Little Rock, AR
“People think what I study in school is really cool but it’s a lot of just looking at dirty water and waste. I want to go into environmental engineering after school. I am also an activist. A lot of the activism I do doesn’t intersect with environmental engineering. For me, what I am trying to do is basically, well a few areas I am interested in is waste water management for drinking water or just waste management. I am from an impoverished area here that a lot of people refer to as Little Mexico. I am Mexican, by the way, I know I don’t look like it. I am bi racial. So, race issues and how environmental resources are limited to people of different races is very important to me. Access to clean water is already a huge problem and is going to become an even bigger problem. For me, the first thing I want to do is explore ways to create sustainable cleaning water systems. I want to create systems that de-centralize water points. The way water preserves work makes it so water travels to other areas. Clean water right now only goes to rich areas while waste water is filtered into more low-income water. All the water we drink has been processed to an extent for us to re-use. I’d like to create an aquifer in accessible points in cities and I’d like to make it so that all people have the same access to the same water. If that isn’t something that could happen quickly I want to see filtration systems get put into people’s homes. We all deserve access to something that is vital to life.”