1) I am a second-year undergraduate student attending UCLA, currently planning to major in Neuroscience or Physiological Science. I am constantly pursuing side quests, including screenwriting, drumming, and photography. I have goals related to environmental and social justice, but I believe I will need funding to achieve them, which is part of the reason as to why I am pursuing a medical career, so I can fund the changes I want to see. 2) Upon acceptance to UCLA, I knew that I was going to do whatever it took to attend the school, though I was unaware of how exponential my debt would grow. This year, I took out a private loan of $36,000 for the remaining cost of attendance not covered by financial aid. My father has too much debt to support my education endeavors, and I am no longer in contact with my mom due to her substance abuse. These obstacles, though impeding, only serve to create a blank canvas for me. Exploring and researching the human body, in combination with my hobbies, is what pushes me to persevere. Today, I am painting my blank canvas with each of my career and artistic goals, but I can only continue to do so with outside financial assistance, as I cannot afford to continue relying on private loans. 3) As a microscopy hobbyist, I know that science, especially human biology, brings me solace. A career that specializes in healthcare is perfect for me because it aligns with my passion of being of service to others while bringing the solace I have always adored. Attending medical school will satisfy my intellectual curiosity, and the ability for me to make a substantial difference in the lives of others, through direct care or research, resonates with my values of using my privileges to tend to those in need. 4) From projects bringing necessities to underprivileged youth in India, to volunteering on a weekly basis at local shelters, I am committed to making change through small commitments of my time, as I am always employed and striving for high grades. Nonetheless, I always leave time in my schedule to volunteer, whether for a social justice organization or an animal shelter. 5) In my senior year of high school, I decided to self-study for the AP Calculus BC exam offered at my school. During the final three weeks of studying, I prioritized a turbulent relationship that I had found myself in, sacrificing the my time that I needed to review content from beginning of the year. While I received a passing score (a "3"), it was not enough to earn college credit, which was the reason I had decided to self-study the class. This mistake of mine taught me to first and foremost put academics first, as relationships will come and go, and do not impact my future as greatly. 6) I have learned that I am resilient and adaptable. After moving schools nine times during elementary school due to being involved with the foster system and my dad's inconsistent employment, I found it difficult to initially make friends. However, instead of prioritizing socialization, knowing that it wouldn't be soon before I moved again, I decided to get ahead in academics, creating high standards for myself in STEM. Because of the strong background that I developed, I learned to always be ahead in STEM subjects, allowing me to catch on quickly when necessary. Today, I am able to often not attend lectures and achieve A's in those classes nonetheless because of my prior knowledge that I accumulated during the most turbulent time of my life.

Growing up, I had always felt that my family's lack of faith in my abilities was an obstacle to my learning. My grandpa only ever kept photos of my brother in his home, and would fail to even acknowledge me while in the presence of my brother, despite my achievements as I ventured towards attending UCLA. From only financially supporting his educational endeavors to simply discouraging me from pursuing medicine, I realized that my family really did believe it was most convenient that I "marry rich", instead of accumulating student loan debt over a degree. Nonetheless, with my growing passion for STEM fields such as Biology and Neuroscience, I have learned that my education is so much more than a degree, stemming from my first experiences with my microscope that I had bought with my first paycheck at sixteen. On a crisp morning at 5am, I soggily dragged myself from my bed onto my chair, plugged in my microscope, and prepared a sample slide. Under the weight of my family's household turbulence and the emptiness from the absence of my family's support, I was flustered, and was willing to search for hours for the slightest movement in a sample. Under a blanket of fascination, a sample would take me far away from my distress at 5am. After enough searching, I found the most minute-appearing microorganism at 1000x magnification, clinging for its life to a piece of dirt amid the flood of water. So different, yet so similar, we were both prisoners to our instincts: to want to succeed, and to want to live. I applied the last sentence of my AP biology textbook to the moment, "We protect what we appreciate, and we appreciate what we understand." While the little creature may have only appreciated that piece of dirt in the moment, that was all that it understood. Humans, designed imperfectly, have a similar fearful nature to these creatures. Still, we can function and perform complex reasoning; we can save lives, and we can take them away. Our instincts push us to move, and abandoning hope is usually a final option. Nonetheless, we cling to our little pieces of dirt throughout hardships, in fear that our comfort zone is the only thing that can keep us safe. This familiarity brought me solace, but I knew that it was time to change, just as I am supposed to. While my family is my comfort zone, I knew that it was time to fill a boundless void in my heart. I found that this void was not a bad thing, it was simply a curiosity that needed to be fed; a demand for learning. My learning is the accumulation of centuries of experience and knowledge, from dozens of experiences of scientists and researchers that came before me. I am privileged to exist in a day where I may just assimilate this knowledge by means of a textbook, and if that textbook is simply borrowable from the library, I know that I cannot leave my interests unsatisfied. As an undergraduate, I am taking classes that can prepare me for research such as my senior capstone project as a potential Neuroscience major, and classes that can prepare me for my future career as a student that will enter the medical industry. While my family might find my endeavors demanding or unconventional for my being a woman, my microscope taught me that my curiosity needs to be fed, and I need to put my endless void of curiosity towards a field that it can help to advance.

