Introductions

COSMOS 2022

Cluster 3

Allison Stevens

(She/Her/Hers)

About Me!

• I live in San Juan Capistrano with my partner and my 9 year old son.
• I have been teaching for seven years. In that time, I’ve worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, at private school, and at public school!
• I love cultures, the outdoors, people, reading science fiction, kids of all ages, and great think-y science questions!

Why Cluster 3 is meaningful to me...

• First, working with students is meaningful to me because there are few things more joyful than being a part of someone else’s journey to success.
• Second, my grandmother died of colon cancer in 2012. She was young, deeply kind, and I lost her when I was serving in the Peace Corps and never really got to say goodbye. It’s incredibly meaningful to me to be a part of your journey as you work towards potential careers in the medical field where you may someday find yourself in the position of being able to help somebody else’s loved one.

UCD BA Spanish, Biology Emphasis

CSUF MA Technology in Education

Ann Vu

(she/they/he or any pronouns)

About me:

• I am 16 and live in Riverside, CA with my parents and 3 brothers!
• I am a big fan of fish, rocks, (obscure) music, and video essays (youtube).
• I like drawing, reading, and journaling.
• My favorite poem
• I have a goldfish who’s been alive for 4+ years.

Why Cluster 3?!

• Math and biology are very cool!! Super awesome
• I get the 2 in one deal

Allison Huang (she/her)

About me :P

• I am a rising senior from San Jose.
• I love food, kpop, traveling and animals
• At home, I don’t have any official pets (except for 5 fish) but I enjoy taking care of the stray cat family in my backyard and front yard.

Why I chose Cluster 3 :)

• I have a special interest in cancer and it is very rare and difficult to find a program specialized in that topic for our age group. In school, my favorite class is my 3 year medical course which I have just completed. We discussed and researched everything medical related from vaccines and clinical trials to infectious diseases, anatomy, and cancer.

Daniel Ko

He/Him

About me!

• I live in Irvine with my family and a dog
• Enjoy playing tennis and have 3rd dan in Taekwondo

Why cluster 3 is meaningful to me

• Passionate in math and biology
• Immersing in team environment with scientists/mathematicians
• Hands-on experience in biology lab

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Sharon Kim

(she/her/hers)

About me:

• I live in Porter Ranch with my parents, older brother, and a dog.
• I like art, fashion, editing, film photography, reading and watching anything really, traveling, Wong Kar Wai films, finding new music, and spending time at home
• I practice archery even though I am not good at it.
• Rising junior at Granada Hills Charter High School.

Why I like cluster 3:

• Even though it is my first day here, cluster 3 seems to incorporate many of the areas I have been interested in. I thought of it as the best cluster to explore my different interests at the same time to narrow down what I might want to do in the future. Additionally, the cluster made me curious as to how biology, computers, and math could fit together.

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Allison Tang

About Me:

• I’m a rising senior living in Ventura County.
• I used to have two goldfish, but now I only have one; the other one disappeared mysteriously about a month ago and nobody is telling me what happened to it.
• I enjoy volunteering at my school’s Math Honors Society in my free time.
• I’m on my school’s cross country team, but I’m not particularly good at running.

Why Cluster 3 is meaningful to me/past experiences:

• I frequently volunteer at a free clinic, and plan to become a doctor in the future. Getting a head start in research is critical for me to continue my academic journey.
• Problem solving is one of my greatest strengths and cluster 3 combines both of my favorite disciplines into one program (biology and math).
• Being able to get hands on experience is rare, especially when it comes to resource availability, and having access to labs and chemicals.

(she/her/hers)

This is the only picture I could find on my computer and it’s from two years ago:

Steve Chung (He/him/his)

About Me!

