My name is Waluse Chunda and I just graduated high school with honors, a cumulative 3.8 GPA and I am a rising freshman in college. One of my favorite quotes is “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve” by Martin Luther King Jr. I am a leader because I serve my community and I have learned that you don't need a lot to make a difference, what you need is a willing heart, passion, and time. My greatest achievement to date would be the book drive that I recently organized for my school community. I love serving my community because it gives me a chance to be involved with something greater than myself and it makes me happy. In addition, serving my community has helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. I am the founder of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. The book drive promoted sustainability because it encouraged one of the most important principles of sustainability, which is reuse. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities, in the summer and fall of 2023. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. My passion for serving others and my community will not stop in high school as I hope to continue serving others in college, graduate school, and beyond. I come from a household with a single-parent income and this scholarship would help my family take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community and the world. Thank you for considering my application.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am from Virginia. I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA. My greatest achievement to date would be the book drive that I recently organized for my school community. I am the founder of the Equity Ambassadors club at Harrisonburg high school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. The book drive promoted sustainability because it encouraged one of the most important principles of sustainability, which is reuse. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities, in the summer and fall of 2023. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Finally, the book drive started in late April 2024 and ended in June 2024. Initially, our goal was to collect 100 books but we surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books! We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. The book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. In addition, my involvement with this process helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. The experience taught me that you don't need a lot to make a difference. You need a willing heart, passion, and time. My career goal is to become a college professor. I hope to impact the STEM field by being a role model to women and people of color like me because research shows how having mentors in school with whom students can identify can significantly impact students' sense of belonging, persistence, and success in their program. By being a woman of color teaching STEM in academia, I will be able to inspire and offer support to people also in marginalized communities that are pursuing STEM. I come from a household with a single-parent income and this scholarship would help my family take me through college. I want to go to college because it will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community. Thank you for considering my application.

My heart was pounding and I clenched my fists as we raced through the pitch-black roads in Pretoria, South Africa. I peered out my window and stared into the abyss noticing the blinding lights of cars that passed by. Reality hit. There were no streetlights and all the traffic lights were off. My body trembled with fear in the car's passenger seat. I glanced at the Bolt (a shared ride service like Uber) driver to see his reaction to the surrounding darkness, but he was unfazed as it was every day. The excitement of being in South Africa faded. After this, I noticed that whenever I would go out, the shops seemed darker than usual and the escalators at the shopping mall were often off.The South African energy crisis is an ongoing period of widespread national blackouts of electricity supply. The energy company rations electricity to prevent an overload of the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. The crisis started in 2007 and it was precipitated by mismanagement, defective planning, misuse of available resources, the apathy of the government, and corruption. My experience of load shedding on the road was an overwhelming reality because I was shielded from the problem. I stayed in a place which had power generators so I never really experienced a power outage for a long amount of time. However, everyday people usually don’t have power generators. After this experience, my interest in the energy field was reinforced. The energy crisis is not restricted to South Africa, it’s a problem all across the continent of Africa, according to the International Energy Agency, 600 million people, or 43% of the total population, lack access to electricity. I believe the solution to the energy crisis in Africa is to expand existing energy production. This requires massive investment in extending the capacity of existing energy plants, building new ones, and diversifying to other sustainable energy sources like solar and wind energy. Another important factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA and I hope to positively impact the global community by helping developing countries. In the future, I want to use big data and machine learning to help develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. I also plan to set up an organization to educate people all over the world on topics related to energy efficiency to change mindsets and promote sustainability. Going to college will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve others. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. Thank you for considering my application.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA. So far in my local community, one of the ways I have made a positive impact is by having a book drive at my school. I am the founder of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. The book drive promoted sustainability because it encouraged one of the most important principles of sustainability, which is reuse. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities, in the summer and fall of 2023. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. I hope to use technology for a more sustainable future. My career goal is to be a college professor and to work in the energy sector and renewable and sustainable sources of energy are my interests. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech majoring in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics with a specialty in oil and energy. I hope to positively impact the global community by helping developing countries like Zambia that have multiple challenges. I am originally from Zambia. Zambia has a huge energy deficit, locally known as load shedding. The energy company rations electricity to prevent an overload of the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. A critical factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. Using hydroelectric power to generate energy and utilizing solar energy to power homes, I hope to use technology to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. I also plan to set up an organization to educate people all over the world on topics related to energy efficiency to change mindsets and promote sustainability. Thank you for considering my application.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am from Virginia. I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA. Like Janie Mae, I love to serve and one of my favorite quotes is “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve” by Martin Luther King Jr because I have recently learned that you don't need a lot to make a difference, what You need is a willing heart, passion, and time. My greatest achievement to date would be the book drive that I recently organized for my school community. I love serving my community because it gives a chance to be involved with something greater than myself and it makes me happy. In addition, my involvement with this process has helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. I am the founder of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. The book drive promoted sustainability because it encouraged one of the most important principles of sustainability, which is reuse. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities, in the summer and fall of 2023. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. My passion for serving others and my community will not stop in high school as I hope to continue serving others in college, graduate school, and beyond. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community and the world. Thank you for considering my application.

