Clubs / Activities
Santa Teresa Robotics
August 2018 - Present
In the robotics club at my school, I learned many mechanical skills and got to experience working with several tools and machinery. I decided that I wanted to join the mechanical subteam of the robotics team because I have always loved building and tinkering with things. I helped design, prototype, and build the robot for the first two years of high school. I got to work with various saws, hand tools, and machines. I used many types of woods and metals to create pieces and assemble them together. During the pandemic, since we couldn't build a robot, I was taught how to use CAD, which is software where one can create and design pieces and builds that serve as the blueprint for mechanical projects. With my time in robotics, I have had so much fun and have learned many essential mechanical techniques.
Santa Teresa Cyberpatriot
April 2019 - Present
In the CyberPatriot club, I learned a lot about cybersecurity, computer systems, and hacking. I was taught how to use the terminal and how to configure settings in the system to make the computer more secure. I worked with Windows and Linux operating systems and gained experience working with penetration testing, web exploitation, reverse engineering, and cryptography. I was also able to gain experience working with penetration testing tools, virtual machines, advanced terminals, and packet analyzers. For all three years I was apart of the club, I was the leader of my competition team that consisted of me and five other people. We competed in many different cyber challenges and hacking competitions and participated in the Bay Area Cyber program. We made it to the Platinum league and semifinals in the CyberPatriot competition in the first year. In my Junior year, I applied for a board position and became the Vice President of the club the year after.
Santa Teresa MESA
September 2018 - Present
MESA was a STEM-centered club at my high school where everyone would participate in various projects and compete against others from across the city at San Jose State University. In my freshmen and sophomore year, I participated in the bridge and prosthetic arm challenges. In my junior year, I participated in the Python Coding Challenge and the bridge challenge. For the bridge challenge, I had to create a bridge out of thin balsa wood sticks that could withstand the most weight and met all the constraints. For the prosthetic arm challenge, I had to engineer and build a movable and wearable arm, out of everyday home items, that could stack cups in the least amount of time. I won second place in the prosthetic arm competition out of everyone in the city of San Jose in my freshman year but unfortunately was not able to participate in the competition in my sophomore or junior year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Santa Teresa National Honor Society
September 2020 - Present
The National Honor Society is a club offered at my high school where overall well-rounded students, both in academics and outside-of school, can participate in helping the community through volunteer service and also earn scholarships and special graduation benefits. I got selected from the many people who applied to become a member of the club. Every week, I would attend meetings and participate in club-sponsored volunteer events to help people in need and spread happiness. I also participated in other out-of-school volunteering opportunities that earned me credit for the club.
West Coast World Martial Arts
August 2011 - March 2020
Since I was a child, Karate played a big part in my outlook on everything, my mental health, my physical health, my situation-handling skills, and my decision-making skills. On top of keeping me fit and in a healthy condition, karate improved my mental health much more and changed my whole view of life and everything around me. I learned to always spread positive energy and unconditional love to everyone. I was taught to always show love and gratitude for the people that care for me and look after me. I learned many important life lessons that I constantly apply to my life every day. The most important lessons I was taught are to never give up on anything you do and give everything you do your full energy. I am currently a second-degree black belt and when I did both my black belt tests, I had to pass a written test about the mental aspect of karate that has to do with honor, respect, kindness, persistence, and love. I passed both tests and took away very valuable life lessons. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic, all karate classes stopped but this experience was one of the best choices I have made in my life.
Events / Experience
Jabil Manufacturing Day
October 5, 2018
The Jabil Manufacturing Day was a one-day event where I was able to visit the Jabil headquarters and learn about the kinds of technology they produce as well as how they design their products and how the products are manufactured. This experience exposed me to the types of technological innovations being made today and what a job in the technology industry could potentially look like.
Dupont Event
October 9, 2018
At the Dupont event, I was able to tour the company's facilities and look at the type of technological innovations they produce. I learned how Dupont designs potential products, tests their products' effectiveness, mass produces their products, and distributes their products. I also learned how technology is used to create material products and how technology components are created.
Oracle Java4kids Program
October 20, 2018
The Oracle Java4kids program gave me a great review of block coding and programming logic as well as my very first exposure to the Java programming language. I got to learn how programming can be applied in the real world and the specific functions Java can be used for. Over the day, I got to listen to speeches from many successful people in the technology industry, like the inventor of the Alice program, the CEO of Oracle, and one of the founders of Intel. I obtained lots of helpful insight on the technology industry and all the possibilities that lie within it.
