Four generations ago, my family was severed from our heritage when my great-great-grandmother, Rose, was forced to walk the Trail of Tears, moving from Chicago due to the Indian Relocation Act. Her daughter, Sweetie Darling, was subsequently born in an internment camp for Native people in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. This forced displacement set off a century-long domino effect of systemic instability that echoed straight down to my own childhood. At just eight years old, I had to stand in a courtroom to secure a domestic violence restraining order against my father. By nine, I was experiencing homelessness, growing up around gang violence, narcotics, and family incarceration. My cousin, and my uncle are currently doing a bid in prison. Following that same trajectory, I landed in the juvenile justice system during my junior year of high school, where I was mandated to complete the PRIDE and JADE juvenile intervention programs. By fifteen, the instability became entirely unlivable. Recognizing that my environment would swallow my dreams, I made the agonizing choice to completely distance myself from my entire family to protect my future. From that point forward, I survived on my own. I spent years living on the streets, couch-surfing with friends, or sleeping in my car, using whatever resources I could scrape together just to navigate community college and keep my academic hopes alive. Being a first-generation student on both sides of my family meant college was never a traditional milestone. It was a solo rescue mission to permanently break a cycle of chaos. That same solitary drive pushed me to do the exhausting historical work of researching and tracing my lineage through a century of displacement, successfully overcoming four generations of diaspora to legally reconnect my family back to the Citizen Potawatomi Tribe. I chose my dual focus at the intersection of civil engineering and machine learning engineering because I wanted to master the exact technological advancements that will shape our future and impact human survival. My short-term goal is to complete my degree at San Jose State University, an institution ranked number 2 in the nation behind MIT for computer science skills on CodeSignal. while expanding my work as an Undergraduate Research Assistant under Dr. Vadlamani. In this role, I leverage deep learning architectures, computer vision, and spatial data analytics to solve critical infrastructure challenges, such as engineering a Python-based computer vision pipeline using YOLOv8 to automate structural damage detection. My long-term goal is to pioneer the future of smart cities and resilient infrastructure as a leading Machine Learning and Civil Engineer, establishing a permanent legacy of structural and ecological stability. Being an underrepresented indigenous minority in a field heavily lacking native representation deeply intensifies my career goals. Historically, the stripping of indigenous land and water rights has been used to systematically undermine tribal independence. By specializing in water management practices, hydrologic modeling, and sustainable resource management, I am equipping myself with the exact quantitative tools needed to defend and assert tribal resource autonomy. To me, civil engineering is not just a technical career pathway; it is an active exercise in establishing my people's sovereignty, ensuring our communities have the technological foundation and resource control required to thrive on our own terms. This scholarship would be the vital financial anchor I need to secure this final chapter of my education. Navigating an intensive engineering curriculum and cutting-edge research while being entirely self-supporting in an expensive area creates an exhausting structural burden. These funds will directly offset my tuition and immediate living expenses, allowing me to transition fully from a state of constant financial survival into pure academic execution.