My name is Waluse Chunda, I’m from Virginia and I just graduated high school with a cumulative 3.8 GPA. The most exciting thing about STEM to me is the creativity. Having been involved in my school’s FIRST robotics team I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech, majoring in computational modeling and data analytics. My career goal is to become a college professor. However, it is a known fact that the STEM field lacks diversity and is an underrepresented field for black women. According to the Supplement to the US Equal Employment Opportunity's Annual Report on the Federal Workforce Fiscal Year 2019, by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (.gov), most of the women working in STEM are White (66.02 percent). Comparatively, there were only (14.58 percent) of African American/Black women working in STEM. Black women are underrepresented in STEM because of numerous challenges like lesser pay, racism, sexism, lack of role models, etc. As a black woman, I hope to positively impact the world through STEM in many ways. Namely, inclusive perspectives. The STEM field needs exposure to a wide variety of people from all backgrounds to help fuel creativity. I want to focus my work on renewable and sustainable sources of energy. I want to research and develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. In the future, I also intend to establish an organization to shift public perceptions and advance sustainability by educating people on energy-related topics. Another way I hope to impact the STEM field is by being a role model. As stated by The Education Trust, faculty diversity and student success go hand in hand for Black women. Research shows how having mentors in graduate school with whom students can identify can significantly impact students' sense of belonging, persistence, and success in their program. By being black woman teaching STEM in academia, I will be able to inspire and offer support to other black women that are pursuing STEM. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community and the world. Thank you for considering my application.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am from Virginia. I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA. I plan to use technology to make a positive impact on the world. This essay topic excites me because my goal is to work in the energy sector and renewable and sustainable sources of energy are my interest. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech majoring in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics with a specialty in oil and energy. I hope to positively impact the global community by helping developing countries like Zambia that have multiple challenges. I am originally from Zambia. Zambia has a huge energy deficit, locally known as load shedding. The energy company rations electricity to prevent an overload of the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. A critical factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. Using hydroelectric power to generate energy and utilizing solar energy to power homes, I hope to use technology to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. I also plan to set up an organization to educate people all over the world on topics related to energy efficiency to change mindsets and promote sustainability. So far in my local community, one of the ways I have tried to make a positive environmental impact is by having a book drive at my school. I am the founder of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. The book drive promoted sustainability because it encouraged one of the most important principles of sustainability, which is reuse. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities, in the summer and fall of 2023. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. Another way I can make a positive impact on my local community is by encouraging people to conserve energy. For example, people could use the sun to dry clothes on a drying rack instead of using a regular dryer. To be able to get a project like this running, it is important to look at the local laws.The U.S. still has a long way to go in being responsive and proactive towards sustainability efforts. For example, many states and localities do not allow people to dry their clothes outside, whilst some do have the right to dry laws. I would start with doing research to look at the provisions in my state and localities where there are no right to dry laws. I would work with policy makers to change that and with energy companies to calculate the impact that having the right to dry would have on energy saving measures.