My academic and career goals are shaped by how I think, learn, and respond to challenges. I am currently an undergraduate Computer Science student at Rice University, having completed my first year, with a focus on artificial intelligence and a growing interest in the ethical, legal, and policy issues surrounding emerging technologies. I have always been drawn to environments that demand focus, adaptability, and accountability. Whether in the classroom or on the tennis court, I am most engaged when I am pushed to analyze, adjust, and improve. Tennis taught me early that progress is rarely linear; growth comes from close attention to detail, honest self-assessment, and the willingness to make strategic changes under pressure. Those same habits shape how I approach academic work and complex problem-solving. My interest in computer science grew from a fascination with patterns and systems, how small decisions can have cascading effects. As I explored coding and computational thinking, artificial intelligence stood out not only for its technical complexity but for its real-world consequences. AI increasingly influences decisions across healthcare, education, finance, and law, often in ways that are invisible to those affected. I participate in computational biochemistry research, using AI to potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives from disease. However, after taking a course in AI ethics as part of my major track, and seeing how easy exploitation and overconsumption are in the era of AI, understanding how these systems work and how they should work has become central to my academic motivation. During my first year at Rice, I have strengthened my analytical foundation while learning to think more rigorously about abstraction, structure, and trade-offs. I am especially interested in complementing my technical training with coursework and experiences that examine ethics, governance, and law. I am motivated by questions such as who bears responsibility for automated decisions, how bias is encoded into systems, and how intellectual property and regulatory frameworks can keep pace with innovation. My long-term career goals are intentionally exploratory but focused. I envision working at the intersection of technology and society, where technical expertise must be paired with judgment and accountability. I am positioning myself to shape responsible AI governance, whether by advising regulatory frameworks through a legal career or by engineering safety and compliance guardrails directly within the tech world. What matters most to me is not a single title, but the opportunity to engage deeply with challenging ideas and to apply knowledge with discipline and integrity. I value feedback, thoughtful debate, and environments that expect both excellence and reflection. I want healthy conversations about AI and regulation to be at the forefront of discussions, so that people do not become apathetic to the potential negative consequences of innovation.

“So, we have to answer every question?” At least at first, my parents weren’t the biggest fans of the answer. An educator of over twenty years observed me at church, and confirmed, “Yes, all of them. She will never be satisfied until she understands why.” This idea went against the cultural norms that my parents had grown up with, but they relented. No matter how tough the answer was, they always told me why. Empowered, I began searching for more questions. Whether it was my parents’ science backgrounds, or my desire to find the “more,” then and now, I constantly ask questions. I think constantly, contemplating the reasons why the world is wired this way, why fortune favors the wicked and famine favors the just, why I spend a lot of time thinking, why my hair curls the way it does, why we do the things we do, why bad things happen, and why I keep asking questions. And with the millions of daily questions I seek answers to: I crave knowledge. I’ve asked all of these questions since I could think and articulate them because I've always wanted to know more about the world. The spark of my initial curiosity ignited a fire that has grown within me. But it’s not just knowledge, it’s problem-solving. In the second grade, I needed to come up with a science project that would address an issue that kids my age faced. I decided to address the issue of interacting with strangers. As a child, my mom warned me about strangers who kidnapped children. This became reality when “the stranger in a car offering a kid candy” became real, as my friend was riding her bike in the neighborhood and had this happen to her. Fortunately, she knew better than to interact with the stranger and was able to get back safely to her house. With an app, some videos, much trial and error, and a little help from my mom, I created a game from drag-and-drop code that simulated kids interacting with strangers. At the end of the game, it encouraged the user to be careful in those potentially dangerous situations. It was well received at the project fair and, for the first time, I connected “why” to “how,” feeding that fire inside. As I moved through high school and now enter college, I’ve come to share “whys” and “hows” with my community. I was shocked when An’yai, a 5th grader I coached in Saturday tennis lessons, told me she had no math class and that her history teacher, accused of assault, was giving girls with straight A’s undeserved D’s. She and her peers also faced threats from classmates, leaving them unsafe at school. Clearly, this wasn’t education. I reported it to the program director, who promised support, but I wanted something more decisive. Outraged, I shared their story widely, giving me a “why.” Then, with a friend passionate about public policy, I co-founded EQUITY: Everyone for Quality, Unifying, and Inclusive Teaching for Youth. We advocated and fundraised for underserved students, raising awareness of inequities, and are now moving to change our “how” by creating supplemental educational tools to support underserved students. After years of asking questions and crafting my own answers, curiosity continues to reign supreme. With my parents’ promise in my heart, I have my own—to always follow my “Why?” with “How?” using innovation and advocacy, not just to satisfy my thirst for knowledge, but to acknowledge the “Whys” and “Hows” of those I impact.

In the second grade, I needed to come up with a science project that would address an issue that kids my age faced. I decided to address the issue of interacting with strangers. As a child, my mom warned me about strangers who kidnapped children. This became reality when “the fictional stranger in a car offering a kid candy” became real, as my friend was riding her bike in the neighborhood and had this happen to her. While she got home safely, I was left with a “why” floating in my head afterward: “Why do some kids get tricked by strangers and others don’t?” And with an app, a few videos, much trial and error, and a little help from my mom, I was able to transform that “why” into my first “how”. My first creation was a game from drag-and-drop code that simulated kids interacting with strangers. At the end of the game, it encouraged the user to be careful in those potentially dangerous situations. It was well received at the project fair. More recently, I’ve moved into a different application of my computational skills: scientific research. I got an opportunity to be a research intern with the Banks Lab at Prairie View A&M University. There, we combine computer science and biology to study nonstructural protein 4 of the human rotavirus to create a computational model to determine whether it can be used as a potential drug target. This research, along with my participation in an annual data analytics competition and my computer science coursework at school, has cemented my place in working with technology. However, being a woman in technology comes with many varying difficulties. Despite being one of two high schoolers at the annual MERCURY Conference for Undergraduate Computational Chemistry, I compensated for not knowing organic chemistry with years of coding experience. I was 90% done with the program, but I needed simple clarification on its output. Upon asking a grad student for clarification, he dryly told me there wasn’t one and my program was wrong with a condescending tone. I doubted myself for a second before remembering there was absolutely an output – it was in the instructions. I politely rephrased my question, but got nothing; it was just the same response as if my program was incorrect. Eventually, someone helpful confirmed that my 90% was right, and the output was simple print statements. That experience only showed me that I need to keep pursuing my future career in technology. In this field, it seems like women have to always go the extra mile to prove themselves and their worth. There was no reason for the grad student to doubt my ability, especially when my program was correct for the task at hand. People like him need to see more women like me in technology so that interactions like the one I had would cease for all women in technology. For that reason, I am so excited to be one of the first artificial intelligence majors at Rice University. I plan to be an expert in the budding field and explore how artificial intelligence can help humankind.