I notice things. It's gotten me into environmental science, filmmaking, and more volunteer hours at an animal shelter than I planned.
I run cross country, teach myself things, and spend my weekends at an animal shelter. My interest in environmental science started outside, not in a classroom. There's a specific patch of land near my neighborhood that most people walk past without registering. I kept going back.
Who I am
I'm Alex Rivera, a senior at Westfield High School in Fairfax, Virginia. I run cross country varsity, and I run to place. When I'm on a course I'm not zoning out or thinking about something else. I'm competing, watching my split, making decisions. That's just how I do things.
On weekends I volunteer at an animal shelter, and honestly? I'm still figuring out what draws me there: whether it's the individual connections with the animals or the bigger questions about how systems of care and welfare actually work. I’m still figuring that part out, and I think that is part of why I keep coming back.
Over the past year I've been teaching myself video editing. Not to post more content, but because I want to tell people's stories the right way. I point the camera outward. I'm interested in what's real about the people and places around me, not in curating my own highlight reel.
Competitive
Varsity cross country. I race to place, and I care about the result. Caring about the result is how you get better.
Self-directed
Video editing, environmental science. Things I got into on my own terms, not because a teacher told me to.
Observant
I notice the things that don't announce themselves. That's what drives my science and my filmmaking both.
Still figuring some things out
I don't have every answer yet. I think that's fine.
What I've done
A short documentary about the overlooked natural patch near my neighborhood in Fairfax, the kind of place most people walk past without registering. I filmed it over several months: the light changes, the animal activity, the quiet ecological story playing out between subdivisions and strip malls. This is where my interest in environmental science crystallized. Not from a textbook. From standing still and watching.
Format
Short documentary film
Skills
Self-taught video editing, field observation, environmental storytelling
What it taught me
That the most important ecosystems aren't always the dramatic ones.
Three seasons at the varsity level for Westfield. I show up to race, not just to finish. Running has taught me more about pressure and patience than most things I've done in school, which I didn't expect when I started.
Weekend volunteer at a local animal shelter in Fairfax. Hundreds of hours over multiple years. I'm genuinely uncertain whether I'm drawn more to the one-on-one care side or to the bigger policy and systems questions. I keep coming back either way.
A self-initiated video portrait project documenting friends, family, and community members. I'm behind the camera. The point is never me. I want to capture what's real about the people around me before we all scatter after graduation.
My perspective
"I didn't find my way into environmental science through a class. I found it because I kept going back to a specific place near my neighborhood and eventually started asking why it looked the way it did."
There's a patch of land near my neighborhood in Fairfax that most people treat as a shortcut or ignore entirely. I started stopping there. Then filming there. Then reading about what I was actually looking at. It's not dramatic. There's no rare species or obvious story. It's just a place that turned out to be more interesting the longer I paid attention to it.
That's what I want to study. Not just the big environmental crises that make the news, but the ordinary, complicated systems that are doing something right now without anyone noticing.
The video work isn't separate from the science interest. Both are about looking at something carefully enough that you start to understand it. I picked up editing because I wanted to tell the story of that patch of land in a way that someone else could actually follow, not because I wanted to make content.
I'm applying to study environmental science or biology because I want the vocabulary and methods to understand what I've been observing. I have questions I can't answer yet. That's the actual reason.
Looking ahead
I've been watching things and asking questions about them for a while without the right language. I want to study ecology or conservation biology so I can actually understand what I'm looking at, not just describe it.
Most environmental coverage goes to the dramatic stuff. I'm more interested in the places and systems that don't make headlines. The video work is how I'd want to tell those stories, for an audience that isn't already convinced they should care.
I want to work outdoors with real data, not just read about it. Local habitat work, conservation fieldwork, something in that direction. I don't have it mapped out completely, but I know I think better outside than I do in a classroom.
Get in touch
I'm happy to talk. Whether it's about the documentary, a program, or just something you wanted to ask about.
yourname@email.comWestfield High School · Fairfax, Virginia · Class of 2026