Hey! My name is Mohammed Mubarak Ali, and I'm from Dunlap, Illinois, where I am a rising senior at Dunlap High School. A little about me is that, I love swimming, cooking, traveling, and trying new things with my friends, especially the kind of things that make for a good story afterward. Water has always been a vital part of my life, first as a place to swim, and later as something I wanted to understand. While researching ways to detect HABs in freshwater, I realized that protecting water cannot stop at collecting data, but we need to turn that information into action within communities. I want to become a Water Challenge Ambassador so I can take my research beyond the lab, better understand the waterways around me, and help other young people see that protecting water can begin right in their own backyard.