Throughout my life my motto has been “l’unione fa la forza,” an Italian saying that means “unity is strength.” Being raised in an Italian-Spanish-English multilingual family that took collectivism as the norm, I have been often at odds with the individualism that characterizes American society. As a child, I never liked to stand out in class but often preferred to work “behind the scenes” to achieve a common goal with other students. During nine years of competitive gymnastics, despite numerous successes, I still struggled to shine alone on individual events, and I cherished the work we accomplished and the special bond we formed as a team. Even when I started playing the cello in middle school, I quickly realized that that painful sound that was coming out of my instrument early on would only take on meaning when joined by other instruments. As the years passed, I got to love more and more the “background” nature of the cello, an instrument as shy as me who however would shine when “working” collectively with others. But it wasn’t until last spring that I discovered the true impact that working collectively can have and the sense of purpose it can instill. In April 2020, I joined the Covid nineTEEN project, a virtual volunteering program that was launched at my school to keep children engaged and entertained during the pandemic. I spent hours every week meeting with other project members to decide which classes and activities to design, offer and lead. Initially, we were just a small group of students who wanted to make a difference for the children in our community. But with time, the program grew to include more volunteers and serve more than 800 children in 14 different countries. I have now spent the last 6 months tutoring children virtually in different subjects and languages and leading different types of activities. It has been exhilarating to get to know and help children from different backgrounds. For example, I regularly tutored a little boy from South Korea who had just moved to the U.S. and was struggling in English. We met every week through Zoom and read books in English. His mom shared how much of an impact I had and how he was already improving in this language. I also tutored two children who attend the same Italian/English dual language program I attended and helped them every week improve their conversational Italian. I still work with these children to this day and have cherished seeing their progress throughout the months. Overall, this experience has taught me that while we each can make a contribution to our community, it is only through collective work that our impact can be far-reaching and long-lasting. In fact, it is thanks to all the members of our volunteering program that we could reach a large number of children across the world, create a safe space for them to learn and have fun, and improve their overall life during the pandemic.

This is me dismounting from the beam during the World's IGC Gymnastics Championship in Orlando, Florida, 2019. Jumping backward from a 3-feet tall beam is not an easy job but I have loved the challenge and this has prepared me to be bold and courageous in what life has to offer me in the future. Thank you for your consideration!

Throughout my life my motto has been “l’unione fa la forza,” an Italian saying that means “unity is strength.” Being raised in an Italian-Spanish-English multilingual family that took collectivism as the norm, I have been often at odds with the individualism that characterizes American society. As a child, I never liked to stand out in class but often preferred to work “behind the scenes” to achieve a common goal with other students. During nine years of competitive gymnastics, despite numerous successes, I still struggled to shine alone on individual events, and I cherished the work we accomplished and the special bond we formed as a team. Even when I started playing the cello in middle school, I quickly realized that that painful sound that was coming out of my instrument early on would only take on meaning when joined by other instruments. As the years passed, I got to love more and more the “background” nature of the cello, an instrument as shy as me who however would shine when “working” collectively with others. But it wasn’t until last spring that I discovered the true impact that working collectively for the community can have and the sense of purpose it can instill. In April 2020, I joined the Covid nineTEEN project, a virtual volunteering program that was launched at my school to keep children engaged and entertained during the pandemic. I spent hours every week meeting with other project members to decide which classes and activities to design, offer and lead. Initially, we were just a small group of students who wanted to make a difference for the children in our community. But with time, the program grew to include more volunteers and serve more than 800 children in 14 different countries. I have now spent the last 6 months tutoring children virtually in different subjects and languages and leading different types of activities. It has been exhilarating to get to know and help children from different backgrounds. For example, I regularly tutored a little boy from South Korea who had just moved to the U.S. and was struggling in English. We met every week through Zoom and read books in English. His mom shared how much of an impact I had and how he was already improving in this language. I also tutored two children who attend the same Italian/English dual language program I attended and helped them every week improve their conversational Italian. I still work with these children to this day and have cherished seeing their progress throughout the months. Overall, this experience has taught me that while we each can make a contribution to our community, it is only through collective work that our impact can be far-reaching and long-lasting for the broader community. In fact, it is thanks to all the members of our volunteering program that we could reach a large number of children across the world, create a safe space for them to learn and have fun, and improve their overall life during the pandemic.