Portrait of Kyler Wilkey. Kyler Wilkey is a climate science major, investigating how hurricanes will change and discovering new patterns of natural disasters that arise with the growing global temperature. Participating in the Horizons program for the second year. Horizons is a competition series, where groups of students take a complex problem—where solving one aspect can create new problems, and there isn’t a singular “easy” solution—and present their best idea to solve this problem. His team decided to take on the challenge of cosmic radiation in space exploration last year. Kyler’s team consisted of himself and two others, Havyn Saunders and Leonardo Franco. Everyone had different backgrounds, but it melded together incredibly, fostering an environment where everyone was equals and creating room for growth. He noted, “When it comes to research, growth is one of the key components for success.” The project began with brainstorming. After several hours, “Project: Rainforest” was born. Project: Rainforest centered around using algae as a resource-efficient radiation shield for long-term space expeditions. The day varied based on where the project was; sometimes it was touring and talking with professionals, other days were centered on formulating ideas. During the presentation, Kyler said something that aptly summed up the project and what the future of it would be: “Icarus was unfortunate to have wings made out of wax and feathers. Our wings will be made out of steel and algae, and with those wings, we will soar ever higher. [...] We're here to propose the idea of unity.” Reflecting on the project, he noted that it would be impossible to commence any space exploration as an individual, transforming the story of Icarus from a tragedy to a story about adaptation, where space exploration can bring humanity together as a species. Throughout Project: Rainforest, the process didn’t follow a linear path, never providing a stagnant moment. Where “every hurdle, misstep, or even ‘failure’ is just showing you what you can improve upon.” Aligning with Wilkey’s goal of striving for greatness, he constantly asks himself if he could be great at specific skills and explores his weaknesses to be motivation in pushing harder with everything he does. Providing the final piece of advice, “Adaptability can be truly beautiful, and if you remember that, you’ll do amazing things.” He has the goal to be the best he possibly can be and not knowing when he’ll reach that stage helps to push him forward. Throughout the process, he constantly asks himself if this is something he can be really good at; exploring his weaknesses as motivation to become better and push harder, while also living by the quote, “opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
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