I'm queer and mixed race. I have always felt like I have something to prove to the world. Whether it was proving that I was enough to my father by maintaining perfect grades, or proving that I was enough as a woman in my trades classes. My town is very white, it's a small town in southwest Colorado. People here don't realize the biases they have which is why there aren't many people of color living here. Every year a bunch of BIPOC people move here and then they end up leaving. There are strong communities here, but if you are a POC you have something to prove if you want to join the communities. Like by being black you're inherently not local enough to be a part of communities. I was born and raised in this town, which means I'm more local than most of the people here, and yet I still have something to prove. It is exhausting not having a community you can reach out to without having to prove that you deserve help or resources. I have extreme self-esteem issues because of this and trying to break out of the habit of trying to prove myself has been hard. I try to surround myself with black artists and people in the STEM field, and since I am unable to do that in person, I have done this by using media. I support black businesses, artists, musicians, writers, and directors. Not only because I want to support black communities, but because when you seek black people in media, you can see yourself represented. Just the simple action of seeing people who look like me in media, and seeing them thrive has helped my self-esteem tremendously. I don't have to prove myself in POC spaces online, I can just be. It's one of the reasons that I am so excited about college. I am still going to be going to a PWI in a smaller city, but it is much more diverse just because they have a bigger population. My roommate is half black and I feel like a nerd for saying I'm excited about that, but when you grow up being stripped of that it's like seeing a rainbow for the first time. This adversity has shaped me because I'm always overthinking and anxious. It was better when I was younger, but as I've gotten older I've started to be followed more in stores. It's very annoying when I'm just trying to have fun and relax with my friends because I once again have to prove that I'm harmless and not trying to steal things. My school is notorious for having very racist students and the school not doing anything about it. Students are being bullied out of extracurricular activities for being black. There was this one time that they wouldn't let my friend into the school because they "didn't believe he was a student". It's the small things, but they happen enough times to the point where you are constantly thinking about it. My advice to people who are in a similar position to me is to know who you are and know your worth. Know that you are enough just for being you. Know that having dreams is enough, and going for your dreams is enough. You don't have to take 20 AP classes if you feel like that's the only way you can prove that you're smart, because you are smart.

I grew up in a small white town in Colorado where the most representation I had for people who looked like me was from my father, aunt, and younger brother. STEM fields have always appealed to me because that's the field that my dad and aunt have always worked in. Representation is important because if it weren't for people who looked like me going above and beyond to prove that I can achieve anything I'm passionate about, I would not be going into the STEM field. As I got older, I started exploring more white male-dominated spaces, specifically trades. I took many cabinet and carpentry classes at my high school. In these classes, I was usually the only woman and one of the few people of color. Other people in the classes often looked down on me since I was not the typical person who would take trades classes. In some aspects, they were correct, originally, I had no experience. But I worked even harder than them in the trades classes to prove that I could do anything and everything I wanted. Now I have an HBI certification in Carpentry and CORE units, and I will receive a certification in Cabinet making by the end of the school year. Even though STEM and trade fields are heavily white male-dominated, people who have pushed those boundaries inspire me to make the field more diverse, so in turn I can help to inspire future generations to also push boundaries. Representation, however, is not just seeing someone who looks like you in the field. It also means being valued equally for your skills and acknowledging your background of where you come from. I don't want to go into STEM to be the same as everyone else. People must learn about me, where I grew up, and why my experiences bring a unique perspective (that is valued) into the field. Many people view diverse representation as incorporating people from diverse perspectives into the field. However, this is only the first step, people with diverse backgrounds must be included and have the freedom to express who they are. So much "representation" in media is just including people of color, but doesn't acknowledge the fact that they aren't white and this inherently means that they have different experiences from white people. In the fall of 2024, I plan to major in Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University. Many things have inspired me to go into mechanical engineering. My family, and the ability to creatively problem solve issues in the world. I seek to make white-dominated spaces more open and welcoming to people of color, and I aspire to make the world accessible to everyone.