Four generations ago, my family was severed from our heritage when my great-great-grandmother, Rose, was forced to walk the Trail of Tears, moving from Chicago due to the Indian Relocation Act. Her daughter, Sweetie Darling, was subsequently born in an internment camp for Native people in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. This forced displacement set off a century-long domino effect of systemic instability that echoed straight down to my own childhood. At just eight years old, I had to stand in a courtroom to secure a domestic violence restraining order against my father. By nine, I was experiencing homelessness, growing up around gang violence, narcotics, and family incarceration. By fifteen, the instability became entirely unlivable. Recognizing that my environment would swallow my future, I made the agonizing choice to completely distance myself from my entire family. From that point forward, I survived on my own. I spent years living on the streets, couch-surfing with friends, or sleeping in my car, using whatever resources I could scrape together just to navigate community college and keep my academic hopes alive. Being a first-generation student on both sides of my family meant college was never a traditional milestone. That same solitary drive pushed me to do the exhausting historical work of researching and tracing my lineage through a century of displacement. I successfully overcame four generations of diaspora to legally reconnect my family back to the Citizen Potawatomi Tribe. Higher education is the ultimate continuation of that reclamation. My commitment to this reclamation directly shapes my focus within civil engineering, where I specialize in water management practices and sustainability. Historically, the stripping of indigenous land and water rights has been a tool used to systematically undermine tribal independence. By mastering modern water infrastructure, hydrologic modeling, and sustainable resource management, I am equipping myself with the exact quantitative tools needed to defend and assert tribal resource autonomy. To me, water engineering is not just a technical discipline; it is an active exercise in establishing my people's sovereignty, ensuring that our communities have the structural foundation and ecological control required to thrive on our own terms. Sustainability must be a baseline priority in civil engineering because the infrastructure we design today dictates the environmental footprint of tomorrow. The built environment is a primary driver of resource depletion and carbon emissions, and traditional engineering paradigms are no longer sufficient to combat severe climate volatility. As a researcher, I see my future self reducing environmental impacts by merging civil engineering with machine learning engineering. Today, I am a senior at San Jose State University, an institution ranked number 2 in the nation behind MIT for computer science skills on CodeSignal. As an Undergraduate Research Assistant under Dr. Vadlamani, I leverage deep learning architectures, computer vision, and spatial data analytics to solve critical infrastructure challenges. I engineered a Python-based computer vision pipeline using YOLOv8 to automate structural damage detection, which directly extends the lifecycle of existing assets and reduces the massive environmental costs of demolition and rebuilding. By deploying predictive AI models to optimize water systems, mitigate urban runoff, and dynamically manage resource distribution, I will help design intelligent, zero-waste infrastructure that actively lowers carbon output and preserves vital ecosystems. This scholarship would be the vital financial anchor I need to secure this final chapter of my education. Navigating an intensive engineering curriculum and cutting-edge research while being entirely self-supporting in an expensive area creates an exhausting structural burden. This financial support will directly offset my tuition and living expenses, allowing me to transition fully from a state of financial survival into pure academic execution.

Growing up in California, I scarcely saw rain. Some years have had more precipitation than others, but overall it's been a relatively dry upbringing. This spring, I noticed an influx of precipitation, bringing blooming flowers and thoughts of winter turning to spring. My typically dry desert oasis erupted in torrents of freshwater escaping towards the sea. I also saw the rain flood campgrounds and neighborhoods, bringing destruction and pollutants into the ocean. This cascade of water was once the lifeline for flora and fauna in California, but now we see people and communities suffer from property damage and unsafe living conditions. Being in and out of homelessness has exposed me to these issues from a young age, and I hope to use my education to focus on removing problems pertaining to hardscape and channelization, integrate and update our infrastructure issues with more advanced natural alternatives, and establish buffer zones to stop flooding. Problematic elements of our current water infrastructure system include outdated concrete dams and channelized waterways. The overabundance of concrete creates an impermeable barrier between stages of the watershed cycle. Failing systems originally put in place to protect Californians result in both sudden flood disasters and long-term loss of sedimentary flow to the beaches. This sediment supports highways and train tracks, which have become increasingly unsafe. Native plants and their interactions are crucial for holding the sediment together properly and forming natural land barriers. In addition to hardscape, plants such as mustard grass and palms destroy native landscapes and collect water better placed elsewhere. They contradict critical ecological roles and the pre-established geography. I plan on working towards removing hardscape and channelization, as well as replacing invasive species with native plants. These efforts will require vast amounts of time, money, approval, and permits, but the re-establishment of a natural habitat will help redistribute our use of water in a more efficient natural way and promote safer conditions. The removal of superfluous concrete and establishment of native plants, if given enough time and space, will create natural buffer zones between waterways and urban zones to serve as a natural floodplain area. This will allow us to create a system that does not need as much maintenance as our current system does and will produce various supplements that we can use to stimulate our society and economy further. Our natural systems can be used as tools similar to how a fire can be used to cook. That which is supposed to provide for us can also threaten our safety, similar to how fire can be destructive. I hope to ease the suffering of the natural world and help communities that have suffered from property damage and unsafe living conditions. I believe that I can update our systems using civil engineering principles to find ways to supplement, enlighten and empower our communities. Coming from less-than-favorable circumstances showed me the world at a young age, but it also prompted me to think, become proactive, and apply myself to changing things for the better. Without water, you couldn't have food, and without a food source, you couldn't live anywhere. Water is an absolute necessity for all life on Earth. I hope to use my education to focus on building a safer and cleaner California, which will become a place where my communities, family, and friends can live without the fear of floods or water crises. Thank you so much for your time.

