When I was told in school as a little girl that I can do anything, I avidly went after all that I saw. From National Girl Scouts to the school’s cheerleading squad, I wanted to find time to enjoy the full experience of being an American girl. I learned that hard work is always a reward in itself, but there’s nothing wrong with a pat on the back, too. That has carried me a long way, and I have enjoyed the fruits of my labor since.

That was around the time when I began to learn more about science & sustainability. In the political world we live in, I needed to have a declaration of my own independence; that although nature was shrinking around me, concrete paved beneath me, and landfills building before me, I would make treaty within myself that would empower me to make all the difference in my community. As a descendant of Native Cherokee and Blackfoot, as well as European Irish and other agrarians before me, I have always known that humankind are one in the same as the ground that grows our food. However, in order to feel at one with the Earth, we need to take it slow and let the laws of untamed nature into our hearts, digging deeper than the propaganda-fueled lifestyles we've commercialized.

Biology is not only my major, but it is also a passion of choice that people can really connect to. We gather around it, plug into it, and actively build a safer world that’s toxic-free. Earth science is a branch of physical sciences that has had many applications and discoveries including heredity, cells, evolution, ecology, artificial selection, the geologic time scale, geographical information systems, and now climate science. What is data science ? It is but the application of remote sensing to make humans seem as the pastors and creators of our world. The help of fossils fuels makes any impossible feat happen in no time at all. Biologists can literally make or synthesize anything we want to now (though that does not mean we are infallible).

From my experience I know that the youth must "be the change we wish to see in the world." This is one reason why I now occupy my community as an urban farmer. Being a full-time student, it's not always easy to make a difference. But every time I am in the community, I find that the connection I make in gardens heightens my awareness of feeding my own multiple intellegences; that what I learn in the classroom is very political.

Every positive decision I make for myself (health, wellness, security, or otherwise) also benefits my community in Los Angeles. Everywhere I look I see high-rise hotels, apartments, and banks, millions of advertisements, loud roads and highways, and what's left of nature is steadily being paved-in. What it looks like is that we live in an urban hotbox, and the scarier anxiety that comes to mind is what would happen if eventually we were to strike a metaphorical match. In contemplation of places like Flint, Michigan, I see how environmental problems can have large-scale public health and socioeconomic impacts. That is the reason why supporting the sustainability movement, ecology, environmental conservation, and biological sciences is so important and relevant today. It's like my colleague Jamie Quinn Harris says "If you can build buildings, you can plant trees." If we can see ourselves as much a part of nature as the concrete-lined LA River, the landfill hidden beneath a children's park, or the bulldozed-over beaches, we can see how much over-development actually works against us by working against our ecosystem's original integrity.

I intend to take my studies to the workforce. I love Los Angeles, and this community is my extended family. I have been an urban farmer here since my first internship in Environmental Studies. I love the people who know that driven, broken, and jimmied economical approach. The next line of work will be of people shaping people, not industry. Thank those who do make art while occupying fields towards nature politics and policy. Those are all beneficial to eco-communities being built around the fortifications of sustainability.

I am passionate about gardens, bringing food to people's tables, and beauty into their lives. Children can be fed fresh, healthy, exciting food when they would easily go without a nutritious meal. Kids who otherwise refuse fruits and vegetables know its best when they grow it. The people filling up fast-food drive-thru's can find invigoration in fruit that brings life. Better that than a similar situation whereby one would consume junk food for being pressured by a time constraint. Community gardening is the practical necessity we will implement to bridge the gaps between our health and our meals, our homes and our community, our society and our values. I love spending time in gardens because there are endless opportunities to learn, be taught, and to teach. One of my favorite brain games to play with gardeners is to identify as many genus of plants growing as we can. Gardens are spaces that children and elderly can occupy & feel safe in. They are places where young adults like me can work, connect, spend time, and grow as well. When our lackluster cities feel more like concrete deserts to us, where will we find places to play, experiment, and become inspired? That answer is precisely the intrinsic value of urban gardens. They become hubs or networks of people to gather around the essentials: sun, soil, water, and good food.

A happy heart is my most well-kept health secret. Eating locally, organically, and sustainably is something that brings me balance and joy. When people ask me how I eat a plant-based diet as a vegan I tell them "It's easy, I enjoy the best life has to offer." That's the simple truth. Like a bountiful harvest, I am always cultivating new skills into my lifestyle. The greatest thing about urban farming is that gardens continually offer me more seasonal food for no cost at all. The ground truly provides us with the best, and she offers it to us along with a way out of the vicious market of industrialized food. If more people worked in beautiful gardens growing food full of nutrients, I am convinced we would see a happier, healthier population. This is why I garden: to share the knowledge of the earth and to build the liberating movement that will combat our population's most formidable killers: heart disease, diabetes, & cancer.

Because of my practice as an urban gardener in Los Angeles, I have decided to emphasize my Biology degree in Environmental Science. It is something I will utilize to bring about vital reform in my community, and will be a testimony of hope to others looking to do the same. What is good for the environment is good for me, and I plan to continue to put my best effort forward to feed and teach others what I've learned.

When we are receptive to the sense of creatures not human, we find out how humane they really are.

I haven't always been the most careful of animals. When I was younger, all I knew was that I was terribly allergic to all of my friends' cats and dogs. Besides the stray neighborhood calico, I never had exposure to the delightful world of domesticated animals. When I moved from Long Island, New York to Concord, North Carolina at age 6, I found myself in a whole new world of so many animals; not only stray cats, but service dogs, farm animals, and therapy rabbits.

But besides all of the neat ways animals could occupy similar spaces as people working professional jobs and various other roles, I was still allergic. I grew up often repelling most animals with my coughs & sneezes. But my runny noses, sore throats, and itchiness is inevitable with the overactive immunity gene that my father imparted to me. I found myself more compelled to smaller, cold-blooded organisms, and I often competitively caught salamanders, frogs, snakes, and other small wild animals with my brothers around the square half-acre of property we called home.

Wild animals and the wildernesses that they perform their operations in are the main foundations that I had begun to build off of in public high school, and now in my private secondary institution. In my observations, I see how all animals are sentient and as a whole are the most careful listeners. Their tender emotions lie in the larger world around them and the social connections they share with others in the population. Their interactions with the community are not mysterious, random, nor unruly but rather speak to their sensitivity to ecologic sensibility.