My first and only crime was smuggling dead butterflies back from Mexico. I had glimpsed a deep blue glint on the ground. Two wings, fluttering lightly in the breeze, and my breath caught. With its fading scales and crumpled body, some may have called this butterfly unremarkable. Yet my ten-year-old self latched on with curiosity. What is it called? What is its migration pattern? What would it look like under a microscope? Here was my chance to learn how to pin and categorize insects, and to add to my natural science collection. Moments like this are the epitome of what awakens my inner hero: when I experience something new, the possibility to learn more invigorates me. Questions expand exponentially in my mind. I profoundly value intellectual curiosity and constantly seek out new discoveries. For years, I encapsulated this intrinsic curiosity in a journal I called my “Book of Questions.” Its pages were my muse, an exploration of endless wonderings. Curiosity is what drove me to trace my first kanji characters in Japanese, step onto a plane to study in Japan as a Rotary Youth Exchange Ambassador, and envision a new climate organization. It’s what continues to guide my footsteps each time I venture into the forest with my notebook and camera in hand. At my core is an urge to understand this world and my place within it. This identity has helped me find my focus at the intersection of two areas: languages and climate action. Language fascinates me as a fluid embodiment of culture and tradition, a living history that has been shaped by the objects, landscapes, values, and challenges of its home country and people. Language is a study, but also a gateway to empathy: it opens the door to understanding the unique perspectives and lived experience of another culture. Being able to speak four languages (growing up bilingual in Spanish and English, and teaching myself Japanese and Arabic) has given me a deeper connection to the global issues many of us face. I believe the most pressing of all is climate change. For many years, climate change was my greatest source of anxiety. Now, it is my greatest source of motivation. Living in Japan during my sophomore year of high school prompted this shift. Hearing stories from locals about climate impacts they were facing—increased typhoons, difficulty growing traditional crops—made me realize my climate change fears were already their daily reality. My passion for public speaking and language learning led me to enter a Japanese speech contest and speak about the importance of climate action in Japanese, where I was able to spread my message to more people than I ever imagined and win at both the prefectural and regional levels. When I returned home to the Pacific Northwest amidst the growing COVID-19 pandemic and raging wildfires, I felt invigorated to act. I knew I wanted to do something to tackle the root causes of the issue. Something systemic. At age sixteen, I founded the Effective Climate Action Project, a youth-led organization advocating for systemic climate solutions. Utilizing scientific computer models designed by MIT, my team and I facilitate climate simulation workshops helping students gain tangible advocacy experience, and introducing business-leaders to key dynamics and equity considerations of the climate system. This leadership has influenced my life journey profoundly, teaching me about what it means to be an empathetic and empowering leader, and constantly challenging me with new opportunities. My workshops have even taken me to Glasgow, Scotland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Youth and COP26, where I was chosen to facilitate one of these workshops as an official US Youth Delegate. Surrounded by growing hopelessness and despair for our futures as youth, I feel a deep responsibility to help others discover their agency and impact. By giving in to my curiosity, I cultivate the power that resides within my story, my voice. Language is my foundation; it grounds me in identity and new understandings. Advocacy is my output, a means by which I grapple with and fight for the issues connecting us globally. It is with both that I find my motivation to be a hero--or at least as close as I can be to one. Now, I’m eager to pursue a unique and intersectional education that will help me take my advocacy to the next level, exploring cultural study, languages, and environmental policy to further my impact. Although I am no longer a butterfly smuggler, I am a changemaker and dreamer. I am someone who never stops. I am inquisitive and thoughtful, and every day, I choose to use my voice to make an impact larger than myself. Language learning, climate action, and international policy are interconnected inspirations that, together, make up a fundamental part of who I am.

