I am on my second-life career/education and could not be more thrilled. As a former actor then casting director and now web and graphic designer, I returned to school after having my second child because I wanted to transition into a career that is more socially engaged and design-orientated in order to equip myself with the skills to tackle the greatest challenges facing our society in the coming years. I am deeply passionate about the environment and hope to apply my skills as a creative, empathetic and innovative design thinker and leader to collaborate with diverse teams in order to find realistic and empowering solutions to improve our climate intelligence and resiliency. I would be honored to be the recipient of your scholarship, as being a full-time mom and grad student, while also running my own design firm, limits the amount of work I can take on and makes it quite difficult to earn a salary that we can live on. With a little support I will be able to pay back my student loans and get on with the important work of tackling real challenges like climate change, food insecurity, affordable education and anything else I am fortunate enough to be able to contribute to.