Making a difference involves an understanding to learn about the environment and the lives impacted by it. I plan to make a difference by studying under-researched areas in the environment, such as hydrothermal vents and seamounts. As technology advances, the market for rare earth metals increases. Habitats like hydrothermal vents and seamounts become targets for deep-sea mining (DSM). The geological, chemical, and biological impacts on these habitats are poorly understood, yet contracts for DSM are still being made for the near future. My goal as a scientist is to prevent further habitat destruction and extinction by anthropogenic means. These organisms and microbes have stabilized in these ecosystems without disturbances for millennia. Research in these habitats must be taken as a priority before DSM is considered a reliable method for retrieving rare earth metals. I also plan to make an impact by being a role model that minority groups can look up to in the scientific field. As a Colombian, nonbinary, and queer student with ADHD, autism, and chronic pain, I recognize the lack of diversity in the scientific community. I want future generations to know that they can be part of the scientific community as they are. My journey as a Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program scholar and Sea Change Semester intern has not only shaped my academic goals but has also highlighted the importance of representation. The McNair Program offers research experience and academic mentoring to low-income and minority students who plan to apply to graduate programs. The Sea Change Semester is a 14-week semester at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, where students will take three 4-week courses and a research course throughout the entire semester to learn about the ocean environment, biology, biogeochemistry, and oceanographic field methods. As a neurodivergent individual, I must apply myself to a challenging environment to better learn how to self-regulate and accommodate myself. I also learned about academic communication and jargon within my field and among my peers. I also learned how to effectively communicate within and beyond my field of study. I gained many connections through the conferences I attended, as well as knowledge from my peers’ fields and inspiration as to how my career could influence different areas of study. I hope to use my connections to gain more experience with my research work and to understand how I can better my community through and outside the lens of my studies. As a volunteer, I have seen first-hand how contributing to my community impacts the people I help. One such event was at a local holiday event for families. Volunteers were assigned in pairs to guide guests through the attraction to various activities. A volunteer and I noticed a family signing as they worked on a craft. The volunteer and I had elementary skills in American Sign Language, so we looked up signs that we could use to give directions. We learned how to sign “cookie,” “decoration," and "there" to guide the guests from their previous activity to the cookie decoration station. Once near the family, I waved and signed "Cookie decoration there.” The mother ran up to me, held my hands in delighted surprise, and signed "Thank you." I signed thank you back and was happy that I could offer this moment to her and her family. My involvement in my community as a volunteer and scientist has exposed me to the reality of representation and how I can shape my future role as a community member to conserve the environment and the individuality of future generations.

I plan to research geologic sciences and paleoceanography to positively impact global climate change efforts. I want to add to conservation education so that local communities are more informed about environmental issues and their impacts. After completing my master’s, I want to look into the job market for a research career to expand our knowledge of the ocean’s habitats and geobiology. I want to pursue teaching after my research work and provide both future researchers and students with a role model that looks a little more like them. I am also currently applying to the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Michigan for graduate school. My research in the University of Rochester Paleoceanography Group was a valuable learning experience about my academic and professional goals as well as my current limits. As a neurodivergent individual, I must apply myself to a challenging environment to better learn how to self-regulate and accommodate myself. I gained many connections through the conferences I attended, as well as knowledge from my peers’ fields and inspiration as to how my career could influence different areas of study. I hope to use my connections to gain more experience with my research work and to understand how I can better my community through and outside the lens of my studies. I hope to use my connections to not only gain more experience with my research work but also to understand how I can better my community through and outside the lens of my studies. Climate change has worsened over the years. I live in the Mojave Desert, so I have seen the impact of drought and heat firsthand. I want to add to climate optimism by finding permanent solutions. I also want to challenge my biases to ensure a better future for my communities and make an impact with my work. As a Latine nonbinary queer with chronic pain, I want to inspire others to challenge their own biases as well as create an environment that can grow and is safe for future generations. I have seen many of the individual and intersectional struggles different minorities face. I want to encourage accommodations that will ease daily issues and promote fulfilling successes for myself and the people around me. The Bright Lights scholarship is instrumental because my single mother works as a housekeeper and thus has an unstable income of $25,000 per year. My father is absent and won’t contribute to my higher education. My family and I struggle with funds, which leaves scholarships and loans as our only way of paying for something as important as university or graduate school. I want to pursue a research career, making a graduate degree essential. I am currently experiencing major financial decisions to stay housed and fed in my immediate financial state. I also do not have the financial income or support to afford to attend graduate school after graduating with student loans. We don’t have much money to spare for school expenses or trips. Scholarships impact my future because they allow students like me to pursue their educational goals without further undue financial difficulty. I have the grit to pursue ambitious academic achievements because of my past successes, such as attending a dual credit program, and my current collegiate accomplishments. The only obstacle in the way of continuing my education is whether I can financially afford it.