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I just graduated high school with a cumulative 3.8 GPA. The most exciting thing about STEM to me is the creativity. Having been involved in my school’s FIRST robotics team I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech, majoring in computational modeling and data analytics. My short term goal is to get my degree and specialize in oil and energy. My long term career goal is to get my PhD and become a college professor. However, it is a known fact that the STEM field lacks diversity. According to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, underrepresented minorities- Hispanics Blacks, and American Indians or Alaska Natives—represented nearly a quarter (24%) of the STEM workforce in 2021. I hope to impact the STEM field as a person and woman of color in many ways. Namely, inclusive perspectives. The STEM field needs exposure to a wide variety of people from all backgrounds to help fuel creativity. I want to focus my work on the energy sector and renewable and sustainable sources of energy are my interest. I want to explore hydroelectric power to generate energy and utilize solar energy to power homes. I hope to use technology to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. I also plan to set up an organization to educate people all over the world on topics related to energy efficiency to change mindsets and promote sustainability. Another way I hope to impact the STEM field is by being a role model. As stated by The Education Trust, students have better outcomes, including persisting in STEM and graduating, when there is faculty diversity. While most faculty members and administrative leaders are white, students also want to look to professors from diverse backgrounds as role models and mentors. By being a person of color in academia, I will be able to inspire and offer support to other people of color that are pursuing STEM. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am from Virginia. I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA. In the next five years, I hope to use technology for a more sustainable future. This topic excites me because my goal is to work in the energy sector and renewable and sustainable sources of energy are my interest. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech majoring in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics with a specialty in oil and energy. I hope to positively impact the global community by helping developing countries like Zambia that have multiple challenges. I am originally from Zambia. Zambia has a huge energy deficit, locally known as load shedding. The energy company rations electricity to prevent an overload of the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. A critical factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. Using hydroelectric power to generate energy and utilizing solar energy to power homes, I hope to use technology to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. I also plan to set up an organization to educate people all over the world on topics related to energy efficiency to change mindsets and promote sustainability. So far in my local community, one of the ways I have tried to make a positive environmental impact is by having a book drive at my school. I am the founder of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. The book drive promoted sustainability because it encouraged one of the most important principles of sustainability, which is reuse. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities, in the summer and fall of 2023. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. Another way I can make a positive impact on my local community is by encouraging people to conserve energy. For example, people could use the sun to dry clothes on a drying rack instead of using a regular dryer. To be able to get a project like this running, it is important to look at the local laws.The U.S. still has a long way to go in being responsive and proactive towards sustainability efforts. For example, many states and localities do not allow people to dry their clothes outside, whilst some do have the right to dry laws. I would start with doing research to look at the provisions in my state and localities where there are no right to dry laws. I would work with policy makers to change that and with energy companies to calculate the impact that having the right to dry would have on energy saving measures.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I just graduated high school with a cumulative 3.8 GPA. The most exciting thing about STEM to me is the creativity. Having been involved in my school’s FIRST robotics team I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech, majoring in computational modeling and data analytics, my career goal is to become a college professor. However, it is a known fact that the STEM field lacks diversity. According to Google, As of 2021, women made up about 35% of the STEM workforce in the United States, up from 26.7% in 2011. However, women are still underrepresented in some STEM fields, particularly in the highest paid and fastest growing industries like engineering and computer science. I hope to impact the STEM field as a woman in many ways. Namely, inclusive perspectives. The STEM field needs exposure to a wide variety of people from all backgrounds to help fuel creativity. I want to focus my work on the energy sector. Renewable and sustainable sources of energy are my interests. I hope to work with developing countries to find ways to expand their energy production, because they experience energy challenges the most. I want to explore solutions like extending the capacity of existing energy plants, building new ones, and diversifying to other sustainable energy sources like solar and wind energy. I hope to use what I learn to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. Another way I hope to impact the STEM field is by being a role model. As stated by The Education Trust, students have better outcomes, including persisting in STEM and graduating, when there is faculty diversity and students can also look to professors from diverse backgrounds as role models and mentors. By being a woman in academia, I will be able to inspire and offer support to other women that are pursuing STEM. