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Episode Notes | Transcript | AskTheGuest

 Hi Fives (5 Highlights)   Click for 2.5-Minute Listen

Skylar Walters, 2022 Coke Scholar, and a recent graduate of Madison High School, New Jersey. Skylar will be a Freshman at Brown University in Fall of 2022.

In this Podcast, Skylar talks about being a Science Media Creator, Winning the Coca Cola Scholarship, her college search process, and advice to college aspirants.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

  1. Who is Skylar Walters?
  2. Science Media Creator
  3. The Coke Scholarship
  4. The College Search
  5. Advice for High Schoolers

Episode Notes

Episode Title: About College and Beyond: Skylar Walters, 2022 Coke Scholar, Madison High School, New Jersey.

Skylar is a 2022 Coke Scholar. Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship.

In this Podcast, Skylar talks about being a Science Media Creator, Winning the Coca Cola Scholarship, her college search process, and advice to college aspirants. #CokeScholars

In particular, we discuss the following with her:

  • Who is Skylar Walters?
  •  Science Media Creator & Other Interests
  • Winning the Coke Scholarship
  • College Process
  • Advice for High Schoolers

Topics discussed in this episode:

  • Introducing Skylar Walters, Coke Scholar [0:41]
  • Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [2:04]
  • Who is Skylar Walters? [4:24]
  • High School Interests [4:58]
  • Science Media Creator [9:10]
  • The Inspiration [12:45]
  • Being a Girl in Science [15:14]
  • Why Coke Scholarship? [19:02]
  • Coke Scholarship App Process [20:38]
  • The Coke Scholarship Difference [25:01]
  • Outlook for the Future [26:33]
  • College Search [27:23]
  • Advice to High Schoolers [31:59]

Our Guest: Skylar Walters is a 2022 Coke Scholar, and a recent graduate of Madison High School, New Jersey. Skylar will be a Freshman at Brown University in Fall 2022.

Memorable Quote: “I think there's a really big problem in science. And it's that it is way too highbrow. There are so many concepts that you can explain so simply, and so easily with, with better communication. ” Skylar Walters.

Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Skylar W  0:14  

I've just I've met one of you know, so many people and so many cool individuals like the amount of just mind blowing mind boggling things that everyone's been up to. It's so amazing. And it's such a strong support network like right now I'm, I got another writing position with a Coke Scholar from I want to say 2017.

Venkat  0:41  [Introducing Skylar Walters, 2022 Coke Scholar]

That is Skylar Walters, 2022 Coke Scholar, and a recent graduate of Madison High School, New Jersey.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

With this Episode, we continue a select set of conversations with high schoolers about their outlook for their futures.

We are joined by Skylar Walters, a Freshman at Brown University this fall.

Skylar is a teenager with a wide array of interests.

She enjoys Computer Science. Loves History.

She was in the band. On the Physics team.

She is a Science Media Creator - trying to explain Science concepts in simple terms - to make them comprehensible to lots more people.

Inspired by her younger brother’s physical challenge, She started printing 3D prosthetic hands and donating them to kids.

Venkat Raman  1:37

In this Podcast, Skylar talks about being a Science Media Creator, Winning the Coca Cola Scholarship, her college search process, and advice to college aspirants.

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives,  Five Highlights from the podcast:

Skylar W  2:04  [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Who is Skylar Walters?]

I consider myself to be a science Media Creator and a college student now.

[Science Media Creator]

80% of autoimmune patients are female. And there's the scale that's sometimes used when you sort of examine the relative burden of a disease and the costs and funding of research and autoimmune illnesses have some of the highest burdens. It's one of the leading causes of death and disability for women under the age of 50. But the amount of funding that goes into it is incredibly low.

[The Coke Scholarship]

No one from my school has even been a semifinalist before. And I opened up my email so that I was a semi finalist and scream essentially. And my mom was going crazy, because I had to explain what it was to them. They didn't know. So I explained it to them. And they were going crazy. And my dad was going crazy. And even my my siblings, all three of them ran into my room. And they're like great job Skylar! And that was just for the first round.

