Hi! I’m Lily Vail and I moved from Missouri to South Carolina a little over a month ago, so a lot of this is going to be for Missouri, though I have been beginning to get involved here as well. I am a graduating senior from Blythewood High School, and unfortunately my credits didn’t transfer right so I’m only in the top ten percent of my class. I enjoy engineering, math, science, and everything about different cultures. I was captain of a FIRST Robotics Team for three years, where I learned about a lot of outreach opportunities and truly loved every minute of it. A big one for me was the FIRST Lego League team that I helped to mentor. While it wasn’t very hard, I loved helping the kids to figure out what and how they wanted to create things. While the kids weren’t very old we started early on internet safety and what websites were good to use. I worked one summer as an A+ Teaching Cadet for Wyman Elementary School, and a big part of that was me supervising at recess. Kids can be really mean. I myself was used to being picked on as a kid. I ended up coming between a lot of those problems and having very meaningful discussions with the kids. A lot of the time, they didn’t know what they were doing, or that’s what they were used to at home. It was probably around three to five times a day, I would have these discussions with the kids. The class I was helping with was Fundamentals of Computers. That being said, a lot of the kids learned fast how to be stinkers using them. One thing that didn’t go as expected was teaching them what an email was. They began emailing each other from across the room and giggling at other students. That's where the real lesson came in. After I caught one of them making fun of a special needs student, I decided to take it into my own hands to teach them about cyberbullying. A big part of it was that it follows you everywhere. Cyberbullying is going to follow you to high school, college, and potentially to a career. They asked a lot of questions to which a lot of my responses were “you never quite know what’s going on in someone’s life”. Along with that I taught a bunch on how to treat others. Shifting topics, as far my higher education goes, I am planning on attending a four year university for engineering. I have gotten a lot of shadowing experience and a bit of the real world through robotics and SWE. I’m hoping to get a merit scholarship, but nothing comes out until next month. I’ve been saving up for a long time, but I’m not sure how it’s gonna equal out. My parents both work full time and I have an older sister in college right now as well. Money is pretty tight from the move especially since the other house hasn’t sold. I hope that this scholarship would help me to pursue being a female engineer and encourage me to continue my work with young kids.

At fifteen years old, I started struggling with my own mental health. There was nothing “bad” happening in my life, I just started having anxious and suicidal thoughts. I like a lot of people was hesitant to get anyone involved, so I just kept it to myself. I am very open about it now because I've seen that maybe my story could help other people. That being said, my emotions progressively got worse and I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I ended up having a downward spiral until my Mom finally noticed a call for help. I was tumbling and tumbling hard. I ended up withdrawing from school, and going online while we were figuring out what was wrong. Unfortunately, the transition wasn't smooth and things were only getting worse. I ended up going to four different counselors. I never want anyone to have to feel like they have nowhere to go. While I'm not directly going into the mental health field, I am a strong advocate for it. My current aspirations are for engineering. I have loved the design process, but there is a lack of support when it comes to their mental health. The National Library of Medicine produced an article in 2020 on the depression statistics in engineers. On average 28.8% of engineers suffer from Severe to Very severe depression, with 15.5% very severe. Only about 17% were reported as normal. From the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a study was conducted on engineering students. Eight different universities participated and the results were quite concerning. 66% of students have symptoms of at least one mental health condition, but only 24% were diagnosed. The average of those eight universities being a 37% diagnosis rate. Studies show that engineering is a much more intense course load than other majors. One would expect that with statistics like this, they would put more effort and resources into supporting them throughout their studies. It is also common to hear engineering students get overwhelmed, and while that is a part of the studies, there is no reason for resources to not be available. Either way this stigma really impacts a lot of people and families around the world. What the cause is, we don’t know. I am going to continue to work towards my goals of becoming an engineer, but am going to advocate for engineer awareness not only within university but within the professional workforce. I know I can’t do it on my own, but I can at least be the first shake in an avalanche of awareness.

For a very long time I have wanted to be an engineer. While that is still true, I found something I want to progress to. My current plans are to attend University for Engineering. I’m not quite sure which yet, but I’ve loved Biomedical and Aerospace Engineering for as long as I can remember. Since I was seven, every penny I have made has been thrown into a 529 account. I recognize the importance of education, and unfortunately, it’s only getting more expensive. I learned early on that if I wanted something I was going to have to get it myself. That being said, my undergraduate degree I am estimating to cost $120,000. Now while that may not be the real price, I would rather be under budget, than over budget. I am going to qualify for a few state scholarships, but mainly merit based. I have always been an overachiever, and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I have learned though that I am very attuned to learning new languages. That being said, I am going to minor in either international business or business economics. This whole time I will continue my studies in German and Hindi. I haven’t gotten far on Hindi yet, but I plan to be 70% of the way there by my senior year in college. At the university I attend I will be using all the resources I have available to receive a summer internship my freshman year. By sophomore year, I will be in at least one research group. I will also be on at least two design teams and in at least four different professional organizations. I also plan on using study abroad in my sophomore year to receive more skills in international relations. I also plan on continuing my international experiences through rotary exchange, which I will be getting involved in this summer. In junior year, I will be getting a Co-Op. I plan to graduate college a year late, but with all of my extra education and work experience, I will be a competitive candidate for all field related jobs coming out of college. When I graduate I will be in the top 8% of my class. I will go on and work a career for three to ten years depending on a variety of factors such as: pay, promotions, ability to travel, and management. Throughout that time, I will be saving money and paying off my student loans. I will gain an intense and competitive work history. For about a year before I resign, I will be studying for the Bar exam. I will pass it with flying colors and with my unique degree field and resume, I will be accepted to a prestigious law school. I will graduate in the top 10% of my class, then move on to become a patent lawyer. I love everything math and science, and this career will allow me to have the freedom I want with the travel capabilities I crave. My law school I am estimating will cost closer to $200,000, hence the savings. While I could go straight out of undergrad, I think it would be better to get at least half of the loans paid off first.

