Spending most of my summers in Mexico every year made me look forward for summer vacation. However, there was one summer that stood out to me in particular that changed the way I thought about the life on my grandfather’s farm and my environment. When I was 11 years old, my cousin and I had been playing hide-and-seek and I had decided to hide behind a chapel. As I was kneeling behind the back of the chapel I smelled smoke but the smoke smelled odd because it did not smell like the smoke of a campfire. I got up and abandoned my hiding spot and followed the smoke in the air until I reached what was burning, a pile of trash. I later realized that my grandfather had to burn all of the trash generated on the farm because their house is not marked on the city map so no one ever comes to pick up their trash. This made me think about all the other areas in the world that have to do the same thing. The release of toxins from burning trash, the accumulation of waste and the way all of this affects not just my grandparents but the whole world made me interested in the Environmental Studies Degree.
While in high school I took an AP Environmental Science class that increased my interest in studying environmental studies. The class opened my eyes to many environmental issues such as the Love Canal Case, point and non-point source pollution, and renewable energy. The research I conducted, the experiments I carried out, and topics discussed in class made me want to continue learning about my environment and exactly how and why it is changing. The class itself was not the only thing that peaked my interest in environmental studies. My teacher had been so enthusiastic when teaching the lessons and showed a true interest in seeing me and the rest of the students succeed. He would stay after school every day to help students study and do their homework. The way he cared for the students made me interested in become an environmental science teacher that cared just as much as he did so other students can learn about the environment and feel like they can make a difference.
In 2018, I participated in a social and environmental activism training in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. This training opened my eyes to a whole other side of environmental education. The training allowed me to gain important skills such as how to have one-on-one meetings with people in the community, the steps for starting a grassroots campaign, and how to reach out to the people in my community. These skills along with experiencing the different culture, hearing the stories of the people who survived Hurricane Maria, and meeting new people let me see how important activism is in the environmental field. Social and ecological problems intertwine and it is often the most marginalized communities who experience the worst climate impacts. My goal is to be able to one day provide environmental education to low-income and rural communities to empower them and serve alongside them to improve their environment and well-being.