 

[The College Search]

Yeah, so I had this mega list of schools. Yeah. And over time I visit their webinars and sort of learn like, can I see myself at the school. So like, for example, I used to think Caltech was my dream school. And then I went to one webinar. And I asked, like, is there a way to, you know, how do students handle hobbies in academics? And I think her answer was something along the lines of, you know, it's hard to but if you really love something, you'll find a way to do it.

[Advice to High Schoolers]

Don't do things because you think they look good on a college application, do things because you have a genuine deep interest in them. And, and really want to explore them maybe in the future.

Venkat Raman  3:56

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Venkat Raman  4:08

Now, I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Skylar.

So without further ado, here's the podcast with Skylar Walters!

--------------

Venkat Raman  4:18  

Cool. So maybe you can start by telling us a little bit about yourself. How would you describe yourself?

Skylar W  4:24  [Who is Skylar Walters?]

Yeah. So I consider myself to be a science Media Creator and a college student now, which is cool. Um, you know, beyond that, I'm really into creative work. I do a ton of work with like fiber arts, textile design. And yeah.

Venkat Raman  4:50  

Let me start a little bit with your high school, what kind of things were of interest to you in the classroom?

Skylar W  4:58  [High School Interests]

So I went to my local Public School. And I had a really great experience. I was really lucky because it was it was a smaller school we had about 200 kids per grade. So we just had like, amazing teachers and faculty there for us. I was really interested in sort of exploring new courses as I got into like junior and senior year, like, I took an amazing we were lucky enough to have computer science offered at my school.

So I took a really cool comp sci class and a lot about Java. We had a really fun US History class that was essentially our teacher talking about his life for 40 minutes a day. And it was really entertaining because he would always talk about like, how he fit into historical events like he he actually went to Soviet Russia, with his students on a few field trips there.

Um, yeah, I was I was involved with the band for all four years. I played trumpet mellophone mostly, but I'm involved with a few other instruments like flute clarinet, but those are mostly on my own time.

And yeah, I did. I did the physics team, which was such a cool group of people. My freshman year and the greatest event ever. It's called the pumpkin chuckin'. We essentially build a 12 foot tall tribe you chaise. And every year we go to this place called the Picatinny Arsenal, which you would love if you're from New Jersey. And you just launched these pumpkins into this giant lake. And it's so cool. Yeah, I guess I'll talk about a bit more with sort of the stuff that I worked on. And

Venkat Raman  6:37  

yeah, yeah. So but sounds like you have some really varied interests.

Skylar W  6:43  

Yeah, so I think the prosthetic hands is, is that was involved a lot with school. I actually started that program when I was in sixth grade on my local middle school. So just for reference, my brother greatest kid in the world, he was born that his right hand. So when I was in school, got a 3d printer. And it's just the coolest piece of machinery and I had so much fun playing with it. And I was just sort of going around on Thingiverse. And I found these models for 3d printed prosthetic hands. And that made me so excited. So I did a test print, they came out terribly, because it was like a 24 hour print and our 3d printers pretty bad. But I kept going and eventually, you know, I assembled a team of few students. With this other girl named Shannon, she's really cool. She is at Stevens now. And I think she's actually doing like computer science and prosthetics design. But um, you know, we built these hands and started donating them to kids. And I bought one from my brother, that was Captain America themed. And it had a little, a little shield on it, Captain America shield that you could shoot it. And I stayed involved with that program at that middle school, even after I graduated there. Yeah, and it's still it's still a living program, it's still going strong there, which is super cool. But I didn't actually start at my high school. Until until probably junior senior year, I'd wanted to start it actually, when I was, I think sophomore year, but COVID Cause a lot of issues with Yeah, trying to start like get off the ground. And we didn't really have like club meetings again, at my high school until the end of junior year, beginning of senior year. So finally, it was time for the project to start up again. And I've been doing a sort of on my own on and off for a while with just my school's on 3d printed own 3d printers. And then, you know, I was like, this is a bigger thing. Like, it's more than just me, we should have a whole group of people working on it. So yeah, this year, I was able to finally get the funding for it finally get the program started. And we actually started through the physics team, which, once again, super cool people. Yeah, um, and yeah, just been going on since.

