Being a first-generation student means breaking a cycle to me. Growing up, I watched my mom and dad come home exhausted and barely making it paycheck to paycheck. When I became a teenager, my mom shared with us how much she struggled with anxiety and fear from the lack of money she and my father were able to provide. With my mom becoming a single parent when I was 11, it shaped the greatest challenge we could have faced: half the income and the same bills. That time period shaped me into who I am, and after facing the worst challenge of my life this summer using the skills she taught me, I survived. The day my mother picked me up from college, my mother sat me down in our living room and told me that she was kicking me out. I had until August to get out, but it seemed like as soon as possible was the timeline in her head. Over the next two weeks, whenever I was home, I was yelled at for being there, and soon I found out the reason for her sudden change of heart was that she wanted to focus on my little sister and not me. I took the hint eventually and packed up my most precious belongings. Luckily for me, I had gotten a job at a summer camp as an overnight counselor and was housed for the weekdays. Weekends, I couch surfed until I could move into my apartment. this was the hardest challenge of my life, not because I was kind of homeless but because me and my mom were really close before this, we never fought and talked daily, the hardest part was the mental damage I took after. I looked up to her as a single mom and the last parental figure that cared. I am still overcoming this challenge, but I have found some peace in finding a home at camp, and in my apartment, I feel a sense of peace and comfort I hadn't felt in a long time. My goal with my degree is to become a park ranger. It has been a goal for years because I’m not cut out for a 9-to-5 in an office, and being a park ranger feels like the right place for me to be. Another important reason I am getting a degree is another goal I have. I have the goal of restoring the farmland of the 114 acres back to what it used to be before human interference. And with a few side projects, like creating a small prairie for bees, I hope to lessen the impact of what has been done to the land, little by little. I love the outdoors; I love learning and getting an education, and with this scholarship, I will be able to find a sense of stability in my degree while I get my degree. Thank you for your consideration and for your goal of helping people with their education.

Education, to me, is the opportunity to build a meaningful life through curiosity, purpose, and responsibility. A college degree is more than a credential; it is a path toward work I will love and a way to contribute to both people and the environment. Through higher education, I hope to turn my interest in humanity, history, and conservation into a career and a lifelong commitment to stewardship. I have always been fascinated by people: how they lived in the past, how they live today, and why they make the choices they do. That curiosity has drawn me to anthropology and archaeology. Humans have existed for millions of years, creating societies, adapting to new environments, domesticating animals, developing technologies, and leaving behind evidence of their lives. The way people live is always changing. In only the last 150 years, the world has been transformed by cars, the internet, and the expansion of rights for women and people of color. I want to study the stories behind those changes and understand how culture, environment, and history shape people’s lives. My passion for anthropology extends beyond what is required in school. I took AP U.S. History and independently read an AP World History textbook because I wanted to learn more about cultures and historical change. I have also researched colleges, archaeological field schools, and career paths so that I can make informed decisions about my future. I am motivated by questions: What makes people who they are? How do communities respond to challenges? What can the past teach us about the present? I try to put that curiosity into practice by asking people thoughtful questions and listening to their experiences. Those conversations have taught me that studying humanity is not simply about collecting facts; it requires empathy, respect, and the willingness to understand perspectives different from my own. With a degree in anthropology, I hope to become a field archaeologist and eventually a park ranger. I know I would be most fulfilled working outside rather than spending every day in an office. Archaeology would allow me to travel, conduct field research, and help preserve the stories of communities whose lives might otherwise be forgotten. Working as a park ranger would connect my interests in history and conservation while allowing me to educate visitors about the importance of protecting cultural and natural resources. Education is also important to me because of the responsibility I feel toward my family’s land. My father owns 114 acres of farmland, and I hope to take on its care someday. While my siblings have not shown interest in continuing the family farm, I see the land as a legacy and an opportunity. I want to restore parts of the property, reduce the impact of past land use, and create projects that support local ecosystems. One of my goals is to establish a small prairie habitat for bees and other pollinators. Even small changes can help rebuild healthier relationships between people and the land they depend on. A scholarship would help make these goals attainable. It would allow me to focus more fully on earning my degree, preparing for fieldwork, and gaining the knowledge needed to care for cultural resources and the environment responsibly. Through education, I hope to preserve stories from the past, serve people in the present, and leave the land entrusted to me healthier for the future.

