the absolute most of them.

My mother went to school to be a teacher. She got an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee, a master’s from Lincoln Memorial University, and a doctorate from East Tennessee State University. She and my dad married when she was nineteen, and they took out student loans not only to pay her tuition but also to live on while she was in school and he was just starting his career. Their parents never advised them to do any differently, and they never could’ve imagined that those loans would follow them into their fifties. Upon entering the workforce, my mom wanted to focus on paying off their debt instead of making extravagant purchases, but my dad kept buying cars and boats while the interest on their loans accumulated. Since then, they’ve divorced, but the loans they cosigned on still bind them and have been a point of contention between them for years. My mom is now 48, my dad is 50, and they still owe $86,000. I have grown up watching this nightmare haunt my parents, and I want to escape this future for myself more than anything. Graduating college with little to no debt is very important to me, and I have extensively researched ways to avoid it. I have committed to attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. After factoring in the cost of tuition, housing, a meal plan, textbooks, gas, and miscellaneous expenses; a 4-year degree will amount to $134,000. However, I have always known that I want to graduate with as little debt as possible, so I have worked throughout my high school career to be the best student I can be to earn as much scholarship money as possible. I have a 4.5 GPA, a 36 ACT Superscore, and will be a National Merit Finalist. I also have already accrued 28 college credit hours while in high school, so I should be able to graduate in three years instead of four, which should save me about $33,000. After factoring in guaranteed university-based merit scholarships and financial aid, my degree should cost me $22,500, or about $7,500 per year. This is a huge improvement from the initial $134,000, but I still don’t have thousands of dollars on hand to fund my education. To earn the remaining amount of money that I need, I apply to two scholarships every week in hopes of winning as much money as possible. I also work as many hours as I can at my part-time job to build up enough money for my first year in savings. Saving money instead of spending it takes a lot of discipline, but I always try to put my goal of graduating debt-free first. I track my expenses carefully, and if I see that I’m consistently spending too much on a specific thing, I try to find a more affordable alternative. For example, I keep filling snacks in my car so I’m less likely to order fast food. I’ve learned how to make my go-to coffee order at home so I don’t have to pay inflated Starbucks prices. My friends and I always carpool when we go out so we can all save money on gas. Keeping careful track of my spending has saved me a surprising amount of money, and my savings account looks much better for it. I believe it’s important to save and prepare for future financial challenges as a student because college is expensive, and I have seen firsthand that financial debt can burden people for their entire lives if not handled thoughtfully.

I want to be a genetic engineer. Heredity and genetics initially caught my attention when I learned about punnet squares in fifth grade, and my interest in genes has deepened ever since. It is fascinating to me how unfathomably tiny strings of DNA within an organism’s cells determine its traits, and it is even more fascinating to me that scientists can reach inside those microscopic cells and make changes. The concept is practically science fiction. Learning about the incredible technology of genetic modification inspired me to pursue a career in genetic engineering. Another thing that inspired my interest in genetic engineering was my passion for preserving the health of our planet. The outdoors were an integral part of my childhood, and I grew up hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I have always been deeply in love with the natural world and have known since I was a little girl that I wanted to help make a difference in it. Consequently, the danger that our planet is in breaks my heart. Every time I read the news, I see more heartbreaking articles about the danger the earth is facing. However, some stories in the news bring hope. During the summer after my junior year of high school, I read a news article about a team of scientists who had genetically modified a strain of bacteria to be able to break down plastic into a usable chemical. This piqued my interest, and I began looking into the potential of genetically modified bacteria in waste management. I learned that many researchers are working on engineering bacteria to recycle non-biodegradable waste into usable materials. I was inspired and decided that I wanted to be one of these researchers. Plastic pollution is an enormous problem that I want to take part in solving. Tons and tons of plastic waste are produced every day, and plastic can take lifetimes to decompose. The amount of plastic accumulating in our land and oceans is devastating and has increasingly ominous implications for humans and wildlife. If we could genetically engineer bacteria to quickly recycle plastic into useful chemicals, we could put an enormous dent in the amount of plastic that ends up in our soil and water. This could save the lives of billions of animals and protect many ecosystems from this pollution threat. I believe that this research has tremendous potential to reduce pollution, and I want to use my career as a genetic engineer to make a difference for the planet I love.

