Sustainability and Climate MIT UA Sustainability logo UA Sustain's Dorm Electricity Competition logo UA Sustain's Trash2Treasure logo FFMIT's Career Pledge logo

Increasingly, our unsustainable lifestyles (contributing to sea level rise, ecological destruction, and more) are affecting not only future generations and under-developed communities, but more importantly us -- here in the US and now in the 21st century.

Thus, to me, sustainability is not just a passive endeavor to not-compromise future resources for future generations (as defined by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development). To me, it encompasses actively exercising due diligence in anticipating our impact on the world and taking responsibility to mitigate any negative effect on the world.

STEM and education

I feel very fortunate to have grown up in communities that offered high-quality education, especially in STEAM for girls. In recognition of all the teachers and peers who have guided and encouraged me, I try to promote learning, both through official initiatives and student outreach. At Mass Academy, I worked on the MAMS Student Council to collect feedback and suggest improvements to academic programming. I volunteered at local STEM fairs and worked at a summer program for middle schoolers, where I designed and taught science, math, engineering, and Lego robotics lessons to middle-school students.

Music

I have played piano and trumpet for most of my life in too many different groups to count! I have learned many of my first lessons in teamwork and leadership by playing in groups from large orchestras to small chamber groups. Some of my favorite experiences include playing 1812 Overture under live canons and fireworks, performing the Beatles with my 3 awesome sisters in a home rockband, performing Fanfare for Common Man as the lead trumpet, and impromtu singing with hallmates in my dorm!

Most importantly, I love that music brings people together regardless of peoples' level of (or lack of) formal training in an instrument/theory.

Tinkering + Making

I enjoy designing and making things, and in particular, I like to challenge myself to find clever/creative ways to re-purpose or up-cycle "trash"!

Miscellaneous

A list of ideas that I'd be interested in the opportunity to research and to develop (as far as I know at the time they were added to this list, they hadn't been fully researched/developed yet ... I'd love to know if there is anyone out there working on these ideas!)
  1. Modular houses - see innovations like "Lego-like" Insulated Concrete Forms and pre-fab homes
  2. Anti-black-ice sidewalks, by selectively altering cement material properties to result in effect similar to wire/mesh snow breakers
  3. Car-free zone experiments - e.g. Mem Drive closed on Sundays, Newbury Street car-free-days
    4. > Specifically in the Haymarket area on Fridays/Saturdays or the general downtown/Seaport area during evening rush hour
  4. Biomass-based cement - see Hy-fi 'self-growing fungus brick' from corn husk + mycelium, Coco noir peat from coconut. Inspired by an IAP workshop co-sponsored by the MIT Waste Alliance and D-Lab about re-purposing agricultural bio-mass "waste" in rural Uganda.
A personal bucket list of cool projects to play around with!

Reading

I love reading. As a kid, I would borrow a stack of books every time we went to the library, stay up late secretly reading in my bed (hidden flashlight style), etc. Sadly, I've recently let this hobby get pushed aside by classes and extracurriculars, so one of the goals on my 30 before 30 bucket list (inspired by The Truly Educated Never Graduate's Kate Thompson, whom I've had the priveledge of studying under at PROMYS 2012!) involves reading and reviewing more books.

Here's a list of books I've recently read, or would like to read in the near future: