Roemer 1

Alleene Roemer
Personal Statement
Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school
and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.
I looked up google maps to check, and decided that the most important places of my life
could all be visited in one forty-five minute drive. For this road trip we would pack our
backpacks, with items such as Dr. Bronners and a AAA road map. We would pack reading
materials: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, Men Explain things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, and
the entire Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. We would download Podcasts to
listen to on the road: Radiolab, This American Life, the TED Radio Hour and Freakonomics. We
would kick back in the car or transit, (depending on what we can afford) and head to the East
Campus to start our trip.
In order to get to Camino Heights you have to drive down Carson road, past the Apple
Blossom Cafe and merge onto the freeway by the Valero gas station. Then, make two lefts, a
right and another left and you will be on the Natural Resources East Campus, the campus I
consistently volunteer at a couple weekends a month. It isnt very impressive unless you know
where to look. The first noticeable things are the two classrooms, a greenhouse and a garden bed,
but if you look again you will notice the three wind turbines Im supposed to connect to the bee
house this year in order to power the lights. To the far left you will see the field and forest where
I can remember tramping through the fields and woods with my friends learning how to read
latitude and longitude on a map and how to use a compass. In the classroom, is an extensive set
of materials for building solar panels. In the back left corner is a box of Dell laptop computers,
commonly used by my project partner and I as we write up grants and look over electricity bills,

Roemer 2
while joking about the hold music on the PG&E help line. The teacher, Mr.Gautschi, calls
everyone in from the field with his megaphone. We get back in the car to head to the next place
on our list, Sierra-at-Tahoe.
It is a Saturday in January as we head up highway 50, rolling up the windows to keep out
the rain and snow (labeled cement by anyone who ever skied in Colorado) while yawning due to
the change in elevation. We stop in the town of Strawberry to buy an Its-It, and say Hi to the
store manager Squirrel who is always willing to donate a folding chair or direct people to the
best sledding hill. We look at Pyramid peak and Mt. Ralston as we drive by, maybe planning a
mountain bike ride or backpacking trip in Desolation Wilderness. Finally, we reach Sierra-atTahoe ski resort. Here is the mountain I explore consistently every weekend of the winter since
the time I joined pre-ski team in the seventh grade, memorizing every trail, every tree stump and
every boulder as if the mountain were an art piece I drew myself. This is where I have learned
how to fall while speeding over fifty-five miles per hour without hurting myself and where I
have learned when and when not to take risks. Sierra-at-Tahoe is the place I first taught young
girls how to ski and carve down the mountain. It is also where I became an Assistant Coach on
the Buddy Werner ski team, and lead the group back to the lodge when the Coach became injured
with a serious head concussion. Here, to the surprise of many coaches and team members, myself
included, I was voted into the position of Captain of the girls ski team during my third year of
highschool. Having never actually had enough girls on the team to have a Captain, I was
overwhelmingly unprepared with almost no idea what I was expected to do as a leader other than
inform people when practice was or lead stretches. It is because of the team members that I
managed to come into my own and learn the skills I needed to become a leader. When there was
a problem within the team they felt comfortable enough to talk to me about it, and that way I

Roemer 3
could fix it on my own or discuss it with coaches and the other leading team members. These
problems ranged from helping unprepared team members get down a black diamond run to
standing up against peers excluding other girls on the team based on the fact that they were
freshman and sophomores or because they were foreign exchange students. At the end of the
year, I was awarded the Spyder Sabich award, which is an award that goes to a boy and a girl on
the team who represent the team for that year. It meant a lot to me because everyone on the team
had the opportunity to vote, even people I didnt feel I knew very well. Before I received the
award, I had not realized how much support I had. It was an awesome experience to know that
all of these people had my back, appreciated my ideas, and followed me as a leader.
Because of my experiences in the Natural Resources Program and on the El Dorado Ski
Team I want to study biology and have the opportunity to work in the field. I have searched high
and low with the hope of finding a place that will give me the support I need in order to succeed
in college and that is why I have chosen University of Portland. I want to help people in the same
way people have helped me, and the best way to do that is by utilizing and protecting our
environment, and the natural resources we have been given. If I am to have the largest impact
possible in the world, it will be through science. Having a science degree will help me gain the
confidence to state my ideas and have the authority I need to make the changes and
improvements I want to make in the world.