All my life, I've been burdened by my ambitions. I always shoot for the moon in everything that I do, and this trait of mine has helped me earn academic success and many noteworthy achievements. Unfortunately, my ambition means I often go too fast, take on too many responsibilities, and expect too much from myself. The weight of my expectations is not always easy to bear. Sometimes when I've bitten off more than I can chew, I break down. I berate myself for not being able to handle it all. I ask myself why I can't close the distance between where I am and where I think I should be. In my lows, when I am overwhelmed by disappointment in myself for shooting for the moon and inevitably falling short, I always find solace in Billy Joel's song "Vienna". The song is a cautionary message to restless, high-achieving youth to slow down before they burn themselves out. It's a reminder I have the rest of my life to reach my goals, and that it's okay to take time away from the endless responsibilities I tie myself to. Life is short and not just about building an impressive resume. It's important to tell myself that I am not a failure for needing time to rest and focus on things that bring me joy, even if they aren't "productive". The message of "Vienna" feels intimate as if it could have been written just for me. The fact that brilliant, successful people like Billy Joel feel the same way that I do brings me comfort in the times that I feel inadequate. "Vienna" is always my reminder to not be so hard on myself and to take time to slow down and enjoy my youth.

Learning is my greatest joy, and my mother instilled in me a drive to learn and succeed from a very early age. If I had not independently prioritized understanding, all I would have gained from a decade of “education” would be a handful of arbitrary facts. The public education system teaches students not to learn, think, and understand; but to memorize, regurgitate, then forget. I believe this systemic flaw exists because the priority of a teacher can not be to teach a class, but to keep students and their parents content. As a teacher’s daughter, I’ve seen throughout my entire life that if a student’s performance in a class is poor and the parents complain to the school administrators, the teacher receives the blame. This dynamic leaves teachers no choice but to ensure that all their students have good grades. Participation grades and plentiful extra credit opportunities allow every student to make a hundred with minimum effort. Students may turn in assignments days or weeks late with little to no penalty. Furthermore, teachers often allow students to use notes on tests, and if their grades are not satisfactory, they’re allowed to retest. Throughout all of my years in school, I have seen that these endless crutches given to students allow them to make perfect grades without actually learning and understanding concepts. This is evident in looking at standardized tests that have not been made easier through decades of slackening expectations for students. The national average ACT score of the graduating class of 2022 was the lowest it has been in thirty years, while grade point averages have generally been inflated through the last few decades. This is indicative that the current education system gives students an appearance of success without usable knowledge. The current education system is producing generations of students who are inadequately equipped with the knowledge base to excel in further education. It is the responsibility of the school system to ensure an effective education for all students, and it is an injustice that they do not receive it. I have been in the midst of this cataclysm for twelve years now, and I am deeply passionate about fixing it. I am lucky in that my mother, a math teacher who understands the shortcomings of the education system, constantly pushed me to learn. She held me to high standards that she knew I was capable of surpassing because she knew that my teachers wouldn’t. I know that many other students are not as fortunate. Those who don’t have not been given any incentive to push their limits will have no reason to make an effort to understand. Educational standards need to be raised, and students should no longer be able to coast through school without ever even coming close to realizing their potential. Students deserve to be pushed and to be made to think and grow, and schools should step up to give them that push. I have made it my life’s goal to see the public education system reformed. I know that I’m only seventeen, and I know that one teenage girl cannot single-handedly create the changes that I want to see. However, throughout my high school career, I’ve realized that I am capable of so much more than I ever could have dreamed. Considering what I have achieved in the past four years, I can not imagine what I can achieve over the course of my lifetime. I truly believe that with passion, collaboration, and time, I can see the education system mended.