Venkat Raman  9:03  

Tell me about being a Science Media Creator. What does that mean? Yeah. What do you do?

Skylar W  9:10  [Science Media Creator]

Yeah, so for me, I think there's a really big problem in science. And it's that it is way too highbrow. There are so many concepts that you can explain so simply and so easily with, with better communication. And I think a lot of a lot of the problems in science when it comes down to like, trying to diversify in terms of class, gender, race, a lot of it comes barriers with trying to communicate it effectively and make it more accessible to others. And so that's sort of where my passion for media creation comes in. I've always loved writing I've always loved documentaries. When I was a kid. My mom would force you to watch documentaries. Yes, she Didn't like watching SpongeBob? It's kind of true. But in a great way, because I was I was a dinosaur obsessed kid and I loved those dinosaur documentaries. Yeah.

And yeah, so now I work for this super cool company called Gobeyond labs at Shannon & Jenn, she's really become a mentor. Where we essentially do just that we enteries podcasts and written media that tries to take really complex subjects in science, and make them more straightforward and simple. Well, into working to feature under her voices in science. So for example, we have this really cool sort of like photography series, with these neat, like graphics all about, like, just really cool innovators in science like, and that, which is really fun. Yeah. So I think it's, it's really important that we sort of examine the societal shaping that sort of impact our discoveries and how we do science. So I've done a lot of work with AI research, and sort of bias there. Medical research and gender and racial bias there.

So for example, autoimmune illness, affects at sorry, 80% of autoimmune patients are female. And there's the scale that's sometimes used when you sort of examine the relative burden of a disease and the costs and funding of research. And yeah, autoimmune illnesses have some of the highest burdens, it's one of the leading causes of death and disability for women under the age of 50. But the amount of funding that goes into it is incredibly low. So it's this crippling, crippling cause crippling disease burden that has so little research going toward it that a lot of treatments are hard to come by a lot of cures, it takes up to I think it's, the statistic is six doctors over the course of four years, before most patients even get a concrete diagnosis. So I think it's really important to look into how, you know, our societal views on gender, and race sort of play into that. That funding of research and you know, it's in the end, unfortunately, our own unintentional biases are hurting people and killing people. And it's something we really need to acknowledge more when we do science.

Venkat Raman  12:36  

The question I have for you, actually, is, how did you get into all this? Why is this interesting to you? Why does it inspire you or excite you?

Skylar W  12:45  [The Inspiration]

Yeah, I feel like, I feel like I don't have the most exciting answer for it, it kind of it kind of found me. A few years back, I want to say it was my freshman, sophomore year of high school, I was really interested in like sustainability. And, you know, I think a lot of stuff that we don't necessarily think about when we think about sustainability is how, there's a lot of a lot of different factors that go into play societally. So there's, you know, you have class, a richer person is going to use more energy than a poor person. And then there's also issues of, I believe, it's called environmental racism, where you sort of have areas with different demographics having different access to green spaces, or tree content, that sort of thing. And that got me really interested in like that sort of combination of looking at science through societal perspective. And then I sort of created this theoretical invention one time. And that was sort of like using algae as an air purifying source. And I entered some like business competition, because I really was interested in engineering that future instead of communicating at the time, and I sort of met this mentor named Jen Jen Hartwell, the founder of Gobeyond. And she, she was like, you are going to love what my company's doing an offer for me to interview for her. And that's how I got started to start pivoting more toward media creation. Because up until that point, I really loved writing, but I'd never gotten to have a chance of doing it. So I started pivoting more from you know, innovating ideas to examining them and trying to share them with the world. Yeah, and that's, that's how I really got to this, this drive to understand all puzzle pieces, like my mom loves jigsaw puzzles, and I cannot stand them. But you know, this is this is a puzzle for me.

