Carol S. Comeau Environmental Scholarship

Throughout my life, I have heard repeatedly to, “leave this place better than you found it.” Usually just from disgruntled teachers who don’t want to deal with the mess made by some arts and crafts project. But I think it is something we should all live by and use when looking at life in the long run. I want to have a life rich with experiences and people. I want to have an impact in solving the biggest threat for all, climate change. I have already had a fair bit of experience with activism, having organized 2 climate strikes in my town, but in that time I have found that I don’t think activism is the correct route for me. It can be quite dreadful and really feel hopeless at times. As much effort as you put in, the globe is still going to be warming. At some point, I decided that the best way to go about impacting the climate crisis was to learn more about it. So I signed up to take AP Environmental Science. This class opened my eyes to all the individual facets which have detrimental impacts on the environment, as well as the world of possible solutions and factors that could contribute towards helping the environment. Alternative fuel vehicles, research on reaching a 100% return on recycling plastic, machines that can directly take carbon dioxide out of the air or water and store it. New renewable energy options like nuclear fusion keep advancing towards sustainably producing energy by harnessing and refining the same processes that our sun uses. It is truly incredible. My brain is wired to understand science and mathematics, and it has become clear that STEM is the field for me. I want to be able to look back, and say that I was not complacent in light of an emergency. I dream of being able to say that the climate crisis has been averted. While the specifics of my career are still quite up in the air, I have always planned on going to college, and I hope to get the best education I can while still being somewhat affordable. Eventually, I hope to be a part of some research on nuclear fusion and if it becomes a successful means of generating energy, I could help implement it into actual power structures and make even more progress towards phasing out energy generated by fossil fuels. There’s lots of talk about switching to electric but it’s not too much better for the environment if the electricity is still being generated by burning fossil fuels. I plan to use my education to create the most positive impact on the world that I can with my time here, and maybe one day I can be a part of why the globe has stopped warming.

I live in a world that is on fire. On the news I hear about ice caps melting and sea levels rising, about pollution choking the air and trash piling about. I am surrounded by natural disasters from hurricanes and tornadoes decimating towns to heat waves and snow storms plunging cities into a new normal. Every summer I dread the days when I have to stay inside because the air is thick with smoke from wildfires all around. I am terrified about my future, about the state of the planet I am inheriting, but I am not going to sit around and let it get worse. In college I want to study environmental engineering, a field that is a combination of the subjects I have loved for a long time. I have always been surrounded by science, technology, and math. From a young age I began my adventure into the world of coding and technology, proudly showing off my text adventures, basic scratch programs, low-quality apps, and lego robots. I remember science projects with my mom, learning about surface tension or plant growth, and math homework with my dad, tears shed over long division, or integration years later. Engineering is a beautiful combination of design, communication, math, and science to build solutions to problems on both personal and global scales. From solar panels on my house to massive wind farms sprawling across ocean waves, engineering is the answer to fighting climate change. Our world requires innovative solutions to make it a better place. I want to be part of the effort in fighting for our environment. In combination with my major and degree, I want to travel the world. I want to meet new people, discover new places, and learn about new cultures. I want to be a part of this world I love so dearly, and gain knowledge about it. At university I want to continue my progress in studying topics from outside of STEM. I am a musician and an artist, a public speaker and a leader, an athlete and a teacher, and all of this will make me a better engineer. I am passionate about my education, and I am passionate about the impact I want to make on the world.

Growing up and living on the Lummi Reservation, many traditional foods I ate were abundant and we were unaware of how climate change affects them. The salmon, clams, oysters, Dungeness crab, shrimp, many other sea foods, herbs, plants, and other animals make up Lummi's traditional diet. It was not until my first year of high school that I recognized the threat climate change posed to my own traditional way of life. When I took an environmental science class, and we started the chapter on climate change I had thought about how much our culture would suffer. I thought about how my younger brothers, cousins, and future generations would have to deal with the loss of culturally important resources. This inspired me to learn more about climate change and ways that I could help. It was not until the Summer of 2021 when I got the chance to work with Lummi's Natural Resources Department assisting in clam surveys and capturing invasive European green crabs. During this time, I worked with many people who got a degree in the environmental sciences field, and they helped me realize it was something I wanted to pursue myself. Helping conduct research and fight off green crabs that harm native species was something I was passionate about and had fun doing. I enjoyed being outdoors instead of at a desk all day and found a place that I wanted to continue working at in the future. I liked working there so much that I was able to extend my working period for more two weeks, which was a few days before I was going to start school. I was also told that the tribe did not have a designated climate change person and that they should make a position, which I would be interested in doing once I graduate college. It is also a dream of mine to direct the Natural Resources department when I get older because there has not been led by a Lummi tribal member for many years. Once I graduate with my degree, I hope to work somewhere within Washington to focus on climate change effects locally. There is not a specific agency, department, or company that I am interested in working at. I would like to work on projects that would find and create solutions to problems caused by climate change. Whether it be finding solutions for ocean acidification, sea level rise, rising temperatures, greenhouse gases or anything else that contributes to climate change. I would also like to educate people about climate change and how it affects everyone because a lot of people do not accurately know a lot about it. Education is a crucial step in addressing climate change because it informs other people about it and can cause them to make changes in their own life that are environmentally friendly. I would like to travel around the world to work with different communities that are most impacted by climate change to help create solutions and advocate for them. When I get older, I plan to work for Lummi to mitigate and adapt to climate change within the community through several projects covering all areas of. I hope to guide Lummi and other Indigenous communities throughout the country and beyond through the climate crisis so that our cultures and traditions survive for future generations.