I grew up in Guatemala, where the summers I splashed on the beaches of Monterrico were the drop that rippled my curiosity about the ocean. In those moments, I investigated every inch of the beach. I was a crouching shadowy figure with a camera to the peaking eyes of the crabs, fish, and insects across the dusty charcoal coast. While studying at the University of Miami, this same curiosity takes me across South Florida, where I currently research sharks, climate gentrification, and local literacy around water quality issues in Biscayne Bay. However, as a first-generation Queer student, my studies are not isolated from action. Connecting my scientific brain with my heart for community building has allowed me to join interdisciplinary teams of experts from various fields throughout my studies. Last spring, I served as the coordinator of The Underwater, a socially engaged art project directed by Miami-Dade's county artist, Xavier Cortada. This project had a dual purpose, first, to empower Miami Senior High students in Little Havana with the opportunity to understand the elevation of their homes and the impacts of sea level rise on a city built on spongy limestone. Secondly, to study and understand the role of art in young people's motivation to be vocal about climate issues. This project was part of the University of Miami's Lab for Integrative Knowledge (U-LINK). The lab brought together the voices of a lawyer, an economist, an IPCC climate scientist, and an artist, all of whom coached me in crafting an interdisciplinary curriculum. This process brought me into Florida Public School classrooms just days after the Don't Say Gay Bill passed in the Florida Senate. My chest felt heavier than the 30-pound stack of supplies on my first day as I prepared for my Queerness and scientific lesson plan to be politized. Over that initial week, my anxiety subsided as these students each brought an openness about their own experiences and passions as we crafted personal theories of change. Teaching at Miami senior high taught me that my love for the ocean and my Queerness would become further inextricably connected in a warming world. My community, Miami, is the U.S. city with the highest HIV rate and susceptibility to sea level rise. With LGBTQ+ people making up the majority of youth facing homelessness, science must tackle these issues simultaneously. Therefore, I know that as a Queer interdisciplinary social-ecological systems student, my studies, work, and aspirations dedicated to halting the climate crisis are acts of liberation. Receiving this scholarship would empower me to continue my studies and allow me to give focus to often unpaid grassroots advocacy I am dedicated to tether with my ecological research. This investment would mean joining me in the lifetime commitment to addressing the intersectional challenge of the climate crisis through interdisciplinary ecosystems science that started on a black-sanded beach in Guatemala.