My mother worked hard as a single parent to make sure my twin and I were supported at home and in our academics. I grew up never worrying about food, a place to live, or transportation. She was there to help out with our homework because she worked while we were at school. My mom made less than $25,000 as a housekeeper and babysitter and continues working those same jobs currently. She works two different jobs daily. Although her source of income is unstable, she works on her health and keeps networking to maintain her work. I eventually grew up learning about our financial status. My mother withheld telling me as a child because she wanted me to pursue what I wanted without holding myself back. Even without this knowledge, I kept pushing myself because of the encouragement I received from my mother and continued to do so after I knew. My mother always supported my interest in expanding my coursework with extracurricular activities, regularly working miracles with her schedule to drive us from school to the karate studio. I got my first-degree black belt by 8th grade after 7.5 years of attendance. I applied to the Environmental Science program at the West Career and Technical Academy Magnet Program. I found a better opportunity at the College of Southern Nevada High School program. I finally graduated with the Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish and 41 college credits that transferred to the University of Rochester. My mother encouraged me to volunteer at places that furthered her teachings on not judging others and networking when I could. She herself has faced discrimination as a Colombian immigrant. I volunteered at the Sahara West Library and Springs Preserve, an educational tourist attraction dedicated to preserving Las Vegas history and promoting sustainability. I spoke to visitors about preserving the Mojave Desert and the indigenous people we share the land with. I worked at the library with other teens on activities and librarians on children's programs, gaining experience in project management and working with children. Working at the Springs Preserve offered me experience with crowd work, supervising exhibits, and backstage assistance. I volunteered at the library for 690 hours and at the Springs Preserve for 380. One of my experiences at the Springs Preserve led me to help a Deaf mother with directions at the holiday event. I had little proficiency in American Sign Language at the time, but I added ASL courses in college to better support people like her in the future. While I looked for opportunities and challenged myself to apply, my mother supported me when I took a different direction or stepped back for my health. As a master’s graduate in engineering in electronics, my mother knew how important STEM was, especially when pursuing advantageous openings. I took other opportunities that benefited my education. I retook Newtonian Physics during my sophomore summer and ended up finishing Electromagnetism as well. I completed my physics coursework within 10 weeks. I changed my major to Environmental Science and applied to the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, a program that offers research experience and academic mentoring to low-income and minority students who plan to apply to graduate programs. I ended up presenting my research that the program funded at three conferences, one of them held overseas. I also was accepted into the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences Sea Change Semester internship. I plan to continue pursuing my dreams and applying for scholarships like the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which connects students to research, study, or English teaching assistant programs worldwide.

I’ve been fortunate to have had many volunteering opportunities throughout my high school and college education. Notably, I was a volunteer at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, Nevada, an educational international tourist attraction dedicated to preserving local history and promoting water, waste, and at-home sustainability. It also focuses on preserving the Mojave Desert and the Indigenous people we neighbor. This opportunity helped put my environmental science studies into a local context, encouraging me to highly consider education and water conservation as professional interests. One particular experience has highly impacted my studies. I grew up learning American Sign Language (ASL) through Signing Time! videos and continued throughout secondary school. A notable experience was the Holiday Express event at Boomtown 1905 within Springs Preserve. Volunteers guide guests through unique activities. A volunteer and I noticed a family signing as they worked on a craft. Though my ASL skills were elementary, I knew that Singing Savvy could help with translating. After the craft station, we’d guide the group to a reading and then to Santa. From the attraction layout, one volunteer was near the Santa exit, while another was near the final cookie decorating craft. The two of us learned to sign “cookie”, “decoration", and "there" since volunteers verbally communicated with each other and guests. Once near the family, I waved and signed "Cookie decoration there" and looked where the other volunteer was. The mother ran up to me, held my hands in delighted surprise, and signed "Thank you". I signed thank you back, unaware it’s also used to say you’re welcome. At this point, I knew that the Deaf community was a minority, but very little about their struggles as I had no access to formal education in ASL or the Deaf community besides the local ASL club. This moment solidified my interest in and need to learn ASL. At the University of Rochester, I chose a cluster (aimed at educating students in the three areas of natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences) including Basic Proficiency in ASL. I gained limited working proficiency in ASL and became familiar with the Deaf community in Rochester, New York. It’s important for hearing people to learn ASL. I learned about many prominent Deaf figures and tactile signing (another version of signing). I have learned more about the individual and intersectional discrimination Deaf people face daily and heard about their individual experiences. I intend to continue improving and possibly major in ASL, as well as include the Deaf community in my environmental research work. Many minorities are often ignored by environmentalism; environmental justice must be intersectional and work with all minorities to truly make a difference. I have also made an effort to look into other minority communities so that I may better understand how I can be a better advocate for them. The Lauren Czebatul scholarship is instrumental because my single mother works as a housekeeper and thus has an unstable income of $25,000/year. My father is absent and won’t contribute to my higher education. My family and I struggle with funds, which leaves scholarships and loans as our only way of paying for something as important as university. We don’t have much money to spare for school expenses or trips. Scholarships impact my future because they allow students like me to pursue their educational goals without further undue financial difficulty. I have the grit to pursue ambitious academic achievements because of my past successes, such as attending a dual credit program, and my current collegiate accomplishments. The only obstacle in the way of continuing my education is whether I can financially afford it.

