Hobbies
Reading, singing, jogging, swimming, going out with my friends (not as if that ever happens)

Clubs
Physics team, Math team, Tomorrow’s Women in Science and Technology, Future Problem Solving club

Experience
Intel Science Talent Search finalist etc. (12), 3rd place at State fair in physics etc. (11), National Merit Finalist (12), Siemens Award for Advanced Placement State winner (12), 3rd place in International Amateur Poetry Open (11), AIME qualifier etc. (9-12), Senior Regional Orchestra (11), International Future Problem Solving qualifier (10), Physics Camp! (10) Axline at Caltech and College Honors at University of Chicago (12)

Biography
Ever since 10th grade (when I took AP Physics) I’ve participated in the USPhO. It’s fun to look for the trick that simplifies an impossible-looking problem into an answer. This competition is also great for showing others how fun that process actually is. (I’m not sure that I’ve succeeded at that yet, but I’m still working on it.)

I still participate in this competition because it develops skills useful for research science. Usually in my research I’m making a model of a complex process, and there are two parts to this: deciding which elements of the situation to include in the model, and then figuring out what this particular model predicts. The former is a question that requires reading science literature over and over again for some clues as to the correct answer and making educated guesses. The latter is a task that is essentially a USPhO question, but sometimes (a.k.a. a polite usually) more advanced. The skills I’ve learned from USPhO already have helped me in my science research, and I hope they will continue to help.

Lest I forget, the best part of physics camp is making fast friends. So I can’t wait until May 22nd when I can meet you genii! Or is it geniuses?? I forget if I ever knew. (Insert comma if you’d like.)