I grew up loving sports and competition. As a young child, I played t-ball which turned into softball, and recreational soccer which led me to a two year Varsity captain position. For years, I spent hours in the dance studio and on the ski mountain, pushing myself to become the strongest athlete I could. Now in college, I have joined the University of Miami's Women's Ultimate Frisbee Club team, challenging myself to learn an entirely new sport and how to properly throw a frisbee-- which is far more difficult than I thought, might I add. I had always watched Disney movies as a child, but I had a hard time relating to the princesses and the stories of beautiful gowns and being saved by princes. I was raised to be strong and independent, and as much as I loved those movies, I never felt like they reflected the kind of person I wanted to become. That distance and separation I felt from Disney movies disappeared after watching Mulan. A princess who defied the norms, harnessed incredible mental and physical strength, and who valued her family above all else. I finally felt connected to a princess. I saw Mulan's spirituality and how highly she valued her family and their honor, and I felt inspired by that. I felt even more inspired by how strong she became. I saw her bravery, devotion and defiance, and I finally felt like I could relate to a Disney princess. The messages and lessons to be learned from Mulan always seemed far more profound and important to me than other Disney movies. I'm sure as many others would agree, instilling a foundation of strength in young women is key to making them feel like they can be whoever they want to be. I am proud and so happy to have found a Disney princess I could relate to who made me feel like wanting to be strong was a good thing. This is why Mulan is my favorite Disney character, she made me feel good about wanting to be strong and wanting to be myself.

Since my interest in environmental science was sparked, I have found connections in all parts of my life that I had never known were there. I always knew that what I chose to eat effects the environment, but I never knew to what extent. I knew that cutting down trees contributed to climate change, but I never knew how vast the affects were. I knew about soil erosion and ocean acidification, but never understood enough to realize the implications. I plan to major in Environmental Studies or similar major, depending on specific programs, with a focus on Environmental Policy and Resource Management. I also plan to minor in Political Science in order to balance my education and better prepare myself for a career in environmental advocacy. As of now, I plan to also pursue a Masters Degree in Sustainability. I hope to work specifically in marine advocacy, but I am interested in all aspects of environmental studies and hope to gain as much knowledge as possible during my undergraduate and graduate studies. No matter what specific career I end up in, my major goal is to protect the planet's natural resources from overuse, pollution and destruction. I want to help build a more sustainable society where we as humans thrive without destroying the planet we rely on. My family has been working to reduce our impact since I started bringing home what I learned from environmental science class. We started watching documentaries and investigative movies about climate change and in turn, altered a lot of our habits to become less impactful. Advice that I give my friends that is easily replicable is to reduce your overall consumption of meat and start with a small goal like Meatless Mondays; to take shorter showers; focus on recycling; thrift new clothes and donate your old instead of buying new and throwing out the old; use reusable water bottles; avoid using plastic bags and either ask for paper or use reusable ones; source locally and buy from farmers markets and organic sources; and the last and truly easiest option is to subscribe to an environmental news source and keep up with how climate change is affecting the world. I always find myself surprised as to how little people really understand about the environment. I want to work in environmental advocacy for that exact reason: I want people to understand that they are not helpless in the saving the planet and I want to educate them about how they can have a positive impact. I strongly believe that I shouldn't have had to take AP Environmental Science before I understood how harmful humans are to the environment. I think the information and conversations about the environment should be more accessible and common. I want to be a part of the mission to inform people, protect resources, save species and heal the planet.

Protecting the environment is a far larger task than can be completed by just one person. My impact on the planet is a small in comparison to humanity's entire impact, and I am only one person out of the 7.9 billion people on the planet who are making an impact, so what can I really do, right? That is the average person’s attitude towards climate change. They believe that their actions won’t have a big enough impact to make a difference. Well, they’re wrong. I have already begun my journey to reduce my impact: I do not eat any fish, beef and I consume very little meat overall; I only use reusable water bottles and avoid using single-use products; I am apart of a project at my school that is working with UNH Professor Emeritus Dr. Barry Rock to remove plastic trash and polluting debris from the ocean; and I encourage my friends, family and peers to reduce their own impacts. Climate change and environmental health effect everyone on the planet, and without more individual contribution and genuine efforts from governments, climate change will persist and worsen. The only way to make change on the large scale is to start with the small scale: the individual. The best way that I can have a positive impact on the planet is by using my voice. I think that informing, educating and getting as many people as possible worried about our planet’s health is the best way to incite change. My reduced footprint is a good start, but my greatest tool in helping the environment would be spread my knowledge to others. People need to know they they can make a difference, and right now that is what is preventing individuals and entire governments from taking the next steps.

Ocean pollution, overfishing and failure to protect marine ecosystems are all factors contributing to the destruction of our oceans. As disheartening as it is that marine life is suffering in these conditions, what is more tragic is the lack of awareness people have for such an important issue. Environmental advocacy has been reaching more people in recent years, but it still isn't enough. Every person who is in a comfortable living situation and has the ability to be concerned for the health of the planet should be making a daily effort to reduce their impact, and right now, that doesn't happen. Healthy oceans are vital to the survival of the planet. The ocean regulates climate, supports a vast number of diverse ecosystems, is the planet's largest carbon sink, provides a means for transporting goods overseas, and supplies a food source for people around the world. Now, why aren't we doing more to protect it? This is the problem I want to solve. I want to inform and educate people about the importance of ocean health while working to protect marine life and ecosystems through combating overfishing practices, revitalizing struggling ecosystems and cleaning up pollution. In the past few months, an environmental science group from my high school has been working with Dr. Barry Rock, Professor Emeritus from the University of New Hampshire's Earth Systems Research Center, in order to improve ocean health. We have been collaborating with him on his pilot project which uses the Sally Ride EarthKAM aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to take images of the oceans and locate anomalies that could be plastic trash and "ghost nets" floating in the Pacific. We were the first group of high school students to request images by submitting coordinates to the EarthKAM mission site and the first to analyze the images we received for anomalies. In two of the images we received, we detected anomalies that could be plastic trash accumulating in the Pacific Ocean. We passed the exact coordinates to Dr. Rock, who passed them on to a team on the US West Coast led by Mary Crowley whose fleet would go remove the trash. Those ships then went out to those coordinates and successfully removed ghost nets and other trash from the oceans. My group is the first in the country to successfully have identified anomalies in the Pacific where ocean trash was found. To document our efforts and spread awareness about the issue, I designed and published a website that can be shared with the public for people to follow our project through blog posts. My career goal is to make more positive impacts like this on a larger scale. Marine conservation advocacy groups all over the world are already working to inform the public and strive to protect the oceans, and I want to be apart of those missions. This project with Dr. Rock has given me a taste of the impact I could have on the planet through protecting the oceans, and I want to have the kind of positive affect through my career. I hope to gain an education that will provide me with the tools I need to work for conservation advocacy groups and other outreach teams who have projects like this that I can be a part of. Dr. Rock's pilot project is the first time satellite imaging has been used to locate plastic, and one day I hope to find a new way and spearhead a project that will better our ocean and planet health.