I’d say that I am an avid sports follower, particularly football and soccer. I often watch football and sometimes play it as well, although I only compete in soccer. My favorite football team is the Packers (I was born in Wisconsin, not a bandwagon), and for soccer it’s Real Madrid. Currently, I support these teams from the couch in my living room, but in the future I hope to actually attend a game live in the stadium, which may be hard since both teams are not really that close to where I live. Besides soccer and football, I also occasionally like to play badminton with my brother.

I have been part of FIRST, a robotics program, since 5th grade. I have enjoyed robotics in both FIRST Lego League (FLL) and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and have continued with it partly because of the problem-solving challenges it entails in engineering, programming, and even outreach. In order to introduce and bring the FIRST program’s values to the community, I became a mentor for a FLL and a FTC team and guided them through their challenges. I thought it was an enjoyable experience as I got to share skills that I learned from my own experience and provide the younger kids with some helpful tips that would aid them in building a strong foundation for future. Now as part of Mass Academy, I hope to join the FRC team that WPI has and compete with bigger robots. Obviously, my goal is to learn as much as possible so I can enhance my skills in all aspects of robotics, but the ultimate goal for the team would be to reach the world championship and win.

I do have a taste for music as well. I have been playing the violin since 5th grade and have thoroughly enjoyed it since. Although I like to play solos on my own, playing with the orchestra is even more fun, especially because of the various different instruments that you get to hear. I think playing on my own gives me a chance to play what I want and improve on the basis of my own pace, but playing in an orchestra has its advantages of learning from others (plus it sounds cooler). As of now, I have joined the WPI Philharmonic orchestra, which is a whole orchestra, consisting of intruments other than just the string instruments. I must admit the intensity of the pieces that we play is much higher here, but I think I will eventually get used to it later in the year.

Sewa

For community service, I have been mainly involved with a non-profit humanitarian organization better known as Sewa International. Part of this organization, I had the opportunity to help organize fundraisers, clean park trails, and help in sorting and distributing clothes for the people in need. Countless hours seem like nothing when you are having fun while doing it. My friends and I had a great time working together to raise money for this organization which specializes in disaster relief and rehabilitation, making it quite unique. I did community service that closely relates to STEM as well, such as helping out at science museums, competitions, and robotics teams and events.

STEM Week

For STEM week, we visited the Tatnuck Magnet School in Worcester and got the chance to conduct some fun educational STEM activities for kids in grades 4-7. These activities included making paper roller coasters, making windmills, playing with light and mirrors, etc. It was a fun experience because after the kids completed the challenges we made for them, they used what they learned and created challenges for us.