Crafting innovative solutions for renewable energy in my Native American community has become my passion and purpose. As a blend of Navajo and Irish heritage raised by a single mother, my early life was marked by constant change—moving frequently and adapting to new schools and friendships annually. Amidst this instability, I learned the true value of support and discerning between needs and wants. In middle and high school, my interest in renewable and aerospace engineering blossomed. The NASA Hunch Program became my platform for hands-on exploration. Over four years, I engaged in projects that extended beyond theoretical learning, including the pivotal Sierra-Nevada Dream Chaser Cargo Hatch. This endeavor involved employing cutting-edge technology like Solidworks and 3D printing to create a foldable hatch, meticulously designed to prevent debris from entering Earth's atmosphere upon cargo module detachment. The success of this project fueled my aspiration to drive change through engineering. My journey continued as a Lockheed Martin Executive High School Intern, where I conceptualized a small theoretical spacecraft designed for lunar use. Employing artificial gravity to facilitate more efficient plant growth on the moon underscored the significance of effective communication, innovation, and project management in engineering. Now pursuing mechanical engineering, I'm dedicated to using my skills to give back. Collaborating with peers to enhance and design a paraplegic bike for the Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, CO, particularly focusing on steering design, is a testament to my commitment to serving others through engineering. My recent focus on innovating renewable energy solutions has led me to two groundbreaking ideas. First, I'm researching ways to extract water from air moisture more efficiently to produce drinking water, ensuring that evaporation exclusively targets H2O particles, eliminating contamination. Additionally, I'm exploring lens refraction to optimize solar energy utilization—a potential game-changer in the renewable energy industry. Engineering embodies the hope of creating a better world through collective effort. It's a discipline that encourages collaboration and innovation, values I hold dear. The scholarship I seek isn't solely for personal advancement; it's the catalyst for pioneering research, data gathering, and prototyping that will revolutionize the renewable energy landscape and positively impact countless lives. By investing in my endeavors, you're not just supporting my education; you're investing in solutions that will address critical energy needs within my Native American community and beyond. Together, let's forge a path toward a sustainable future, empowering change through engineering excellence. Your support is instrumental in realizing this vision

It’s my turn, I move my pawn to d4. This move not only allows my left bishop free passage but covers e5, a good choice I say. I then moved my left knight to c3 making my opponent believe I will move my pawn to e4 next round. I keep letting them believe that and go ahead and move my right bishop to f4, again leaving e5 well protected. So now my appointment backs off and forgets to threaten e5, so instead, they move somewhere else. The knight moves to b5 giving my opponent the freedom to move any of the 2 pawns to row 6; to threaten my knight; to move it somewhere else. Of course, they take the bait and move to c6 with a pawn. The knight casually walks to its enemy with a wave. It goes to c7 leaving that, a check; or yet a win to take a very powerful rook. There, is where I begin my victory with an advantage if not a victory itself. The most important thing about this victory is that my opponent didn’t ruin my plan of winning or stopped me from gaining something in return. These exact moves that I have done in the past, anyone could have seen these moves and the outcome before they were made, but most people are too focused on what they are doing and are not thinking about what surrounds them, they don’t think ahead. Life is one huge game of chess. I have to think ahead before the player moves a piece on the board; I have to have so many strategies thought out the game in case one fails. I have to be careful about how many mistakes I make because it only takes one to ruin a victory. Just like life, it takes one mistake to turn it upside down. These are things I think about daily for a multitude of things. I am what you call an intense thinker. I first began playing chess in my freshman year of high school. Nobody taught me what the rules were how to play, so I had to learn ( because I wanted to) on my own by playing and observing others. I never really read books or watch too many videos about chess. If you only go by what the books say then everyone would know the book, and there would be no hard predictions, no game. Each player has a higher chance of losing because they both know the organized plan, it’s like a balance but not very exciting. I got so good at playing chess that no one at school couldn’t beat me. I had to start playing with players that were twice and some three times my age. If I keep winning, at some point or another, my opponents get tired of losing and begin to not want to play anymore. They give up trying to win because of how good I present myself to be; they automatically think I will win because of their observations, but looks can be deceiving. When I play chess against someone I like to think that I am playing myself. Throughout the game, I see so many mistakes that I make, but my opponents are usually too worried about my next move and not about the recent move I just made for future attacks. In the end, no one wants to play anymore because they don’t believe in themselves; they don’t practice this mindset in the real world. I feel like I am cursed but gifted. It's a taken and a given… I win a lot but then no one wants to play with me anymore. I have this advantage to control my emotions that affect my thoughts, to plan my thoughts so I have a better future in all circumstances. This not only helps me but others that surround me.... to give others guidance to a thought process that will give them the same abilities. Having a controlled and thinking ahead mindset will help have a better outcome for a better tomorrow, and this what chess has taught me. I love problem-solving, building, creating, and inventing. I want to become an engineer either in the aerospace industry, energy, and or mechanical industry. I have been an intern for Lockheed Martin last year and it definitely helped me gather my thoughts on what I want to do for a career. Big choices such as where to go to college to go into my dream career are stressful, expensive, and very important. Playing chess has really help me to think further and further into to future of possibilities and opportunities. Chess has helped me be an organizer, a planer, and achieve better time management. Life is on this world can be very curled and you can never gain the time that you spent wasting... back. Chess is a daily example and reminder of these real-life situations of making mistakes and how to get back up and fight to a match that seems helpless. But in the end, I win because I not only thought ahead but stood my ground and fought for what I believe was possible. I call a checkmate against the harsh life that tries to battle me every day.