Venkat Raman  14:50  

Absolutely, absolutely. Now, one more question on this and then we won. I mean, I Did you know as you were growing up, and you're still growing up? So, you know, in school, did you find that being a girl in science was a challenge? Or how was how was it received within your school?

Skylar W  15:14  [Being a Girl in Science]

Yeah, I had two very different experiences and two very, very, I guess, I guess, empowering experiences. When I was in middle school I had the most atrocious science teacher really helped me. Yeah, he doesn't find himself on here. And he would say things he would say things like, Oh, I can't use the drill because my nails I get stuck in it. And, you know, I'm a chronic nail biter. I don't have nails. Or like, I can't lead the rocketry team, like, I'm gonna give it to the two random boys that have never expressed an interest in rocketry until today. You know, it was like, it was like little things. But you know, in the end, I'm still really grateful for him because he helped me get me into into science in the first place. And then when I got to high school, I had my school just physics first, which is a really great model. And I have to recommend it for other schools. Just because it's a it's such a foundational science class for the rest of the four years.

But I had this teacher named Miss Rawding. Thank You, Ms Rawding, I will be sending this to you. And she is a physicist and a physics teacher. And she just she was so engaging with the subject and was so encouraging. It always was like, You're I'm always here to help. You know, my first year, she coached the physics team, and, and there were probably three girls on the team. And the two of us would always work together to try and get more people to join. And, and by the end, it was it was honestly like a agender, or even gender split. And I thought that was, that was really cool, because she was always working to get a sense of science. But, I mean, honestly, like, I have seen so many people become discouraged from doing science, so many, especially, you know, women, because they think like, I have to be a math genius. In order to take a physics class, I have to, you know, learn all these insane formulas to do chemistry or anything like that. But I think I think it also goes back to accessibility, when we try to make it more straightforward and take out the convoluted language like science becomes more accessible. And I've met so many incredible, you know, female scientists and diverse creators that it's really encouraging for the future.

Venkat Raman  17:38  

No question, no question. I mean, I'm really, really happy that you're doing it. And obviously, you're bringing great passion and excitement and energy to it. And thank you more, more power to you.

Skylar W  17:53  

Yeah. Oh, sorry. So one thing? Sure, sure. Go ahead. Yeah, this is I just, I want to bring it up. When I graduated from middle school, there was this one teacher, not even a teacher, he was my field hockey coach, since I was probably in third grade, who was always always just keeping track of everything I did. And he once gave me this book, and I still have it on my bookshelf. I'm looking at it right now. called, I think it's 50 Incredible, limited science. And he wrote me the most incredible note inside and it said, something along the lines of you're going to be in the next edition. And you're gonna get other people into the next edition. And I, you know, that's honestly a big source of inspiration too, because it's like, you know, not just not just am I going to try and innovate for the future, but push others to innovate?

Venkat Raman  18:40  

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you know, one thing is to do, but the bigger thing is to inspire and get others involved.

Skylar W  18:47  

Yeah, exactly.

Venkat Raman  18:54  

Let's talk about the Coke scholarship. Why did you even think about it? Why did you think of applying?

Skylar W  19:02  [Why Coke Scholarship?]