Initially, perpetuating my sustainable lifestyle in a fast-paced university was a larger commitment than I expected. However, by reminding myself of the statistics of my ecological footprint, I always remember to make small intentional choices at the dorms that can accumulate to a larger lifetime impact. The origins of my sustainable mentality arose from science classes, and individuals I was raised by. While taking AP Environmental Science in eleventh grade, I learned that if everyone lived like me, we would need four Earths. This staggering statistic made me insecure about my negative footprint on the Earth, and brought me to begin practicing several sustainable habits. To me, walking up to a trash can with plastic to throw away has NEVER felt good. For this reason, I treat the root of the problem by avoiding single-use plastic products so more of my waste is either compostable or recyclable. I have taken it upon myself to always carry PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) straws that decompose within six weeks, or my favorite brand “These Straws Don’t Suck”, which are very strong paper straws. This way, when I grab coffee with a friend who is resentful about the advent of paper straws on campus, I can hand them a stronger and still sustainable alternative that will help them to realize that plastic straws, while durable, are not their only choice. Additionally, using reusable cloth tote bags to carry groceries or transport items is not only more comfortable than plastic bags, but it literally looks cooler. Buying graphic tote bags as gifts for my friends helps them feel encouraged to take part in a sustainable lifestyle in a fashionable way, as this can be more effective than simply advocating for better sustainable choices. The initial influence on my sustainable lifestyle were my foster parents of two years. When returning to my actual family, who was never interested in environmental awareness, I felt as if I was speaking to a brick wall when trying to spread sustainable practices. Not everyone is privileged enough to be raised in a setting that educates them about caring for the planet, as I learned that many families are not educated on sustainable living. As people grow more rigid in their beliefs, sometimes the best method of encouraging sustainable lifestyles is demonstrating that it can be more convenient, for example, using tote bags or reusable containers instead of single-use items that can drain money over time. A commitment that I had always prepared myself for when entering college was my goal of becoming vegetarian. However, converting to the UCLA meal plan system from convenient at-home cooking made it initially harder to commit. Therefore, I decided to change my diet one week day at a time. Currently, I only consume meat on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. My goal is to reduce this to only one day per week by the end of this year, and finally be completely vegetarian by my third year of college. Using an online water footprint calculator, I know that on my vegetarian days, I am using about 200 less gallons of water than my meat-eating days, which is a statistic that makes the slow cut of meat from my life absolutely worth it. To me, the goal of sustainable living isn’t about perfection, but progress. Over time, my small, intentional choices can collectively make a larger difference that can even be calculated by the means of a simple online footprint calculator. By encouraging people close to me to adopt the same mentality, I am doing my part in preserving the planet that has nurtured the human species thus far.

Ever since I met Kira, my goal in Minecraft has never been to beat the Ender Dragon, or even reach the Nether (falling in lava and losing all my things tests my patience). In second grade, I was brought into a foster family who had a dog named Kira. Kira was absolutely everything to me; I made several heart lockets with hastily printed, low-quality photos of her face stuck by Elmer’s glue to them, and would wear them for days straight. I would try and sleep in her dog bed with her as a seven year old before my foster mom would send me to bed. I even taped pictures of myself to her pink collar, claiming it was a friendship bracelet for her because to me, we were best friends, and transcended the mere companionship of other dogs and humans. Years later, I came back to visit my foster parents, and they informed me with ease that Kira passed away. They had clearly gotten over it so quickly, which almost insulted me, as Kira was an ethereal being in my then eleven-year old mind that deserved months, even years, of grief and worship of her legacy. I could not fathom how quickly and gracefully they accepted her passing. I cried for days as I fell asleep, drowning in the belief that I couldn’t see her once more before she passed. I am now eighteen, attending UCLA as a second-year undergraduate, and have a new doggy at home. Everytime I create a new world on Minecraft, however, I build a house that resembles that of my foster parents’ as my new cabin in the world. Inside, I keep a wolf with a pink collar, so I can always meet Kira’s soulful gaze in a fictional world.

