My Portfolio

Hello! My name is Balsamine Chen and I'm a senior at Staten Island Technical High School. My name actually comes from the flower impatiens balsamina (pictured above), so you'd think I was one with nature from birth, but I wasn't. As a kid, I loved the indoors for its lack of pesky bugs and dirt, where I could read, craft, and solve Sudokus to my heart's desire. However, after volunteering at a community garden in freshman year, I became an official green thumb and now hope to pursue a career related to environmental sustainability.

I'm still an avid reader and pun enthusiast; some of my favorite books include The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, the Percy Jackson & the Olympian series by Rick Riordan, and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. I chose to take Modern Mythology this year because I'm interested in exploring the nature of humans, gods, and monsters in literature.

Although this portfolio mainly serves as my culminating assessment for Modern Mythology, I have also showcased my work in many other classes and past internships.