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I just graduated high school with a cumulative 3.8 GPA. One of my favorite quotes is, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve” by Martin Luther King Jr. Being a leader in my school and community has taught me that you don't need a lot to make a difference. You just need a willing heart, passion, and time. I am the founder and president of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities in the summer and fall of 2023. I prepared the club's By-laws, looked for a faculty advisor, and invited people to join. The first activity of the newly established club was a book drive with a time frame of two weeks. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. My involvement with this process has helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. My passion for serving others and my community will not stop in high school as I hope to continue serving others in college, graduate school, and beyond. My goals for my leadership abilities in the future are to help people, grow professionally, and inspire others. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because it will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I just graduated high school with a cumulative 3.8 GPA. The most exciting thing about STEM to me is the creativity. Having been involved in my school’s FIRST robotics team I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech, majoring in computational modeling and data analytics, my career goal is to become a college professor. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. However, it is a known fact that the STEM field lacks diversity. According to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, underrepresented minorities- Hispanics Blacks, and American Indians or Alaska Natives—represented nearly a quarter (24%) of the STEM workforce in 2021. I hope to impact the STEM field as a person of color in many ways. Namely, inclusive perspectives. The STEM field needs exposure to a wide variety of people from all backgrounds to help fuel creativity. I want to focus my work on the energy sector and renewable and sustainable sources of energy are my interest. I want to find different ways to improve energy efficiency and explore hydroelectric power to generate energy and utilize solar energy to power homes. Another way I hope to impact the STEM field is by being a role model. As stated by The Education Trust, students have better outcomes, including persisting in STEM and graduating, when there is faculty diversity. While most faculty members and administrative leaders are white, students can also look to professors from diverse backgrounds as role models and mentors. By being a person of color in academia, I will be able to inspire and offer support to other people of color that are pursuing STEM. I come from a single-parent household and this scholarship would help my mom take me through college. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am from Virginia. I just graduated high school with honors and a cumulative 3.8 GPA. A great challenge I have had to overcome was my Pre-calculus Honors Class I took last year. Pre-calculus Honors is the highest and hardest level of math my high school offers. Throughout my high school career, I have taken Geometry Honors, and Algebra II Honors, and I am currently taking Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics but Pre-calculus Honors was tough. The class only lasted for a semester and I took it during my 11th grade year after my family and I moved from Richmond, where I previously attended 9th grade and 10th grade. I was having difficulty adjusting to the move and dealing with VISA applications. As an Honor Roll student, admitting that I was struggling in the class was embarrassing and humbling. However, I put my pride and ego aside and overcame this by staying after school with my teacher to go over problems, making a work plan, and improving my classwork organization. In the end, I was able to pass the class and now I have learned that it is okay to ask for help in class. My counselor told me that even the smartest doctors, pilots, engineers, analysts, and professors, all needed help at some point in their schooling. In college, I wouldn’t hesitate to attend tutoring, ask friends for help, and visit during the professor's office hours if I needed help with a class. Asking for help is not a weakness but a strength and I hope to never forget that. The aspect of STEM that excited me the most is creativity. Being involved in my school’s robotics team, I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. I am an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech, majoring in computational modeling and data analytics, my career goal is to become a college professor. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. I come from a single-parent household, and I have watched my mom go through excruciating stress trying to support my sister and me while she pursued her PhD studies. My mom's dedication to pursuing education has motivated me to pursue higher education, no matter the circumstances. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve my community.

