What is your favorite part about OADI?

OADI is really a community made up of many smaller communities. As both an HEOP and Gates Scholar, OADI is where I've met scholars, I might never have crossed paths with otherwise. HEOP has a strong built-in community at Cornell, reinforced through OADI, and while Gates doesn't have that same structure on its own, Gates Scholars are still very much part of the OADI community. By spending time in the OADI lounge, I've met other Gates Scholars and other amazing people I wouldn't have become friends with otherwise.

Do you have any advice for incoming or first year students?

Get involved early. It doesn't have to be a project team, research lab, or professional club. Find something you genuinely enjoy, whether that's an art club, a performance group, coffee club, bingo event or whatever else you're into. Once you make that first connection, everything else opens up. You meet people through people, and those communities may domino effect to your internship and career referrals down the line.

What part about being in HEOP has taught you the most?

Being in HEOP has taught me resilience more than anything else. Coming from a very small high school, I felt the imposter syndrome in the first few weeks of freshman year. HEOP gave me the tools and the community to push through that, and that same perseverance is something I've leaned on in every hard moment since. This includes during the internship recruitment cycle, where I now come off much more confidently than I did during my underclassman years.

What is next for you after Cornell?

While I'm not sure yet which specific industry I want to go into after college, I hope to work in either the mechanical design or robotics field. Wherever I end up, I want to be creating something cool, something that makes people go wow. The satisfaction of building something and knowing I'm the one who made it with my own two hands is what made me want to become an engineer in the first place so that's what I hope to get beyond Cornell also.

Tell us one of your most important dreams or goals.

One of my most important goals is to be able to support my family the way they've supported me. That's a big part of why Gates, HEOP, and OADI have meant so much. These programs made it possible for me to attend a school like Cornell, which gives me a much better shot at being able to take care of my family without the financial stress.

Tell us a Fun fact about yourself!

Tobey Maguire Spider-Man's house was filmed three blocks from my home. Also, my friend’s friend’s friend lives in Spider-Man’s comic book lore-accurate house, which is also very close to my home.