I’ve always gotten energy from facing challenges. Summerville High presented me with many such challenges to keep my interest and enthusiasm alive. I found a community where team support, mentorship (from teachers and other students), and creativity helped direct me onto my path of becoming me.
My freshman year at Summerville, Ms. Buzzard, who had taught me to play clarinet in middle school, encouraged me to join high school band. After a bit of resistance, I gave in and in the second semester joined beginner band. I’m so glad she pushed me to re-start my musical path because that led me to holding first or second chair through the rest of high school, gave me the opportunity to march as the drum major with my twin sister (Rebecca) our sophomore year, and made me realize how fun it is to push myself to work as a team to entertain and uplift a crowd.
I also found the thrill of performance while acting in the plays under the direction of Mrs. Young. I played supporting characters and Sleeping Beauty in Into the Woods my sophomore year and opened the play as Auntie Em as well as played supporting characters in Wizard of Oz my junior year.
These artistic pursuits helped me have the courage to speak at graduation as the salutatorian for the graduating class of 2005 where I was happy to surprise the audience with a speech made entirely of song lyrics. Hearing the crowd respond to the speech made me appreciate all of the courage I had gained throughout my career at Summerville.
I was an active member and first alternate for the academic decathlon team my junior and senior years. This group, led by Mr. DeGennaro, included students from different academic levels competing in 10 academic areas, which gave me an academic challenge while bonding me to my classmates in a strong team setting.
Cross country was another team I resisted joining initially. My older brother and sister had both run under deG’s coaching, and Rebecca and I held out our first year, but eventually joined our sophomore year where I again found an incredible team who were just as supportive of me coming in 4th to last in a race as they were of our front-runners. I remember deG’s speech encouraging that behavior, reminding everyone that the people who came in first ran their hardest for 18 minutes, whereas the people who came in last ran their hardest for 30+.
My senior year, I added tennis to my repertoire and learned an entirely new sport on the courts in Twain Harte. As the oldest female member of the team (but still a JV member), I became a mentor for the other JV teammates who were all freshmen and played in two varsity matches on the doubles team. Having the opportunity to jump into a new sport and compete against other California teams in the same year was thrilling and fueled my desire to try new things even if only to meet new people.
I remember going on the two day backpacking trip with the Ecology club led by Mr Hohn, hiking through the wettest days of the year, sleeping in a leaky tent, nearly not making it back in time to get across the dam, eating soggy sandwiches, and loving every minute of it.
As an active member of California Scholarship Federation (CSF), I helped put on the CSF statewide conference my junior year where I requested sponsorships from Black Oak Casino and other larger Tuolumne County organizations. I was able to secure full sponsorship and could see my shy self coming out of my shell when I had a good cause to fight for. This group helped me see how leadership skills could serve me at many different levels of my life and taught me to take on positions that could help push me and others forward.
Overall, Summerville High helped me, a shy, nerdy freshman, find my voice and taught me an appreciation for teamwork by my senior year. Obviously no one has a perfectly rosy high school experience, but I chose to take these positive challenges with me. That led me to prioritizing a path that would let me help others up any ladder I climb.
After Summerville, I went on to get a bachelor’s in BioEngineering from UC Berkeley where I conducted post-clinical studies on accommodating intra-ocular lenses, and then a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from UT Austin where I developed hydrogels for spinal cord regeneration. I’m most proud of the mentorship roles I took on, supervising bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD students by focusing my projects in a way to give them an opportunity for creativity and growth.
When it was time to decide what to do next, I chose a new challenge and moved to Switzerland to do a Postdoc in BioEngineering, where I studied electrical activity of neural networks on microelectrode arrays at ETH Zurich. The skills I learned at Summerville gave me the courage to find clubs (language clubs, amateur theater groups, and a few others) to meet people and integrate with a new culture and I now have a strong network of Swiss natives and expats who I can call my friends.
I currently work at a major pharmaceutical company in clinical trials where I can help younger team members face challenges, find creative ways to move forward past obstacles, and live a fulfilling life in a beautiful country with mountains to remind me of home. Now I hike/backpack in Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, China, Italy, and in October of 2025 will go to Nepal. I guess the rain hasn’t stopped me yet!
I was never on a plane until after I left Summerville, but have now traveled to more than 25 countries, seen historical settings, scuba dived, hiked, experienced new cultures, and ate amazing food. These experiences are always supported with a base of what I learned in high school, to challenge myself while also contributing to a strong support network.