My current goal is to be able to help create a better future for myself and the environment as an Environmental Engineer. I plan to pay for college mostly with the money I have saved up through my job. My parents are divorced, so they are each working to support themselves and myself. They would be unable to pay for my college path, while also paying the bills of their houses and vehicles. I do not come from a family that makes a lot of money, so money is prioritized for the important needs of my family, and while college is important for my future, they do not have the money to support me in college. While I do not have support from any family, or the government, financial aid from scholarships, such as this one, would help greatly. Winning this scholarship would help me achieve my current goal of graduating college within three years with little to no student debt. My long-term goal after college graduation is to be able to acquire a long-term career as an Environmental Engineer.
As an environmental engineer, I hope to make a positive impact within my field, whether that be done by making a greater impact on reducing the pollution in our environment, whether it be improving widespread recycling and waste management, or being able to provide clean water access to areas that are not privileged or managed well enough to have access to large amounts of clean water. Overall, my main goal is to improve the quality of life for humans, animals, and plants; being able to help our environment, the living or not. This will help humans have a better view and hopefully lead to better treatment of our environment. Having humans improve their view of our environment, will help me have a better future knowing I did well in making change and helping to create a healthier world.
I have been able to experience skills and training in STEM industries. This has been done throughout my high school career. I am a student of Tesla Charter Engineering School on top of being a student at Appleton East High School. It is a STEM and engineering-based school that has helped to advance my knowledge and interest in engineering. My role is being a student and going above and beyond the standard Appleton East graduation requirements. I have committed a lot of time to this school because, on top of Appleton East's graduation requirement of 23 credits, Tesla Charter Engineering School's graduation requirement is 32.5 credits. This is the community I feel closest to, it has helped me to create enduring connections, as well as a pragmatic and emotional support system. I attended five different schools before finishing out my high school career at Tesla Engineering Charter School with a graduating class of 52 people. Switching schools six times in 12 years meant not feeling a sense of belonging. This was one of the first times I didn't feel as if I had to try to fit in. It is where I felt I belonged the most in this world, not knowing what I was missing until I found it with them. Seeing how this community has significantly helped me after feeling left out throughout my childhood, I make everyone else feel involved and feel the sense of community that I was fortunate to experience.
Most people go throughout their day, without a care for how their actions could affect the greater world. every once and a while they will see litter and remember that the earth is something worth protecting, maybe they will snap a picture and post it commenting on how awful humanity is, but a couple of steps later such concerns will be replaced by other concerns. It is this mindset that I have worked to avoid since I was a young child. I was raised in a household that prioritized the idea of a healthy earth. saying like "we only have one planet" have filled my childhood memories. I make an effort to limit my meat consumption to local suppliers, to only buy second-hand clothes, and to pick up litter whenever I see it. I take short showers and reuse as many goods as possible. I started a tradition with my family to have black-out days, where we use no electricity for the whole day, this is getting more and more difficult as we grow more technologically dependent, but it feels good to unplug for twenty-four hours and bask in the light of candles. I make sure to purchase as many household items as I can from eco-friendly companies and I advocate for earth-healthy practices in my school.
I hope that my efforts to protect our home with have a positive impact on the environment but with all of my efforts, I know that I still do things that harm the earth's health. I live in a very rural area, so I drive thirty to forty minutes to town every day. I have individually packaged snacks that I pack in my lunch and I use a lot of paper during and outside of school. These more negative aspects of my daily choices are habits that I have developed over time and are perpetuated by my society. Even the things I try to do for the earth can end up hurting it. For instance, eating locally means that I am driving more to pick up meat and milk from local farms, which means I am putting more carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and not helping with global warming. In addition, using a lot of paper contributes to deforestation, and while it is true that one person can not be the cause of deforestation if everyone is using the same amount or more paper than I am, that has a substantial impact on such a huge issue.
Throughout my school, however, I have used posters and mini-meetings, to discuss different ways to live sustainably with my peers. I put posters up in bathrooms, encouraging people to limit their paper towel use to one or two pieces, hence using less paper overall. I also encourage the use of reusable water bottles and silverware in an attempt to use less plastic in our school environment. By promoting these ideals as well as following them myself I hope that I am spreading the idea of living sustainably.
