2019 Destination Imagination: State Champion Team
2019 Grand Honors, Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University
2019 and 2020 Top player, University of Washington Robinson Center Chess Club
2020 First Place (School), Math Olympiads (MOEMS)
2021 Admitted to Summer Challenge program, University of Washington Robinson Center
2023 Best in Show, Artistic Achievement Award, The Philadelphia Classical Society, for sculpture of Phoebus Apollo
2023 Summa Cum Laude, Annual Latin Competition, The Philadelphia Classical Society
2023 National Gold Medal, National Latin Exam, American Classical League
2023 Attended the advanced Cognitive Psychology summer program at the Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University
2023 Admitted to advanced precalculus program, skipping three grades of math

I am fascinated at how language both shapes and expresses an idea. I first learned to communicate with sign language before I could speak. After I learned to talk, I spoke in Japanese and English at home and Chinese at school. Switching daily between these three languages, I discovered that the way I thought depended on the language I was speaking.

This discovery extended later into Latin, a dead language that is very much alive in our thinking today. In the forms of Latin we can see the way people thought thousands of years ago and its connection to how we think today. I found the same principle at work in the language of logic (math and programming), which forces thought to follow a structure, and visual communication, where ideas no longer need to be defined by words alone. With each language, new understanding and ways of thinking become possible. I would like to continue to explore these various forms of expression to better understand the way we conceive the world.

My current focus in this process is the language of art: experimenting with forms of artistic expression, from sculpture to film, to understand its ability to create powerful and moving experiences and impressions, with a particular interest in how technology can amplify the impact of art. I am excited to see what the future holds for this field and am eager to contribute to its development.