Tuesday Afternoons The house always felt lonely on Tuesday afternoons. For years, these afternoons meant waiting. Returning from school, I knew that my mom was off doing her chemo treatments while my dad stayed with her. I excitedly waited for the sound of the garage door because when they returned, I knew my mom would greet me, tired but smiling. In 2020, right before the pandemic, my mother was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer, and although I thought she would be quickly cured, over the next six years, she battled many treatments and an eventual stage four, triple-negative diagnosis. With tumors in her brain and spine, she needed brain radiation. During her recovery, I remember watching her struggle to walk across her bedroom. The strongest woman I knew now needed my arm just to take a few steps. This terrified me. My mom was always the person who would drive me to school, help me with homework, and motivate me to succeed. Watching her struggle made me realize how fragile routine and everyday life can be. More importantly, I realized that even when cancer took pieces of her strength, it never took her determination. Her courage in the face of these obstacles still astonishes me. She still manages to smile despite a terminal diagnosis, and still makes an effort to listen to me talk about school and work before talking to me about treatments. Her sense of humor never drained, and she still manages to throw sarcasm into casual conversation. She is my mentor, and the advice she has given me has shaped me into the person I am today. I will always aspire to have her level of selflessness and empathy. This courage reshaped and inspired our family. My dad learned how to balance work with taking her to appointments and treatments while handling the financial burden. He had to bear the growing weight of medical bills and paying college tuition for my sister by taking out large loans. I learned how to cook simple meals, check her vitals, and often just sit quietly with her to give her company when she doesn't want to talk. I gained a new perspective on patience and caregiving. Most teenagers don’t have to learn these things at such a young age, but they taught me that resilience is just as important as anything you can learn in school. Resilience is a quiet, reserved power. It’s the power to study for a calculus test after visiting your mother in the hospital. It's the power to laugh even when you’ve had a hard week. Sometimes it’s the power of a mother walking into the chemotherapy clinic with her family right beside her. Through every challenge, my mom has shown me what courage really means. Her ongoing battle with cancer has changed our family drastically in many ways, but it has also provided me with an appreciation for compassion, hope, and perseverance. As I pursue a degree in engineering with the hopes of building a better world, I will carry these lessons with me. Whenever life becomes uncertain, I will remember the emptiness of the house on those Tuesday afternoons, and the quiet relief I felt when my mom walked through the front door.

Since I've grown up in Las Vegas, Nevada, I have always been used to extreme heat. However, in recent years, the summers have just kept getting hotter, and it is becoming a serious problem for people. Some parts of the city, such as areas with less shade, more blacktop, and less green spaces, tend to be noticeably warmer. Why has nothing been done to stop it and how hard could it be? This question is what fed my curiosity in learning about the urban heat island effect and now I want to do something about it. Urban heat happens when the heat and light from the sun is absorbed and trapped in structures, and it is especially concerning in areas of higher density and more concrete. Cities like Las Vegas have too much pavement, but lack trees and shade that can keep the heat at bay. Unfortunately, students don't learn this in school, and people like me come across it through outside research and are left wondering why it hasn't been addressed. It isn't fair that our neighbors have to struggle through aggressive heat, or that I and many other kids have to walk home in 110 degree weather. Not only is it unenjoyable, but it can even be a public health risk and can lead to widespread medical concerns across the city. I think there are things that we can do as a society to help this problem, and I want to do something about it. Indeed, that's why I want to be an environmental engineer and to study it in college. I've spent my time in high school taking classes focused around math and science, and I have even taken three years of engineering courses, where I have completed projects that have challenged my problem-solving skills and creativity. I have especially taken a liking to green infrastructure and designs that can be implemented in urban areas to help sustain and improve the environment. While I am in college, I will participate in environmental and engineering clubs where I can do volunteer work to inspire me in the future and as an engineer, it will be my job to develop solutions to climate issues and make life more comfortable for everyone. Furthermore, I have personally completed multiple engineering projects that are based on the idea of building a better world and helping with urban heat. In fact, my Eagle Project for Boy Scouts consisted of building a Goat Habitat and Jungle Gym for a local animal sanctuary. In addition to the fun structures and ramps for the goats, I placed a large shade sail to prevent the animals from overheating. It might seem like a small difference, but it has shown me that shade can make a huge impact for humans and animals alike. What gives me hope is knowing that there are people and organizations out there that are actively working on these issues, but the next step has to be informing the public and local governments so that real change can happen. As for me, whether it's communicating with local officials or designing my own cooling solutions, my hope is that if enough people take action to improve urban heat and other issues, the world can become cooler and more sustainable.