• I live in Danville, CA (Bay Area) and go to Monte Vista

High School

• Going to be a senior, younger sister going to be a junior
• Love to play tennis, piano, hang out with my friends, go to highschool sport games/dances, travel/explore the world, and sometimes sing/dance a bit too

Why I chose Cluster 3:

• Always been interested in biology, especially cellular and molecular biology
• Great way for me to explore my curiosity in this subject and learn more about tissue/cancer growth
• Meet new people who share same/similar interests with me

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Caden Sun

(he/him/his)

About me

• I was born and raised in San Jose, California and currently go to Leigh High School
• I play flute in the marching band, work at Kumon and bike with my friends around the bay area
• I love learning and being challenged, artsy movies and working out
• I have a 5 year old labrador pitbull mix

Why Cluster 3 is important to me

• My dad quit his job in 2017 to work with his brother in a oncology startup, and his passion for the science and the company is really inspiring.

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Rikhil Seth

(he, him, his)

About Me

• I am a rising junior at Irvington High School in Fremont, CA
• I play the Alto and Bari Sax, I do taekwondo, and I play basketball
• I love to cook (especially pizzas), read, and play with friends
• I have a mother and a father… also an older brother

Why I Choose Cluster 3

I want to pursue the field of medicine and recently my grandfather died of lung cancer. I thought it would be an interesting field to learn and experience. Additionally, cancer is something that really intrigues me and science and math are my favorite subjects.

Aditya Verma

he/him

About Me!

• I’m from Irvine, attending Northwood High, but I was born in Fremont, near the Bay Area. I moved to LA in the second grade, and Irvine in middle school.
• I’ve been playing soccer for 11 years, and it’s something I am very passionate about.
• I love science, been a part of many science clubs like SciOly and want to pursue medicine.
• A hobby of mine is building models, from Legos to actual models of buildings ->
• I have 3 small parakeets…

Why Cluster 3 is meaningful to me?

• Cluster 3 is meaningful to me because of its focus on finding and innovating treatments. While its focused on cancer, the skills you learn can be applied to any aspect of medicine, making it really valuable to me.

Charlize Nishitoyo

(she/they)

About Me

• I am 16 and a rising senior from San Jose
• Would want to be a plastic surgeon when I’m older
• I am Chinese-Japanese but my family is from Indonesia (I’m not fluent in any of the languages but I can manage…)
• Love hanging out with friends, travelling, watching anime, making or seeing art, and random interests that I start but never follow through

Why Cluster 3

• My grandpa (that I have never met) died from I think kidney or liver cancer, and I never understood it
• I find bio and research interesting, and love testing out a lot of new topics especially in the field
• Integrates a lot of what I’m interested in, since its very interdisciplinary

Lauren Lee

- About Me -

• I live at La Canada with my parents and sister + go to LCHS (rising senior)
• Love reading and writing/journalism as well as playing tennis
• Other loves are art and music
• Interested in becoming a surgeon (cardiothoracic or trauma not sure)
• I really enjoy walking and experiencing? nature + food
• Most fav. shows are TUA, Shadow and Bone, Stranger Things, and Brooklyn 99

- Why cluster 3? -

• It has some of my interests and it seemed the most challenging and interesting

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(She/Her/Hers)

this is random, don’t have a dream school yet

from Brewery walk not mine ->

Ian Park

About me:

• Irvine, California (born in LA)
• Hobbies: Piano, baseball
• Favorite music genre: classical
• Favorite ice cream flavor: green tea on weekends, chocolate on weekdays
• Favorite color: Blue, Green, Purple
• Favorite car brand: Mercedes

Why Cluster 3 is meaningful to me:

• Excited to apply my passion in relevant research
• Getting hands-on experience to set the foundation of my journey in one day becoming a medical professional

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Samhita Balakrishnan

she/her/hers

About me:

• I am from Fremont and live with my parents and little sister
• I’ve been doing dance and music since I was 6
• I love to hang out with friends, and go shopping
• I really like travelling to new places and love to go sightseeing

Why Cluster 3 is Important to me:

I am really passionate about science and dedicate a lot of my extra time to doing something in it. I lost my grandfather to cancer when I was 12, so since then I’ve always wanted to learn more about it and understand how it spreads in the body, and how it can be treated. In addition, I want to explore this particular part of the medicinal field and see if it is something I want to pursue in.