My greatest achievement to date is working hard enough on my research opportunity with the Paleoceanography Research Group at the University of Rochester (UR). Because of my work, I presented it at three separate research presentations, one of which was held out of the country. I conducted this research with Chiara Borrelli in the UR Earth and Environmental Science Department Paleoceanography Research Group as a Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program scholar. This research aimed to identify if the Svyatogor Ridge was a paleo-cold seep. A cold seep is a place on the ocean floor where methane and other fluids trickle out of the sediment. This methane would react with sulfate released from bacteria living in the area on microbial mats to create bicarbonate and a unique ecosystem. These ecosystems are not only rarely found in the ocean, but are often unique because of their location. This research is important to know where methane inputs are in the ocean and record their influence on the ocean and its correlation to climate change. Cold seeps hold a valuable record of the ocean’s acidity in their sediment and fossils, such as foraminifera. Knowing where cold seeps are can also contribute to education about its native creatures, which we know very little about, and possible sites that can hold rare earth minerals, which are important for renewable energy equipment, through deep-sea mining. I analyzed a three-meter sediment core from the Svyatogor Ridge to isolate two different species of foraminifera for further isotopic analysis. Specifically, I had to pick and microscopically analyze Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi, a benthic foraminifera, and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma sinistral, a planktonic foraminifera. I also made lithologic observations of the sediment at 1 cm intervals every 10 cm, as well as different size fractions (> 250 μm, > 150 μm, and > 63 μm). After these samples were analyzed using x-ray fluorescence, my lab group and I discussed the results of the proxies for grain size (Ln(Zn/Rb)), marine production (Ln(Br/Cl)), pyrite authigenesis (Ln(Fe/Ti)) and magnetic susceptibility), and methane seepage (Ln(Ca/Ti) and Ln(Ba/Ti)) based on the collected data and previous lithology observations. I also prepared this research as an oral presentation for a general audience at the UR McNair Symposium and a professional audience at the CAGE International Conference on ‘Methane in a changing Arctic’ in Tromsø, Norway. I learned how to conduct sample preparation, microscopic analysis, picking, oral presentation skills, networking, and research experience and evaluation. I also presented my research as a poster at the 24th Annual University of Maryland National Conference for McNair Scholars and Undergraduate Research. This research inspired me to pursue a possible career in research. I took a Geobiology course to further learn about the application of my research. My research taught me a lot about my academic and professional goals as well as my current limits. As a neurodivergent individual, I must apply myself to a challenging environment to better learn how to self-regulate and accommodate myself. I learned how to keep myself engaged with routine work and pace myself to complete my deadlines. I also learned much about academic communication in my field and with my peers. I became familiar with the academic jargon specific to my professional interests and how to effectively communicate it to experienced and unfamiliar audiences alike. I gained many connections through the conferences I attended, as well as knowledge from my peers’ fields and inspiration as to how my career could influence different areas of study outside of my own. I hope to use my connections to not only gain more experience with my research work but also to understand how I can better my community through and outside the lens of my studies. Climate change has worsened over the years. I live in the Mojave Desert, so I have seen the impact of drought and heat firsthand. I want to add to climate optimism by finding permanent solutions. I also want to challenge my biases to ensure a better future for my communities and make an impact with my work. As a Latine nonbinary queer with chronic pain, I want to inspire others to challenge their own biases as well as lead to an environment that can grow and is safe for future generations. I have seen many of the individual and intersectional struggles different minorities face. I want to encourage accommodations that will ease daily issues and promote fulfilling successes for myself and the people around me.

