Meet the Owner

I have always been into sports and being active. It made up a huge part of my childhood as I participated in many sports but mainly baseball, basketball, and Tae Kwon Do. These 3 have humbled me, brought me great joy, and have taught valuable lessons about life. My first love was baseball, and this taught me dedication and teamwork. I have been around baseball my whole life and to this day I participate in a variant of it: slowpitch softball. It is a sport that requires constant practice at the 4 major skills (Hitting, Throwing, Fielding, Speed), understanding all of the nuances and positioning of the game, and being skilled to handle the specific duties of a designated position. Nonetheless, I poured a lot of time and effort into this and ended up stopping my pursuit at Oxnard College, once the pandemic had taken place. I have had some remarkable teammates and I appreciate all of them for the memories, laughs, and tough times we endured together.

While playing baseball, I gained an attachment to basketball and began playing in 3rd grade with one of my best friends. Together, we would play at parks, open gyms, and during recesses as much as possible. I was having a blast until I began gaining pains whenever I played and this is when basketball taught me the importance of physical health. I began getting knee and ankle problems by 6th grade that would require ice baths, medication and physical therapy. I would take a break and focus on working out weak muscles and putting on more weight (I was fairly undersized for my age and continued to be until after high school). I would come back and play in high school, but that would end quickly as the care for the game disapated and I decided to focus solely on baseball. However, the lesson it provided on taking care of my body has lasted and I still am always looking for the best ways of taking care of my physical health. I practice mobility, weightlifitng, hiking, cardio and most definitely stretching. It is a big part of who I am today and I grateful for the benefits it has provided in my life.

Now that you have some context of what makes me who I am, I will elaborate further on my educational background. In my household, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) field was heavily pushed and so early on I found myself always performing well in my math and science tests and courses. (It also helped that my mother was a middle school science teacher). In 7th and 8th grade I participated in MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science, and Art) on campus and began competing in Math and Lego Mindstorm Robotics competitions hosted by some UC’s. I found myself doing exceedingly well and even qualified and eventually placed at State competitions. With this passion for STEM, I would find myself in the Honors and AP Science courses in high school. However, this is where I began to have a shift in my passion. My grades began to slip in one of my science classes as soon as a natural disaster took place and put my high school out of session for nearly 2 months. I kept up to date on most of my classes but I had not for the science class which led me to begin pushing away from my original dream of becoming a Chemical Engineer. I would finish high school with a 3.9 GPA and with no clear career path.

After high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the long term. I had turned down my college acceptances for my local community college as I looked to find my footing while saving up to transfer. My father worked in Law Enforcement and my mother in Education, so I used them as guidance. At the time my options were to follow in one of their footsteps. We would eventually have a conversation which led me to decide on persuing an Associate’s Degree in Mathematics. Our consensus was that it was still within STEM while also being broad enough to give me time to decide what I truly wanted to do in my career. While at community college I began taking a variety of courses ranging from Psyhchology, Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics. I ended up completing 91 units in 2 years and obtaining 3 Associate’s: Mathematics, Social & Behavioral Health, and Liberal Studies. I would transfer to CSU Channel Islands where my passion truly ignited.

At CSU Channel Islands, I involved myself in numerous clubs and organizations on campus. I continued participating in baseball and became the Vice President of the Baseball Club, as well as joined NAISA (Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance), Actice Minds and the Pschology Club. I would also join several of my friends in their affiliations with the Veteran’s Center, Campus Recreation, and Nursing Club. I would also complete several extensive research projects such as Correlation Between Self-Esteem and Neuroticism, Calculating Cryptography with New Elliptic Curves, Geographic Distribution of Vaccination Hesitancy in Ventura County, Potential of Peridynamics with Biological Materials and more. I would even recieve an amazing opportunity to join a NASA funded Independent Research group thanks to the invitation of a truly amazing professor. This professor opened my eyes to the possibilities within Mathematics and helped me grow a passion to never stop learning. I was originally only looking to complete a B.S. in Mathematics with an emphasis in Applied Mathematics. This would evolve into that as well as an additional emphasis in Statistics and a B.A. in Psychology. This would not have been possible with out the amazing support from my fellow classmates and the great guidance from all of my professors.