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Tanya Goel

she/her/hers

About Me:

• I live in Los Gatos (near San Jose) with my parents and my little sister
• I go to Los Gatos High School
• I’ve been to every continent except for Australia (and Antarctica, don’t know if that counts though)
• I’ve been in choir since 5th grade and have always loved to sing

Why Cluster 3 is important to me:

• A genetic disease that causes an aggressive form of breast cancer runs in my family. My mom, her sisters, and my grandma have the gene, and my aunt and grandma have both had and beat the cancer. Cancer in general is something has affected my family quite a bit, so this cluster was an interesting way for me to learn more about it.

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Harshitha Palacharla

(She/her/hers)

About Me!

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• I live in the Bay Area (near Danville, an hour east of San Francisco), and attend California High School
• I have been singing Indian classical music (Carnatic) for 12 years, I love to craft, and I have a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo
• I participate in HOSA and have had the opportunity to host an online workshop on the relationship between diet and health

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Why Cluster 3 is meaningful for me:

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• I want to pursue healthcare in the future, and am particularly interested in oncology and skin cancer. My passion comes from a mutation and cell-signaling project that I did in AP Biology on Ataxia Telangiectasia.
• I think it’s intriguing how a single base pair mutation can either cause a harmful/fatal effect or have no effect whatsoever, and I’d love to explore the possibilities of manipulating cell signaling pathways to pursue treatment options.

Taran Tummala (he/him/his)

About Me!

• I’ve lived in the Bay Area my entire life and I love it there
• I’ve had the privilege of being able to play table tennis competitively for 8 years
• I love hanging out with my older brother, drawing, and playing cards and watching movies with my family

Why Cluster 3

• Cancer and other medical conditions have affected a lot of people who are close to me, and I’ve always had an interest in medicine because I ultimately want to do a job in which I can help people, and I think medicine is one of the most direct ways to do that.

My cousin and I at her wedding reception

Eve Hazard (she/her)

About me!

• I am 16 and I live in Huntington Beach.
• In my free time I love to go to the beach and swim, play tennis, go to the gym, and read all types of books (except non-fiction)
• I will be a junior in high school in the 2022-23 school lear and my favorite subjects are math, chem, and comp sci
• I was a junior guard for 6(ish) years so have some first response medical knowledge as well as knowledge on skin cancer (you can only hear the John Wayne Foundation lecture so many times before it gets old)

Why cluster 3 is meaningful to me…

• Medical science is a really important field and what I want to invest my life in.
• Cancer research will probably be relevant for a while longer, so the cluster 3 topics are very relevant
• My grandma had melanoma and I am also at a high risk for skin cancer, so learning about tumors and treatments is significant to me.

ostrich

Sylvia Lyu (she/they)

• I lived in Shanghai for 11 years, Michigan for 1.5 years and now I live in Palo Alto
• I’m a rising senior
• I like drawing, photography, and covering songs (I like J-pop and K-pop)
• I’ve been playing tennis since third grade
• I like to play video games so hmu if you wanna play league or val or something!!1!11
• I’m fluent in English and Mandarin, and I’m studying French and Japanese
• I lowkey highkey enjoy bad puns
• I chose this cluster because I like biology and CS, and I want to learn more about modeling
• I think I wrote too much (not) sorry

This is literally the only photo i can find 💀

Taken at Mt Rainier

Anna Ding (she/her)

About Me!

• I am from San Diego
• I have an older sister and brother
• I like to build wooden puzzles and play games
• I love to play tennis and it’s how I’ve met some of my best friends

Why cluster 3 is meaningful to me?

• I get to have experience in a research lab and it gives me a chance to learn new stuff that I wouldn’t learn in a normal classroom
• It connects two fields that are interesting to me

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