I was always a weird kid. One of those little girls who always came home from school covered in dirt with pockets full of rocks or snails. My poor parents usually had to manually check me for stowaway items or even bugs before washing my clothes, but other than that they seemed to take my eccentricities in stride. That's probably why it wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I was diagnosed with level one autism. Not a lot of people really understand autism, especially the high functioning version that I have. A lot of the time people assume that being autistic means I can’t do simple things like hug people or swim, but honestly the main things autism comes down to are difficulty understanding social matters, and abnormal interest patterns. This usually presents outwardly as me being somewhat eccentric, unintentionally rude, and extremely obsessed with specific things like tornadoes. Even though I don’t want to attribute all of my interest in science to my autism, it’s hard to imagine a life without the level of passion I have for my special interest in tornadoes. It may sound insane to the average person, but if I'm not watching the spring radar or looking at NWS reports I’m thinking about ways to improve warning systems or how we can improve the enhanced Fujita scale. Every waking moment I spend with tornadoes on the back burners of my mind, and apparently that’s an autistic trait. Honestly the diagnosis mostly came because of my issues being social rather than my odd interests. I'm far more comfortable with charts and facts than with people, always have been. Part of this is because of the objectivity of science, there is always a right answer, and if you get it wrong you can easily learn from it. Without mistakes there simply would be no scientific method! On the other hand, people are a million times more complex to figure out. Sometimes in conversations there isn’t even a correct response! I mean, can you imagine if you went to a geometry class and the correct answers were just based on guessing what the shape’s favorite color was? It would be absolute chaos! But that’s what having a conversation feels like for me. Yet every ounce of anxiety and confusion melts away the second that tornadoes, or any other weather phenomena, are mentioned. Normally I hesitate to join or start conversations, but when those massive storms are named in passing, I beeline straight to the source to join the conversation. But that is not all, it has helped me develop. After years of looking through Wikipedia pages and YouTube videos to get my information, they grew boring and redundant, so I began digging through historical sources like newspapers and local libraries for my scraps of information and then graduated to leading group projects in science classes at school. Without the passion I have for tornadoes, my autism would likely leave me stuck in isolation constantly; but with the experiences I have picked up over time I feel more ready than ever to spend the rest of my life learning about tornadoes with other meteorologists!

Having a big family might be somewhat common in many cultures, but what really makes our family feel really huge is that anyone who marries in is seen as our own flesh and blood, and that we treat extended family the same as immediate family. For example, I have a second cousin who I grew up with, born just 11 days before I was. Our baby pictures often featured each other, and even after that, we shared classes and friends from middle school and onward. He's really been like my brother instead of a distant relative. My dad tells me that he doesn't even know his first cousins let alone his second. I guess that's the benefit of growing up with your extended family all around. Words cannot describe the amount of genuine affection that mine have for every single relative, no matter how distant. My interest is all things weather, but specifically, tornados. It began when I woke up from a nightmare that a tornado had ransacked my papi's house while my brother and I stayed overnight. Instead of conceding to the fear, I began to research it and eventually, I was in awe of the power of the storms. My ultimate goal is to create a warning system to increase the time people have to take shelter. How many lives can be saved with better technology? My family is so important to me, and I can’t imagine losing them in a tornado because they didn’t have enough time to get to a safe place. My dad is disabled and cannot work. While my mom has a great job, we have a lot of medical expenses. Including mine. I was recently diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Autism. Each month there's all kinds of medial expenses. MRIs, lab work, CT scans, new prescriptions to pick up, not to mention the many doctor appointments we accumulate. This scholarship will go a long way towards my degree. Because of EDS, it's hard for me to stand for long periods of time, preventing me from working at the typical entry level jobs that teens have. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work while I'm in college. With your help, I'll be that much more towards my goal of paying for college without having to take out loans that will handicap (pun intended) my finances after I graduate.

