My name is Mayhsa Deol and I’m a senior at Sehome High school this year. Thank you for considering me for this scholarship! In my free time, I love being outdoors. I enjoy mountain biking, skiing, hiking, running, and gardening. My love for the outdoors led me to develop a deep sense of caring for the earth and gratefulness to have spaces to enjoy nature. I developed a deep desire to preserve, protect, and expand these areas for future generations to enjoy. My parents moved to the United States from Punjab, India when they were young. I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to the beautiful Pacific Northwest when I was seven. I have three brothers, two who are younger and one who is older. In addition, my religion, Sikhism, plays a big role in my life. During my undergraduate, I plan on majoring in Environmental science and minoring in anthropology. Upon graduation, I will attend a master's program followed by a subsequent Ph.D. I intend on becoming a professor and teaching Environmental Science at a university. Children and young adults are our future and will dictate how our future efforts against climate change will play out. I want to educate and inspire other young people to take action to help the environment. During my education, I plan on continuing my environmental-focused volunteering that I started during 9th grade. For example, I’m the president of our high school’s National Honor Society. During Covid, we couldn’t organize our yearly blood drive, so I took the initiative to clean up a local trail instead. Overall, the event was a huge success and we picked up dozens of trash bags filled with litter. In fact, the project had such a positive reaction so that I began organizing trash pick-ups on various other trails with different organizations. I spearheaded multiple trash pick-ups through Sehome’s Key Club, of which I’m also the president. I intend on organizing many of these future events and scaling them to a bigger effort. Furthermore, I love mountain biking on our local trails and frequently volunteer with work parties designed to maintain, improve, and build new trails. On our local mountain biking area, Galbraith Mountain, volunteers and local organizations play a big part in maintaining the trails. I strive to pull my weight whenever possible. It’s possible for me to ride amazing trails in my backyard, so I want to ensure that other people have the same chance. I plan to continue with trail restoration and creation in the future and take on a bigger leadership role so my efforts can reach a wider audience. Being a teenage Indian girl who likes activities such as skiing, biking and hiking is often lonely. I don’t see many people with my skin color outdoors, since it’s such a white-dominated area. I hope to create clubs and initiatives during my post-high school education that help people of color get outdoors. I believe that when people spend time outdoors, they begin to feel connected and feel the beauty of it. This in turn promotes greater caring and stewardship for the outdoors, because people want to keep on using these outdoor lands and protect them for future generations. Through teaching Environmental Science at a University and volunteering and creating change at a grassroots level, I plan on living a full life making a positive impact on the world through environmental stewardship.