Hello, Harvest Scholarship for Women Dreamers Committee, My name is Shyra Krueger, and my passion for conservation and environmental science is deeply rooted in my upbringing and personal experiences. Growing up on my family’s 114-acre farm, my childhood was shaped by the natural world around me. The fields, swamps, and forests became my playground, and I learned firsthand to respect the intricate balance of ecosystems. My parents, both avid hikers, ensured that every summer meant road trips to parks and wild spaces across the United States. Through these travels, I developed an admiration for the nation’s varied landscapes, from mountain passes and desert canyons to ancient woodlands and sprawling prairies. These experiences left a lasting impression on me, not only instilling a love for being outdoors but also sparking a deep curiosity to understand and ultimately help protect our environment. As I grew older, the time spent exploring our land and venturing into new environments made me realize that my future lay in a career where I could be outside, not confined to a traditional office. Becoming a park ranger is my primary career goal because it aligns with my love for nature, my sense of adventure, and my dedication to conservation. Park rangers play a crucial role in safeguarding natural resources, educating visitors, and ensuring that wild places remain accessible and healthy for future generations. I hope that, by earning a degree in Conservation and Environmental Sciences, I can make a positive impact both on a professional level and within my community. However, my aspirations extend beyond my professional life. My degree is also a step toward fulfilling a personal mission: restoring and stewarding my family’s land. None of my siblings has shown interest in continuing the farm or taking care of the land, so it falls to me to honor its legacy and rejuvenate its ecosystems. My vision is to restore the farmland to its original prairie and woodland state, undoing decades of human interference and agricultural modification. I am particularly passionate about enhancing pollinator habitat, and one of my concrete goals is to establish a thriving prairie plot on the property that will provide nourishment and sanctuary for bees and other native insects. This project will not only help revive biodiversity on our land but also contribute to broader conservation efforts to address declining pollinator populations. I am extremely grateful for organizations like yours that care about the empowerment of women and support students like me. Receiving your scholarship would make a real difference by supporting my education, empowering me to pursue my park ranger career, and helping me realize my vision of ecological stewardship and restoration. Thank you for considering my application, and for your commitment to supporting women's dreams and meaningful change.

Hello Environmental Kindness Scholarship Committee, My name is Shyra Krueger, and my passion for conservation and environmental science is deeply rooted in my upbringing and personal experiences. Growing up on my family’s 114-acre farm, my childhood was shaped by the natural world around me. The fields, swamps, and forests became my playground, and I learned firsthand to respect the intricate balance of ecosystems. My parents, both avid hikers, ensured that every summer meant road trips to parks and wild spaces across the United States. Through these travels, I developed an admiration for the nation’s varied landscapes, from mountain passes and desert canyons to ancient woodlands and sprawling prairies. These experiences left a lasting impression on me, not only instilling a love for being outdoors but also sparking a deep curiosity to understand and ultimately help protect our environment. As I grew older, the time spent exploring our land and venturing into new environments made me realize that my future lay in a career where I could be outside, not confined to a traditional office. Becoming a park ranger is my primary career goal because it aligns with my love for nature, my sense of adventure, and my dedication to conservation. Park rangers play a crucial role in safeguarding natural resources, educating visitors, and ensuring that wild places remain accessible and healthy for future generations. I hope that, by earning a degree in Conservation and Environmental Sciences, I can make a positive impact both on a professional level and within my community. However, my aspirations extend beyond my professional life. My degree is also a step toward fulfilling a personal mission: restoring and stewarding my family’s land. None of my siblings has shown interest in continuing the farm or taking care of the land, so it falls to me to honor its legacy and rejuvenate its ecosystems. My vision is to restore the farmland to its original prairie and woodland state, undoing decades of human interference and agricultural modification. I am particularly passionate about enhancing habitat for pollinators, and one of my concrete goals is to establish a thriving prairie plot on the property that will provide nourishment and sanctuary for bees and native insects. This project will not only help revive biodiversity on our land, but also contribute to larger conservation efforts addressing declining pollinator populations. I am extremely grateful for organizations like yours that care about the future of our planet and support students like me. Receiving your scholarship would make a real difference by supporting my education, empowering me to pursue my park ranger career, and helping me realize my vision of ecological stewardship and restoration. Thank you for considering my application, and for your commitment to supporting environmental advocacy and meaningful change.