Recently I read “Sojourner" by Annie Dillard. In “Sojourner,” Dillard beautifully crafts a multidimensional metaphor for our lonely existence as humans. From a mangrove in the ocean, to humans on Earth, each of these “sojourners” is a solo traveler, making its home within a vast unknown. Dillard describes these travelers as having no individual power: “[Earth’s] fate and direction are random;” we are “flung across nowhere.” Because of this lack of control, Dillard concludes “we may as well please our sensibilities and...go out with a buck and wing.” She alludes to dancing carefree through life. As a climate activist, I initially found myself in frustrated disagreement. I didn’t comprehend: if we focus on present joy, how will we ever achieve social change? Climate action relies on sustainability, prioritizing the management of resources for the long-term—beyond our community, beyond our time. I looked further for solace, and found it within the mangrove. Dillard describes how mangroves have certain control—they can build islands and adapt. Just like a mangrove, we may not control our planet’s trajectory, but we have our sphere of influence, where impact can ripple out into the larger ocean. It made me realize: with agency and knowledge of the importance of the present, we have all we need to fight for our future. Dillard’s viewpoint has become one of my core inspirations. What at first seemed to me an essay of passive acceptance now shapes my mindset as a testament to our potential for impact. By realizing we are all mangroves amongst the ocean, we avoid remaining caught in the minutiae of our everyday actions. As Dillard writes, “‘nowhere’ is our cue: the consort of musicians strikes up.” We don’t know where we may end up, but then isn’t the journey worth it all the more?

From elementary through high school, education has shaped me as a critical thinker, dreamer and passionate advocate. My courses and professors have stimulated in me an urgency to seek out information and follow my insatiable curiosities. Whether it be the protozoa swimming under the microscope lens in sixth grade, the areas under curves, or anthropological theories of belonging, learning engages my deepest wonderings. The next step in this important journey is college. The next four years of my life are incredibly important to me because they offer the application of knowledge to a career and the betterment of society. A liberal arts education such as the one I will soon pursue at Duke University facilitates me to deepen my focus in the Environmental Sciences, and step into the fascinating and important realm of policy changemaking. During high school, I have explored environmental advocacy through the limited resources at my disposal. I created a global youth organization, Effective Climate Action Project, which models my vision for a sustainable future: youth taking part in political decisionmaking, education that focuses on systemic climate solutions, and collaboration between international communities to influence stakeholders. After two years of work, I’ve facilitated over twenty workshops engaging 400 youth and business leaders worldwide, started an online internship program, and am helping pass climate policy in my community. My dream to attend a United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) even came true, where this past October I was chosen as a US Official Delegate and Facilitator for the 16th United Nations Conference of Youth. It means so much to me to advocate for climate justice and build collective hope with youth from around the world. However, I know college possesses an even greater opportunity to learn from leading experts in the field and nurture my capacity to address climate change. College is a chance for me to hear from diverse perspectives and converse with other youth possessing completely different life experiences from my own. It is a place to explore the arts and linguistics, and to pursue study abroad and research internships. Most incredibly, college is the chance to actively contribute to the growth of human knowledge and innovation. What a remarkable opportunity this is—to collaborate with other passionate minds and further our conceptualization of the world through the human lens. It is into all of this, and more, that I hope to involve myself in. I’m eager to pursue a STEM-focused undergraduate education that grounds my knowledge in the sciences and expands my ability to apply that knowledge. I believe this will also help me look inwards at what career paths best suit my passions, and discover new ways in which I can continue to use my voice effectively as a young climate leader. Global change necessitates reflection upon ourselves, and in a world where all social issues are intertwined with both science and human behavior, I believe my pursuit of learning through college can help me achieve more effective and ethical impact.