I’ve always been afraid of tornadoes, and a dream where your home gets swallowed up by a tornado doesn't make it better. The mere idea of an unexpected force of nature suddenly and randomly dropping onto you, destroying your entire life in the blink of an eye was terrifying. And really, who wouldn't wake up with a jolt if you dreamed that a dark swirling mass barreled into the house where you felt safest? Tornadoes began to invade my thoughts. I searched out videos about tornado damage, and eventually, about the science behind them. The more I found out, the less afraid I was. I spent my springs watching radar livestreams and religiously checking my weather apps for any sign of a storm. The terror of tornadoes I felt was left behind. All that was left was the sheer fascination and obsession with those mysterious cyclones! My ultimate goal with my meteorology degree is to improve the warning system, increasing the amount of time people have to take shelter. How many lives can be saved with improved technology, radars, and a more accurate rating system? My family is so important to me, and I can’t imagine losing them because they didn’t have enough time to get to a safe place. We live at the edge of tornado alley and recently a tornado was close to our home, ripping through the subdivision next to ours. No warning was given to the area. What I believe I can accomplish will save so many families. I love my family, but unfortunately, they cannot assist me in my college dreams. My mom has a good job, but my dad is disabled and cannot work. They are stressed about everyday bills, and I don’t want to add to it with student loans. College will be my responsibility, and this scholarship will get me that much closer to it. One issue that has made school harder, is my recent diagnosis with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, EDS. It all started last year when my skin started feeling weird. Then painful. Then unbearably painful. It hurt to wear clothes, for people to touch me, to be in the wind. It even hurt when my hair brushed against it. It took a year of lab work, genetic testing, and visiting one doctor after another to find out the cause. In reality, I have a very difficult life ahead of me. EDS not only causes skin neuropathy, but other issues. I can't walk long distances; my joints can pop out of place without warning and my circulatory system doesn't like me. There are limits to what I can do. But through it all, I began to find the humor in it, the silver lining of the situation. Now, as I look back, I realize that EDS has become both a burden and a blessing. It forced me to slow down and find the beauty and humor of even the most hopeless of situations. While the pain is still there, I’ve learned how to treat my body like an old friend instead of a betraying foe. My college career isn't going to look like everyone else's. I may be slower to get to class, or my chronic fatigue may get in the way of studying, but I'm going to get my degree. I am too determined to quit.

For most of my life that I can remember I have been depressed and anxiety ridden. Between genetic predisposition, ADHD, mean peers, and high expectations, I never really stood a chance. Back in middle school the anxiety was making up for the depression and ADHD. Extreme worry about having great grades and doing well in school is apparently a really great motivator to do schoolwork funnily enough. With anxiety it was always “Go! Go! Go! You have to finish the race in first place!” And never allowed me to stop to smell the roses on the side of the racetrack. The depression was really only apparent to those who knew me well, like my parents. They saw me turn inward, get quieter, stop making jokes. They thought it was typical pre-teen angst at first, but eventually it grew more and more apparent that the weight of academics was crushing me into the ground. During COVID, school got easier, and the lockdown meant I did not have to interact with people who always treated me like a punchline. My depression wasn’t cured though, I was still withdrawn from others and cried myself to sleep, but the anxiety was lessened and as a result I stopped overcompensating. Without the smoke and mirrors of anxiety, depression had time to make itself known and my parents realized exactly how much I needed help. I was put on an antidepressant and started going to therapy, and for a good long while everything was alright. The anxiety basically disappeared, and my deep levels of distress were numbed, and that's all I ever thought life was. Just a state of numbness that was a million times better than terror and sorrow. I joked and laughed some, but the world was still in shades of grey. I wasn’t doing my schoolwork because I couldn’t see a point, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I told myself that drawing all class was self-care, that sleeping until noon was just me taking care of my body. I went from the nonstop pressure to lead the race to being in last place, laying down in the roses. Yet as time wore on, I started to realize that having a good day was supposed to mean a day that actually made you happy instead of a day that wasn’t any emotion in particular. I brought this up with my psychiatrist after my grades started dramatically slipping and was given a new type of medication. Suddenly when it started working, I was having good days. I mean actually truly good days. There was stress sure, but it wasn't soul crushing. I was motivated and passionate. I picked up more and more hobbies. It was that spring that I was on good medication that it finally felt like I was seeing the world in color for the first time. Everywhere I looked I saw something amazing, from the wildflowers by the highway to the way my friends laugh after I tell corny jokes. As the summer rolled around and I saw my grades improve, I realized that stress only hurts the potential someone has, and that ignoring work wasn’t really self-care, it was just something that furthered my stress. For as long as I can remember I placed all of my mental health on my ability to succeed in school, but it turns out that success actually results from taking care of yourself. You win the race not by burning yourself out or never even trying, you win by stopping to smell the roses and gaining the strength and passion to carry on.