I am a weird kid. I have always been a weird kid. Looking back on my grade school years, classmates found reasons to tease me over my weight, my name, or how I read aloud. But over time, I realized that instead of hiding my “weirdness,” I could embrace it. That shift in perspective became one of the most defining lessons of my life. In my elementary school days, they found a problem with my weight, my name, and the I read. My favorite story of elementary school is when we had to do presentations on our origins, the presentation was on where our ancestors are from and the origins of our names. If you look at my name you can tell that it is unique, the origin of my name is a kind of moose that lives across the Midwest and Canada. My father chose my name in a very unique way and it's my favorite story. When he was young his family was poor. They lived on a farm and after a bad harvest they couldn't afford to feed all the animals, so what was their solution you may ask. My dad and uncle went hunting, they were hoping for bucks or a bear so they could sell the meat and pelt but instead a huge moose came along. They kill the moose and bring it back to the family farm where they sell the meat and pelt but keep the head as a prize. That moose head lives in my grandfather's garage as a reminder of what my dad and uncle did. I'm always in awe of that story, but my peers didn't think so! I was nicknamed Moosey for the next few years. I used to hate my name because of it but with my switch in perspective made me realize how amazing my name is. When I started middle school, I embraced the weird in a new way. I stopped caring what the world thought about me and started doing things for me. I stopped caring about who I should be friends with within the social hierarchy and that is when I met my real friends. The first time I dyed my hair was with those friends, I wanted purple hair. I faced judgement at school for my hair, but they always stayed by my side. They helped me realize that personal confidence is stronger than the judgement of others. I would go on to dye my hair for years until about 2 years ago when I decided to stop. In doing so I embraced my natural hair color and learned to be even more confident in myself. Through all the stories I could tell about my schooling experience there is one question that always arises in me. Why do others act the way they do? That is what Anthropology is, learning about humans to better understand why they do what they do. Instead of judging back or being mean back I would much rather understand the why. The question is bigger than that now, why did humans do what they did throughout history? What do we not understand about the cultures we don't see every day? I want to answer these questions, not just for myself but for the people who are still looking for answers. Thank you for considering my application to the Silver Maple Fund Legacy Scholarship. With your support, I hope to continue transforming the curiosity that once set me apart into the foundation of my studies in anthropology, so that I can better understand others, and help others feel understood.

I am a historian, a scientist, an anthropologist, an archeologist, a student, a sister, an aunt, a niece, and a daughter. In my life I play many roles, and I will continue to play those roles as I get older. I dream of traveling the world and learning everything this world will let me. Not only do I want to learn about the world but I will get my PhD and become a pioneer for women in the field of archeology and anthropology in a male dominated field. I hope to influence the people and the next generation of my family to be their own person despite societal norms. I do not want children or a family, my legacy is my nieces and nephew and the work I do. I play many roles in my life but my favorite is an aunt. My nieces and nephew are one of my biggest drives in life. I want to do whatever I can to help them be successful in life because they deserve the world. In my travels across the globe I hope to teach them and immerse them in experiences they wouldn't otherwise be able to try and do. I may not be able to spoil them in my riches, because that won't exist, but I can spoil them in knowledge and the love that I have for them and with a college degree I can do that. Furthermore, I hope to show them a different lifestyle and that it's ok to not conform to what everyone else wants. I want those kids to be comfortable in whatever they do and don't feel like they are being judged for it, and I want them to be able to stand up for themselves when they do get judged for going against what others want. A college degree to me means living a life that I can love. I find people fascinating and a degree in anthropology will set me up to become a field archeologist. I will travel around the world and learn about the people past and present in this world. Every part of humans from their ways of life to how they evolved. Humans are constantly changing and that's what makes them so different from the other species I could study. Humans have existed for 2 million years, we have created societies, domesticated animals, and fought wars. Even the day to day lives of people are always changing. Just in the last 150 years we have gained cars, the internet, and given women and people of color rights. There is so much history in this world to learn and there is so much history in the making that we can be a part of and I want to be a part of it. I am passionate about people, more specifically studying them. I ask questions like what makes them tick, what are their lives like, why do they do what they do. I have researched and learned as much as I can about history, I took AP US History, and I read the AP world history textbook just so I can learn more. I also have researched field schools and colleges and picked out the best ones I can to get the best education I can. I try putting my research into practice by asking questions to people and I have learned so much because of it and I have become a better human because of it. Thank you for your consideration and remember there is a lot to learn in this world so we should never stop learning.

