Overall improvement of the world as a whole requires the whole world to work together. Multiple disciplines, groups, and countries need to come together to tackle issues with a view of the bigger picture and how each action taken affects everything else. The world is connected, so a connected approach to fixing it is the only way positive change will last. World leaders should also implement institutional change that they talk about but never put into action at conferences like COP26. Infrastructure for renewable energy must be implemented because we have the technology to go renewable but not enough organizations put in place to do it. Large lithium-ion batteries to store the energy created by renewables and an updated electrical grid are imperative in the transition away from fossil fuels. Money is a determining factor in all of this, and money in lawmaking, at least in the US, is heavily influenced by interest groups and corporations. Lessening the hold of corporations on climate laws would allow the government to de-incentivize monocropping culture, and lessen the need for pesticides, and the use of chemical fertilizers to combat soil erosion. The way we grow our food must also change. The way many farmers grow their food depletes nutrients from the soil at a staggering rate. Alternatives that are mainly used in South America, like planting trees alongside crops or crop rotation, would nitrogenize the soil and make it fertile again without outside intervention. Worldwide implementation of integrated pest management and agroculture or similar alternatives must happen because the current amount of land consumption is unsustainable. A tragedy of the commons is imminent at this rate. These practices will also stop the positive feedback loops associated with livestock antibiotics and synthetic pesticide development. Conservation of habitats and animals ensures that there will be a world to live in after we are gone. Preventable extinctions should not happen, but they are becoming increasingly common. Slash-and-burn agriculture, poaching, and overfishing are all current agricultural methods that only serve us in the short term. Within decades, soil erosion, algal blooms, and die-offs will prevent us from having enough food and balanced ecosystems. Every living thing serves a specific purpose in an ecosystem, so taking out a singular species could have devastating effects. Invasive species and improper nutrient cycling will lead to barren wastelands where great plains once stood. We must act and educate people on these issues, because without massive action from everyone, things will stay the same, and we will be living in the nightmarish predictions of climate scientists.

Honestly, I should have been writing out scholarship essays a lot sooner than the first semester of my senior year in high school. The process is one of the most time consuming, arduous, and unsatisfying things I've ever had to go through. Spending hours late at night sifting through pages and pages of scholarships, crossing almost all of them off with a "doesn't apply to me". Filtering on scholarship databases can only get so specific, and sometimes no results will come from targeted searches, leaving me to fend for a spot among the more general scholarship applications. When I mention a scholarship, I don't mean the sweepstakes scholarships, where there is a very small chance of me winning. The easy-to-apply, one click, no-essay scholarships are a lot less time consuming than other scholarships where I actually have to apply and prove myself, but are a shot in the dark because I'm just competing in a random drawing likely done by an algorithm. I have applied to dozens of these sweepstakes scholarships because they were easy, and I really thought I might have a chance to win them, but months later, nothing has come of it. It definitely made me feel accomplished to tick off each scholarship I applied for, and I felt very productive. Now, I realize that those scholarships aren't for me, and that I should focus on the ones where I had to write, but the questions were ones I could tackle. Something I began to expect from scholarship essay applications was repetitive questions. Almost all of them ask about a hardship I went through, why I'm getting my degree, or my opinions on my minority status in relation to the workplace or community at large. Having a set of pre-written answers hodge-podged together for each new scholarship takes out some of the hard work, but I still have to actually sit down and write an essay, because every question is similar but still slightly different. If the questions weren't repetitive, then they still required at least an hour of time put into each one to make it the best as I possibly could. I realized my traits that made me an individual in my own community were the same traits as those I was competing against to pay for education. I was told that there would be plenty of scholarships out there for me, that rich philanthropists and niche communities would be my ticket to a debt-free higher education. "There's a scholarship for everything, even left-handed people!" However, after searching for a few months now, that left-handed scholarship is nowhere to be found and plenty of scholarships that aren't targeted at me seem to keep popping up everywhere I look. In order to find scholarships I can apply for, I have to search for far longer than I previously thought, and put in a lot more effort.

