About a week ago in an online sci-fi community I’m a member of, someone brought up the Millennium Prize Problems, asking if anyone had ever daydreamed about solving one of them. This piqued my interest and I joined the conversation. When someone mentioned the Riemann Hypothesis, I mentioned that I had tried to learn about it but never really understood it. Another member replied asking to explain, to which I accepted. They broke it down beautifully, taking it step by step to make sure I understood. Another member jumped in, asking questions where they needed clarification. I had barely spoken with either of these people before, and suddenly I was talking for an hour with them about math. That experience is an example of why I love math, for the connections I’ve made through it. For the connections it brings throughout my life. I feel connected to the people around me. Helping each other understand new concepts, working with peers in class, and taking that experience into other disciplines. As a physics major, I can find kinship among engineers, chemists, biologists and more. And it isn’t just stem students, electricians and architects, or the cashiers totaling someone’s bill, math is a part of their lives too. Math also connects me to the past. From the religious fervor of Pythagoras' followers or the petty squabbles of mathematicians fighting to prove they solved something first, I see people being people. The greatest mathematicians in history once sat and studied just like me. We’ve always been human, and we’ve always done math. I love that as I look into the past I can see both incredible mathematicians who are also just normal people that love math like I do. The strongest connection math brings me is to the world I live in. I love and find beauty in the way we can use math to understand the movements of planets and stars. Larger than life concepts can be shown in a few equations. Math is the universal language, from how the waves splash on our shores to the formation of our galaxy. I am connected to countless people, times, and phenomena through math. How could I do anything but love it?

In elementary school, a few times every week I was shuffled out of the classroom for behavior and speech therapy. I didn’t understand why I was being dragged out of class, or why I struggled socially. Why was I different? What I hadn’t been told was that I am autistic. I needed behavior therapy to learn to make eye contact, and speech therapy to speak comprehensibly. What nobody knew was that in addition to autism I had anxiety, ADHD, and depression. Nobody knew I needed much more help than I was getting, but I would soon realise that I did. As I entered middle school, things started out fine. My confidence and ability to socialize grew. I was finally told I was autistic, and I was okay with it. I was finding myself. Then my father had an alcohol induced seizure. It wasn’t his first, but this time my sister and I, ages 11 and 13, were the only ones in the house to handle the situation. While my father was in the hospital recovering it was decided that we would exclusively be staying with our mother. Before my dad’s seizure we were staying half time with her, and that was already extremely difficult. My mother had her own mental health struggles and that led to huge, screaming fights between her and my sister. My role became full time mediator, trying to keep peace between the two of them. It was exhausting. My mental health began to decline, never recovering from the pit my father’s seizure put me in. But I felt obligated to pretend to be the happy one of the household. Someone had to keep the household functional. I found comfort in my friends and learning at school, but anxiety and depression slowly began to mute that joy. In 8th grade, 2020, the stability I could find outside my home was torn away by COVID. Everything blurred together. Nothing felt significant. My father’s sobriety, the realization I was transgender, beginning my transition, and graduating middle school all felt meaningless. Even as I returned to in person schooling for my freshman year of high school, my mental health didn’t improve. The school was massive and overwhelming, a sensory nightmare for my autistic brain. I knew I could not live another 3 years like that. If something didn’t change, I didn’t see a future for myself. But I still wanted a future for myself, so I fought for one. I found an alternative school, a place designed with students like me in mind. I applied, got accepted, and felt my life turn around. Even as I continued to struggle with my mental wellbeing, I felt it was finally possible to get to a better place. Learning felt meaningful again. My passion for science, math and astronomy slowly came back to me. I was always nerdy; I competed in STEM competitions and went to coding camps. I had just forgotten how important learning was to me. I began to plan a future where STEM allowed me to change humanity's understanding of the world. Not just trying to make it through the day, but dreaming of what I could be doing in the coming decades. I still have my ups and downs, mental health is a never ending battle. But my experiences have taught me that I can get through whatever life throws my way. As I learn about myself and the world I live in, my love for both only grows. I hope to embody Sloane as I fight to find my place in the world and love what I do.

