Scholarship Media

I have a friend who--to put it delicately--is an awful driver. He’s reckless and drives too quickly, he takes turns too sharply, he accelerates as fast as possible when traffic lights turn green, and he just generally makes me worry when I’m in the car with him.

I’m a native Californian whose childhood international travels took me to some of the farthest corners of the world. My dad has been an environmentalist and geological researcher most of his life. That career choice rubbed off on me and now I’m the studying environmental science myself. As a freshman, I don’t have too much academic experience under my belt yet, but I definitely know more than your average young adult, given how much exposure to the sciences I had growing up.

I’m a pretty conservative person, but I’m also a person who loves nature and the outdoors. That can leave me kind of conflicted sometimes when I think about the future of our planet. What scares me is the idea that companies aren’t designed to care about the planet--they’re designed to make money (and I think they should be). But that means they don’t really have any reason to pay extra to recycle, and things like that. I know the government steps in and tries to make things better by doing things with laws and taxes and stuff, but I’m not sure I agree with that. But I guess it’s the only way--though I’d rather not just be guessing, so that’s why I’m asking the experts. Can profits and the planet coexist?

I have a friend here who wants to become a plastic surgeon one day. Not just a doctor--she specifically wants to be a plastic surgeon. I really don’t understand it, because I really don’t like the idea of people changing their appearance with surgery. It seems to me that people are being pressured to have cosmetic surgery by the society we live in, which puts too much value on our appearances.

I have some friends who are studying computer science in college, and a lot of them have become really interested in artificial intelligence. I’m interested, too, and though I really don’t have the same background (I’m an English major, myself), we’ve been having some really interesting conversations about where artificial intelligence is going in the future. Among other things, we’ve been discussing the dangers of A.I. My friends tend to think it’s pretty safe stuff, but I’m a little wary of how much power we’re willing to give machines. I know that “computers take over” is some really sci-fi stuff, but is it nonsense? Am I crazy for thinking that there’s a dangerous side to A.I.?

My grandparents on my mother’s side were always the wealthy ones in the family. Don’t get me wrong, none of us have ever wanted for anything, but it was always clear that my mother’s side of the family was more comfortable. But they were the sort of people who wanted their kids to make their own way, so my mother didn’t see much of that money until both of my grandparents passed away.

My little nephew means the world to me, and he’s at what should be a really exciting and innocent time in his life. He’s just starting kindergarten. Unfortunately, some kids in his class have been really mean to him. I have no idea why, or why his kindergarten teacher can’t see to control a group of kids that is so young, but my brother and his wife say my nephew has no friends and sometimes cries and asks them not to send him to school anymore. He’s all alone (he has no brothers or sisters), and it makes me so sad. I know it’s not my place, but what can I do to help?

I’ve never followed politics that closely, so I’m not super familiar with the stuff that is happening related to taxes right now. But even if I were to research it, I’m not sure I’d understand it. To be honest, I never understood how taxes got to be so complicated. Why are there deductions and loopholes? Why is this so complicated--why not just take a fair percentage of everyone’s income, not allow any exemptions and tax breaks, and just leave it at that? I know you guys don’t get political, but I was hoping the experts could give me some background on this.

My little brother has a job he hates: he works in retail back in our hometown, and he’s exhausted all of the time. But, for some reason, he’s really convinced that he doesn’t want to go to college. I guess that’s okay, and my parents seem to have accepted it, but I’m really worried. Without an education, I’m afraid my brother is doomed to spend his whole life working this job he absolutely hates. Why would he do this to himself? Do you have any advice for him--or for me, so that I can talk to him and try to help him see a path forward?