Evergreen Valley College Event
October 23, 2018
At the Evergreen Valley College Event, I got to learn a lot about community college, university, how to find my own path in college, and do what is right for me. I was able to experience a couple of classes offered at Evergreen Valley College like Computer Science and Automotives. I was taught about how to choose what type of colleges are right for me and the benefits of community college. I was able to sign up as an Evergreen Valley College student and earn half of one college credit for the event.
SPACE Academy
November 10, 2018
The SPACE Academy was a day-long STEM event. I was able to design and engineer different things using given materials and criteria to try to make them as effective as possible. I also got my first chance to work with Arduino. I learned the basics of how Arduino functions and how to create different things using circuits and electrical materials. I was additionally able to learn a lot about the types of careers in the STEM field.
UC Berkley Computer Science Day
December 4, 2018
The UC Berkeley Computer Science Day was a one-day event on the UC Berkeley campus where I was able to learn more about computer science programs at universities, especially at Berkeley. I got information on what it would be like to be a computer science student at a university and also got a better understanding of the daily life of a college student. I was able to tour the UC Berkeley engineering facilities and practice my logical skills by learning new programming algorithms and techniques
Cyber Defenders Program
April 2, 2019 - May 23, 2019
The Cyber Defenders Program was a 6-week, 24-hour long course that trained me with the fundamentals of cybersecurity, its applications in the real world, and its use on computers. I was taught about different cryptography ciphers, the shell terminal, different types of malicious content, and the roles of hackers. I learned the basic commands in the terminal and what each one does. I was also able to learn about the ethics of hacking and about the kinds of problems cybersecurity specialists deal with on a basis. At the end of the program, I, along with two other members, created a solution to the Trojan Horse malware, which is a type of malware that is hidden in computer applications and can open computers up so that data can be stolen or viruses can be inherited. We targeted the Trojan Horse problem, came up with an innovative solution, created a website, and pitched it to a panel of judges.
Google Tech Day
April 13, 2019
Google Tech Day was a special program that Google sponsored at their campus, where I learned about various topics in the technology industry. I was able to interact with professionals that work in the fields of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning at Google, I learned different ways hackers have succeeded and failed in hacking companies and what problems cybersecurity professionals are trying to fix. I learned how artificial intelligence and machine learning function, how they are implemented in the real world, and how they are being improved upon in the present.
SVCTE Summer Cyber Camp
July 15, 2019 - July 19, 2019
The Summer Cyber Camp was a week-long program offered at the Silicon Valley Career Technical Education Center, where I learned many basic cybersecurity concepts, the forms cyber-attacks come in, how to spot them, and how to avoid them. I also learned many networking concepts and worked with networking tools such as Packet Tracer and Wireshark. At the end of the program, we had an 8-hour Capture The Flag competition that covered everything we went over in the program. Out of the other five teams participating, my team, which consisted of me and three others, ended up winning the competition and receiving first-place medals. This experience helped me build my fundamental networking skills and improve my knowledge of cybersecurity.
HackerOne h1-415 Event
February 21, 2020
At the HackerOne h1-415 event, I was able to go to the HackerOne headquarters in San Francisco and learn about many hacking topics, tools, and concepts. I was introduced to many professional hackers that are very knowledgeable in hacking. I learned the basics of web hacking, web penetration, and penetration testing tools. I learned how to locate and stop malware hidden by hackers on webpages. I was introduced to backdoors, cookies, SQL injections, link manipulation, and text files that store data. Overall, I realized how fun it is to be a hacker for good and what career possibilities the field has.
C4T AI and Machine Learning Immersion Program
October 11, 2020 - November 29, 2020
In the AI and Machine Learning program, I learned how machine learning functions, how the logic behind a machine learning program works, and how to program a successful machine learning program. I was taught all the concepts in the Python programming language, including all the advanced machine learning methods and code. I learned machine learning terminology, the different parts of a machine learning program, and how those parts conndect to one another. I used industry-level machine learning and deep learning tools and applications to create my own neural network of a set of images of cats and dogs for sorting. I learned so much about machine learning logic and what it takes to make a successful machine learning program.
Competitions / Projects
Nextflex
September 24, 2018 - November 8, 2018
Nextflex was an entrepreneurship program that gave me the opportunity to work with five other students to develop a product that implemented flexible technology. As a part of the project, I was able to visit several companies and schools in the technology industry, like Nextflex, Dupont, Evergreen Valley College, and more. We did our project on a Sodium and Glucose monitor, which we nicknamed SGDS. Our product was a watch that would have sensors on the inside to measure a person's sodium and glucose levels. We would also have a mobile app where a person could monitor their various blood levels in real-time. We created a presentation that defined the problem, explained how our solution functioned and was effective. We also showed how much we would spend on manufacturing and retail costs, the projected profit margins, the manufactured product inventory, and company growth. We presented our project to a panel of judges that consisted of industry professionals who worked at Nextflex, Tesla, Dupont, and the Mayor's Office.