Volunteering is a fundamental part of my life. I grew up in a family with two parents who were volunteers and a part of multiple organizations. Whenever there was an event, my brother and I were dragged along with them to help set up and run the event. My parents always called it "voluntold". Even though they acted like it was a bad thing to be told to help with these events, I genuinely loved going to them. I met some of the coolest and kindest people and learned many valuable skills. When I reached an age (around 12 or 13) when I was allowed to leave my house alone during the day, I set off to explore the organizations and volunteering opportunities I could participate in. Through this, I found the local Durango Arts Center that was overflowing with volunteer opportunities. I have helped with over 200 hours of children's art classes and even helped run community outreach events with the art center. Once I got to high school, I joined Key Club (through Kiwanis) and Green Team (an environmental club). Anytime there was a volunteering opportunity I always tried my best to help. There is something so special about using your abilities to help others in an environment where everyone has the same values of wanting to help others. Through volunteering, I learned what was most important to me: empathy, generosity, and education. My value for empathy was learned through meeting a never-ending amount of people with different perspectives of the world. Generosity is the soul part of volunteering, giving up your free time for the betterment of others. I have always been taught that if you have too much of something you do not use, give it to someone who needs it. Time is one of the most valuable things, and providing your time to others shows an unspeakable amount of generosity. Education is also a value I learned from volunteering, as I learned that education, fundamentally, is the basis of everything. How can we educate people to become financially literate, support themselves mentally, and have street smarts overall? Everyone has something they can teach someone else, and volunteering is the most generous way to pass this knowledge. I love helping the community and building stronger communities by volunteering. Sadly, I am moving away from my hometown, but I'm very excited to find more organizations that will provide a way for me to give back to the world. In college, I plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering, which has many different paths to give back to the community. The motive for going into the field is to create creative solutions to problems. This could mean helping to design buildings for low-income housing, or designing mobility aids to make the world more accessible. The possibilities are endless, and I am so excited to explore my future opportunities to give back.

Me and my brother started playing Minecraft together in 2014 when I was eight years old and he was six. The first time I played was on Pocket Edition on my 3Gs, and I couldn't figure out how the controls for flight worked. So when I started flying, I couldn't stop and rage-quit for a week. But when I started playing again, I became obsessed, always invested in new updates and new features. It would be the game I would play at my friends' houses, or online to make more friends, and when I'm sad and feeling lonely, it's the only thing that can make me feel better. My favorite thing to do in the game is build farms. I love to build endless crop farms in survival, starting with one seed, and then ending up with chests full of the crops. My brother usually mines while I build the crops. We've never been the type of people to speed-run the game, we just like to collect all the resources in the game and gain chests full of them. Overall, I love the community Minecraft has fostered over the years; everyone knows the game, and most people have played it. My friends who didn't have the game used to come over to my house after school and play it on our Xbox 360. We all had different things we enjoyed doing while we played. When my brother and I fully understood the game we started getting into mods. We would watch DanTDM for so long and watch all of his mod reviews with Trayaurus. At the time, there were pretty much no mods for Pocket Edition except the mods that were just texture packs to make certain items in the game different objects but wouldn't impact how they functioned. So, to counter this my brother and I would spend hours coming up with our own concepts of mods that if we were able to, we would add to the game. I had a whole notebook dedicated to it, it was one with gumdrops all over the cover. I still have it even! One of my favorite memories from the game is during quarantine and it was my friend's birthday. Since she couldn't see anyone, her friends from Texas, my friends from Colorado, and I made a server for her birthday. There was a 10-minute long minecart ride, and then we built a whole city for her to explore. We all together spent hundreds of hours on the world. One of the coolest things is that my friends and I from Colorado had never spoken to her friends from Texas, but after that, we all became friends and would play Bedwars together for 7 hours at a time. I would be lying if I said that in another world without Minecraft I would be the same person. On top of making friends off of Minecraft, I also was able to express myself in the game, by doing things I found interesting and building off of my creativity. When I go to college, I definitely will host Minecraft nights to build new friendships and bonds. Minecraft is undeniably a community builder, and I can't express my gratitude enough for the game.