Hi Keshav, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
While I am a high schooler now, my journey as an environmentalist began with a spark of curiosity in the third grade. I remember hearing my science teacher gravely uttering to us after a moment of silence: “Your school doesn’t want me engaging in politics or saying that I believe Climate Change is real, but I do. And I’ll be teaching a unit on environmental science for the first time this year.” So it all started when my enthusiastic science teacher introduced me to the captivating world of climate science. Concepts like biodiversity and ecosystems fascinated me, laying the foundation for my environmental journey.
While watching the presidential debate, I observed President Obama and Senator Mitt Romney discussing energy policies that still embraced fossil fuels. This realization struck me: Why weren’t we prioritizing renewable energy and sustainable practices more vigorously? This pivotal moment prompted me to take action. I founded a Renewable Energy Club at my school, where I began advocating for sustainable energy solutions and actively participating in environmental rallies and council meetings.
My passion for science blossomed, prompting me to enroll in an advanced course, AP Environmental Science, during my middle school years. This opportunity served as a catalyst for my involvement in small-scale research projects and my active participation in annual science fairs. The excitement of discovery and hands-on experimentation ignited my determination to delve deeper into environmental issues. I eagerly sought the mentorship of my school teachers, persistently requesting their guidance.
In seventh grade, I became fixated on finding solutions to clean up waste on beaches. My family and I dedicated our time to volunteering and organizing beach clean-up drives. During this period, I utilized my advanced physics knowledge to create a tool which I named “Utilizing Specific Heat Capacity to Identify Man-Made Waste on Beaches.” The technology I developed was an affordable and non-invasive mechanism that enabled an autonomous drone to identify man-made waste on beaches and in oceans with remarkable accuracy. We spent days testing this innovation at Half Moon Bay, California.
In my eighth-grade year, I focused on the problem of clean water availability, and my research project was titled “Developing an Advanced Optical Algorithm to Detect Impurities in Drinking Water.” I constructed a sensor that employed Snell’s Law and Beer-Lambert’s Law to effectively assess the cleanliness of a water sample, including the detection of detrimental yet invisible microscopic particulates.
