I am a certified PADI Rescue Diver, Emergency Oxygen Provider, and Enriched Air Diver. My goal is to become a PADI Divemaster.

For as long as I can remember I have been in love with the ocean: all things related to water, and its inhabitants fascinate me. Ever since I was a young child, my parents would take me sailing on the San Francisco Bay. While my parents worked on the boat, I would spend many hours absorbed into watching a strange and wonderful ecosystem of living things underneath the floating docks. Eventually a microscope and test tubes became a part of the sailing kit on our boat and I started recording my observations.

“Scuba diving is the most thrilling experience because you are able to swim alongside magnificent and complex creatures who wonder about you the same things you wonder about them.”

I wanted to learn more outside of what books and regular classrooms could provide and so, during the summer, I attended multiple sessions of Sea Camp in San Diego, CA, hosted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where I got a small taste of lab and field work. In 8th grade I participated in a local science competition sponsored by SYNOPSYS and hosted by the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association. After looking through several possible topics, I chose a research project along with one of my classmates about harmful algal blooms (HABs) and how to prevent them. I read about how the number of HABs was increasing rapidly in the areas where climate change was having a large effect and wanted to study what could be done to combat their proliferation. The project really deepened my interest in the intricate patterns of food chains and how climate change affects even the tiniest algae and plankton, which can cause disastrous consequences for the surrounding ecosystem. After the project was completed, I continued to study this subject on my own, since our docks started experiencing algae blooms too. I also developed a curiosity towards different nudibranchs species that began showing up under the docks as the water became warmer and started observing their lifecycle. They are also my favorite animals to photograph underwater.

In addition to marine biology, chemistry is another one of my favorite subjects. I find it extremely valuable to understand how living things depend on a delicate chemical balance of the different compounds in the water and how they affect that balance. My home aquariums are teaching me lessons about the importance of this balance daily.