For most of my life that I can remember I have been depressed and anxiety ridden. Between genetic predisposition, ADHD, mean peers, and high expectations, I never really stood a chance. Back in middle school the anxiety was making up for the depression and ADHD. Extreme worry about having great grades and doing well in school is apparently a really great motivator to do schoolwork funnily enough. With anxiety it was always “Go! Go! Go! You have to finish the race in first place!” And never allowed me to stop to smell the roses on the side of the racetrack. The depression was really only apparent to those who knew me well, like my parents. They saw me turn inward, get quieter, stop making jokes. They thought it was typical pre-teen angst at first, but eventually it grew more and more apparent that the weight of academics was crushing me into the ground. During COVID, school got easier, and the lockdown meant I did not have to interact with people who always treated me like a punchline. My depression wasn’t cured though, I was still withdrawn from others and cried myself to sleep, but the anxiety was lessened and as a result I stopped overcompensating. Without the smoke and mirrors of anxiety, depression had time to make itself known and my parents realized exactly how much I needed help. I was put on an antidepressant and started going to therapy, and for a good long while everything was alright. The anxiety basically disappeared, and my deep levels of distress were numbed, and that's all I ever thought life was. Just a state of numbness that was a million times better than terror and sorrow. I joked and laughed some, but the world was still in shades of grey. I wasn’t doing my schoolwork because I couldn’t see a point, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I told myself that drawing all class was self-care, that sleeping until noon was just me taking care of my body. I went from the nonstop pressure to lead the race to being in last place, laying down in the roses. Yet as time wore on, I started to realize that having a good day was supposed to mean a day that actually made you happy instead of a day that wasn’t any emotion in particular. I brought this up with my psychiatrist after my grades started dramatically slipping and was given a new type of medication. Suddenly when it started working, I was having good days. I mean actually truly good days. There was stress sure, but it wasn't soul crushing. I was motivated and passionate. I picked up more and more hobbies. It was that spring that I was on good medication that it finally felt like I was seeing the world in color for the first time. Everywhere I looked I saw something amazing, from the wildflowers by the highway to the way my friends laugh after I tell corny jokes. As the summer rolled around and I saw my grades improve, I realized that stress only hurts the potential someone has, and that ignoring work wasn’t really self-care, it was just something that furthered my stress. For as long as I can remember I placed all of my mental health on my ability to succeed in school, but it turns out that success actually results from taking care of yourself. You win the race not by burning yourself out or never even trying, you win by stopping to smell the roses and gaining the strength and passion to carry on.

It was a dark and stormy night, maybe not in real life, but it was in my nightmare. With my parents out of town, my brother and I were turned over to my grandparents. It is a lovely house, truly. A place I spent my childhood weekends visiting, playing in the lush garden, rocking back and forth on tire-swings, feasting on my grandmother’s delicious food. But still, the nightmare came for me. I’ve always been afraid of tornadoes. The mere idea of an unexpected force of nature suddenly and randomly dropping onto you and destroying your entire life in the blink of an eye was terrifying. And really, who wouldn't wake up with a jolt if you dreamt that a dark swirling mass barreled into the house where you felt safest? I woke up, shaking. It was pitch black as stumbled into the living room and flipped on the TV and sipped a glass of milk with trembling hands. Tornadoes began to invade my thoughts. I searched out videos about tornado damage, and eventually, videos about the science behind them. The more I found out the less afraid I was. I spent my springs watching radar livestreams on YouTube and religiously checking my numerous weather apps for any sign of a storm. Eventually as one thing led to another, the terror of tornadoes I felt was left behind and all that was left was the sheer fascination and obsession with not just those mysterious cyclones, but all of weather science! I cannot begin to imagine myself without my interest in weather, so it still humors me that if it were not for that nightmare, I would not have known that this is my dream. My ultimate goal is to create a tornado warning system to increase the amount of time people have to take shelter. How many lives can be saved with better technology, better radars, and a more accurate rating system? My family is so important to me, and I can’t imagine losing them in a tornado because they didn’t have enough time to get to a safe place. We live at the edge of tornado alley and recently had a couple of close calls in our area. One in Round Rock, where people were caught in restaurants and stores as the tornado tore through the shopping center. Another tornado was even closer to our home and ripped through the subdivision next to ours. No warning was given to the area. What I believe I can accomplish, will save so many families.