Hello, my name is Waluse Chunda and I am from Harrisonburg, Virginia. I graduated high school with an advanced diploma this past June with a 3.8 cumulative GPA. My career goal is to become a college professor. This Fall 2024 I am going to be a freshman at Virginia Tech. In college, I hope to major in computational modeling and data analytics and my career goal is to become a college professor in STEM. The aspect of STEM that excites me the most is creativity. Being involved in my school’s robotics team for two years, I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. My involvement in school and community has taught me that I love to serve and that you don't need a lot to make a difference. You need a willing heart, passion, and time. I am the founder and president of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities in the summer and fall of 2023. I prepared the club's By-laws, looked for a faculty advisor, and invited people to join. The first activity of the newly established club was a book drive with a time frame of two weeks. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected 1000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profits, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted people positively because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. In addition, my involvement with this process has helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. One of my favorite quotes is “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve” by Martin Luther King Jr. My passion for serving others and my community has inspired me to keep serving. I hope to continue serving others in college, graduate school, and beyond. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. I come from a single-parent household, and I have watched my mom go through excruciating stress trying to support my sister and me. This scholarship would help my single mom to take me through college.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am a second-generation African immigrant from Zambia. I graduated high school with a GPA of 3.8 and high honors this past June 8, 2024. In 2017 Mom came to the United States to study for her Ph.D. and brought my family. As an African immigrant, moving to a new country with a different culture and being far away from everyone I grew up with was not an easy transition as an adolescent. I missed my home country. Initially, I tried hard to fit in with my peers by polishing my accent to sound American, pulling all-nighters studying to catch up to the new curriculum, following trends, watching popular Netflix shows, and straightening my natural hair but I soon learned to not change myself and adapt to my environment in a different ways. Since making my journey, I learned that I have a strong sense of adaptability. My family had to move again during my junior year of high school. I adapted to my new city and school by becoming the founder and president of Equity Ambassadors Club, founder and president of Data Science Club, vice president of Future Business Leaders of America, and joining the Robotics team. I have learned that the United States depicted in movies is very different from reality. The popular culture depicted in films can make one think that they don’t have to work hard for things but the reality is that everything requires hard work and immigrants have to work even harder to succeed. My journey has impacted my career choices because I am now interested in having a career in STEM. The aspect of STEM that excited me the most is creativity. Being involved in my school’s robotics team, I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. Additionally, I am interested in STEM because of the underrepresentation of minorities. As an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech majoring in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics, I hope to positively impact the world by helping developing countries like Zambia that have multiple challenges. Zambia has a huge energy deficit, locally known as load shedding. The energy company rations electricity to prevent an overload of the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. A critical factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. I hope to use computational modeling and data analytics to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency and I want to be a positive role model. This scholarship is right for me because it will help me pursue my college education at Virginia Tech and achieve my dream of solving the energy crisis in my community in Zambia and other countries worldwide. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. I come from a single-parent household, and I have watched my mom go through excruciating stress trying to support my sister and me while she pursued her PhD studies. My mom's dedication to pursuing education has motivated me to pursue higher education, no matter the circumstances.

My name is Waluse Chunda and I am a second-generation African immigrant from Zambia. I graduated high school on June 8th, 2024 with a cumulative 3.8 GPA. My strong cultural background, attributed to my upbringing which emphasizes Ubuntu values i.e., "I am, because we are, led me to be involved in my school and community. I love to serve and have learned that you don't need a lot to make a difference. You need a willing heart, passion, and time. I am the founder and president of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. Books are important because they increase our knowledge and imagination, and having the book drive was certain to increase literacy equity in my community. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities in the summer and fall of 2023. I prepared the club's By-laws, looked for a faculty advisor, and invited people to join. The first activity of the newly established club was a book drive with a time frame of two weeks. I contacted my school's principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school's broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected a little over 1,000 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg, and Goodwill. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. This book drive impacted because each book donated helped build a brighter future for individuals who do not have easy access to books. In addition, my involvement with this process has helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. Learning about my cultural background and views on education has shaped my career goals. My grandfather and grandmother lived in rural Zambia and to make a living, my grandfather worked at a bicycle assembly plant while my grandmother baked buns to send my mother, aunt, and uncles to school. My grandparents always emphasized getting an education and working hard because they wanted my mother and her siblings to live better lives. Growing up, I saw my mother's dedication to pursuing education no matter her circumstances. This commitment to education that my mom has shown resembles Dr. Soronnadi Nnaji’s. It is a deep belief that we can be better at what we do and can carry others along this journey. In college, I plan to major in computational modeling and data analytics and my career goal is to become a college professor. The aspect of STEM that excites me the most is creativity. Being involved in my school’s robotics team for two years, I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve. This scholarship is right for me as it will help my single mom take me through college. As I cannot file for FAFSA because our adjustment of status is still being processed, any additional support will help me attend college

