“I’m involved primarily this year in iGem at school – so pretty much we are a synthetic biology competitive team and during November we’re going to Boston to compete at [iGem competition], which is an international competition. So pretty much we’re working with protein degradation…. So pretty much we’re working with cells and trying to help other projects, like with nutrition deficiency in the long run. And for soccer, I played high school last year and we won state. This year, due to a higher club level, I won’t be playing varsity soccer at Lambert. Pretty much now, I practice 4 days a week at my club and we are part of the New Developmental Academy. So pretty much, it’s under the US Youth Soccer. It’s for competitive travel. And orchestra, I’m not in orchestra this year, but I’m playing viola by the side. I’ve pretty much been playing for my family – just learning new pieces whenever I could. Last year, when I was at All State, I got to meet a lot of friends throughout and it was really cool to just be with a bunch of people who have the same interests at me because at Lambert, honestly, our orchestra program isn’t huge, but once I got to go to All State, I got to branch out.”

“So, my schedule is pretty rigorous, but pretty much over time, I just set up a certain schedule where I allot a certain amount of time for it. So, I do my homework as soon as I get back from school and I only have a couple hours to do that. Then I go to soccer practice four days a week. Then after that, I pretty much have to stay up really late to finish my homework and usually, early in the morning, we have iGem mornings every day of the week. I pretty much have to make sure I am not procrastinating and getting sidetracked, which is pretty hard, but because I’m passionate about these things, it makes them pretty fun. It doesn’t seem like a task, it seems like something I want to do.”

“Try to do things you enjoy so that you don’t feel like it’s a challenge so you won’t postpone doing something.… And if you have to do something that you don’t want to do, just get it done as fast as you can can so you can do something you want to do.”