I grew up in and out of homelessness in California with a single mother until I became an emancipated minor. I took refuge in nature and often found solace in the natural world around me. My proximity to the ocean led me to start and develop a successful surfing career, which allowed me to travel the world, pursue my passion, and be deeply involved in nature and want to propose legislature and fight to protect California. Having been homeless much of my life, I used the beach as a home. I showered in the public showers, and I depended on the State Park and OC Beaches restrooms being open to brush my teeth and such. I slept on the beach and made fire from scraps of wood strewn on the beach for warmth on cold nights. Depending on my community to give me water when the fountains and showers were turned off due to the droughts in Southern California and the need to reserve our water supplies is indicative of the kinds of situations that make me want to put myself through Civil Engineering. Watching the beaches fall into the sea over my 24 years of life as a professional surfer, OC beaches lifeguard of four years, as an emancipated youth who depended on the beaches for survival, gave me much time and perspective. I began to consider our watershed cycle and the many problems we are facing with our natural waterways. I began craving anything that led to more learning about ecology, water, how the world depends on it, and how I can impact the world in a positive and tangible way. Civil engineering is my chosen major because I felt like it would give me the tools and knowledge to be able to pursue a career in bettering California's water management systems by promoting biodiversity, ecology, and independence on natural architecture. The infrastructure that was developed on what he built, and how he managed our waterways propelled me into studying the best major to hopefully re-integrate California with its once thriving natural environment. My goals have always felt ambitious, but my ambition has led me to achieve things that I never thought possible for myself. My current goals are to pursue a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, I would like to continue civil engineering and pursue a PhD, focusing on environmental science and promoting a healthy, ecology and thriving biodiversity in California. Post grad school, I would like to pursue a lot agree and offer Californians tangible change options by creating and promoting legislature, which is easy to understand and offers my constituents an opportunity to partake in a democracy to make their environment a better place to raise kids in. I have dedicated every ounce of my being since I was a child to understanding how I can create, tangible change so kids like me do not have to grow up and circumstances like I have. I truly believe I am the only person I know that is capable of doing something like this, and that the scholarship was actually made for me to finally acquired the tools that I need to be comfortable and focus my hundred percent on succeeding at these issues. I hope that is true, and I thank you so much for giving whoever wins this scholarship the opportunity to help California better itself and thank you for giving me the opportunity.

