When I was little, there was this big thing, “the government,” that had so much power and influence in my daily life. It decided what I would eat during school, it decided what I could watch on TV, and it decided how well I had to do on my tests in order to pass the second grade. The government sounded a lot like parents, and I wanted to know what it was. That’s where my interest started, and it only continued to grow.
As I got a bit older, it all became a bit clearer. There was Congress that made the bills, the President who signed those bills into law, and the Supreme Court that decided whether or not those passed laws were constitutional. While learning what the government was and how it functioned, I was also finding out about climate change by joining groups like YouthCAN (Climate Action Network) and ACE (Alliance for Climate Education). Ideas of colony collapse and the carbon bubble were totally new for me, and they were terrifying. Knowing that the planet’s temperature had already risen by a whole degree Celsius and that there was no end in sight was horrifying, and where else to look for a solution to this ever-growing problem than those “parents” that have the power to set the earth on the right path.
That’s why I applied to the Ward Fellowship. The best way to effect change in one’s society is to become a part of it, and the government is the place controlled by the people where change happens every day. I want to work in the public sector, ecause our changing environment affects every person in every community, and no person should live without someone to turn to in their time of need.
More than anything else, I want to learn. I seek to know about everything there is to know about and have the confidence to explain it to others and feel confident in my ability to understand complex situations. Working in the city councilor’s office will hopefully give me the experience at handling new and complex situations, after which I can become an experienced speaker and learner.