My heart was pounding and I clenched my fists as we raced through the pitch-black roads in Pretoria, South Africa. I peered out my window and stared into the abyss noticing the blinding lights of cars that passed by. Reality hit. There were no streetlights and all the traffic lights were off. My body trembled with fear in the passenger seat of the car. I glanced at the bolt (shared ride service like uber) driver to see his reaction to the surrounding darkness but he was unfazed as it was an everyday thing. The excitement of being in South Africa for the summer vacation had faded. After this, I noticed that whenever I would go out, the shops seemed darker than usual and the escalators at the shopping mall were often off. This was one of the experiences that reinforced my interest in using data science to develop countries. The South African energy crisis is an ongoing period of widespread national blackouts of electricity supply. Load shedding in South Africa happens to prevent overloading the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. The crisis started in 2007 and it is precipitated by mismanagement, defective planning, misuse of available resources, the apathy of the government and corruption. My experience of load shedding on the road was an overwhelming reality because I was shielded from the problem because we stayed at the University of Pretoria which had power generators so I never really experienced a power outage for a long amount of time. After my experience on the road is when I realized the everyday life for people who don’t have power generators. This also made me realize the inequality that exists in the country and the far reaching economic impact of the energy crisis. Power cuts do not discriminate against who they affect. The energy crisis is not restricted to South Africa, it’s a problem all across the continent of Africa, and it is prevalent in my country Zambia. According to the International Energy Agency, 600 million people, or 43% of the total population, lack access to electricity. The ultimate solution to the energy crisis in Africa is to expand existing energy production. This requires massive investment in extending the capacity of existing energy plants, building new ones and diversifying to other sustainable energy sources like solar and wind energy. Another important factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. Through my college education in computational modeling and data analytics at Virginia Tech, I could help develop predictive models to improve efficiency. I plan to set up a business to educate people on topics related to energy efficiency to change mindsets and promote sustainability. This scholarship is for me because it will help me pursue my college education at Virginia Tech and achieve my dream of solving the energy crisis in my community in Zambia. Coming from a single parent household, my mom needs help to take me through college. As I cannot file for FAFSA but am eligible to receive the Virginia State Alternative Aid, any additional support will help me attend college.

My name is Waluse Chunda, I am a senior at Harrisonburg High School in Virginia with a 3.7 GPA. My hobbies are baking, playing tennis, and painting. In college, I hope to major in computational modeling and data analytics and my career goal is to become a college professor. The aspect of STEM that excites me the most is creativity. Being involved in my school’s robotics team for two years, I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. I want to attend college because I believe that education is a valuable tool that can be used to solve society’s problems. I come from a single-parent household, and I have watched my mom go through excruciating stress trying to support my sister and me while she pursued her PhD studies. My mom's dedication to pursuing education has motivated me to pursue higher education, no matter the circumstances. My involvement in school and community has taught me that I love to serve and that you don't need a lot to make a difference. You need a willing heart, passion, and time. I am the founder and president of the Equity Ambassadors club at my school. Equity Ambassadors are a diverse group of student leaders whose mission is to promote equity in the community. I came up with the idea of the club organizing a school-wide book drive to donate books to local non-profit organizations. I started planning for the Equity Ambassadors club including listing its activities in the summer and fall of 2023. I prepared the club's By-laws, looked for a faculty advisor, and invited people to join. The first activity of the newly established club was a book drive with a time frame of two weeks. I contacted my school’s principal and got permission for the book drive, reached out to my school’s broadcast to make announcements on the school's YouTube channel, and prepared labeled bins where people could drop the books. Our goal was to collect 100 books. We surpassed that and collected more than 500 books. We donated the books to our local non-profit, Church World Service Harrisonburg. CWS Harrisonburg serves refugees, immigrants, and unaccompanied children. My involvement with this process has helped strengthen my leadership, communication, and organizational skills. One of my favorite quotes is “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve” by Martin Luther King Jr. My passion for serving others and my community will not stop in high school as I hope to continue serving others in college, graduate school, and beyond. College will help me achieve my goals because as I pursue my education, I will have unique opportunities to develop my professional skills further and serve. This scholarship is right because my single mom needs help to take me through college. As I cannot file for FAFSA but am eligible to receive the Virginia State Alternative Aid, any additional support will help me attend college.

