THS Alumni 2022

Alumni, Mrs. Muniz, Devi, Vishali, Jackson

Hannah Durkee

• High school : Timberline Class of 2009
• AP Classes
• Wolf Connection / Leadership program
• Varsity Softball with Mrs. Muniz (2009 State Champs!)
• Originally thought I wanted to pursue architecture in college...

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• Undergraduate : University of Utah with Honors (Salt Lake City, UT)
• Major Geology and Geophysics with honors
• Minor: Business administration
• Explored architecture then pre-med w geology major... ditched medicine... explored psychology, business, hospitality, event planning end ended up back in geology.
• Advice: It’s ok to take time to explore all of your interests before picking a major!
• Distinguishing between what is a hobby and career helps

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• Graduate degree: Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO)
• Master of Geology
• Research projects are super fun - Lots of field work and field trips = time outside!
• Current Employer: EOG Resources (Denver, CO)
• Position : Senior Geologist
• Petroleum exploration and development, energy enhancement & sustainability projects, liaison for the future of our earth’s resources
• Oh... I still get to go on field trips :)
• Extra credit job : Yoga Instructor at CorePower Yoga
• Pursuing multiple passions

Field trip to Belize

Hannah Durkee - Follow-up Questions

Is there anyone who inspired you to pursue your current career/educational path? How?��I originally went to University of Utah for pre-med. My freshman year of college, I took a geology of National parks class to fill a random time slot for a general ed course requirement. This brought of memories of how I used to want to be a park ranger as a kid so I decided to pick geology as my major. I guess you can say my childhood self was my inspiration! Then took a petroleum industry career paths course and I thought it sounded really interesting - like solving a puzzle.

�What advice would you give to a high school student not yet sure of what they want to study?

My undergraduate advisor once told me “There is nothing scarier than an 18 year old who knows what they want to do for the rest of their lives” - and I couldn’t agree more. I went from wanting to study architecture to pre-med to geology to psychology to business to hospitality to event planning back to geology in a period of 5 years. It’s ok to take time to figure it out and explore all of your interests before picking a major! In fact, PLEASE do this! You might discover something new about yourself :)

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What events/activities were especially beneficial for you, in terms of professional development?

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Networking events, conferences, talking to mentors, exploring hobbies and meeting unexpected contacts

Riley Robenstein

• Advice:
• College
• Get to know your advisor
• Figure out your path (or potential paths)
• Ask your professors and TAs about research, internship, and job opportunities
• Don’t be afraid of rejection - sometimes there just isn’t anything available
• Build your resume
• Actively participate in classes and sit up front
• Get the professor to see you
• Find a healthy balance between school and friends
• Balance between bare minimum and too many credits
• It’s not a competition but you also want to finish college in a decent amount of time
• Stay active and continue your hobbies (also find new ones)
• Professional Development:
• Researching and talking with Mrs. Decker
• Being open to new opportunities
• ZooTeens
• Vet shadowing
• THS Science Club
• SI-PASS Leader
• Undergrad Research Opportunity
• Continue researching, asking, watching, and listening
• Never say never, but also make wise choices - don’t over exert yourself

Riley Robenstein

• University of Idaho: Wildlife Resources undergrad
• Inspirations:
• Parents
• Both went to U of I
• Annoying and persistent about opportunities
• Documentaries and camping
• Found working with animals interesting
• Always loved nature and outdoors
• Zoology teacher
• Introduced wildlife biology
• Advice:
• High school
• Don’t take a class because it’s easy
• Reach out to your teachers, colleagues, college and career counselor, etc.
• Research and job opportunities!!!
• Going into college without a declared major is okay
• Search for colleges that fit you and your personality
• Don’t go BECAUSE that’s where your friends go or it’s an ivy league school
• Learn to study in high school
• Mistakes are not a failure; they are the beginning of growth
• Build your resume

Brenna Houk

• High School (2016)
• Band: piccolo and flute
• AP Classes
• Pharmacy Technician Internship
• National Honor Society
• College (2020): Idaho State University
• B.S. in Biochemistry
• Bengal Marching and Pep Bands
• Piccolo & clarinet section leader
• Uniform coordinator
• Community events
• Volunteer opportunities
• Research: Dr. Julia Martin
• Volunteered in a microbiology/biochem lab
• INBRE
• Undergraduate TA for anatomy cadaver labs
• Teaching is a great way to learn!
• Online course materials

Brenna Houk

• Medical School: Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine (ICOM)
• Current OMS-II
• Anatomy Tutor
• Lab
• One-on-one
• Review sessions
• Pediatric Interest Group Leadership
• Other
• Childcare
• Camp Hodia
• Inspiration
• Initially wanted to be a pharmacist
• Diagnosed with T1D in 2012
• My pediatric endocrinologist had T1D
• End goal is to become a pediatric endocrinologist
• Long-term relationships with patients
• Patient education

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Advice

• General
• The sooner you start, the sooner you’re done
• It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be done
• “Pour confidently.” -Dr. Martin
• Failure is good
• One more…
• Ask for help! Especially if you are bad about asking for help.
• Study methods can (and probably will) change
• Don’t just do something to put it on your resume/CV
• It doesn’t matter where you go for undergrad. College is what you make it.
• Not sure what you want to study?
• It’s okay to not know.
• It’s okay to change your mind.
• What aspects do you want in your future career?
• Use your gen eds to try different subjects.
• First hand experience

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Eric Jonas

Assistant Professor, Department Of Computer Science

• I am a tenure-track professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago
• I develop new AI techniques to make science better.
• I work on whatever problems I find interesting �(with brilliant colleagues!)
• I convince other smart people to fund my work �(Funding agencies, private philanthropy, companies)
• I invent new things and then �share them with the world!
• (I also sometimes teach)

nuclei

(picometers)

neurons

(micrometers)

nearby stars

(millions of km)

My Research

I develop new types of �Artificial Intelligence to make �SCIENCE BETTER

How did I get here?