A big part of her growing up has been this feeling that she is not enough. Whether it was making friends or her grades, she never felt like she was enough. She was younger for her grade, so when all the other girls were hitting puberty she felt left behind: not pretty enough, boobs weren’t big enough, legs unshaven, and so many other things that made her insecure. Just a twelve year old who wasn’t sure where she stood in this world. No matter what she did, these expectations she put on herself were too big, each set back making her believe it was true. One little moment convincing her that she isn’t worthy of a life worth living. She lies in bed every night thinking about the little mess ups that have made her think she’s undeserving of love. Those mess ups turn into obsessions. Maybe, these voices in her head were right. She has so much potential, but the fear of failure overshadowed any sense of pride in her accomplishments. With support from her family and an intense conversation on her own self-worth, she changed her story. She is working hard to discover who she really is. She gets back up when she falls. While the voice hasn’t left her, she now knows how to fight it. When she messes up, she cleans it up. When the voices come late at night, she goes to sleep. These voices no longer control her. She is the writer of her own narrative. Who is she? She’s me. For a very long time, I felt like I wasn’t enough, leading me into a very depressive episode my sophomore year of high school. Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Pretty Isn’t Pretty Enough” really resonated with me. She sings on how she isn’t pretty enough no matter what she does. I know that feeling a little too well. I love how her song really just recognizes that challenge and brings more awareness to the insecurities of teenage lifestyle. Despite her album coming out after I felt this, I felt a strange connection to it and the meaning behind it. It made me feel like someone truly saw me. It was as if I had written the song. Misery enjoys company, and this truly felt like someone I could go to to feel that connection. When the nights get dark, and the voices get loud, I can listen to this song, let out a soft cry, and feel comfort knowing that someone has truly seen me.

Chappell Roan’s most recent album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” definitely impacted me the most, specifically, the song “Pink Pony Club”. I know what the song is really about, but that’s not what I feel when I sing it in the car. I feel that she’s a misunderstood woman who just wants to have a good time, and can’t escape her small town. I grew up in a small town as well, where the closest city is two hours away. I understand the fear and the need for her to branch out. It’s really hard to be who you want to be in a small town. Word spreads like wildfire, and you can’t ever seem to escape the embarrassing moment you had when you were ten. I was almost expected to stay in that town for college too. I understand her feeling of disappointing her family too. They may not be happy with what she chooses, but she needs to make her own choices, just like me. Chappell Roan is a very rare singer. She's very vulnerable and open with her feelings and isn’t just singing about whatever’s going to get the most sales. Not only is her music amazing, but she advocates for mental health. She herself recognizes that she has her problems like everyone else, yet she doesn’t let it drag on her. She leads by example and takes things off her plate to put her health first instead of the industry’s. I really appreciate everything she stands for, and can’t wait to see where she goes next.

Ilona Maher is by far my favorite athlete on Team USA. While my school didn’t offer Rugby, we did have a football team. In the seventh grade I went up to the coach for the Junior High Football team to get the date for football tryouts. They didn’t announce it or anything, they only talked about it during the boy’s PE class. He told me when tryouts were and then got my phone number and my mother’s for the official information to be sent out. I received a text with about five different girl’s phone numbers attached. It was about becoming a manager, not playing. I felt shut down. I showed up to tryouts anyways. I was ready to play. I got there, and was immediately told that it wasn’t allowed. Girls can’t play football. At the time, I didn’t realize that was illegal (there wasn’t a girl’s team). I just said it was fine and moved on. Illona doesn’t let anyone do that to her. I love that she sticks to it. I love the way she doesn’t let people get to her. I love how, despite her flaws, she doesn’t hide them. She stands for everything women should be: confident, fearless, and open. I wish I would have had someone like her to watch growing up. Secondly, I love her body positivity. She embraces that not everyone is built the same, and that’s okay. For a long time I struggled with the fact that I’m not thin. I struggled with not being built like a ballerina. Illona represents the fact that we’re not all made for the same activity. Illona talks about how she’s built for her sport. I really love everything she stands for and hope to encourage more young girls the way she does.