Society needs to change how it responds to minority and underrepresented communities. A couple of recent pieces of legislation that have passed have allowed discrimination to become more normalized. One example is affirmative action. This tool ensured the inclusion of minorities in education and job opportunities. However, as soon as it was removed, we saw how much this "tool" revealed. According to the article "To Get Into the Ivy League, ‘Extraordinary' Isn't Always Enough These Days" published by the Wall Street Journal, about "half of the white students admitted into Harvard" from 2009 to 2014 had parents or relatives who had donated to the school. Affirmative action gave minority students a chance, but it's clear that it was a bandaid on the bigger issue of systemic racism. Without affirmative action, minorities, especially Black people, were seen to have no merit value for the opportunities they applied for. Why are minorities being accepted for a required percentage rather than their diligence and passion that could shape (and has on multiple occasions) their field? We see minority identities become unideal labels or descriptors that put many people at unease because the adjective implies to them that they are different from normal or other people. Not only is this the case when talking about Black, Indigenous, queer, or Deaf people, but also for disabled people. If someone were to talk about an Autistic neighbor, many would want to change the phrase to “their neighbor with autism”. Disability isn’t the entirety of a person's personality, but it's integral to their daily lives. It's not going to lead to a satisfying existence, as it does impact the person's life. Some accommodations must be made, many of which are behind a paywall or an extra tax. When I say "tax", I mean another expense that abled people or people who aren’t minorities don’t have to pay to live a satisfactory life. Some examples are the "pink tax" (necessities for a person with a uterus) and the "ADHD tax" (necessities to avoid sensory overload or forgetting food in the fridge to the point it spoils). Many of these accommodations aren’t accounted for or talked about in education. Even resources such as Disability Resources don’t know how to provide adequate support to the disabled people they are supposed to advocate for. I have experienced this and have heard so many stories about the lack of support and sympathy from Disability Resources. Sympathy is a key component of being a part of a community, even when one is not working to directly provide for people through their services. It is apparent in intuitions, medical care, and industry. Recently, Johnson & Johnson was going to renew its patent on bedaquiline because it was expiring. Letting it expire would allow bedaquiline to become a generic drug that could be manufactured at a lower cost and save many lives in third-world countries. Through the efforts of John Green and his supporters, Johnson & Johnson didn’t renew their patent and stopped tuberculosis from becoming resistant to the efficient medicine we have now. Smallpox was eradicated because medicine eliminated the opportunity for it to mutate beyond what the medicine could handle and established herd immunity. Sympathy not only rallied people to call out Johnson & Johnson to stick to their mission, but it also helped immunocompromised people live without taking a vaccine that might kill them. Abled people took it instead and provided communal protection. Through intersectionality, we know that the communities I have mentioned so far overlap. Society needs to handle the problems of the disadvantaged with more sympathy, compassion, and forethought.

I am pursuing a career in research in paleoceanography and micropaleontology, as well as a later career teaching environmental science to college and K-12. My previous research in this field inspired my interest to pursue this career and investigated past methane seepage events of the Svyatogor Ridge, which can help model the methane reservoir in the Arctic Ocean and how it will respond to future climate changes. It will aid in determining the Svyatogor Ridge’s paleoenvironment, such as episodes of rapid sedimentation and the establishment of temporary stressful conditions at the seafloor. It also adds to research on the deep ocean, a highly under-researched area, and its sediment geochemistry. Scientists today don't have complete research on the deep ocean and its complexities, and it is becoming an increasingly pressing issue as deep-sea mining becomes more of a valuable possibility. The deep sea’s biology has had little research conducted to fully understand its intricate ecological connections and functions; however, the deep sea’s geochemistry has even less research and scientists can barely come up with hypotheses of damage that will come from deep-sea mining based on the data collected. I want to expand my research beyond just sediment cores in the Arctic to further build upon the paleoclimate and geological record. Environmental issues, while increasing in importance through public awareness, are still not as heavily weighted as economic and market value. While this mindset has caused severe damage to terrestrial habitats, it has the potential to wipe out entire ecosystems in the deep sea. This is because of how isolated ecosystems in the deep ocean are and its ecosystems and its processes have taken millennia to operate as they do presently. Collecting data is extremely important in these cases to conclude consequences and changes. It’s also extremely useful in education. Students will develop specific interests in fields with many specialties, which makes teaching the broader field and its specialties essential. I became interested in the environment through my general education before high school and the opportunity to volunteer for the Springs Preserve in Nevada. I then attended the Environmental Management program at West Career and Technical Academy. Being a part of this program encouraged me to seek specialized classes in the Earth and Environmental Science Department at the University of Rochester (UR) and eventually choose environmental science as my major. I want to give students this same opportunity to choose and grow further than what I can teach them because I could teach what they loved to learn. As a tutor in the UR Learn and Explore at Play program, I can see each week how much creativity and motivation the 4th and 5th graders I tutor have. They find opportunities where even my team and I haven’t looked, having the ability to change the world as we know it. I can tutor in the first place because my local librarians gave me the chance to help kids in my community as a volunteer. I am in the position I am in as an environmental science third-year undergraduate and can dream as big as I can because of the support I had from my teachers and mentors. I want to help be the person in a child’s and future student's life that helps them do something they are passionate about that may change the world for the better because I believed in them and gave them a choice to explore further than they thought was possible.