@theU

“U students should know that we are working to address their needs and that we want to hear from them. As the ASUU president this year, I am excited to give back to U.”

“As a gambler, the mental skills and techniques that we would teach athletes in grad school help tremendously. One of the hardest parts is headspace. When you have down weeks, you have to put it behind you, trust your process and know that long term it will work out and that the process is sound.”

“I love research. It’s exciting and incredibly rewarding to identify problems and devise creative solutions with a marriage of molecular biology and computer science. I feel like I won the lottery. I’m a full professor at the university I love. I’m eager to get to work, and it’s often hard to leave. Loving what you do is an incredible blessing.”

“I’m very excited about the novel (fiction) called ‘Wacko’s City of Fun Carnival.’ It is loosely based on my own experience of running away from home at 15 and a half and joining a traveling carnival. As my mother always told me, ‘How could somebody be born on Halloween, in a cab, in San Francisco and not have an interesting life?’ And, she was absolutely correct.”

“In 2017, I saw an announcement in the pre-med newsletter that the Prison Education Project was starting and they needed volunteers. My mom is a school teacher, so education is pretty important in my family, and I thought it’d be a good thing to get involved in.”

“I did my first internship with the Ibarra Strategy Group in Washington, D.C. They are also part of the Latino Leaders Network, and as a person of color who grew up in a large immigrant community with low socioeconomic status, the work was very personal and meaningful. I was able to honor and advocate for people who look and sound just like me. It was an amazing, humbling experience.”

“When I got to the U, I volunteered with an organization helping underserved communities find resources. Lots of parents wanted to sign their kids up for camps, but couldn’t get them to the location or couldn’t afford it. I thought Science in the Parks would be awesome here.”

“I’m really excited to meet new students. I go out of my way to memorize all the students’ names. By the end of every semester, I think to myself, ‘I wonder if my next group of students is going to be as great as this group of students.’ I’m going to miss these students, and I’m not sure how to detach so that I can leave space to attach to the next set.”

I have been a coffee drinker for a long time. From age 14 (if not earlier), I’d drink espresso with my family when we visited cafes, and a lot of my ideas about coffee started there. Even though the coffee I was drinking was very different from the coffee I try to make now, the experience was similar. It was special, it was new. You always ended up tasting things you didn’t expect to taste.

Although challenging at times, returning to school at the U feels like coming home.