SPOTLIGHT

Christina plans to pursue civil engineering to tackle environmental degradation by designing and building carbon-free infrastructure made from recycled materials. She plans to monitor air, energy and water resources to find solutions and create products to tackle these issues.

Christina has lived in California her entire life and has seen how wildfires and floods have affected her family and friends. She intends to design and build sustainable and durable structures that are resilient to natural disasters.

Planned Major: Civil Engineering

Joshua believes more motivation to obtain a higher education is needed among his community peers. It pains him that in his Latinx community, many students feel that they are not qualified for college and that it is not an attainable goal. Joshua’s goal is to attend Stanford University to become a mechanical engineer and work for NASA to expand our understanding of the universe. He plans to return to his community and other disadvantaged communities to encourage his peers and future generations to pursue higher education.

Planned Major: Mechanical Engineering

Fnu’s passion lies in technological advances using her creative programming skills. She plans to double major in computer science and business to produce technology such as computers and phones and aspires to make these tools affordable and accessible to underrepresented communities.

Fnu has interned at Hewlett-Packard under the HP Business Analytics Internship program, where she learned how to run a business and analyze the marketplace. Her research resulted in a successful startup.

Planned Major: Computer Science

Te’yana found it challenging to find resources and options to pursue an education in STEM. She had to overcome her family’s financial barriers and living in a school community that didn’t have the resources or opportunities to pursue her passion. She plans to develop a youth-led nonprofit organization to help students from underserved communities pursue higher education.

Planned Major: Mechanical Engineering Technology

Antonio is the first generation in his family who aspires to attend college. He hopes to advance his engineering education and provide students with opportunities that were not available to him. Resources such as college readiness and financial aid are limited and not universally accessible, so he hopes to help the next generation of students with mentorship about college and higher education opportunities.

Planned Major: Mechanical Engineering

Alyssa plans to use her passion for applied mathematics to provide reliable forecasts benefiting vulnerable communities with financial barriers. She led an educational equity tutoring program for marginalized students and witnessed how socioeconomic inequality can affect mental health and limit bright young individuals. Alyssa wants to give them confidence by bridging the inequality gap. She aspires to start a career as an affordable financial manager to help vulnerable populations rise above the poverty line while gaining equal access to the education.

Planned Major: Applied Mathematics

Thomas is focused on tackling a form of pollution that isn’t widely recognized — microplastics. These microparticles harm human health by contaminating seafood, which can cause food poisoning, genetic defects and even cancer. He hopes to further his education to discover groundbreaking research techniques to eliminate microplastics from seawater. Thomas has already conducted preliminary research on a water coagulation method to cause the microplastics to clump and become denser for easier removal.

Planned Major: Environmental Science

After learning the aviation industry is responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions, Danny became inspired to design an environmentally friendly aircraft. As a UCLA researcher, he works with Honeywell to optimize CO2 exchangers for future hybrid electric aircraft use. He is also captain of the Science Bowl team, which placed top three out of 24 teams at the JPL Regional High School Science Bowl and fourth out of 46 teams at the JPL Invention Challenge.

Danny plans to attend MIT to research sustainable propulsion systems for aircraft, specifically a revolutionary zero-emission technology called electro-aerodynamic propulsion, which uses an electric field to ionize the surrounding air and generate thrust. His ambitions include creating a startup that implements groundbreaking technology on next-generation airplanes.

Planned Major: Mechanical Engineering

Cesar aspires to study computation and neural systems at the California Institute of Technology or computer engineering technology at another university. He hopes to use computer science to alleviate neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and glioblastoma cancer.

Cesar is a Samsung Software of Tomorrow State finalist and a three-year Regional Olympiad Champion. He also worked on a research paper on cerebral organoid technology. This experience and his future education will help him advance solutions to neurological diseases and develop electrical hardware for prosthetic limbs and neural implants.

Planned Major: Computer Engineering Technology

Dylan has a passion for tinkering and creating. He uses his computer coding and programming skills to help others. Through the Google Coding Competition, he developed an app that provides an immersive learning experience to teach geography to elementary students through a fun and interactive method.

During the pandemic, he and his brother developed an app, GroceryBuddies, to help at-risk patients in his community and promote local family owned businesses. They also formed rgbCTF, a free online cybersecurity platform for over 1,000 competing teams worldwide to participate in Capture the Flag challenges.

Dylan has also written and developed a research paper for the Air Force Research Laboratory to help defend against drone attacks using a machine learning algorithm and high-powered laser defense system.

He is passionate about helping others through new technology and seeks to inspire and empower young students interested in computer science. He and his brother founded Mathisi-fy, an online community of coders worldwide dedicated to spreading awareness about STEM education.

Planned Major: Computer Science

Whether building robots to accomplish tasks or making real-world software, solving problems is a big part of Aryan’s personality. His goal is to use computer science to solve problems on a larger scale as a tech entrepreneur. One of the more substantial issues he wants to tackle is food security. As the world’s population grows, the importance of food security is at an all-time high. Plant disease outbreaks are increasing worldwide due to a lack of genetic diversity. Aryan acknowledges the importance of detecting plant diseases early.

In the summer of 2019, Joshua visited Uruapan, Mexico, for a church community service trip where they visited 10 different villages. He was shocked to see how different everyday life was for people in these communities. He realized people in the U.S. take many things for granted, such as power, electricity, insulation and even a small battery. Everyday life for citizens of Uruapan did not include any of these luxuries due to their financial situation.

This experience inspired Chanmin to study mathematics and geology to develop a solution. He hopes to focus on renewable and environment-friendly energies, specifically geothermal, hydro, wind turbine and hydrogen energy.