I have spent the majority of my life fascinated by space and craving to understand it. By the time I reached high school I was certain that I wanted to work in space science. I considered all the careers I could think of in the space science field. Astrophysics, cosmology, astrobiology and more. My desire to challenge myself and see the fruits of my labor drove me to aerospace engineering. Ideally, I will work for a non-profit space agency. I want to help humanity explore space for the sake of curiosity and technological advancement, not for profit. Since I plan to move to Sweden that would mean working for the Swedish National Space Agency. With SNSA working heavily with the European Space Agency, I hope to find opportunities to work on projects with lofty goals. In particular, I want to be on the teams working on projects like the Titan space probe Dragonfly. I adore the idea of working on the unique challenges that come with designing drones and rovers for other celestial bodies. I want to spend my time considering the gravity and atmosphere of moons and planets. Optimizing the shape and design of a probe to minimize costs and maximize longevity sounds extremely rewarding to me. I am infinitely curious about the potential for other life – that’s why I considered astrobiology at one point. My dream job is to design the tools astrobiologists use to search for life. When I work on a project in the aerospace field, I want to create a room with more people like me. As a young queer scientist, I see how underrepresented LGBTQ+ people are in STEM. By lifting each other up, my fellow queer scientists and I will pave the way for future generations of queer kids to pursue this field. There are untold amounts of historic queer scientists that have been lost to history due to bigotry. We will put an end to that trend. Having openly queer scientists play a hand in creating history is the first step in creating a world where we aren’t forgotten. My ideal project for this is one that pushes the envelope of our current understanding of life in our solar system. If missions like the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer or Dragonfly find data showing hints of life, I want queer scientists working on follow up missions. Due to public interest, including queer scientists on missions like these is crucial. Young space enthusiasts are drawn to missions that push humanity's understanding of space as we know it. For inspiring and representing groups like the LGBTQ+ community, it is important to involve minorities in high public interest projects. LGBTQ+ scientists are not the only ones that lack sufficient representation. On my ideal project, the team will be composed of underrepresented people. There will be room intentionally given to women and other minorities. Diverse backgrounds lead to diverse ways of thinking and creative solutions that otherwise would not have emerged. Everyone can do important, incredible things. I value a project that gives everyone the chance to do so. Aerospace engineering is a characteristically complex field. In popular culture the phrase “I’m no rocket scientist” is used to express one’s lack of scientific skill. To succeed in this field, I need to ensure that I get the most out of my education. Working over 20 hours a week in addition to being a full time student hinders me from that goal. Maintaining a job will take up a significant portion of my time and energy as I seek to afford the classes I’m taking. With less study time and less mental energy to internalize my lessons, I sacrifice a large part of my opportunity to learn. Additionally, I hope to continue my education in this field beyond my Bachelor’s of Science. I plan to take a Master's program at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. They offer a program in Spacecraft Design, which perfectly aligns with my goals as a student. Studying in a program that works with a multitude of space science organizations across Europe will allow me to build necessary connections to begin my aerospace career. With my strong academics and the historically low number of other applicants, I believe that money is the primary barrier to that goal. Naturally, this program has its own related fees, but that is not directly why this scholarship is impactful for me. In order to move, I must be in good financial standing. Otherwise, I will not be granted the residency permit that will allow me to stay in the country and study. Choosing to not work to focus solely on my studies and taking on student debt is not a viable option for me. I need to be in good financial standing as I leave my bachelor’s program in order to move on. From being able to focus my energy on my classes to getting a higher education and building connections, this scholarship will be essential on my aerospace journey.

Animation has always held a special place in my heart. The nature of the medium lends itself to stunning scenes, something that just can't be replicated in real life. When I was 7, I watched the movie WALL-E for the first time, I had never seen anything like it. From the first scene, of WALL-E in the wastes of a trash-barren Earth, I was hooked. It didn't need words, the lively and expressive animation said plenty. I didn't relate to live-action movies, sometimes I didn't even connect to animated movies that were heavy in dialogue. But I could connect to this rusty little robot. Throughout my watching, I was amazed, the most amazed I had ever been. Then, I got to the scene that changed who I am to this day. The scene where WALL-E is blasting himself through space with a fire extinguisher. The gorgeous purples and blacks of space, the twinkling of the stars. My connection to WALL-E let me feel as if I was the one floating out there. I felt myself spinning in space as he hugged and twirled around with Eve. That was the first time I realized "Wow, space is cool.". A simple revelation, yes, but one that changed. That one scene sparked a curiosity in me that lasted years. In elementary school, when we reached our astronomy unit, I was hooked. I both better understood the world I knew, one of a changing moon and an inky sky, and one I didn't, one of asteroid belts and gas giants. I plunged into that world as I grew. When I was in 7th grade that is when I truly became enraptured by the cosmos, I was desperate to know what was beyond our knowing. Today I still rewatch WALL-E from time to time. The animation of the film only being more and more appreciated as I delved into art myself. The ability displayed by the directors to create a tear-jerking story with so few words. The fire extinguisher scene remains my favorite, and I now find myself able to admire it in a new way. As not some far-off beautiful canvas that was far beyond my reach, but a new adventure to be had. Every rewatch reminds me of why one of my dream careers is to be an astrophysicist. I want to understand the universe I live in, know if there is other life out there, and what awaits humanity beyond what we have here on earth. As a high school Sophomore on track to graduate as a Junior, I am greatly looking forward to being able to further my knowledge of the universe and how it works in university. While it may not be as cute as WALL-E, I would love to be responsible for sending the robot that takes us one step further in the final frontier known as space.

I dream to graduate early, move to Sweden at 17, and change the world of astrophysics forever.