The wisest thing I have ever heard is "don't be afraid to win by a lot." When I was younger and went to a Columbia men's basketball practice, I heard the Coach say to his point guard before he ran a sprint, "don't be afraid to win by a lot." At first, I thought of it as something funny, and kind of like a diss to the other players on the team. However, after almost 10 years, I have lived and modeled a lot of my behavior after that quote. In approaching anything, even if you feel like you are the best at it, or in your bubble you are the best at it, there are always other people grinding to achieve the same goals as you. Whether or not you see them, there are other people succeeding in your field or are accomplishing the same things that you have. Because of this, you always need to be as sharp as possible and win by a lot. It is not only about beating the people around you, but also proving to yourself that you can be the best. Your greatest competition is your inner mentality and if you can continuously push through and keep striving after you have already won, you are on the path to success.

On March of 11th, 2020, I had COVID, my high school basketball team’s run to the NYC championship was derailed, and both of my parents lost their jobs. My life was upended and I was desperate to find one stable, normal thing to keep me sane. For me, dribbling a basketball in the basement of my apartment building made me feel better and closer to normal. Each day during the spring, I would go downstairs to the basement in my apartment with my basketball and computer to share my ball-handling and fitness routine. It started with a few family friends and eventually grew to 40 kids across the country. These kids were stuck at home, most lacking any social interaction and as desperate as I was to feel normal again. I was able to form a community of children who wanted to get better at basketball, improve their physical health, and have a blast while doing it. We all craved normalcy, and in those moments of dribbling basketballs together, the stress and sadness of an impossibly confusing time was mitigated and turned into an hour of determination and happiness. This ability of bringing others fun and hope in a time of confusion and isolation has underscored how much I love helping other people. In the future, I want to have an impact on others, brighten up someone's day everyday, and have people thankful for me. I am thankful for those who have shown me love, my morals, energy, and have accepted me and I am grateful for them everyday. I will do everything in my power so people are grateful for me.

The essence of academic excellence is rooted in curiosity. Knowing certain facts, equations, and integral parts of each subject’s curriculum has been imperative in every class I’ve ever taken, but always asking the extra question has brought me success in the classroom. I don’t think it is possible to endure meaning in education or have high grades and test scores without this external curiosity. Furthermore, diversifying your education experience is one of the most underrated and meaningful attributes that can be provided in school. In first grade, my parents decided to put me in the dual-immersion program. For the next four years, I spent half of my school day only learning and communicating in Spanish. I was one of the only kids in the class whose first language was English, but by fourth grade, I had become fluent in Spanish and was able to read, write, and converse with all of my classmates. I have continued learning Spanish in middle school and high school and I am extremely grateful that I took the risk of trying to become bilingual at such a young age. Obviously it takes a lot of practice to learn another language, but after meticulous repetition of verb conjugations, studying key differences in the way things are phrased in the second language, along with the difference in tone was vital in my development as a Spanish speaker. Ever since I was little, I loved animals. The way I was able to learn how to sound things out and conjugate verbs was by making sentences that involve an animal doing something. I would go through hundreds of animals, making sentence after sentence until I started to say everything comfortably and was in my groove. I repeated this everyday and this studying method enabled me to speak Spanish.

During my sophomore year, I spent all of my Thursday afternoons tutoring 2nd and 3rd graders who couldn’t afford the extra help which they needed to thrive academically. Helping kids whose first language wasn’t English, struggled with literacy and pronunciation, and couldn’t understand basic math concepts was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. Once they started to gain confidence and understand everything, it would make my day. Providing tutoring, a big-brother like figure, and a friend for these kids, positively impacted their academic and childhood experiences, but also made me grow and showed me that one person could change someone’s life. A little under a year later, on March of 11th, 2020, I had COVID, my high school basketball team’s run to the NYC championship was derailed, and both of my parents lost their jobs. My life was upended and I was desperate to find one stable, normal thing to keep me sane. For me, dribbling a basketball in the basement of my apartment building made me feel better and closer to normal. Each day during the spring, I would go downstairs to the basement in my apartment with my basketball and computer to share my ball-handling and fitness routine. It started with a few family friends and eventually grew to 40 kids across the country. These kids were stuck at home, most lacking any social interaction and as desperate as I was to feel normal again. I was able to form a community of children who wanted to get better at basketball, improve their physical health, and have a blast while doing it. We all craved normalcy, and in those moments of dribbling basketballs together, the stress and sadness of an impossibly confusing time was mitigated and turned into an hour of determination and happiness.