It's, it's really funny, actually, sort of, but I accidentally stumbled on the Coke scholars website, probably my freshman year of high school. And I was reading through all of those bios and everyone on there, I was thinking, wow, I could never do that. And the truth was, I wasn't even going to apply. I'd forgotten about it. By the time I was a senior. And it was probably a week before the application was due. And I was just really bored in the library. And I thought, You know what, why not? Why not throw it in? Because I'd sort of been been learning this lesson for the past few years. My dad likes to call it like, just say yes to everything. And I couldn't agree more. You know, you never let an opportunity pass you by even even if it seems like it'd be boring or mundane. And so yeah, the Coke scholarship, it was it was an opportunity I had sitting there and I had to In our free time to fill it out for that first round, because the first round is it's, it doesn't really have any essays, it's not a super time consuming thing. And I just want to say to all the all the seniors or soon to be seniors who are listening, you know, just say yes, apply to everything and anything you can, that's probably the biggest piece of advice I can give you. Besides, you know, still still trying to have fun. Yeah, and the scholarship application is now open. So I would definitely, definitely apply.

Venkat Raman  20:32  

You know, you said the first step wasn't too bad. How was,  How was the rest of the process?

Skylar W  20:38  [Coke Scholarship App Process]

um, I had completely forgotten about the application. And I didn't have because I didn't have any expectations. No one from my school has even been a semifinalist before. And I opened up my email saw that I was a semi finalist and screamed, essentially. And my mom was going crazy, because I had to explain what it was to them. They didn't know. So I explained it to them. And they were going crazy. And my dad was going crazy. And even my my siblings, all three of them ran into my room. And they're like, great, Go Skylar. And that was just for the first round.

Yeah, so that after you were a semifinalist, you sort of move on to that stage where you would write a lot of essays. So I believe it was 350 word prompts. And I had so much fun writing those. Just because, you know, writing is my strong suit. It's something I've always loved something I hope to continue pursuing in the future. And I think three longer form essays. And yeah, so that was that was the next round.

And then I got my regional finalists email, and I was going crazy again. And then from the regional finalists, this was by far the most horrifying stage, you had a 20 minute interview. And that 20 minute interview would determine who becomes so there are 250 people left. And that interview determines who are the 150 scholars. And I'm pretty okay at interviews, but this one I was nervous out of my mind for. And I have pretty bad Wi Fi a lot. So I was like, my entire family needs to shut off your phone, shut off your Wi Fi, I need all the Wi Fi I can get. And right before I did it, my dad came into the room where I was doing my interview. And he just he gave me this big hug and said, you know, whatever happens from here, just know that you were all so proud of you. And this was all this was all you this was your work.

And I'm really grateful for my family, because they're not really, they don't, they don't really put pressure on me in any way. Like my dad always jokes, he still does that he has the lowest SAT score in the school's history. And he's still successful and had a really great life. So I just, I was really grateful to him in that moment for coming in there. And just and just reminding me that this was all my work and my motivation that got me here.

And so I did my interview. I was freaking out the entire time. And then the last question came and he asked, Who would be proud of you, your parents or yourself. And I just told him the whole story about my dad, just coming in there and really, you know, being there for me.

And then a few weeks later, I, I have a friend who had also been a regional scholar, a regional finalist, right? And she texts me in the middle of a car ride. I drive. I drive to I therapy like once or twice a week. And that's a it's an hour long drive. It's the most terrifying hour because you're on the highway the whole time. And there's trucks everywhere. But she texts me and she's like, did you hear back yet? And I I'm like, what, what am I hearing about the Coke scholarship, and I'm freaking out this whole time.

Because I'm driving. I still have 40 minutes left till until I can get home and check my email. And my palms were sweating. My steering wheel was slick. It was it was nerve racking. And then I opened it up and I saw the congratulations. And I you know, I started crying and I called my dad immediately. And we started planning a little surprise for the rest of the family. So I went out to the store. I bought a giant bottle of Coke. I started this really great bakery next to my doctor and picked up a giant thing of pancake. And I wrote on the top of the box “Share a Coke with a Coke Scholar”. Yeah. And when they got home they were all just they were all so excited because they got free pancake and coke!

Venkat Raman  24:54  

So there you have it, you won the Scholarship. What kind of difference is it making right now, for you?

