 Hi, my name is Destiny White and I'm from Indianapolis, Indiana. I am a senior in nuclear engineering and I have a minor in political science. And I've had internships at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos National Lab. I've also worked as a camp counselor for the Minority Engineering Program. The MEP Boot Camp is a wonderful opportunity for incoming freshmen if you would like to develop a community of students of color before you start your Purdue journey and it can also prepare you for the academics. I know I'm not the greatest at math and so Purdue math is no joke so it's definitely nice to get an introduction to what you're going to be expecting from the campus when you come. I obviously didn't join this major with the intention of being the first Black woman to graduate from it. It was just what I was interested in. I actually don't have any engineers in my family but I was always interested in chemistry in my elementary and high school but for some reason both of my teachers in elementary and high school skipped over the nuclear unit so that just kind of intrigued me more. I originally wanted to be a radioactive waste manager. I honestly could not tell you where that specific like career path came from but my mom was like maybe that's not such a good idea because it's a bit unsafe so she directed me more towards nuclear policy because I'm honestly more of like a language arch and literature and arts person so she was like you can mix your talents there with your interests for nuclear so that's kind of how I got started in nuclear. But I definitely had a lot of support along the way. My research advisor Dr. Jason Harris took me in as a freshman to study nuclear security and he's given me so much support over these last four years. I'm very grateful to him. I've met a wonderful group of friends through my classes because the major's pretty small so I don't think I could have made it through without my friends. Obviously my parents, I'm very grateful that they were open to me studying whatever I wanted and didn't push me down any certain path. One of the most key academic experiences of my undergraduate career has been doing research with my mentor Dr. Harris and my grad student she's since left but her name is Emily Bragers and so she kind of took me under her wing in nuclear security and I got to run a couple tests with her and really just learn like research how that works because I had no experience coming in as a freshman and so I got to learn about statistics and experimental design and things like that and publishing a paper and I definitely think that was a strong backbone of my academic experience here because it was kind of interdisciplinary as opposed to just your classes and things. So nuclear is pretty unique because it is a very small community and they're really really excited and passionate about their youth so if you are at all interested in nuclear you don't have to be dead set on or anything but I would really encourage you to find you know an industry professor, a university professor, anyone in nuclear that might be involved in what you're interested in and reach out to them and let them know that you're interested in what they do and a little bit about yourself and I'm sure they would be so happy to engage with you. I feel like that's honestly how I got a lot of my opportunities throughout my career here at Purdue. My nuclear career is just you know reaching out and asking the question so there's no exception for however young old you are but definitely reach out because the nuclear community is very excited about their youth. I would love to see more people of color involved in nuclear but I definitely think it's kind of a matter for it kind of nuanced fields like that a matter of exposure especially at a young age when you're really deciding your education and so I definitely would encourage schools to you know introduce your students to a wide variety of things you don't have to have a whole unit over it or anything but just let them know what's out there and kind of let them follow their own path. So if I were to offer one piece of advice to sum everything up I would definitely like to tell all the black girls out there the young black girls who maybe feel nerdy or you know don't always fit in or anything that there is a path out there for you don't be afraid to follow your dreams don't be afraid to be yourself. I'm cheering for you the world's cheering for you and I wish you guys the best of luck.