Positivity is the single most important characteristic to have in life. While it is extremely important to understand reality and not be naive, I believe that positivity triumphs over any failure, success, or unsolved struggle. What matters to me is always being positive and despite any mistake, obstacle, or sadness that occurs, knowing that I will make the best out of each option and hand that I play myself into. No matter where you go, who you meet, or what your passion is, with positivity you can outlast everyone and truly succeed. When I succeed, I appreciate it and then look to push forward. In failure, I see potential; in tragedy, I see the glimmer of hope and happiness that can get people through tough times; in sadness, I find reason to be happy and thankful. Gratitude comes hand in hand with positivity. If you can acknowledge all the positive aspects of your life, you can become a grateful, optimistic, and most importantly, empathetic person. With empathy and optimism, you can not only see the best in yourself, but you can have a greater understanding of how to lift up, provide positivity, and care for others. I view positivity as a choice, and my whole life I have chosen to apply a positive outlook to all of my relationships, my entire academic and basketball career, and being a better person every single day. On March of 11th, 2020, I had COVID, my high school basketball team’s run to the NYC championship was cut short, and both of my parents lost their jobs. My life was completely upended and I was desperate to find one, stable, normal thing to keep me sane. For me, dribbling a basketball in the basement in my apartment building was what made me feel better and closer to normal. Each day during the start of the pandemic, I would go downstairs to the basement in my apartment with my basketball and computer to share my ball-handling and fitness routine. It started with a few family friends and eventually grew to 40 kids across the country. These kids were stuck at home, most lacking any social interaction and as desperate as I was to feel normal again. I was able to form a community of children who wanted to get better at basketball, improve their physical health, and have a blast while doing it. We all craved normalcy, and in those moments of dribbling basketballs together, the stress and sadness of an impossibly confusing time was mitigated and turned into an hour of determination and happiness. My effort to always find the silver lining in negativity and sadness wound up providing an outlet for kids around the country to feel happier, safer, and more optimistic about their present and future in life.

After months of gut-wrenching pain, dropping from 85 to 70 pounds, doctor appointments, and finally a colonoscopy, we learned that I had Crohn’s. My body was not absorbing nutrients properly, and I was suffering from anemia, which made me incredibly weak. I probably was living in denial, but the reality of the situation hit me when doctors told me to stay out of sunlight because of all things, my medication exposed me to greater risks of cancer. For the next few weeks, I was curled up in a ball, feeling like a hopeless, caged animal. I seldom left my room except for at night to have my six pills with a cup of orange juice. My bed at home felt like a hospital bed. I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt a need to bike to a basketball court and start getting my shot back. After two misses, I started seeing spots, blacked out, and then I was back on my bed with my mom bringing me pills and orange juice. That night, I cried myself to sleep thinking I was going to die. I knew I had to take this more seriously, but I have never been the type of person to let an obstacle stop me from doing something I love. I promised myself to never let Crohn’s derail my life, but I understood I needed to operate a little differently. Before I could start playing, I began eating more. I would walk around my house and stretch for hours. After weeks of focus and patience, I finally got back on the court and started to work even harder. Now, almost a decade later, I am the captain and starting point guard on one of the best national prep school basketball teams in the country.

