First and foremost, I know I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the many different teachers in my life. From learning how to play chess with my counselor to gaining an immense passion for understanding how things work in my physics class, or Camp Rising Sun where I met people from all around the world and had counselors who started my interests in theatre, each of experiences helped build the foundation for my personality.
In my senior year of high school I was given the opportunity to build upon my foundation at UC Berkeley, with the immense help of the Bill Daniels Foundation and their scholarship program. Once I arrived to Cal, I had the wonderful opportunity to join two outreach programs. The Cal Independent Scholars Network (CISN) helped provided me with a community of kindred spirits and two wonderful mentors, all of whom were a strong support source in times of stress. In my second year at Cal I was fortunate to be accepted into the Cal New Experience in Research and Diversity in Science (NERDS) program. Through this program I was able to get paid to work in the lab of two physics professors at two different University of California schools and to be a part of a diverse community of people who were interested in pursuing science at a higher level. We were a support system for each other, with several wonderful mentors to guide us through the process of applying to graduate school.
* Knowing that each and everyone of these programs and mentors helped me get to where I am today has driven me to paying it forward, so to speak.*