Q. In what grade are you currently enrolled?

A. I am in 12th grade at Emmaus High School.

Q. What is your favorite subject? Why?

A. Typically the sciences are my favorite subjects. There’s always more to learn about the world around us.

Q. Have you received any special awards or recognition?

A. I’ve gotten awards for Honor Roll, Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Fair and District/Region Band.

Q. Are you involved in any extracurricular activities?

A. I’m in the high school marching band as well as the Young People’s Philharmonic Brass Quintet.

Q. What is your next goal after high school?

A. Hopefully I’ll get into the Cornell University School of Agriculture and Life Sciences and hopefully join a research project there.

Q. What do you consider your biggest challenge to date?

A. My biggest challenge at the moment is probably getting college applications in on time.

Q. For what would you like to be remembered?

A. I hope I make some sort of discovery in a research project (in or after college) that impacts the world in a positive way. I’d probably be part of a team, and not as revered as say, Einstein or Neil Tyson, but having contributed something helpful to the scientific community would be pretty cool.

Q. Who is in your family?

A. My parents’ names are Amy and Henry. My brother is Alec and my sister is Kara. We’ve got some pet koi (Tiger, PAC Man, Spot and Sparky) and a goldfish (Blackstripe). I’ve had Tiger since I was in fourth grade.

Q. Whom do you admire? Why?

A. I admire many people, one of which is my grandfather. He grew up in Taiwan during World War II in a very poor rural area. Through hard work in school, he eventually made his way to Cornell University and became a professor there. At Cornell, he studied plants and helped develop cold storage for fruits to keep them fresh longer.

Q. Do you have any advice for your peers?

A. Once you have a goal, stick to it. It may have to be postponed for a bit for whatever reason, but keep it in mind and come back to it later. If the goal is time-restrictive (say, do something before graduation in high school and you graduated already), figure out what went wrong and learn from your mistakes. This is still something that I need to work on.