Volunteering & Aid
Volunteering is one of my favorite ways of giving back and showing compassion toward others. I’ve led projects and worked as a volunteer at multiple organisations, however a couple experiences stand out.
Ghana Biodigester Toilet Project
In the Summer of my rising Junior year, I led a group of international students on an action-based project in Wli Ghana. Here, I partnered with Sage Experience to assess and develop a solution for the public defecation health issue in Wli. After consulting my colleagues and village leadership, we agreed on designing, building, and implementing public biodigester toilets. I led the design and build process of the biodigester system, which relied on easily sourceable chemicals to breakdown feces into farm-ready fertiliser. Building alongside experienced village craftsmen was very humbling, as I learned from their resourceful techniques. Additionally, I met many amazing people from around the world, who each taught me valuable life and work skills.
Robot Hardware and Design Co-Lead
During the school year as a Freshman and Sophomore, I volunteered at a local middle school as a Dreamcatchers tutor. I saw this as a fun way to not only help students who needed academic support but also meet new people I’d otherwise not meet. At Dreamcatchers, I worked as a tutor for seventh and eight grade students. After school on Wednesdays, I would bike to the local middle school, where I previously attended, and I tutored students on any subjects they was struggling with. Although I thought it would only be me teaching the students, those students taught me a lot about patience and self care, which greatly improved the way I think about school and my work.
One of my positions at Paly Robotics was as the Robot Hardware and Design Summer Camp Co-lead (summer of rising Junior year). As the Summer Camp Co-lead, I led the camp and game design, counsellor and camper relations, and camp logistics. I also planned day-by-day schedules, merchandise, decorative design, robot design rules and CAD-based modelling. The camp I led included ~85 middle school students over the course of 2 separate camp weeks and 1 planning week.
DreamCatchers Tutoring
LEGO Summer Camp Counselor
During the summer of my Freshman year, I was a camp counsellor for BrainVyne LEGO Summer Camp. Here I taught students creative design and engineering concepts through LEGO building. This was a particularly memorable experience, as I got to see the joy in the kids’ faces when they learned through their love for LEGOs. This teaching experience was particularly important to me due to the large role LEGOs have played in my passion for engineering, designing and building.