My Activities
Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI)
Team member, placed 6th worldwide
I've always liked the kind of problem that doesn't have a clean answer, which is basically the entire premise of FPSPI. Teams get handed a massive global issue (think AI regulation or water scarcity) and a ticking clock, and have to research it, argue about it, and somehow land on a plan by the end.
My team spent months prepping before making it to the International Conference, where we placed 6th in the world out of teams from all over the globe. It's the closest thing to a research fire drill I've ever done, and I loved every stressful second of it.
Healthcare Finance
Intern
Turns out the least glamorous part of healthcare (billing) is also one of the most important. I spent [timeframe] organizing and cross checking billing and insurance claims data in Excel, which sounds boring until you realize one typo can hold up someone's reimbursement for weeks.
It gave me a whole new appreciation for the paperwork side of medicine that nobody really talks about. I came out of it able to explain how a claim actually moves through the system, which is a weirdly satisfying party trick.
San Diego Chapter
Founder, now California President
I started our San Diego chapter with basically nothing: no members, no funding, no idea if anyone would show up. Fast forward and I'm now California President, which means I've traded "please come to our meeting" energy for coordinating partnerships with hospitals and companies across the entire state.
Founding it was the fun part. Scaling it statewide is the part where I learned that leadership is 90 percent follow up emails.
UCSD Supercomputer Center Research
Mentored research assistant
I spent two months at UC San Diego's Supercomputer Center doing what research actually looks like day to day, which is mostly wrangling messy data in Excel until it starts telling you something interesting.
Everything came together in a research poster I presented to peers and mentors. I walked in thinking research meant lab coats and eureka moments and walked out knowing it's mostly patience and pivot tables.
Treasurer & Equity Summit
Treasurer, then Vice President
As Treasurer I ran the club's budget, which meant being the person who had to say no to spending requests more often than I'd like. As VP, I leveled up to co-leading our district's Equity Summit for over 200 students, handling everything from speaker outreach to logistics to making sure the wifi worked.
Pulling off something that size taught me that a good event is invisible when it works and everyone notices when it doesn't.
DECA
State Conference competitor, 3 years running
Three years of DECA taught me that I can be handed a fake business crisis with zero warning and somehow talk my way through it in front of judges. The roleplay events are basically improv with a finance textbook.
Between competitions, the workshops and case studies gave me a real look at how businesses actually make decisions, not just the textbook version. I didn't expect a school club to make me this comfortable thinking on my feet, but here we are.
UCSD Community Health Programs
Youth representative
My job here was to make sure programs built for students my age actually reflected what we needed, instead of adults guessing on our behalf. I worked on outreach, mentoring, and wellness programming aimed at closing health equity gaps for underserved young people locally.
It changed how I think about access to healthcare. It's not just about clinics existing, it's about whether people actually know about them and trust them enough to walk in.
UCSD EDGE Workshops
Participant
EDGE paired me with mentors and a small team to build technical and business skills through a series of collaborative projects. It all came together in [specific final project], where I got to apply everything, problem solving, teamwork, entrepreneurial thinking, to something real instead of hypothetical.
Mostly what I remember is a lot of late night group chats and learning that "just divide the work evenly" is easier said than done.
L.I.F.E. Advisory
Leader, 5 years
For five years I've helped plan school wide events and peer outreach focused on mental health awareness and open dialogue. It's the kind of role where the wins are quiet: a student who felt comfortable enough to ask for help because the conversation didn't feel weird or stigmatized.
Five years in, I've watched the culture around this shift, slowly but for real.
Varsity Badminton
Player, 4 years
Four years of varsity badminton means four years of figuring out how to fit training and matches around an already packed academic schedule. Something has to give, and this sport is where I learned to guard my time like it owed me money.
Every season came with its own lesson in resilience, whether that was resetting after a bad point or figuring out how to lead a team without being the loudest person on the court.