Career Advice

• The college you go to matters less than doing well in college
• Science grad school (PhD) is free (in fact they pay you!)
• I guarantee you will need to know how to program no matter what.
• Science is way more social than you think.
• “Doing Science” and “taking science classes” are often very different, so try and get experience early
• Try lots of new things while you are young
• The most important things in your life won’t be career-related

This is Katie Cap Jonas. She doesn’t know what she wants to do with her career either.

Sara Alsaifi: About Me

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• High school: explore, set a strong foundation for college opportunities (CONNECTIONS!)
• Involved in wide range of science classes
• Music (flute!!)
• Major involvement: hospital volunteering, chemistry research
• Boise State: professional, academic, and personal growth (all related!!!)
• Molecular biology, psychology/chemistry
• Pre-med & honors
• Gives an additional perspective on undergrad experience: Life, Death, and Meaning/Chaos and Power in Ancient Greece/King Arthur and the Round Table/Heroes and Villains/etc.
• Professors: experienced, unafraid to speak about sensitive topics, guide improvement
• Work: hospital volunteering, parkinson’s research, math tutor
• New hobbies: rock wall climbing, hiking

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Sara Alsaifi

Sara Alsaifi: Advice

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• High school
• Choose your attitude, choose to be present
• Try classes, stakes are fairly low
• Sometimes the right teacher can make the difference
• Do your research on program requirements
• Make connections
• Great practice for college
• Networking is what leads to opportunities
• Establish good habits (overall awareness)
• Studying, workload management, teamwork, choosing a proper learning environment
• Professionalism!!!--truly affects the impression you give
• Learning: reflecting on low grades, missed problems, and other struggles (motivation, etc.)
• College
• Choose a college/program that is right for you (academically/financially)!!!!!
• Don’t abandon what you’ve worked for
• A new start for mistakes but a continuation for past progress
• Do your research on program requirements (that’s how important this is)
• Start early
• Plan out your four years
• Meet regularly with advisors (you lead the meeting)
• Self reliant (no one will do your work)
• Persistent
• Stepping stones

Blaine Dillingham

• Timberline Science Bowl
• Ex-cellist
• Enjoys math homework
• Ultimate frisbee
• Coding is fun, even debugging!?
• University of Rochester ‘24

Let some dreams be dreams

Single Handedly save the world

Contribute to saving the world

“People who say money can’t buy happiness are stupid.”

Curing cancer would make a great campaign platform

I’m bad at that thing, and I’m not the best at anything. Comparative advantage is a jerk

How to save (the biggest part of) the world?

• Cost to save a life
• Marginal thinking
• Statistical heroism

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• Future lives
• Counterfactuals
• Expected value

Change(d) my mind: “Computers do what we program them to do.”

• Machine Learning is trying combinations to find the best. It’s like children, but more calculus-y. And we definitely wouldn’t say that kids do what we program them to do.
• Roomba on Reinforcement Learning = side effects
• Incentives to hide deception
• I want to work on making meaningful progress in this area

• Is there anyone who inspired you to pursue your current career/educational path? How?
• Andrew Payne. Told me not to worry so much about the “rare” part of rare and valuable skills
• What advice would you give to a high school student not yet sure of what they want to study?
• Passions are capricious, build skills that other people need
• Ease your way into guiding your own learning because Transfer isn’t real
• What events/activities were especially beneficial for you, in terms of professional development?
• EA resources, emailing Nobel Laureates, info interviews are everything

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Maddie Bernardo

• Is there anyone who inspired you to pursue your current career/educational path? How?
• What advice would you give to a high school student not yet sure of what they want to study?
• What events/activities were especially beneficial for you, in terms of professional development?

Michael Popa II

Utah State University Honors - Human Biology, Statistics, Math; Chemistry, Public Health, Math, and Military Science

The Utah Statesman Senior News Writer, Creator and Host of Deep Roots USUSA MCAT Club

UoU SoM Rural and Underserved Utah Training Experience (RUUTE) Reserve Officers’ Training Corp

Logan Institute of Religion LDSSA Council, Ambassadors Committee President Smithfield Fire Department

United States Army Combat Medic, 65th Field Artillery Brigade → 19^th Special Forces Group (Airborne)

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Inspiration: Mom - R.N., clinical educator at St. Lukes, BSU School of Nursing

Great-Grandfather - Army B-52 flight mechanic for Enola Gay during WWII

Tips: Do what’s fun and productive, not just what checks off the boxes. It’s better to be unique and have great experiences than just have hours/classes/extracurriculars for the sake of having them because that’s what “looks good”

Professional Development: Utah Statesman, U.S. Army, LDSSA Ambassadors

Questions?

Contact us at:

timberlinescienceclub@gmail.com

Join our Remind:

@98b9ddk

Follow us on Instagram:

@timberline_science_club

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Our next meeting:

Feb @ 3:15, Room 234

Meeting!

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Have a great week and we hope to see you at our next meeting!

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