​​I grew up in an academically rigorous environment, being placed into a special education program for gifted students at the age of 8. I stayed in this program from 3rd grade up until I graduated high school. Throughout my formative years, I had kept a steady 4.0 GPA-expecting to eventually attend an IVY league school like most of my peers. However, I had been artistically inclined since the fourth grade and, midway through high school, I decided I wanted to pursue a field in art and design as opposed to something STEM or humanities-related.
 
Around this time, I started to vary my artistic endeavors and got heavily involved in costume and prop-making. The summer I graduated, I took that time to take courses at an array of design schools throughout the summer. I then took a gap year to work on my portfolio and work entry-level jobs. This gave me time to get job experience while I interned with a special effects makeup artist and researched design schools. With my work in prop/costume and illustration, I assumed I would go toward a theater or fashion design degree. I ended up attending Otis College of Art and Design as a fashion design major. After a little over a year, I decided that my interests were too varied for that particular major and decided to make the switch to product design.

Switching to this major was probably one of the best decisions I had ever made for myself. Product design emphasized learning a flexible design process and then being able to apply that to whatever interests we wanted to pursue. I spent the rest of my school years here and learned crafting skills (everywhere from welding and mold-making, to pattern-making and leather-working) as well as how to communicate an idea effectively, ideate off/ refine it, and then present it in a cohesive manner. I graduated with honors in the spring of 2020 and am now in San Diego ready to add to a larger collective.