Skylar W  25:01  [The Coke Scholarship Difference]

Oh my gosh, I have met so many incredible people. She's actually in the podcast really recently. But Rich. Yeah, we text each other constantly. We FaceTime all the time. And we're both going to brown next year. Yeah. So I've just I've met one of, you know, so many people and so many cool individuals, like the amount of just mind blowing mind boggling things that everyone's been up to. It's so amazing. And it's such a strong support network. Like, right now I'm, I got another writing position. With a co scholar from I want to say 2017. I've, I've had lunch with a co seller and other co seller at Brown for last year, we had this thing called the Leadership Development Institute, where we sort of meet with an older coke scholar and a few other co scholars and just talk about it self reflection, self awareness, and our goals for the future. And I was such a such a challenging experience in a great way, because it really made you reflect on what makes you you. It's just been an incredible network of people and experience for better for better understanding yourself. I mean, the money's nice, too.

Venkat Raman  26:22  

So you talked about viewing the future? How do you view the future? I mean, are you? I mean, you sound like a super optimistic person. So I would imagine a positive view

Skylar W  26:33  [Outlook for the Future]

That, I don't, I don't know. It's funny, because I don't always think of myself as an optimist. But I'm really trying to be, yeah. And I honestly don't know what my future holds for me, I, I really want to keep doing science communication. But the beauty of science communication is you can whether I go into math, if I go into biology, physics, the The truth is, I don't really know what I want to do. But I think that's, that's perfectly fine. And that's what exploring yourself is for.

Venkat Raman  27:09  

Can we talk a little bit about your college search process, I mean, how did you arrive at Brown? So tell us a little bit about how you went about it, just for the benefit of our listeners.

Skylar W  27:23  [College Search]

I love Google sheets so much. And I essentially made this massive Google Sheet of every single school I could think of. So my school has my high school, they used to have like events where colleges would visit. If I had a college visit, I want to I would write it down. And I have this massive list of probably 40 schools.

And actually, I'm going to rewind a little bit, I really started coming up with schools, my sophomore year of high school, which I think honestly is a bit too early. I think that I used to get so worked up and scared by the prospect of applying to college. From way too young of an age like I was so focused on, on doing things because I think it'll look good on my resume. And not because I was interested in them.

And sophomore year was what I started realizing. I don't want to do things just because I don't want to do things just because it'll get me in somewhere. I want to do things because I love them. And at that point, I kind of dropped everything I really wasn't interested in like, I tried to do Model UN, I thought that would look great on application. I hated it. So I just dropped everything I wasn't interested in and started pursuing like, like real passions of mine. Like that's how I did writing. I actually I had a counselor, tell me, don't do your writing stuff, stick to everything else. And, you know, I'm so glad I didn't listen to her. Because, you know, I found my passion. But yeah, so I had this mega list of schools. Yeah. And over time I visit their webinars and sort of learn like, can I see myself at the school. So like, for example, I used to think CalTech was my dream school. And then I went to one webinar. And I asked, like, is there a way to, you know, how do students handle hobbies in academics? And I think her answer was something along the lines of, you know, it's hard to but if you really love something, you'll find a way to do it. And that's an I'm a very hobby centered person, like I love textile design. And that scared me. So I realized, you know, maybe I don't fit perfectly with the culture of CalTech. Yeah.

And so I just kept moving on. And I did that for a lot of schools. I did that for University of Chicago. I wasn't really a huge fan of a super strict core curriculum, just because I didn't have a lot of chances to explore courses in high school. Yeah. And once you sort of forge my own path, and sort of realizing things that I disliked and liked in colleges helps me You realize, oh, you know, I really want an open curriculum, or I really want a school with a vibrant art scene is vibrant art program. And so over time, I'd sort of, I took my first college tour in the summer before my senior year. And I want to say Brown was one of the last ones we visited. And I ended up just really, I felt a sense of connection to a lot of the students on campus. And for me, it was someone who's interested in both writing and stem, they're, you know, they have an incredible writing department and their science departments are really great, too. So that open curriculum combined with their programs really made it such an appealing school to me. And I remember it's that sort of made me decide I actually applied early there. And that's where I went. That's where I'm going super excited. Yeah, and then that's how I found brown. It's kind of funny, because when I was looking back at like, my, my original list from sophomore year, round wasn't even on it. It wasn't even on the list. And now it's it's a place that I couldn't be happier to be going because it has the coolest people I've ever met. You know, they're very, they're, they're down to earth, which was something I didn't really see it certain other, like high tier schools I visited. They're very creative and diverse academic interests like mine. And that's how I chose Brown.

