Blog Updates

As the rest of the website focuses on explaining the various hobbies and passions that I have and commit my time/energy to, this section provides a blog style update on events and achievements that occur. Stay tuned to see recent developments in my life!

2021-2022 Year in Review

In the past year, there has been so much that's happened so I felt that it would be best viewed as a "Year in Review" list!
  • Elected onto Senior Class Office & Hosted Various Events (Senior Sunrise, Welcome Back Assembly, Sport Fundraisers, Restaurant Fundraisers, Senior Assassins, Park Get-Togethers, Senior Sunset, Bucket Hat/Merch Fundraisers, Senior Prom, Graduation)
  • Elected onto Yearbook Editorial Board
  • Robotics Freight Frenzy Season (Hosted First Annual Washington Tech Invitational, Washington State Inspire Award Winner, Houston World Championships Division Finalist & Connect Nominee)
  • University of Washington Internship - Civil/Environmental/Transportation Engineering (Work aside leading industry professionals in discovering transportation technology, Built Intro to Autonomous Course for UW Youth & Teen Programs Taught course over the summer as instructor)
  • Joined Varsity Track & Field
  • Joined Interlake Saints FRC Team - Spirit Captain
  • WA Counties Fund Scholarship Winner
  • Senior Trip to Long Beach, California with friends

Seattle Youth Entrepreneurship Competition - Best Social Impact Award

The Mu Foundation, a non-profit organization I founded with peers, competed in the Seattle Youth Entrepreneurship Competition at the start of junior year. We pitched our idea of an online, free, and adaptive science trainer by the name of Mutorials to a panel of judges for an evaluation of our idea, where we were awarded project with “Best Social Impact” in which we each received a certificate. Knowing our idea was accepted well, we have newfound motivation to push the organization to new heights, while also competing more and more to spread awareness about us.

For more information, visit www.mutorials.org


Mu Foundation - Mask Donation to Bellevue School District

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, The Mu Foundation, the non-profit organization founded by my friends and I, took upon a request from our school district regarding a need for 5,000 mask donations. After seeing the notice, I proposed the idea to my fellow board of directors, which all nine of whom voted in support of undertaking this effort. We spent two weeks advertising amongst the community in gathering masks for donation as well as drafting a letter to the district in regards to our decision. We gathered a total of 265 masks, both handmade and store bought, and soon after, we all signed the letter, packaged everything, and sent it to the district.


FTC 2019-2020 Skystone World Championship Qualification

In the 2019-2020 FTC Robotics competition, the season theme was known as Skystone. On my team, I co-led the build and drive team, which was in charge of building and competing with the robot. A majority of the subsystems on the robot (delivery, retractable autonomous claws, odometry, etc.) were all designed and implemented by me. Throughout the competitions, we placed first place at regionals, second place Inspire Award at state, and also qualified for the Houston World Championship competition. It was exhilarating to work with different teams from all over in our common interest of STEM and robotics, and being able to meet people from all over the globe at World’s was an exciting thought, but unfortunately, the competition was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. All that can be said is better luck next year!

For more information, visit Competitive Robotics.

Pathway Foundation Annual Conference 2019

As a project leader for Pathway Foundation Mayoral Internship, I was appointed onto a committee to organize and host the 2019 Annual Conference Event (titled Road to College and Beyond), which included the marketing, reaching out to keynote speakers, gather supplies for the event, setting up the venue, etc. Additionally, I took part in the Intern Panel session of the event where I presented to the audience about my experiences in the program. I was able to share my process on leading a team to improve the organizations website, while also training them in social skills and civic engagement knowledge.


Alexander Mar Biography - How He Left His Mark

In my freshman year of high school, I took up a project and led 2 other students to write a biography about Mr. Alexander Mar, a Chinese immigrant that significantly influenced the Chinese culture and community in the Olympia area of Washington State (where I was born and raised). I felt as though this was the perfect opportunity for me to give back to the community and be civically engaged in an effort of preserving the history of someone important. For the contents of the biography, I conducted a series of interviews with people in the community that had the pleasure to work with him as well as his family members, as well as contacted the Olympia Area Chinese Association Board of Directors for all of their archived documents and pictures to review and extract information about Mr. Mar from. This biography was then published in a local news site as can be seen here. I was also awarded the "2019 Alexander Shui-Sun Mar Scholar Award" by the Olympia Area Chinese Association as a token of gratitude for devoting my time and efforts.

CIE APA Youth Scholarship Award

Summer of 8th grade, I applied for the CIE Asian Pacific American (APA) Youth Scholarship, which required everything from teacher recommendations to essay prompts. For having outstanding academic achievements, I won the Academic Excellence award, as can be seen here. Along with this award, I was published in the annual conference program, as well as honored a full on dinner banquet and award ceremony at the annual CIE convention.

  

Aspire Middle School Challenge Academy Science Fair Judging

As a proud alumni of the Challenge Academy program at Aspire Middle School, I was invited back by my 7th and 8th grade science teacher to be a judge for the annual Science Fair. Every year the school hosts a science fair that all students were required to participate in. Getting the opportunity to come back and judge to see the younger generation kids do cool experiments and give presentations and all was an extremely rewarding experience, and it was very gratifying for me to be able to extend my experience, feedback, and knowledge to help them out as well. Looking forward to more like it in the future!

     

Johns Hopkins CTY High Honors Award

In June of my 7th grade year, I joined the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Program (CTY) due to a recommendation from my math teacher, and this opened up the opportunity for me to take my first ever official SAT test. Originally intending to just try it out and see what it’s like, I didn’t spend any time to prepare for it. To my surprise, I had scored exceedingly well, qualifying me for the High Honors award from CTY. I was awarded a medal and certificate, and also invited to the Johns Hopkins campus for a formal awards ceremony and campus tour. On top of it all, I was given the opportunity to be interviewed for a news article regarding the ceremony, as can be viewed here.

  

Washington State Oral History Project - Georgia Shaw Holden

During eighth grade, one of the biggest projects that I was assigned was a Washington State Oral History project, a task to find a notable Washingtonian to interview for the sake of preserving their story. My teacher's reasoning for giving such an assignment was to enunciate the importance of being civically engaged as well as to emphasize the need for remembering the history and experiences of those living among us. I was blessed with the opportunity to meet and interview Mrs. Georgia Shaw Holden, a Vietnam War veteran that served as a nurse during the years. Throughout the project, we were able to touch upon all of her experiences for a 2 hour long interview which I then used to make a transcription as well as a 10 minute podcast-style clip. The overall product shaped by her story was an emotional one, and when it was presented in class, was able to attract all of the attention of my peers.


Northwest Youth Conservation Fly Fishing Academy

Although it may seem like an odd addition, I have always been fairly intrigued in the idea of fishing. Every year since I was a little kid, my dad took me to an annual kid’s fishing event in Olympia where they tried to give children exposure to spin fishing. It was something fairly entertaining for me, and so I have done a little bit of recreational fishing on the side. During 8th grade, one of my friends came to me regarding a fly fishing camp, and with my preestablished interest, I decided to apply. It was a fairly rigorous application process, including teacher recommendations, standardized test scores, essay prompts, etc. but with considerable effort I was selected into the program. I got to experience 2 weeks away from home of hardcore fly fishing training from casting, to fly tying, and everything in between, by a local lake. I learned a lot from this experience, especially the art of a new style of fishing as it is entirely different to spin fishing in all aspects, and have created some special memories!