Art and STEM are two branches of creativity and concrete facts that when used together form solutions to problems, mitigation of stress, and improved imagination and intelligence. From a very young age, I have always been intrigued by art. Whether it was watercolors in elementary school, pastels in 3rd grade, or pottery and collages throughout school projects, I have always looked forward to doing any type of art. My favorite type of art is drawing. While I love to use my imagination and draw whatever comes to mind sometimes, my favorite thing is to draw animals. I would take pictures of animals and draw them to perfectly match the initial image to my best ability. I loved the simplicity yet complexion on pencil sketches of creatures that are so colorful. This exemplifies how art enables you to perceive one thing in a completely new light and perspective and make it special. Subsequently, I took my love for art at an early age and brought it to school. While I have always been an extremely competitive basketball player, whether it be on my club, middle school, or high school varsity teams in NYC, or my national prep school team in Pennsylvania, I have always loved having art as not only a hobby but as an activity of comfort. Since 6th grade, any time I have had the opportunity to add an elective to my schedule, I have taken advantage and added art. Every week of school I would have multiple art classes where I learned calligraphy, spotting, advanced watercolor, and painting. As we learned this, we also always had time to freely express ourselves and our imagination through outside projects. I would always love to draw sports teams' logos and like I said before, all different types of animals. this was often the serenity and peace that I needed as an athlete with an extremely busy schedule. As I expressed my imagination through art, I would demonstrate my curiosity through math. Numbers were always like a puzzle to me, and I loved solving problems. The first time I realized I loved math was in 2nd grade when I was learning how to multiply. We had different methods of learning–now that I think back I can only remember the regular method and lattice method–but I made my own method that I use to this day. I would constantly take two different, two digit numbers and multiply them in my head over and over again. I realized that I found a method that was way easier for my brain. Essentially, I broke up the multiplication. For example, with the numbers 40 and 26, I would multiply 40x6 in my head, 240, and then add it to 40x20, 800, to result in 1,040. I love mental math, and in doing this repeatedly over years, I now can do multiplication and division in my head effortlessly. This love for math has propelled me into AP Calculus BC in my senior year. The reason why art and STEM make the world a better place together is that the juxtaposition of numbers, theorems, and formulas within STEM with colors, abstract forms, and intricacies of artwork combine to make two opposites that stimulate the mind through creativity. Furthermore, elements of STEM and art are found within each other. Imaginary numbers, limits, and problems that require thinking outside of the box all remind me of art in that they are all imaginative, unknown, and complex concepts that are solved by the human mind. Contrarily, artists often solve their hardest problems on the paper. Expressing their emotions and problems through art is like their math formula in solving a problem. Problem solving is a key similarity between art and STEM, but I believe the biggest modern connection between the two is through advancements in technology, and specifically in social media. There is so much science, algorithms, and coding behind social media apps, along with such extensive creative, artistic elements in each app that make each platform unique. I am currently developing a new social media app with two kids at my school and one of the,most important things we are trying to accomplish is the pure aesthetic of the app. We are trying to get the perfect, simultaneous combination of having a great algorithm and coding background to the app with great art and appeal to the user. Art and STEM will continue to be the blueprint for apps in the future along with the advancement in all different types of technology.

I met my teammate Ibra in the fall of 2020 during my first year at prep school at Perkiomen. While this was my 8th year of playing basketball competitively, and I have made countless family-like connections and relationships amongst my peers over my years, the brotherhood I share with Ibra stands out. I have never felt more out of place than my first day of prep school last year. September 9th, 2020 represents a day of confusion, loneliness, but most importantly, the start of one of the most meaningful friendships I have ever developed with one of my teammates, who I can now call my brother. During the first few hours of being at Perkiomen, I felt like a mouse lost in a field of tall grass. I’ve been a New York City kid my entire life. Being surrounded by the orchestra of chaos and abrupt, loud noises everywhere has given me an extremely busy, fast-paced, and spontaneous lifestyle that I had ironically become so accustomed to. The transition from my old public school, which was a couple blocks from Times Square, to the small town of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania with a population of about 4,000, at a school of about 300 people, and where I knew no one besides the basketball coaching staff, was primed to be one of the most intimidating, mind-boggling, and confusing experiences of my life. After hours of tagging along with a couple of the players on the basketball team as well as roaming around the campus by myself, one of the players from the team named Ibra took me to the gym so we could workout. He was the first person at the school who seemed genuinely interested in getting to know me and was already comfortable joking around with someone who he has never met before. As we were working out, we continued to talk and I learned that he was from the Netherlands, and like myself, was extremely outgoing, conversational, and asked way too many questions. Our mutual personality characteristics helped us foster an initial bond that would establish a bigger connection amongst three more new players at the school who lived on the same floor in our dorm. As time passed, the five of us would spend everyday together working out, playing board games, arguing, eating, and watching TV series and movies at night. In just the span of a few months we had become best friends. At the end of our second term, and before our spring break, we all felt like we were at the top of the world. We had just completed an undefeated season, we were the best team in Pennsylvania, one of the best teams in the country, and spring break was starting. Everyone was going to go back home to their families, except for Ibra, who was going to come back to NYC with my friend and me for the break. However, before we went to NYC, I will never forget the emptiness I felt in my stomach, along with the utter sadness and desperation I felt when I got the text that Ibra was unconscious in the hospital with cardiac arrest. While I had only known Ibra for less than half a year, I considered him my brother, teammate, and one of my best friends. Luckily, I will also never forget when I got the text that by some miracle, Ibra was conscious. As soon as Ibra was able to take in visitors, my other teammate and I would begin to see him in the hospital. These trips were some of the most eye-opening experiences of my life as we saw a deteriorated teenager who just beat the odds of surviving, but also a kid who could do a 360-windmill dunk now barely being able to walk. I will always remember these walks in the hospital because they were the proof of a life-lasting bond between three friends that will never be broken no matter what. Obviously I play basketball because I love the sport, I am extremely competitive, and every practice, workout, and game challenges me. However, one of the main things I have learned in all my years hooping is the extended family that I can create for a lifetime. When Ibra did not have any family in the United States to visit him right away in the hospital, he needed his other family, which was established through friendships cultivated on the court. Our bond has been tested and solidified and a major part in him making an impossible comeback to the court. Now, whenever I throw him an alley-oop or a behind the back pass for a dunk, I can’t help but remember walking in the hospital with him, but also that first day of school where I met a lifelong brother.

