I lead the Teens Make Health Happen club as a near-peer college mentor in San Diego schools. In this role, I help students plan and execute wellness programming such as lunchtime demonstrations, step challenges, and community improvement projects. Together, we identify health disparities on their campus and create wellness events that benefit the entire student body and promote a healthier, more educated community.

The Karin Lab focuses on understanding the relationship between inflammation, cancer, and metabolic disease as well as the signaling mechanisms used by receptors involved in inflammation and innate immunity. Under the mentorship of Dr. Hau Su, I aided in research and experiments that included animal work, analytical experiments (western blot, qPCR, staining), and literature reviews.

In the Sun Lab at UC San Diego, my duties include preparing lab supplies and solutions, dishwashing, autoclaving, general lab organization, assisting with mouse colony maintenance, DNA prep, and lab reagent preparation.

As a Blood Donor Ambassador, I am the first person blood donors see. It is my duty to be welcoming when they come in and to tend to them after their life-saving donations. This is key to the donation process because hospitality is important, so that people come back to donate blood. I am the unofficial “chair of hospitality” — I keep the canteen and registration table clean, talk to donors, and try to create a more friendly environment. I’ve learned so much from the donors — from life lessons to neat tricks.

STEAM for students is a local after-school program that inspires children to get an interest in one of the STEAM pillars, science, technology, engineering, art, and/or math. This organization exists to create an environment where children can learn about their interests at a young age. We want to spark an interest now so it can grow and flourish into something greater. STEAM helps kids that may not have the opportunity to venture into these fields get an idea of what they are.

As chair, I am a key voice of the San Juan Bautista youth. My commission and I represent the youth of our community, we tackle problems that are affecting them such as physical and mental health. I specifically run meetings, act as a liaison between the commission and city council, and attend city committee meetings. The issue the commission is taking charge at now is mental health specifcally pertaining to the youth. Our goal is to create the first-ever mental health support group, for all youth, in our city.

As an intern at OrthoNorCal, I was able to get an in-depth look in the medical field while working with patients and orthopedic surgeons. As the only 17 year old in the clinic, I always had to act above reproach and be mature during all situations. Many employees at the clinic described me as mature for my age, attentive, and quick learning. Through the internship, I learned the basics of removing sutures, reading x-rays, identifying fractures, and caste rolling.