I grew up in and out of homelessness in California with a single mother until I became an emancipated minor at age 16. I took refuge in nature and often found solace in the natural world around me. My proximity to the ocean led me to start and develop a successful surfing career, which allowed me to travel the world, pursue my passion, and be deeply involved in nature and want to propose legislature and fight to protect California. Having been homeless much of my life, I used the beach as a home. I showered in the public showers, and I depended on the State Park and OC Beaches restrooms being open to brush my teeth and such. I slept on the beach and made fire from scraps of wood strewn on the beach for warmth on cold nights. Depending on my community to give me water when the fountains and showers were turned off due to the droughts in Southern California and the need to reserve our water supplies is indicative of the kinds of situations that make me want to put myself through Civil Engineering. Watching the beaches fall into the sea over my 24 years of life as a professional surfer, OC beaches lifeguard of four years, as an emancipated youth who depended on the beaches for survival, gave me much time and perspective. I began to consider our watershed cycle and the many problems we are facing with our natural waterways. I began craving anything that led to more learning about ecology, water, how the world depends on it, and how I can impact the world in a positive and tangible way. Civil engineering is my chosen major because I felt like it would give me the tools and knowledge to be able to pursue a career in bettering California's water management systems by promoting biodiversity, ecology, and independence on natural architecture. The infrastructure that was developed on what he built, and how he managed our waterways propelled me into studying the best major to hopefully re-integrate California with its once thriving natural environment. My goals have always felt ambitious, but my ambition has led me to achieve things that I never thought possible for myself. My current goals are to pursue a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, I would like to continue civil engineering and pursue a PhD, focusing in environmental science and promoting a healthy, ecology and thriving biodiversity in California. Post grad school, I would like to pursue a lot agree and offer Californians tangible change options by creating and promoting legislature, which is easy to understand and offers my constituents an opportunity to partake in a democracy to make their environment a better place to raise kids in. I have dedicated every ounce of my being since I was a child to understanding how I can create, tangible change so kids like me do not have to grow up and circumstances like I have. I truly believe I am the only person I know that is capable of doing something like this, and that the scholarship was actually made for me to finally acquired the tools that I need to be comfortable and focus my hundred percent on succeeding at these issues. I hope that is true, and I thank you so much for giving whoever wins this scholarship the opportunity to help California better itself and thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Hello! My name is River Covey, I just wanted to say that I am grateful for the opportunity to apply to this scholarship. I have been pursuing Civil Engineering with a focus on supporting our natural systems and environment seriously since my sophomore year in high school. I was born and raised in Southern California and have been an avid surfer for the last 15 years, the importance of our waterways and natural systems has been obvious to me throughout the years as I visited and enjoyed many of California's waterways, natural open spaces and beaches. In recent years, I have seen firsthand how the civil engineers of the past and their lack of foresight created problems like rampant erosion of our beaches, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, catastrophic wild fires and droughts which have plagued California as of late. It is in my opinion that my generation will be the one to inherit these issues and so it is up to us to educate ourselves and work towards finding the best alternatives and the most efficient ways of instituting those concepts. Which leads me to now, as a young adult I am driven to become a civil engineer, focused on assessing and solving many of the problems we are facing, for example infrastructure failure, droughts and ecological disasters which plague my home state and beyond. Your internship seems like a great way get real world experience that I can apply to my future goals here in California, and hopefully one day even a national level. I hope this meets the person's eyes, I would be honored to be considered for the position. Sincerely, River Covey

Hello, my name is River I am a student at Saddleback College majoring in civil engineering. I started my enrollment at Saddleback the summer of 2020 i'm so far I have complete one around 40 units it's a 3.65 GPA. Growing up, I was surrounded by negative influences. From the time I could first remember, alcohol, drug, domestic and verbal abuse where a constant attribute to my most formative years. I have dedicated every ounce of my being to excel in academia, despite being a homeless youth since the age of 15. My goal in school is to become a civil engineer, with the tools and skill sets needed to hopefully be able to have a positive impact on the water management and natural systems that we depend so heavily upon hearing California. Unfortunately, the financial stresses associated with living where I was born, where I have always been and where I belong, California is preventing me from putting in her hard work and dedication required to hopefully have a positive impact on my surrounding environment, and true parent, California. I would be beyond enthusiastic and am so lucky to be Living in a size that is true Lisa Gray and going to school that truly care of the students like me. I've worked as a sushi chef since the age of 15 specializing in Omakase for private catering events and private parties. Covid-19 heavily affected the restaurant industry and has seriously influenced my success as a chef. I took the opportunity to focus on my education and pursuing goals that I have been dreaming about. The financial stress has made supporting myself harder than usual and I be honored considered for this scholarship. I cannot stress how much it would mean to me. It would allow me to eliminate my credit card debtI have accumulated while enrolled in chemistry civil engineering science class which has acquired much of my time. I also do not have a car and take the train from Oceanside five days a week to Saddleback on my bike which is taxing to say the least on my physical and mental acuity and health. Thank you so much for your time and consideration this is truly an amazing thing that you offer for students to succeed and it will be a change my whole life for. I hope this meets the right persons eyes. River Covey