Science Palooza! (Science Fair - Freshmen)
February 16, 2019
At the city high school science fair, I created a physical science project that had to do with how fast the rate of a chemical reaction can change by changing the reactants used in the reaction. I used water, vinegar, alcohol, and Alka-Seltzer for the project since Alka-Seltzer creates a fizz with any liquid it interacts with. I created a poster board with the claim, hypothesis, materials, procedure, pictures, and conclusion and presented it to two judges, who both gave me a great score.
Exploravision Challenge
February 26, 2019
The exploravision challenge was a project where I had to choose a technology that exists in present times and one that can also be improved upon in the future. I had to define how it was invented, how it was used when created, the advancements that have been made to it, and how it will continue to advance in the future to have a greater function. I did my project on Surgical Robots since they were invented about 50 years ago and are continuously growing in terms of technological advancements and capabilities. I ended up getting Honorable Mention on this project, which only 5% of all submitted projects across the United States received.
MESA Day (Freshman)
March 16, 2019
At MESA Day in my Freshman year, I got to go to the San Jose State University to compete in the competition against all other MESA members in the city of San Jose. I competed in the prosthetic arm competition along with two other team members and was able to win 2nd place out of all other teams in that project competition. The prosthetic arm competition was a challenge where I had to make an arm out of everyday home supplies and use it to successfully stack cups in the least amount of time, only using the hand with the prosthetic arm on it. MESA Day was a very fun and engaging experience but unfortunately, I wasn't able to experience it in my Sophomore or Junior years due to the pandemic.
Lexus Eco Challenge
September 27, 2019
The Lexus Eco Challenge was a project I did with 10 other individuals where we chose an environmental problem the world was presently facing and came up with solutions that could stop or help reduce the impact of the problem. My group chose plastic and toxic pollution of the world's oceans as our topic. We created a presentation that explained the problem and our solution, which was to create a very powerful vacuum that could suck in all of the pollution in the ocean.
Science Palooza! (Science Fair - Sophomore)
February 8, 2020
At the science fair in my sophomore year, I did another physical science project that involved using a technique called chromatography to separate the colors that an object is comprised of. I used red, blue, and black pens and markers to test what colors each object contains. It turns out the ink color for red is made up of orange and yellow, the ink color for black is made up of pink, and the ink color for blue Is made up of green and purple. I made a poster board and performed the experiment. I presented to two judges and received pretty good feedback.
Bay Cyber Cybersecurity Competition
July 29, 2020
The Bay Area Cyber Cybersecurity competition is a competition between many different teams around the San Francisco Bay Area, where they have to get points by completing certain tasks in different categories and platforms every week for 8 weeks. I competed as the team leader of a team that was comprised of five others. I used OWASP Juice Shop, Burpsuite, Splunk, Kubernetes, and TryHackMe to complete challenges or compete in real-time mini competitions against others. My team finished in the top 35% of all teams competing in the Bay Area in terms of points earned.
World Series of Innovation Challenge
December 18, 2020
In the World Series of Innovation Challenge presented by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, I had to pick a current social, economical, or political problem that the world was facing and come up with innovative solutions to fix it. At the time I did the project, Social Justice, Systemic Racism, and the BLM movement were very big topics of conversation. I chose Systemic Racism as my problem and came up with a couple of laws that would penalize anyone who was caught being racist, especially those with positions of power, and would append more rights to ensure that everyone is treated in the same manner.
Science Palooza! / Synopsis Championship (Science Fair - Junior)
February 6, 2021
At the science fair this year, I decided to try something new and make a computer program. This project was also entered into the county science fair named Synopsis CHampionship. We created a program that could store information in a safe and secure space. The program would create an account for a user the first time it was initialized by taking the user's name, username, password, and email. It would then send an email to the person with a randomly generated key that was used to activate the account. The next time the user enters the program, the user will have to enter their username and password correctly in order to get an email with a 6-character code that also needs to be entered in order for the user to successfully log in. The user could then select a text file from their current directory or search deeper subdirectories until they find the desired file in their file system. The user could then input information, which is automatically encrypted using a randomly generated key by the program before being appended, or read previously inputted information, which is decrypted and displayed to the screen. The judges at the competition had very good remarks about our project.