Warning: Spoilers for "Sound of Metal" on Amazon Prime Video "Sound of Metal", directed by Darius Marder, is not a film I entirely resonate with, as I am not a member of the deaf community, but with every watch, it has taught me a story of resilience and identity. "Sound of Metal", to me, transcends entertainment to become a reflection of the human condition as we adapt to challenges thrown at us at rapid-fire. The protagonist, Ruben Stone, a heavy metal drummer, faces a life-altering challenge when he begins to lose his hearing. Ruben is forced to grapple a future without sound, and seek a new identity, as his previous one is deeply intertwined with his passion for playing drums. While watching this movie, I have again and again contemplated how his situation might be avoidable. Doctors informed Ruben that his loss of hearing was tied to him consistently surrounding himself with loud environments as a drummer. Though it would have been hard for him to foresee this circumstance, I question whether Ruben would have avoided playing drums altogether if it meant that he could keep his hearing forever. In joining the deaf community, Ruben witnesses how they interpret deafness not as a disability, but a unique way of perceiving the world. This mindset has been very impactful for me, and has enabled me to push through circumstances flung at me, such as my mother’s periodic relapses. Ruben had recovered from addiction but was then faced with a completely new challenge of adapting to being deaf. Witnessing sobriety and deterioration constantly around me growing up has allowed me to see that life does not make promises, which is a theme encompassed in "Sound of Metal". It is especially seen when Ruben, at the end of the film, purchases cochlear implants, but learns that they do not even reflect traditional hearing. Though the film ends on this note, seeing Ruben’s pattern of acceptance leads me to believe that he will adapt once again, and that he will do it with grace. "Sound of Metal" speaks directly to my heart, as I have learned again and again that humans are malleable. We are blank canvases that grow resilient to physical and emotional turmoil. Whether watched for the first time or the hundredth, "Sound of Metal" allows me to acknowledge that familiarity brings me solace, but change is what allows me to appreciate what once was. In turn, I adapt, and I change, just as I am supposed to.

Childhood is like a bowling alley; you are an intrepid bowling ball with the safety of bumpers and a goal ahead. By adulthood, the bumpers vanish, but so do the pins, and the entire aisle. All you are is a solus bowling ball in an empty field, with nowhere to go. Perplexed, while riding our bikes, my brother and I hear sirens. Seated on the warm hood of the police car, the nice lady in blue asked us questions, reminding me to conceal the truth. However, the lies I was conditioned to repeat wouldn't work this time. First seeing my foster mom at the assessment center, I thought my brother and I were going to be adopted, and possibilities began to unfold in my mind of what my mom had always threatened with the term “foster care”. She had described to me tauntingly how I would be sexually abused and used for money, but on the car ride back, my foster mom was informing us of their pets that my brother and I might like. I felt tension immediately lifted from my shoulders hearing that there was a dog, Kira, who my brother and I could pet whenever we wanted. During our time there, Sara had me pursue daily habits that preserved the environment. She invited me to bond with animals at every opportunity and explore science, where my mom had always been opposed to anyone in the family interacting with animals because of her upbringing. From the constant physical fights and substance abuse, my foster parents were now exemplifying a healthy family dynamic to my brother and I that today still gives me hope of being a wanted part of a family in the future by adopting children. After leaving foster care the first time, my brother and I experienced physical and verbal abuse as my parents relapsed. Immediately coming home, instead of going straight to pet Kira, I was once again hiding from my intoxicated mother. We returned again to foster care, to our luck with the same foster parents. In the last six years since we were returned home, the duality of the situation became clear. While my parents gained sobriety, their behaviors changed in incongruous ways that led me to believe I was living in a villain origin story. They were finally able to divorce, but our financial state forced us to remain in the same household, with constant fights and discomfort. Nonetheless, my two cumulative years in foster care genuinely gave me hope of a future where I can pursue my dreams without discouragement. Being in foster care gave me a glimpse of possibility. My foster parents were encouraging and instated the morals that I’ve kept until now, despite the abuse that continued after I returned from foster care for good. At times, I felt like I had already reached adulthood because of the fast-pacedness of constantly changing elementary schools. However, my empty field became a blank canvas; a place of self-empowerment and creativity as I understood my potential; reached far beyond a turbulent past, and that I am not incorrigible. I found subjects that grasped my interests, and pursued them. I organized a non-profit, acquired a job, paid for classes that were related to my interests, and finally realized that the discouragement I faced was a mental barrier that I could dismantle with my achievements. Today, I can look back on my development of character with exhilaration; and I can say foster care quite literally changed the trajectory of my life, and was what I consider the greatest influence on who I am today.

