DISCIPLINE
Habits built outside the lab, carried back into it
Where the same instincts behind the research and the apps first got built
— in rehearsal rooms, campaign posters, and quiet volunteer shifts.
[ LEADERSHIP & TRUST ]
National Honor Society
Induction is based on sustained academic standing and character, reviewed over years rather than a single semester — the kind of bar that can't be crammed for.
"Getting inducted wasn't the point of the work that led to it. It reinforced something I now apply everywhere else: let the recognition come after the consistency, never the other way around."
Student council — Treasurer campaign
Campaigned on three years at the school — longer than any other candidate — advanced Excel and budgeting skills, and a concrete platform: quarterly, publicly released financial reports and a well-managed budget for clubs and school activities.
"I could have run on charisma or promises alone. I chose to run on a track record and a number I'd actually be held to — the same instinct that shows up in how I approach research and product design: lead with evidence, not just the ask."
[ CRAFT & CONSISTENCY ]
Orchestra — violin
Three years with the Mountain Cherry Academy Orchestra, most recently performing in the "Spring Waltz" concert alongside dozens of other string and wind players under a conductor's direction.
"Almost none of those three years happened on a stage. It was hundreds of repetitive, unglamorous rehearsals — the clearest example I have of a lesson that now shows up in every technical project I take on: real competence is built in the reps nobody sees, not in the performance everyone does."
Photography club
A small weekly club learning composition, lighting, and camera handling — the kind of technical skill that's easy to treat as just a creative outlet.
"I joined to learn the craft for its own sake. I didn't expect it to become directly useful the first time I had to document a real event under pressure — but it did, and that's taught me to take "just a hobby" less literally than I used to."
[ QUIET SERVICE ]
Event photography & videography volunteer
Ran camera and tripod setups at school concerts, ceremonies, and assemblies, making sure other people's moments — the ones they'd actually want to remember — got captured properly.
"It's work that's invisible by design. Done well, no one notices the photographer at all — and I've come to see that kind of contribution as just as real as the ones with my name attached to them."
UNICEF club
Helped organize donation drives and sort supplies, then delivered and handed them out directly to children at a local community center — seeing the donation reach an actual person rather than stopping at a drop-off box.
"This one was less about any single skill and more about staying consistent with a commitment that had no deadline pushing it forward. Nobody was checking whether I showed up — I did anyway, and that's its own kind of practice."
Academic excellence award
Recognized at Mountain Cherry Academy for top academic performance among peers.
"I'm including it here instead of as a standalone trophy, because it came from the exact same daily consistency as the rehearsals, the volunteering, and the treasurer campaign — not a separate, one-time push."
[ PHYSICAL DISCIPLINE ]
Kendo — 1st Dan
I started kendo in 2022, expecting to build strength and reflexes. What I actually built was a different relationship with discipline itself — the kind that has to be earned again in every single session, with no shortcut and no substitute for repetition. Advancing to 1st Dan wasn't a single test passed; it was hundreds of ordinary practices, most of them unremarkable, that eventually added up to something.
What kendo taught me went beyond the body. A strike that looks effortless is the product of a stance held correctly, breath controlled, and a mind that hasn't wandered — physical conditioning and mental focus aren't separate things in the dojang, they're the same thing trained at once. I came to understand, more through the body than through any lecture, what "a sound mind in a sound body" actually means: that the discipline it takes to keep training when you're tired is the same discipline that later shows up at a lab bench, in a long literature review, or in a research result that doesn't match the theory the first three times you check it.
"Kendo never let me fake consistency. You either showed up and trained, or your body told on you the next time you sparred. Carrying that same honesty about effort into my academic work — no shortcuts, no skipping the boring repetitions — is the part of kendo I use the most, even now."
Club activity
