My whole life I’ve known I want to go into STEM, but I’ve never settled on one subject that

interested me more than any other. Every field appeals to me in a different way; if I were
immortal I think I still wouldn’t have enough time to learn everything I want to learn. As a child
I wanted to grow up to be like my father, who is a gifted cryptologist and programming engineer,
so I pursued programming. ​David Allred, my paternal grandfather, is a professor of physics at
Brigham Young University, and he visited my science classes every year from elementary school
through middle school to perform physics demonstrations. I loved making hypotheses with him
about what might happen when a rose was dunked in liquid nitrogen or what color dissolved
transition metals burn. ​Towards the end of my great grandfather’s life, I learned more about his
career as chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project; inspired by his work, I fell in love with
the intricacies of nuclear chemistry. My high school offers the opportunity to take classes at the
University of Utah, and I’ve enjoyed the chemistry and physics classes I’ve taken there. Thanks
to those classes, I became fascinated by physics. My uncle is an astrophysicist at NASA, and my
paternal grandfather is a professor of physics at Brigham Young University, and I’ve become
deeply intrigued by their work. I don’t know which field to choose right now, because I can see
how I might fit into wherever I look. What’s more, my interests aren’t confined to STEM. Since
reading ​The Lord of the Rings​ as a child, I’ve wanted to learn how to make my own languages
like Tolkien developed languages for Middle Earth. In my free time, I’ve been developing a
language with my boyfriend for the fantasy world we created together, called Velðera. While
doing research for this project, I learned about Tolkien’s linguistic inspirations, like Old English,
Icelandic, and old Finnish, and I want to learn those languages and their modern counterparts.
Besides linguistics, I also love creative writing. My greatest influences in writing are Terry
Pratchett, Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, Rudy Rucker, and Diana Wynne Jones.. Now
that I’m entering college, I’m worried that I’ll have to narrow my focus and I won’t be able to
pursue the humanities as much as the sciences, which is why I’m excited to apply to liberal arts
and science colleges in particular. Because liberal arts colleges encourage students to pursue
their artistic and literary ambitions while they engage in challenging scientific work, I can relax
about having to choose one academic field over another: I know I can go after all my aspirations,
figuring out what I love most, and pursuing knowledge in all its forms.

550 words

About a year ago I came out as bisexual, and since then I’ve become co-leader of my school’s
Queer Straight Alliance (QSA). My journey to figure out my queerness has been relatively easy
compared to many of my peers (my family, for instance, has been supportive of my relationship
with my boyfriend), but as a queer leader within my school I’ve heard other people’s stories and
the struggles they’ve gone through. While there has been a lot of progress in society regarding
LGBTQ people and their rights, there is still a long way to go. An issue I’m concerned about,
both as a member of the LGBTQ community and as someone who’s going to pursue a career in
STEM, is the staggering amount of under-representation and misrepresentation of queer people
within the scientific community. Scientific academia tends to be unwelcoming or even hostile
towards queer people. Diversity, on the other hand, improves innovation which means science
can only benefit from becoming more LGBTQ-friendly. I know that certain institutions are
unfriendly to queer people because I’ve experienced it myself, and many of my queer peers and
friends echo this sentiment. In my sophomore year, I attended a Technology Student Association
competition where I heard slurs against queer people used in casual conversation, which was
very demoralizing and delayed my own coming out. According to the ​American Physical
Society​’s report on the LGBT climate in physics, over one third of LGBTQ survey respondents
considered leaving their workplace or school during 2017 because of harassment. As most
scientists can confirm, a large part of being successful in the scientific community is about
networking connections. Scientists typically find success in their field after mentorship from
more established academics, but it’s difficult for queer people to find supportive mentors in
STEM when we feel that we might face discrimination.There are millions of brilliant queer
people all over the world whose potential is wasted because they feel that they can’t go into any
of the STEM fields. When diversity is stifled, so is scientific practice. For science practice to
operate effectively, it must be as objective as possible, and scientists pride themselves on being
color-blind, gender neutral, a-political, and otherwise unbiased. Ironically, this makes makes
discussions about gender identity and sexuallity unwelcome, and this can be discouraging to
LGBTQ people who who would otherwise go into the sciences. The queer perspective is
invaluable to science also because of the unique perspective queer people can bring to research.
Professor Warkentin said her research into frog embryos was partially affected by her queerness:
“My personal experience reinforces that generally accepted things are sometimes incorrect...”
Queer people are inclined to challenge the status quo because we’ve experienced the status quo
being wrong. There are many ways for universities to foster a welcoming environment for queer
people: Institutions can have benefit packages that include trans-friendly health insurance;
colleges can provide safe spaces for LGBTQ students, and start clubs for them as well. In fact,
several organizations have already begun doing so. For example, the American Chemical
Association has a Gay and Transgender Chemists and Allied group. My experiences as a queer
person going into the hard sciences has taught me the value of making sure that minorities feel
welcome, and I want to be a part of that change.