During my sophomore year, I spent all of my Thursday afternoons tutoring 2nd and 3rd graders who couldn’t afford the extra help which they needed to thrive academically. Helping kids whose first language wasn’t English, struggled with literacy and pronunciation, and couldn’t understand basic math concepts was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. Once they started to gain confidence and understand everything, it would make my day. Providing tutoring, a big-brother like figure, and a friend for these kids, positively impacted their academic and childhood experiences, but also made me grow and showed me that one person could change someone’s life. Each day during the spring of 2020 when the pandemic first hit, I would go to my apartment's basement with my basketball and computer to share my ball-handling and fitness routine. It started with a few family friends and eventually grew to 40 kids across the country. These kids were stuck at home, most lacking any social interaction and as desperate as I was to feel normal again. I was able to form a community of children who wanted to get better at basketball, improve their physical health, and have a blast while doing it. We all craved normalcy, and in those moments of dribbling basketballs together, the stress and sadness of an impossibly confusing time was mitigated and turned into an hour of determination and happiness. In multiple ways, knowing that I can be the person that can change someone's life motivates me to be my best self on a daily basis.

I would love to be a sports agent when I become older. I have dedicated over a decade of my early life to being an extremely competitive basketball player and competing as one of the best players on my high school at the national level. Throughout my basketball career, I have served as the captain of my elementary school club teams, my middle school team, my high school team, and my national prep school team. Leadership requires an extreme commitment of unselfish attention, habits, and dedication to others. At every level I have played at, I have felt obligated to string out the best of my teammates, which has been possible through earning their respect. It has taken tons of blood, sweat, tears, along with lots of one on one conversations with each of my teammates to earn it, and with it, I have been able to be the one who they confide in at their lowest points. After tough losses, especially at the national level, when I see my teammates questioning their worth and if they should even keep going, I’m in their ear and by their side making sure they are okay. Being a leader on the court amongst my teammates has given me a greater confidence to help other athletes through their struggles. With the first-hand perspective of a competitive athlete, I believe I have the potential to be an exceptional agent, fighting for their rights, contracts, and professions as athletes, but more importantly, as people. I can provide these athletes with different activities, sponsorships, and contributions beyond their sports and within their communities. Another reason why I think being an agent would be the perfect profession for me is because I understand the family presence within athletics, specifically in basketball. In the future, being a former competitive collegiate basketball player will allow the professional athletes to have a sense of family with whoever they call their agent. I understand the bonds formed, hours spent, and all the extra underlying characteristics that are important to an athlete. Having this understanding, along with my experiences of leading in sports, will draw athletes to a person who they know comprehends the business and the athletics components simultaneously. Being an agent is also an exhilarating, high tempo job. I have been the energizer bunny on all of my teams over the years, and this constant sense of energy is perfect for this profession. And while energy is required for this job, patience is also extremely vital. Being patient with my family, friends, and teammates is something that I have tried to do my entire life, and it has helped me become the starting point guard for one of the best prep basketball schools in the country. This same patience, energy, and enthusiasm by which I live by and have followed in daily life as well as basketball will hopefully translate into an amazing career in sports agency.