My passion for climate and environmental leadership stems from my appreciation for the Pacific Northwest forests I call home. As a young child, I would spend hours in the forest, observing native plants and studying organisms under the microscope. I have always felt connected with nature and curious about the science behind it. As I became older, I realized not everyone has access to nature and tools for exploring science. This understanding of environmental injustice initiated my first steps towards climate activism. When I was fifteen my love of languages led me to study abroad, where I was selected as a Rotary Youth Ambassador and lived in Japan for a year. There, locals told me how the climate has been changing. Returning home, wildfires of unprecedented magnitude solidified my urge to take action. This led me to create the Effective Climate Action Project. ECAP is a non-profit promoting systemic climate solutions. Utilizing scientific computer models designed by MIT, my team and I facilitate interactive workshops helping students gain tangible advocacy experience. The models are updated by the latest climate science, and analyze how different actions and policies such as renewable energy, afforestation, and electrification impact Earth's warming trajectory. As Executive Director, I've run 20+ events engaging over 300 students and business leaders worldwide. I also created a global internship program bringing together youth from climate-marginalized communities to be trained in workshop facilitation, graphic design and partnership development. Through these efforts, I have witnessed how the power of science coupled with effective communication and youth leadership can be a powerful combination for change. I plan to apply my passion to a career in environmental policymaking. I am thrilled to have been admitted to Duke University to major in Environmental Science and Policy. This is a rigorous program drawing from both the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Sanford School of Public Policy. I believe my studies will help me combat climate change by grounding my knowledge in the sciences and expanding my ability to contribute to global leadership spaces. There are many ways to effectively tackle climate change from an individual level. My first suggestion is to seek out direct impact, starting with your home. This can be done by replacing carbon appliances with non-carbon sources. One of the most impactful changes (according to the science simulators I use) include making your next car electric, or buying a used car. I also encourage people who have the option to switch their home energy to renewable sources. Homeowners can check with their local provider to find a ‘green plan.’ By doing this, you are engaging in both electrification and decarbonization—something that can be modeled at work and other community spaces. My second suggestion is to generate conversation with others about the climate crisis. Although this does not directly reduce your carbon footprint, dialogue is a critical tool for making individual action collective. We are all connected to climate change in one way or the other, and yet, we hardly ever acknowledge this in everyday spaces. Engage others and share your “why” behind the changes you are making. Let us be open about expressing fears and anxieties, hopes and curiosities, and unpack difficult topics together. The more we all participate in conversation, the more climate action will become centered in our actions—consciously and unconsciously. Finally, it is important that all of us find passion within climate action. Reducing our carbon footprints is important, but we must not do so out of guilt. By giving in to what brings you excitement and hope, you cultivate the power that resides within your voice.

As a multicultural and multilingual student and activist, I am dedicated to harnessing science and youth leadership to address the problems of eco-feminist injustice and inadequate climate change education. Eco-feminism encapsulates the correlation between gender inequities and adverse climate impacts. I realized the importance of this while working with an international cohort of young female activists to develop a research project. In our interviews with business leaders, the struggles of being female and facing climate change were mentioned time and time again. Meanwhile, I’ve experienced the errors of youth climate education. Too often, lessons focus on individually-centered solutions such as tree planting and recycling, and leave out the possibilities of systemic thinking and collective action. This leaves students feeling fear and guilt, instead of empowerment and excitement for change. I empathize with this, because I too spent years working through emotions of eco-anxiety. Seeking out community and advocacy was the catalyst that helped me shift to hope-centered motivation. My inspiration for climate changemaking comes from my appreciation for the Pacific Northwest forests which I call home. As a young child, I would spend hours in the forest behind my house, observing native plants, pinning butterflies, and studying organisms under the microscope. I have always felt connected with nature, curious about the science behind everything with which we interact. However, as I became older, I realized not everyone has access to nature and tools for exploring science. I struggled with how to face the new realities we are seeing due to climate change, and how this impacts many disproportionately. This is why I decided to create the Effective Climate Action Project. ECAP is a youth organization promoting systemic climate solutions. We lead STEM-based simulation workshops, helping youth and adults engage in effective advocacy. In just two years, I’ve facilitated twenty events engaging over 400 participants worldwide. We have grown to 300 members and trained youth facilitators from five countries. I also initiated an internship program bringing together female activists from the frontlines. I collaborate with them daily on workshop facilitation, communications and advocacy. I am further involved in climate leadership through direct policy work. I’m currently supporting the largest school district in the state of Oregon to implement a climate justice curriculum. I’ve enjoyed engaging with state legislators in the House and Senate to support new environmental legislation. Through my advocacy, I am challenging myself daily with new opportunities. I’m often speaking about the importance of youth action on podcasts, talk shows, and summits. I am honored to have been selected as a US Official Delegate and Facilitator for the 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Youth in Scotland during COP26, where I presented a workshop on Systemic Climate Education and ECAP's strategy in engaging youth utilizing scientific computer models. I was fortunate to collaborate with international activists to create a Global Youth Climate Policy statement, which we presented to world leaders including President Biden at COP26. It means so much to me to explore impact and build collective hope with youth from around the world. As I look ahead, I’m eager to pursue a STEM-focused education that grounds my knowledge in the sciences and expands my ability to apply that knowledge to solve real world problems. I’ve recently been admitted to Duke University to major in Environmental Sciences and Policy. I’m thrilled with this opportunity, and have no doubt I will make the most of my education. My climate leadership is not done, and I still have much to learn. Day by day, I will continue to channel hope, act systemically, and believe in myself.