Hello, my name is Shyra Krueger, I plan on going to UW Milwaukee for Anthropology and becoming a researcher. I have always had a fascination with how humans work and why they do what they do. I hope after college I can travel around the world to be able to learn about the unknowns of cultures and ways of life that humans experience and that takes a college degree in which this scholarship can help me afford to go. As an anthropologist I want to do archeology and be the first to discover something incredible and be able to show the rest of the world what I have found. I also wish to go to cultures that people like me don't get to see everyday and learn their way of life. I want to know what lessons I can learn from them to improve and then continue sharing the lessons. My entire career plan is to become a field researcher until I am physically not able then continue as a college professor until I'm no longer able to. I wish to learn and share knowledge for all of my life and this is the best way I can do that. Learning from our past can launch us into a better future and as the next generation takes over I have high hopes that the past can teach us to be better humans and humble us when remembering where we came from. Another way I can make the world a better place is by going into villages of isolated communities and learning about them. Shedding their world in the modern world could help people be less ignorant and maybe take the lessons we learn from them and maybe their lessons will help the rest of the world become better people. We will never know until we actually try. I chose Anthropology and Archeology because I find people fascinating. Every part of them from their ways of life to how they evolved. Humans are constantly changing and that's what makes them so different from the other species I could study. Humans have existed for 2 million years, we have created societies, domesticated animals, and fought wars. Even the day to day lives of people are always changing. Just in the last 150 years we have gained cars, the internet, and given women and people of color rights. There is so much history in this world to learn and there is so much history in the making that we can be a part of and I want to be a part of it.

The world has so much knowledge to offer and I want to know it all. The scholarship will launch my education in Anthropology and Archeology by funding my college education and field school. I dream of traveling the world and learning everything this world will let me. Not only do I want to learn about the world but I will get my PhD and become a pioneer for women in the field of archeology and anthropology because it is a male dominated field. I chose Anthropology and Archeology because I find people fascinating. Every part of them from their ways of life to how they evolved. Humans are constantly changing and that's what makes them so different from the other species I could study. Humans have existed for 2 million years, we have created societies, domesticated animals, and fought wars. Even the day to day lives of people are always changing. Just in the last 150 years we have gained cars, the internet, and given women and people of color rights. There is so much history in this world to learn and there is so much history in the making that we can be a part of and I want to be a part of it. After I am done with college I hope to work as a field archeologist in Central America in a Mayan dig or I will go into the small villages dotted around the Amazon rainforest in hopes of shedding light about the cultures of the people and disprove the myths about the amazon people. I would also like to go to the Nordic countries to study Viking culture and their ways of life. Being a woman in archeology is a rare thing, there are plenty of reasons for that. There is a lot of sexism in the field, especially in field work. I hope with powerful women joining the field we can change the notion that women are not as qualified for field work as their male counterparts. We can learn to stand up for ourselves and bring a brighter future for all women. Thank you for your consideration and remember there is a lot to learn in this world so we should never stop learning.

I'm so sorry for your loss, he must have had the same fascination of the past I do and the fascination of humans and how they work. I plan on going to UW Milwaukee for Anthropology and become a researcher. I have always had a fascination on how humans work and why they do what they do. I hope after college I can travel around the world to be able to learn about the unknowns of cultures and ways of life that humans experience. As an anthropologist I want to do archeology and be the first to discover something incredible and be able to show the rest of the world what I had found. I also wish to go to cultures that people like me don't get to see everyday and learn their way of life. I want to know what lessons I can learn from them to improve and then continue sharing the lessons. My entire career plan is to become a field researcher until I am physically not able then continue as a college professor until I'm no longer able to. I wish to learn and share knowledge for all of my life and this is the best way I can do that. Learning from our past can launch us into a better future and as the next generation takes over I have high hopes that the past can teach us to be better humans and humble us when remembering where we came. Another way I can make the world a better place is by going into villages of isolated communities and learning about them. Shedding their world in the modern world could help people be less ignorant and maybe take the lessons we learn from them and maybe their lessons will help the rest of the world become better people. We will never know until we actually try. I chose Anthropology and Archeology because I find people fascinating. Every part of them from their ways of life to how they evolved. Humans are constantly changing and that's what makes them so different from the other species I could study. Humans have existed for 2 million years, we have created societies, domesticated animals, and fought wars. Even the day to day lives of people are always changing. Just in the last 150 years we have gained cars, the internet, and given women and people of color rights. There is so much history in this world to learn and there is so much history in the making that we can be a part of and I want to be a part of it.