I want to see the world become kinder. It seems that kindness and empathy, especially in competitive spaces like education and social media, have been sorely neglected. I'm tired of hearing the f-slur in the hallways, "gay" being used as an insult, of having my identity questioned simply because I exist. I'm tired of being misgendered, of having to explain my pronouns, of correcting people ad nauseam, and ultimately having to accept that there will always be someone who does not accept me for who I am. The onslaught of negativity from the world can be very overwhelming, and ultimately, does not help anyone. I know that it is possible to not act this way, and that people can be good. Most people have kindness within them. That's why I think it's necessary to acknowledge the harm that a small group is able to do. Hate groups are becoming more and more common, and it's not a coincidence that the internet, media, and general attitudes are more negative too. I don't think that people quite realize how damaging this negativity can be. Apathy is the most common reaction to bad news nowadays, and the more that people respond with apathy, the more serious issues are normalized. Tipping the world towards kindness ensures that people have empathy for others, that people's pain is properly acknowledged, and that the global healing process of healing can begin. Allowing people to exist how they want, in the spaces they want, is deeply important. Everyone is different, and we should embrace that. People are always evolving, constantly changing forms to be the best version of themselves they can be in that moment. I've had some experience with these types of spaces, made available to me when I was doing online school in 2021. A local arts organization started a space for queer kids in the community to express themselves, making art and having discussions that would ultimately culminate in the form of a zine. The process of discovering myself without judgement, in a space where people understood me, was largely what kept my faith in humanity at a time when the world was in turmoil. Speaking to queer elders, hearing stories from people that were near me but I had never met, and having complete creative control over our project was a very freeing experience. I want everyone to feel as loved and appreciated as I did in that space. My experiences there, the emotions I went through, and the art that I made are deeply personal and led to a significant amount of self growth. The world would be a lot more productive if people were simply accepting and focused on bettering themselves instead of negativity. Everyone works better in an environment where they feel safe, seen, and valued. Those traits are always used when people describe a utopia, and while it may not be realistic to aspire to create a utopia, it is possible to take some aspects of one and implement them in a measurable way. When people choose kindness, everyone benefits.

I want to help people in a big way. That's why I'm choosing to major in environmental resource management or urban studies. Helping people grow while staying cognizant of the world around them is the ultimate goal of this degree. Cities that are just concrete and smog are not good for anyone - the people that live there suffer poor health, and those that visit can have a hard time seeing the beauty in the tight-knit communities that are waiting for a chance to thrive. I've lived in a city area my whole life, so traffic and the constant flow of people isn't new to me. I want to help make their lives, my family's lives, and my community's lives better. Being a part of the process that plans and manages resources will allow me to use my personal experience to better the lives of those in need. A devastating environmental crisis isn't just the world's worst nightmare, it could also spell disaster for an ill-equipped or poorly built community. With my planned degree, I could help these types of communities to make sure that harm is mitigated as much as possible. Helping regulate the amounts of greenhouse gasses power plants can emit, navigating the amount of water given to communities in times of drought, and making sure that humans are doing as little harm as possible to the environment while still growing are just some of the things I can do in the future with my degree. Living in a city as a member low-income household and being latino, I've faced my fair share of struggles, from EBT cards to exorbitant prices for transportation to my father's chemotherapy appointments. I know that if I take the initiative now, that I can make it out of that generational struggle to simply own my own house, support my family, and live comfortably without any fear of surprise expenses toppling my life. Because of that, I want to graduate college, and do it debt-free. Horror stories on the news of people in the generation before me stuck with a lifetime of debt ring in my head as I approach the time to enroll in college. With this scholarship, I know that some of the burden on myself and my family to make ends meet will be lessened. I would be able to handle the price of textbooks, or having to buy a new computer after my dad's Mac from the early 2000s finally goes kaput. This scholarship would help me immensely, and give me peace of mind.