Modeling the Future Competition
February 24, 2021
The Modeling the Future Competition was an entrepreneurial and data analysis-oriented challenge where I worked with a team of 5 others to use raw data on a problem in the world, make conclusions, and come up with solutions. We chose to do our project on ransomware and cyber attacks in the healthcare industry. It was very hard to find raw data on cyber attack cases since not many companies release that information, but we found one large raw dataset full of attacks that happened in the past twelve years. We then used that data and manipulated it in many ways to make different data tables and graphs to analyze trends and make conclusions. We met with a manager at the company Statista to get more information on data and ways to manipulate it. We also got to meet three times with a professional statistics expert, who taught us how to format our report and what statistics to include to strengthen our point. We created a 30-page report that explained what cyberattacks were, how they are a problem, how they are increasing, and how they are becoming harder to stop in recent years. The report also showed the graphs and the data that support the increasing trend, the people and companies affected, recommendations for solutions, and a risk score system solution that gives companies a score based on the number of security measures they implement. Over a 6-month period, we learned a lot about cyber attacks and created a well-written, informational report with some mentoring and lots of research. My team and I ended up getting into the semifinals of the competition with out project.
Cal Hacks 9.0 Competition
October 15, 2021
The Med for the Win Application is a mobile application that a team of me and three others created during the 24 hour Calhacks 9.0 hackathon in the fall of 2022. My team and I won 3rd place in the Calhacks hackathon out of 2500 other competitors and around 800 other competing teams. This app takes data from the healthcare company, Intersystems' accessible API. The backend portion, which is mainly what I worked on, fetches patient data from the API and manipulates it in ways where it can be embedded into frontend code and easily interpreted into user readable data. The data that is fetched and manipulated is sent to a web server deployed on Heroku. The frontend code, which controls user input, send requests to the server when data needs to be fetched. The server will then fulfill the request and the backend code will take effect. The frontend code sends HTP GET requests to the server. The backend code takes the GET requests, fetches the correlating data from the Intersystems' API, transforms the data into a readable format by the frontend code, packages the output data as a JSON file, and sends it back to the server on a local IP address for the frontend code to interpret. This project was done in the span of 24 hours and required the use of concepts I had never worked with before, which made it a good learning experience.
Jobs / Volunteering
San Jose Public Library Volunteer
February 3, 2018 - Present
I started volunteering at the local library when I was still in the 8th grade because I liked the idea of helping out the community and I realized that not everyone has a life as privileged as mine. As a volunteer, I would shelve books, help set up events, organize CDs, restock papers and pencils, attend volunteer meetings, and help organize the employee room. I would volunteer once a week at the library and would always try to make time to give back to the community. Although, when we entered quarantine, everything was closed down. I felt like this was the most important time to give back to the community since my family was fortunate and didn't get affected by the pandemic. Many other people were going through very rough times and couldn't support their families so I did the best I could to volunteer online by attending volunteer meetings and participating in community virtual events. Volunteering at the library has been a very exciting and memorable experience for me ever since I started.
National Honor Society Service Events
September 23, 2020 - Present
The National Honor Society service events were apart of the National Honor Society club that supported local charity organizations and helped people in need in the community. I participated in many events from helping write letters to children with cancer to making socks for the elderly at senior homes. I donated cans to the local food drive, gave food to the homeless through online charities and organizations, and helped raise money by participating in online activities. All the events I participated in benefited the community in some way and made me feel very good for helping people in need. I am in a privileged position so it felt good to give back to those who weren't as privileged.
School Volunteering Events
September 8, 2018 - Present
School volunteering events were all the random events I volunteered and helped out with throughout my time at Santa Teresa High School. I have volunteered at many school events from moderating a school e-sports tournament to helping sell items at school rallies. Volunteering at school events is very enjoyable for me because I get to help out the school while also having lots of fun with people that I go to school with.
Second Harvest Food Bank Volunteer
April 4, 2021 - Present
The Seocnd Harvest Food Bank is an organization that organized free food distribution events for the community. I used to volunteer at the local food banks in my community that were apart of this organization. During the quarantine time, I felt it was extremely important to give back to the community and help out in any way I could. I would prepare and package the food before people from the community arrived to pick up food. I would also distribute the food to the people by loading all the food into their cars. Through this experience, I was able to meet new people and also hep out those who need it. By helping feed the community through the Second Harvest Food Bank Organization, I really felt like I made a positive impact on my community.
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