My father’s parents were a medic and fighter pilot in the Taiwanese Nationalist army. His sister was offered schooling in Belgium, and the family followed before moving to Germany (he had to do 5th grade three times as a result). My mother’s parents also worked in the hospital, and after the Tianjin earthquake, moved to Shenzhen, where my mother graduated top of her class before attending Hamburg University and meeting my father. Twenty years, two kids, and two moves later, I was in New York. 

I went to an international kindergarten, public elementary and middle school, and finally Fordham Prep, a Jesuit Catholic all-boys high school in the Bronx, NY. Throughout my childhood, I spent thousands of hours playing games and making up stories with my brother, and followed him to a slew of volunteer activities. Through the core values and programming in the Boy Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, and student government, I became someone who always helped others first, felt comfortable leading that help, and was passionate about nearly everything. Through involvement in most clubs, perfect academics, some national awards, and raising $30k for charity, I got into Harvard (and others). 

Just when I finally found genuine friendship, fulfilling classes, and at home, COVID kicked us off campus.

In April, a girl in the MIT group chat I had snuck into asked for data analysis help on COVID, and wanting to help, I made data visualizations for the first time. Given how easy and how useful the graphs were, I decided to bring my friends together online, calling daily at midnight to work on projects.

When I returned home in April, I brought my friends together to form a small Discord group chat turned organization of 400 members collaborating on data projects and publishing research alongside the Harvard Center of Geographic Analysis. With this momentum, I created Erevna: a 501(c)(3) community that has brought 6000+ students together for meaningful remote learning experiences across research at Georgia Tech and University of Pennsylvania, insightful panels with prominent speakers (AG of MA, 3b1b, etc.), and data/policy solutions to today’s most pressing challenges. Last semester, I was the lead organizer for the Pandemic Policython, coordinating a team of over 50 in addition to checking in with 10 teams of ~12 volunteers that I had previously set up. In just over two months, I met and partnered with over 50 organizations, raised $2500, hosted 10 webinars for over 400 participants, and coordinated over 50 mentors from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to Goldman Sachs to judge over 150 5-15 page policy briefs. 

Students in my nonprofit have since volunteered over ten thousand hours, published multiple papers in top journals, and started innovative policythons to crowdsource civic innovation.