“I would rather drive us home than her,” my brother jested while looking at my mom, who was drunk and had just picked us up from our afterschool program. It was Thursday. “Really?” She laughed. “Do it.” He refused, but she was now set on the idea. My brother was twelve years old at the time, and made the joke to lighten the situation. The house was only a few blocks away, but my brother had no driving experience. Luckily, after being on the road for a few minutes, my intoxicated mother took over and we made it home safely, only for her to forget this moment by the next day. A year earlier, she had showed up to my class to volunteer while inebriated, and I found myself humiliated. When she became sober, I cried and blamed her for the embarrassment, but she fought back because she did not recall it. I reflected that this was typical to happen on a Thursday, for every incident fortuitously happened on a Thursday. My brother would often wake me in the morning when my mom was drunk, and tell me that it was time to hide. When we were found, she would grab us and scream into our ears as loud as she could, and hit us if we moved. This became normal, unless it wasn’t on a Thursday, in which case it became a concern. I have not faced physical abuse since being returned from the foster system. However, my statement to the court taunted my mother, who denied any of the abuse happened because she did not recall any of it. She scolded me for years for lying to the courts, believing she was a victim of the situation. I was often put in a situation of moral compromise: falsely admitting that I lied to court about her abuse, or gaslighting her to understand that she was abusive while intoxicated. I have turned my back on the past since then, but every so often, my mom will bring up a moment that she remembers from when I was seven: She showed up at the house door, sober and exhilarated to see us. My brother and I looked at each other, and then my brother said something along the lines of, “You’re not supposed to be here,” and shut the door as I watched. Everytime this memory is brought up, my mother is brought to tears, though I never recalled this incident. Since then, my mother has always contemplated living with me because our doorstep is tainted with my betrayal for her. This put my mom and I into the same boat, as we were both guilty of things we don't remember. Eventually, I joined a program called Alateen, and became a secretary for my local meeting. The purpose of the program is to provide an emotional outlet and steps of acceptance to teens living with family experiencing addiction. At Alateen, I shared my story repeatedly until I could pick out my part. I learned to accept that I harmed my mother emotionally, and learned to make amends. With a change in my attitude, my mom began to treat me differently. Today, the household turbulence has toned down, though some behaviors of past alcoholism have yet to fade away. My ability to achieve academically despite the situation has given me confidence to do more, no matter the circumstances I am facing. I can say the main takeaways of my application are that my name is Sapna, I am an academic nerd, and today, my favorite day of the week is Thursday.

The dream version of my future self is a blank canvas, where I can express my creativity in ways that will be administrative to my peers and individuals across the world without having to individually meet them-- whether that be through innovations in biology or film, accommodating to their personal barriers that prevent them from contributing to a sustainable world.

