Fighting for a Better Planet Through Environmental Science by Julia

Fighting for a Better Planet Through Environmental Science by Julia - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

When I was in middle school, I took a fashion and interior design class, which was a high topic of interest for me at the time. One day while I was taking the class, my teacher’s lesson was a presentation about fast fashion, hyper-consumerism, and trends. The main point of the presentation was how each of those aspects contributes to the amount of textile waste thrown into landfills annually. Most students in my class left that day without much care for the topics in that presentation, but I was heavily impacted. My eyes were opened to the unsettling truths that come with the societal habits of the world and all the seemingly never-ending dead ends found when searching for solutions. At that time, I felt so guilty about what was happening to the planet, and I reflected on all the behaviors that I had exhibited that fell in line with the issues my teacher talked about. As I went through high school, I became more educated through books, videos, and classes at school. I became more aware of the problems in the environment, the misconceptions within society, and what my impact looks like aside from the simple things—what I throw away, whether I turn the lights off when I leave the room or run my sink while I'm brushing my teeth. The more I learned about the planet, the more passionate I became about it. The more passionate I became about it, the more I wanted to become educated enough to use science to make a significant impact.
My long-term career goals would be to work in the field of environmental science, doing something that contributes to sustainability, or working with nature. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself. I don’t want to be just a conscious consumer; I want to be able to be more knowledgeable to make the right decisions. Furthermore, I would like to make a larger impact with my career by helping communities in all the ways I can. I want to be able to look back at what I have done and know that I have done something that has, in a small way, helped the entire planet. I am confident that the course of study I have chosen, Environmental Science, will lead me toward a path that will help me find a career in which I will be able to make these differences and achieve the goals I have set for myself.