My name is Waluse Chunda, I am a senior at Harrisonburg High School, with a 3.7 GPA. I am a native of Zambia and my hobbies are baking, playing tennis, and painting. My motivation is my mom. She has a PhD in Public Policy and Administration and her journey has inspired me. At 35 years old, my mother left her stable job as country director in Zambia for a Swedish organization and moved across continents, thousands of miles away from home, to come to the United States to pursue her PhD. I have watched her go through a lot of stress as a single parent but she continues to dedicate her best to her work and raising my sister and me. Seeing her change her life and achieve her goals while as well as make many sacrifices to provide for and support me motivates me to give back in any way I can. If I can do anything in my life, it would be to serve. One of my favorite quotes is “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve” by Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout high school, I have been able to serve my community by organizing a book drive to donate to local non-profit organizations, planting 3+ trees and 20+ flowers, and mentoring middle schoolers about STEM through my school’s robotics team. My passion for serving others and my community will not stop in high school as I hope to continue serving others in college, graduate school, and beyond. The aspect of STEM that excited me the most is creativity. Being involved in my school’s robotics team, I learned that there’s more than one way to solve a problem. The ability to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems is a challenging but critical skill that I hope to continue developing as I pursue a career in STEM. As an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech majoring in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics, I hope to positively impact the world by helping developing countries like Zambia that have multiple challenges. Zambia has a huge energy deficit, locally known as load shedding. The energy company rations electricity to prevent an overload of the national power grid when the energy demand exceeds energy production. Solutions to this problem include a massive investment in extending the capacity of existing energy plants, building new ones, and diversifying to other sustainable energy sources like solar and wind energy. Another critical factor to consider is energy efficiency systems. I hope to use information technology to gain knowledge on the tools to develop predictive models to improve energy efficiency. This scholarship is right for me because it will help me pursue my college education at Virginia Tech and achieve solving the energy crisis in my community in Zambia. I am unable to file for FAFSA but I have been able to file for the Virginia State Alternative Aid. This scholarship will help my family be able to afford for me to be a full-time student. A great challenge I have had to overcome was my Pre-calculus Honors Class I took last year. Pre-calculus Honors is the highest and hardest level of math my high school offers. Throughout my high school career, I have taken Geometry Honors, and Algebra II Honors, and I am currently taking Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics but Pre-calculus Honors was tough. The class only lasted for a semester and I took it during my 11th grade year after my family and I moved from Richmond, where I previously attended 9th grade and 10th grade. I was having difficulty adjusting to the move and dealing with VISA applications. As an Honor Roll student, admitting that I was struggling in the class was very embarrassing and humbling. However, I put my pride and ego aside and overcame this by staying after school with my teacher to go over problems, making a work plan, and improving my classwork organization. In the end, I was able to pass the class and now I have learned that it is okay to ask for help in class. Some advice that further improved my perspective on asking for help is when my counselor told me that even the smartest doctors, pilots, engineers, analysts, and professors, all needed help at some point in their schooling. In college, I wouldn’t hesitate to attend tutoring, ask friends for help, and visit the professor during office hours if I needed help with a class. Asking for help is not a weakness but a strength and I hope to never forget that.