How can a single bacterium of such insignificant size have a consequential effect on a person? On the dynamics of a city? On the globe? Floating on a rock in the middle of space, where physics are on a much larger scale, but still affected by a miniscule organism that lacks a conscience as far as we know. Immunology has had a very personal impact on my life. My mom is allergic to dog and cat dander, and I share the same allergy at a smaller severity. My parents stayed separated, but not divorced for a very long time due to financial struggle. My mom moved back into our home, where our hypoallergenic dog resides, when they finally got divorced with the same financial state. Though she had no visible reaction to the dog, she became extremely germophobic, and had me adapt to the same habits. I have to use gloves around the house, and sanitize constantly. I do most of the housework in order to protect her allergies from anything touched by dander from the dog. While exposing herself to the dog's dander could have built immunity, the argument would just become a gaslighting cycle between us. While committing to these habits, I would often ask myself: from what was I protecting myself from that required such extreme measures? The experience of Covid-19 in my sophomore year led me back to the same question. Within a month of the initial announcement of Covid-19, there were posters everywhere giving basic instructions on how to wash hands, and sanitizers at every store corner. As someone who lives in the bay area of California, I was able to witness an explosion of cases in the concentrated city of Fremont. I was very curious as to how such a small bacterium born somewhere across the world could have such a significant, global impact that could reach my city in such a short period of time. The question returned. What are we so desperately protecting ourselves from, that is not even visible to the plain eye? Is it really a microorganism with no conscience, floating in the middle of its own space, only apparent at 1000x magnification? While taking AP Biology in junior year, I became increasingly interested in the study of bacteria, having such interesting mechanisms like operons, which function as an on-off switch. Within two weeks of being employed as a seasonal cashier in junior year, I decided to invest into a microscope to explore the smaller worlds that bacteria reside in. This furthered my interest in immunology, as I began to apply my knowledge from AP Biology to what I was studying outside of school. I would list locations that I thought could be a good source of microorganisms, then sample and grow them at home until they were mature enough to study. While the most intriguing microorganisms were eukaryotes, the prokaryotic bacteria were always advantaged in samples with their ability to easily populate an area. Microbiology became a hobby that looked forward to everyday; I always kept some sampling equipment on me wherever I went. I found that the most visually boring things could be a micro-cosmos if looked at them in the right magnification. The medical field of immunology will always tie me back to my mother's allergies, and the germaphobia that I adopted over time. I wish to pursue it in order to settle the questions that have repeatedly crept back into my mind with repeating experiences with bacteria. The relationship between human immunity and bacteria is magnificent, and I truly wish to contribute to its study.

Something I would like to mention before discussing solutions is that I love all living things, especially, bugs, which are the basis of many ecosystems. I love all animals and their practicalities. If I could remove all humans permanently from the Earth to ensure that its natural beauty could be preserved, I absolutely would. Of course, not all humans would agree to this. In fact, I don't think anyone would agree to this. The effects of humans on the planet might be coming to an incorrigible end. It is difficult to persuade individuals of different backgrounds to care about a subject such as climate change or animal welfare that has become popularized in the recent decades, especially if they have been building towards goals related to industry or economic well-being all their career. Therefore, implementing solutions that can be used on a global scale will take some convincing, and their benefits will have to be emphasized the most. The first solution that I believe can be applied on a wide scale is eco-bricking. Eco-bricking uses plastic bottles packed with plastic wrappers that would otherwise be thrown away (and in many cases, end up in the environment) to help build products such as furniture or buildings. Instead of constantly investing in new materials to essentially fill empty space in daily utilities, such as walls or insides of benches, eco-bricking could stimulate the economy as an elastic resource, appeasing those who want to prioritize the economy over the environment, and prevent increasing plastic outflow into waste disposal centers. Eco-bricking could be a solution similar to recycling, where it impacts individuals by asking that they pack their plastic eco-bricks themselves with their daily leftover wrappers and such, or it could become a form of employment similar to recycling centers. The drawback to eco-bricking is that it does not address the root problem, which is overuse of plastic. The reason I believe eco-bricking is a good solution at the moment is because fully converting companies to paper or other material instead of plastic will not appease economists who prioritize gross domestic product. Therefore, eco-bricking is a good temporary solution as environmentalists brainstorm a way to address the root problem of plastic overuse. The second solution that I believe can be applied is improvement of welfare in meat-producing farms. Factory farms usually have the highest output of product, making prices cheaper, and allowing consumers to not question the origin of their food. However, not only is factory farming or "cage-free" farming morally wrong, but it leads to more contagious disease outbreaks and unhealthier food. While it takes up the least land, concentrated-feeding operations produce many pollutants that disturb surrounding ecosystems anyways. A way to combat the effects of CAFOS is for the government to subsidy factory farms to convert to spacious and healthier farms. Free-grazing has been pointed out to deplete vegetation, but if animals graze rotationally, there is enough time for vegetation to replenish. Eliminating factory farms completely would again, fluster the economy, therefore, factory farms simply need to be reformed, not removed. In conclusion, most changes that need to be made in the next few years to combat environmental crises will need to satisfy both economists and environmentalists, who each wish to prioritize their own fields. A production possibilities frontier will need to be created between the environment and the economy, with a priority set in between the two that can lead to long-term sustainability. My personal lifelong goal is to dedicate time and money to organizations that can help guarantee long-term sustainability, or create an organization that can fulfill this obligation that humans have to the planet.