Most evenings you can hear basketballs pounding on the pavement and neighbors chatting away about the weather outside. But my room stays quiet. The silence of studying alone made me crave connection, so I found a way to ignite a spark in that stillness. In my freshman year, I stumbled across a creative solution: "Study With Me" videos. Online, I witnessed students recording themselves studying in jaw-dropping areas, ranging from cities of Manhattan to a cozy log cabin with a...

My greatest talent is public speaking, but it didn’t start that way. During freshman year, I made the mistake (or so I thought) of signing up for Speech and Debate. The informational meeting felt like stepping into the House of Representatives; the faculty of high schoolers talked with effortless authority and spoke as though fear didn’t exist. I wanted to find that same voice within myself. The first competition I attended was where everything went wrong. In my...

Computer Science has always inspired me academically. In school, I learned programming basics, but the “Why” was never answered. To unravel it, I started Harvard’s CS50 course. Concepts such as “memory allocation” and “parent nodes” short-circuited my brain. The exercises were daunting, written in a foreign programming language called C. Despite each exercise taking hours, witnessing the green “Passed” output felt like a small victory that propelled me on. But tech can only do so much without making real-world...

When I first started working at my city’s new Kumon center (an after-school Math/Reading program), the room was barely full: only a handful of students filled the tables. Being a former Kumon student myself, I knew the benefits Kumon offered and wanted others to realize it as well. Then one day, the Kumon faculty and I were discussing logistics for the upcoming Kumon award ceremony, where the enrolled students would receive medals for their hard work. Months of...

“Three Kings.” What? Impossible. He played three Kings last turn, and now three more? There can’t be six Kings in one deck. Right? The Card Game Grandmaster cocks an eyebrow, daring me to flip the cards. I muster the most dramatic eye roll as I concentrate: If he’s telling the truth, I lose, but if he’s lying, I win. Impulsively, I flip over the cards. “Remember this, my prodigy.” He grins. “No one beats the grandmaster.” My...

Cornell is known to defy expectations, and that is where I’m driven to challenge assumptions rather than accept them. Instead of focusing solely on software development, I want to combine my knowledge with other fields that can benefit from integrating technology. Cornell’s interdisciplinary problem-solving aligns with my work, from combining software and communication through my SIGNify project (a sign language converter) to integrating healthcare insight and machine learning in DermaCare (a skin-condition analyzer). Cornell’s MakerLAB would allow...

I joined Speech and Debate, terrified of speaking. Yet, after three years, what stayed with me wasn’t the trophies, but the mindset of prioritizing self-improvement over winning. Although we competed individually, the losses and pressure were bearable only because of my teammates, who stayed behind to lift my sour mood after a clumsy round and offer critiques to help me nail the next one. Speech and Debate was never ‘just’ a club; it is a place where losing felt...

Start Rendering. Once it is time for video editing, I bring out my “Do Not Disturb” sign. My journey started with editing videos of family celebrations to secretly creating friendship edits for my friends. Hours would fly before I finally finished editing a 30-second clip, not because of perfection, but for the truth. Through editing, I’ve realized that it’s not about having the best transitions or choosing only the picture-perfect clips, but about seeing the true side of...

For years, I believed that the best achievements were the ones I alone earned. But that belief changed when I joined the Kumon community, where working alongside my coworkers has reshaped my understanding of responsibility. In my first days of working there as a Calculus Teacher, I realized that mastery of Math and English wasn’t enough; I needed to learn to communicate clearly. ​ From my coworkers, I learned that communication required adaptability, not just confidence. While I was lighthearted...

My dad is a hacker. Or so I thought. On his computer, I would watch him type on a black background with green font, smash Enter, and see hundreds of lines automatically generated. ​ How? ​ My first exposure to computers was the Linux Terminal. Despite not being the formal definition of programming, I still loved speaking to my Mac through cryptic commands. Yet, I wanted more than outputs on a black screen. I wanted code to act. ​ I began programming projects...

TensorFlow version incompatible. That cute, harmless error marked the start of three sleepless nights, ten cups of coffee, and one horrible posture. Developing SIGNify, an American Sign Language-to-English translator, was not without setbacks. Still, after weeks of troubleshooting, I held my hand up to the webcam and saw the letter A. At Yale, I am excited to combine this persistence to create computational tools through the Digital, Innovation, and Social Science Collaborative program. Even more, I am drawn to Yale�...

My work uniform was damp from the low fog that had settled in during the evening. The sun had set two hours ago, and I had spent an extra hour on my shift at my local Kumon center. It was there that I realized technical skills in math and English weren’t everything; human connection also played a great role in the real world.

You’re Lucky. A book explaining the role of luck in success and challenging merit-only narratives. Though hard work is critical, I would examine probabilities of why effort alone can’t predict success