Venkat Raman  31:39  

You're off to Brown. As you kind of reflect on your years in high school, and maybe Middle School, what would you tell the rising seniors or maybe even high schoolers about college about the college process? What would you advise to them?

Skylar W  31:59  [Advice to High Schoolers]

I think it kind of goes back to what I was saying before, but don't do things because you think they look good on a college application, do things because you have a genuine deep interest in them. And, and really want to explore them maybe in the future. Like, for example, I'm really interested in sustainability beside from writing. And I found out that and I love I love the outdoors. I love hiking, I just got back from a super cool hiking trip up in New Paltz around there with some of my friends and climbing trip. And I love the outdoors. And I'm lucky enough to grow up in a town that has two national wildlife refuges in it. And I found out recently that they have a Superfund site. It's called the rolling hills landfill I believe rolling hills or rolling hills. And that Superfund sites just been sitting there like no cleanup for decades now. And it's actually located inside of one of the reserves. My My favorite was called The Great Swamp. Yeah. And it's polluting the water there, like. So I what I've been doing is I've been doing research on, you know, how, how is this been impacting the wildlife and the area? And I found is that the water in the swamp is extremely basic. Yeah. Which is, you know, my assumption is that has been caused by the landfill. So no, that's not, it doesn't really have to do with, with anything on my applications or anything. You know, that would look good to a school unnecessarily. But that's just something I really, I really loved it was really passionate about, or, like, you know, I said before, I quit Model UN, because I don't care about Model UN. Right, right. And I also just invested I would say, invest more time in your hobbies and things that make you happy. You know, I crochet, I sell a lot, I love my love doing embroidery, anything like that. And, you know, I think that that adds color to a person. If you're sort of a robot who just, you know, I'm the captain of the math team and captain of the Model UN or just or just, you know, it's not your true passions. I think colleges can sort of sense that and scope it out. And it makes you less of a person at the end of the day. You know, you're you're a human being and and you should always do what makes you happy.

Venkat Raman  34:20  

Absolutely, absolutely. I think I think you have to be authentic true to yourself. Like you said, so. So this is wonderful. So Skylar, this has been a wonderful discussion. Yeah. You know, you have so many interests and so many different ways in which you can proceed. And so I look forward to talking to you more in the future and all the best at Brown and beyond. And yeah, hope to catch a bunch of your creations pretty soon.

Skylar W  34:51  

Thanks you so much, and I'm so glad to be on the podcast. I can't wait to listen to my episode and everyone else is when they come out. Apply for the Coke scholarship every one.

Venkat Raman  35:02  

Absolutely, absolutely. So thank you Skylar. Thanks for taking the time and I will talk to you soon.

Skylar W  35:07  

Take care. Talk soon.

Venkat Raman  35:09  

Bye bye

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Venkat  35:16

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Skylar Walters.

Skylar has lots of energy around Science, Sustainability, the outdoors and empathy for people around her.

I love her passion to make science easy to understand.

It is quite amazing to hear how persistent she was in getting the 3D printing of hands right.

It took effort and a few years. But she assembled a team to work with her. She then started donating the hands to kids.

She sees the Coca Cola Scholarship as an opportunity to collaborate and learn from Scholars’ Alumni Network.

I wish Skylar all the best at Brown University and Beyond.

I hope this podcast inspires you as you prep for your college journey.

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.

Till we meet again, take care and be safe.

Thank you!

Summary Keywords

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