Additional Activities

While education and curricula building has been a significant part of my high school experience, I am also interested in foreign policy and learning about the history of international relations. In college, I plan to double major in political science and international studies with a minor in American history. To pursue theses interests, I participated in a Global Online Academy (GOA) course for International Relations during my Junior year. I was able to connect with students from other states, as well as Sweden, China, and India to discuss political theories and how they inform the way leaders make decisions today. 

In addition to studying foreign policy, I was also involved with local politics. I worked as an intern for State Senator Stanley Change and wrote for his monthly Housing Newsletter. As a part of the internship, my team researched housing affordability in Hawai’i to support the Senator’s signature housing bill. We used wage and labor statistics, and housing supply data to characterize the affordability of the existing housing supply as a percentage of Area Median Income. Through this experience, I was able to learn how our state senators communicate and reach the people in their districts, as well as how they fight the resistance they face when pushing for controversial legislation. 

While interning with Senator Chang, I also worked at the Hawai'i State Judiciary as a Honolulu District Court Volunteer. I filed and eliminated over twenty boxes of court cases to reduce court backlog, and helped the district court employees keep track of past cases. I decided to work at district court after a debate resolution involving the criminal justice system, and how court backlog is the main factor in the system's inefficiency. I learned that eliminating and filing old court cases is especially important because most of the government employees are overworked and underpaid, and many of them want to spend more time working on current cases than tracking old ones. I was able to apply my knowledge of the court system from debate and use it to make an impact in my local community. 

Furthermore, I pursued my passion for international and domestic policies through speech and debate. I have been a committed member of the Punahou Speech and Debate Team since freshman year, and I am now the Captain of the Public Forum Debate Team. I am a three time National Qualifier (2021-2023) in United States Extemporaneous Speaking (which involved domestic policies), International Extemporaneous Speaking (which is about international policies), and Pubic Forum Debate (which includes all the above). This year, I took the title of State Champion for both International Extemporaneous Speaking and Public Forum Debate. My love for debate informs my understanding of history, and guides the way I approach new policies.