It was a dark and stormy night, maybe not in real life, but it was in my nightmare. With my parents out of town, my brother and I were turned over to my grandparents. It's a lovely house, truly. A place I spent my childhood weekends visiting, playing in the vegetable garden, swinging on tire-swings, and feasting on my grandmother’s delicious food. But still, the nightmare came for me. I’ve always been afraid of tornadoes. The mere idea of an unexpected force of nature suddenly and randomly dropping onto you and destroying your entire life in the blink of an eye was terrifying. And really, who wouldn't wake up with a jolt if you dreamt that a dark swirling mass barreled into the house where you felt safest? I woke up, shaking. It was pitch black as stumbled into the living room and flipped on the TV. Tornadoes began to invade my thoughts. I searched out videos about tornados, and eventually, the science behind them. The more I found out the less afraid I was. I spent my springs watching radar and religiously checking my numerous weather apps for any sign of a storm. Eventually, the terror of tornadoes I felt was left behind and all that was left was the sheer fascination and obsession with not just those mysterious cyclones, but all of weather! I cannot begin to imagine myself without my interest in weather, so it still humors me that if it were not for that nightmare, I would not have known that this is my dream. My ultimate goal is to create a tornado warning system to increase the amount of time people have to take shelter. How many lives can be saved with better technology, better radars, and a more accurate rating system? My family is so important to me, and I can’t imagine losing them to a tornado because they didn’t have enough time to get to a safe place. We live at the edge of tornado alley and recently had a very close call in our area. A tornado ripped through the subdivision next to ours. I believe I can create a system to help those in the tornado's path. I was recently diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, or EDS. It started last year when my skin started feeling weird. Then painful. Then unbearably painful. It hurt to wear clothes, for people to touch me, and even to be in the wind. It took a year of lab work, genetic testing, and visiting one doctor after another to find out the cause. In reality, I have a very difficult life ahead of me. EDS not only causes the skin neuropathy, but other issues. I can't walk long distances, my joints can pop out of place without warning and my circulatory system doesn't work like it should. There are limits to what I can do. But through it all, I began to find the humor in it, the silver lining of the situation. Now, as I look back, I realize that EDS has become both a burden and a blessing. It forced me to slow down and find the beauty and humor of even the most hopeless of situations. While the pain is still there, I’ve learned how to treat my body like an old friend instead of a betraying foe. My college career isn't going to look like everyone else's. I may be slower to get to class, or my chronic fatigue may get in the way of studying, but your scholarship will help me get my degree.

It was a dark and stormy night, maybe not in real life, but it was in my nightmare. With my parents out of town, my brother and I were turned over to my grandparents. It is a lovely house, truly. A place I spent my childhood weekends visiting, playing in the lush garden, rocking back and forth on tire-swings, feasting on my grandmother’s delicious food. But still, the nightmare came for me. I’ve always been afraid of tornadoes. The mere idea of an unexpected force of nature suddenly and randomly dropping onto you and destroying your entire life in the blink of an eye was terrifying. And really, who wouldn't wake up with a jolt if you dreamt that a dark swirling mass barreled into the house where you felt safest? I woke up, shaking. It was pitch black as stumbled into the living room and flipped on the TV and sipped a glass of milk with trembling hands. Tornadoes began to invade my thoughts. I searched out videos about tornado damage, and eventually, videos about the science behind them. The more I found out the less afraid I was. I spent my springs watching radar livestreams on YouTube and religiously checking my numerous weather apps for any sign of a storm. Eventually as one thing led to another, the terror of tornadoes I felt was left behind and all that was left was the sheer fascination and obsession with not just those mysterious cyclones, but all of weather science! I cannot begin to imagine myself without my interest in weather, so it still humors me that if it were not for that nightmare, I would not have known that this is my dream. My ultimate goal is to create a tornado warning system to increase the amount of time people have to take shelter. How many lives can be saved with better technology, better radars, and a more accurate rating system? My family is so important to me, and I can’t imagine losing them in a tornado because they didn’t have enough time to get to a safe place. We live at the edge of tornado alley and recently had a couple of close calls in our area. One in Round Rock, where people were caught in restaurants and stores as the tornado tore through the shopping center. Another tornado was even closer to our home and ripped through the subdivision next to ours. No warning was given to the area. What I believe I can accomplish, will save so many families.