Joshua also visited Turkey in July 2017 and left just days before the Bodrum earthquake, which inspired an interest in earthquake and seismology. He hopes to create an earthquake prediction machine by developing seismometers and sonic signals.

Planned Major: Applied Mathematics

Janna credits her environmental journey to a biology project about desertification, the destruction of soil composition that creates famine. It is where the land becomes so barren that it is incapable of supporting farming or infrastructure. She became invested in this issue and joined the science research class at Palos Verdes High to start a two-year passion project. Her research supports delaying soil desertification by manipulating environmental factors like water P.H. and heat to investigate if elements like acid rain affect the environment. She is currently conducting research through Polygence and hopes to continue by studying environmental science.

Planned Major: Environmental Science

During Nicole’s experience in the AI for ALL summer program, she and her peers discussed bias and diversity in facial recognition technology. As Nicole learned more about computer science, she also noticed disparities in gender representation in the STEM field: women only account for 28% of workers and deaf and hard of hearing individuals only make up 0.13%-0.19% of the STEM field. She plans to study computer science and wants to make an impact by providing representation as a deaf woman in STEM. She hopes that representation can help her and others keep an open mind and consider all perspectives when coding and creating applications to ensure it is as inclusive as possible.

Planned Major: Computer Science

Jackie spent her summers in rural China, where she appreciated the sense of beauty, ethereal calmness and sky full of bright stars. The rest of the year, she lives in the technologically advanced and smoggy city of Los Angeles, where she never felt that same sense of solidarity with nature.

By continuing her education in applied chemistry, Jackie hopes to use different resources, from synthetic photosynthesis to algorithms and satellites for remote sensing, to break down the barrier between humans and nature.

Planned Major: Applied Chemistry

After living in Japan, Esther realized how underdeveloped the metro system is and was inspired to make vast improvements in the U.S. and, eventually, worldwide. From creating a carpool app at a school hackathon to researching artificial intelligence, she’s confident that her GPS — or goal-progressing system — will put her on the right track.

Planned Major: Software Engineering

Hannah plans to pursue a degree in mathematics because she enjoys understanding complex concepts. Thanks to the excellent support system she found with her teachers, Hannah is the valedictorian of her class and has participated in multiple sports throughout high school.

Brian plans to study computer science to address cybersecurity issues through education and innovation. He aims to combine the two fastest-growing fields of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to discover new connections and applications that will revolutionize digital security. Currently, Brian is the lead instructor of the Troy High School Cyber Defense Program and helped create the four-year network security curriculum, the largest youth cybersecurity program with over 500 student participants annually. He also participated in USC’s computer science internship, where he researched machine learning application approaches to automating cybersecurity processes like detecting vulnerability.

Planned Major: Computer Science

Johnny plans to study computer science to combat the digital divide and the inequality of access to information. He aims to develop impact-oriented software solutions using machine learning and blockchain technology to tackle digital inaccessibility in underserved communities. He hopes a degree in computer science will strengthen his skills to develop complex software systems by disrupting traditional industries and bringing accessible digital services to underprivileged communities.

Planned Major: Computer Science

Casey has participated in marching band for over eight years and has performed across multiple cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties. While traveling to performances, she noticed a severe lack of public transit systems. She learned that those in underrepresented communities find it difficult to move out of these areas because they may not have a car or cannot pay high gas prices to commute to work. These people have no choice but to spend hours on multiple buses that pollute the air.

Casey plans to study civil engineering to develop an integrated transit system. She is also interested in exploring combustion engines for public transportation with safer, cleaner electric systems to prevent further environmental damage.

Planned Major: Civil Engineering

Max lived in the rural village of Hualien, Taiwan, where he witnessed the massive ramifications a lack of science education has on the trajectory of individuals and healthcare infrastructure. He also learned that environmental measures have a compounding effect, leading to bad educational outcomes that exacerbate financial issues with many families. When he returned to the U.S., he was inspired to act and uplift underprivileged communities.

Max recognizes a desperate need for scientific advancements in the agriculture industry. Continuing research will help maximize the efficacy of agricultural infrastructure, from crops that are more resistant to temperature fluctuations, water shortages or mutating pathogens. Max plans to follow a career path in developing climate-smart solutions for growing crops that reduce water waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Planned Major: Environmental Science

Aimee is looking forward to studying chemistry to focus on reducing beach and ocean pollution. She has noticed a considerable increase in microplastics and trash within the sand. She hopes pursuing a career in chemistry will allow her to combat this issue by creating filtration systems using renewable energy to remove the microplastics embedded within the sand.

Planned Major: Chemistry

Mario lives in a community separated by the 71 Freeway. On his side, he wakes up to potholes and the smell of burning plastic. As he crosses the 71 Freeway to get to school, he is greeted by green lawns, clean neighborhoods and pristine sidewalks. Mario sees this great divide and aims to give back and unite his community.

Mario and his robotics team host robotic STEM nights at schools in low-income communities to demonstrate the robots the team competes with and lead fun, engaging STEM-related activities. His goal is to provide young students with the opportunities and benefits that he was able to experience.

Planned Major: Computer Science

Emily aspires to study computer science, mechanical or civil engineering. The Green Enterprise Engineering Academy at Antelope Valley High School allowed her to learn about the field and its significance in the world. Emily was selected as one of 40 students to participate in the Northrop Grumman internship program during her junior and senior years. In the program, she discovered that Latinas only comprise a small percentage of the engineering workforce.

During her internship, she realized she wanted to be part of the solution to increase diversity in STEM. She aims to do that by engaging with Latina communities and giving them opportunities to discover potential STEM careers.

Planned Major: Civil Engineering

Planned Major: Information Systems

Planned Major: Computer Engineering Technology