At fifteen years old, I started struggling with my own mental health. There was nothing “bad” happening in my life, I just started having anxious thoughts. Now, I had expressed this and my family was very supportive, but it didn’t mean that everything was. It progressively got worse and I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I ended up having a downward spiral until my mom finally noticed a call for help. I never want anyone to have to feel like they have nowhere to go. My current aspirations are for engineering. I have loved the design process, but there is a lack of support when it comes to their mental health. The National Library of Medicine produced an article in 2020 on the depression statistics in engineers. On average 28.8% of engineers suffer from Severe to Very severe depression, with 15.5% very severe. Only about 17% were reported as normal. From the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a study was conducted on engineering students. Eight different universities participated and the results were quite concerning. 66% of students have symptoms of at least one mental health condition, but only 24% were diagnosed. The average of those eight universities being a 37% diagnosis rate. Engineering has a huge stigma around mental health. What the cause is, we don’t know. I am going to continue to work towards my goals of becoming an engineer, but am going to advocate for engineer awareness not only within university but within the professional workforce. I know I can’t do it on my own, but I can at least be the first shake in an avalanche of awareness.

Summer 2013: I was almost six and had just moved out of Las Vegas to a small town in North Carolina. I saw the stars for the first time since I could remember. They were beautiful and bright. My dad took me out and we sat on the back porch stargazing every night before bedtime. While I grew up and his work became busier, the tradition ended, but my love for the universe never did. I picked up every book my elementary school library had to offer. I learned that there are molecules that taste like blueberries in space. I knew that the universe was always expanding, and in a way that made me feel small. At the time I didn’t fully understand what that meant. On my tenth birthday, I got my first telescope. It was a kid’s discovery and was about as generic as they came, but I didn’t know My love for space soon evolved into a passion for sciences. I learned about how everything was made of atoms and that made me feel less small. As I moved into my teenage years I found that I wanted to learn more: more about the world, more about people, more about what makes us tick, and more about life. I found that everything was living. A simple pebble, though without a heartbeat, meaningful in every way. I continue to search for our meaning in this universe through seminars and discussions with peers and professors. While this seems irrelevant, it is the beginning of my passion for discovery. We need to work to promote this search and encourage others to get curious. We should better understand the nature of our universe so we can scientifically advance as a society, question what makes us different and gives us meaning, become more aware of our environment so we can better protect our future generations, and most importantly become better connected as a society. As Socrates said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”  Promoting scientific studies is imperative to our continuity and ascent as a species. Discoveries and technical advancements help us to improve our quality of life. Understanding the rudimentary forces of nature and particles has already led to many expansions in fields like medicine and engineering. A few examples of medicine are the development of the risks of smoking, transplants, and vaccinations. Smoking has been a huge part of culture since around 500 BC. We only found out about the risks and dangers in the 1950s. We began studying the human body and what makes our cells react differently. We discovered quantum mechanics and relativity. Without getting curious about the world we wouldn’t be moving forward and would be no better than apes. With that, however, comes the knowledge that there might not be anything past this existence.  You cannot live without hope. As a species, our nature is to look for meaning. In the Caveman era, it might have been as simple as keeping the species alive. Now it’s more complex, as are our thoughts. We are constantly challenged with the task of understanding ourselves. A piece of the universe is inside all of us. Our atoms will never stop existing and pieces of us will be spread throughout our small world. We must find understanding. What is our place within this expanding universe and why were we chosen for this time, in this universe, on this planet? What is our role in life? What comes next? At the very least, what comes next for our planet?  We’ve learned so much about our world including what sickens it and what feeds it. We learned about climate change. The discovery is that green energy such as wind and solar is much better for the environment than the burning of fossil fuels. Our ice caps are melting and there isn’t a lot we can do about it. Our planet is dying and we need to give it the proper care for it to allow us to stay. The ozone isn’t doing too well either. While we can’t reverse the damage, we should at least try to minimize the continual harm. I think that going green is a solid start. By going green, I don’t mean just buying an electric car and using electric stoves. I mean fixing the way we create our energy. Solar panels would be a much-needed improvement. While not cheap to manufacture, they could go on almost every building we have, fixing the problem of our agricultural needs. We also need to stop cutting down all of our trees. While replanting isn’t as big of a problem for now, it will soon become an issue, if we continue to live this way. Understanding these problems and using our media, which is very efficient (whether it's true or not the news spreads like wildfire) could result in us feeling more connected as a community too.  Discovering more about our universe truly helps us conclude that we’re a part of something much bigger. The universe also connects us with discoveries like how to avoid asteroids and protect our planet from them. This becomes a large planetary problem, where we usually see ourselves as individuals. Not that long ago we had a crisis. In 2019, there was a large asteroid predicted to just skim Earth. Many countries got together to create a plan should something happen.  To help further my understanding of the universe through space exploration and continuing to encourage youth to get curious. I helped support a local FIRST Lego League team, working with children anywhere from six to ten years old. We didn’t have the best designs, but we learned a lot about what it takes to be a team and research. I hope that, like FIRST, we can become better about cooperation (working with each other to better both parties, but still competing in a respectful environment). That being said, I hope to go into the engineering field and apply my knowledge, both learned at school and at home, to continue my search for more knowledge.