Biography
Grandson of a physicist and oceanographer and child of two math majors, many people expected me to develop a deep love of math and science as a child. However, my greater interest has always been in politics, an area that never interested my cynical and often apathetic parents. Maybe it was my grandmother’s long-standing love affair with the Democratic Party that got me excited, but starting at the age of 7 and then again in 6th grade I worked for the campaigns of President Clinton. However, as I read more and more about politics my ideas began to shift and in the summer before my 8th grade year, I became my family’s first Republican. My interest in politics and social science snowballed and began to read lots of books on economics and politics. At the same time, I applied to attend a school, Choate Rosemary Hall, far away from my northern Californian home where I believed I could best pursue my interests. When I came to Choate, I found myself immersed in the 2000 election primary campaign, working first for Steve Forbes and then for George Bush, eventually becoming high school youth director for Bush in Connecticut and California and a staff worker for Tom Campbell for Senate in California that summer. At the same time, at Choate, I took a physics course from one of the best teachers I have ever had, Lawrence Stowe. He got me really interested in science for the first time in my life and I owe almost all of my interest in physics to him. Also at Choate, I helped establish a campus libertarian organization “Choaties for a Free Society” that helped bring right-of-center speakers to campus. At the end of that year, I was lucky enough to receive a few honors, in the form of the honorable mentions for the school geometry and freshman social sciences awards and winning the freshman general excellence award. In my second year at Choate, I continued to pursue my interest in politics, founding the Choate Republicans and starting a magazine, “The Right Side”, published bi-weekly that commented on current affairs from a center-right perspective. I also acted as President of the Choate Gay-Straight Alliance, an organization I had always strongly supported. Also, I began to get involved in school athletics as a sports manager, first for the Boys’ Ice Hockey team, then for the Girls’ Lacrosse team, and, the next fall, for the Varsity Field Hockey team. That spring I was honored when I won the school prize in Algebra and received an honorable mention for a prize for dedication to extracurricular activities. That summer, I worked to form an organization, Teenagers for Republican Victory, which became the primary national teenage Republican organization. I acted as political director. Given the enormous burden of time this organization consumed, I resigned many of my on-campus positions, though I remain a manager for athletics and joined the Choate Economics Challenge team, winning second place for individual scores at the regional competition. My junior year I won the political science and United States history awards and received honorable mentions for the trigonometry and pre-calculus award and the award for dedication to extracurricular activities. My senior year, though, has been by far my most exciting. First, in the summer leading up to this year, I had the chance to work as a political staffer for Bill Simon’s run for the governorship of California. Second, I have discovered my deep love for physics, though I will spare you this part because it is likely the one you are most familiar with! Third, I have done better in school than I have ever done before: though I have always made the Dean’s List, this year I have received as my grades 7 A+’s, 2A’s, and 2A-‘s. Fourth, I was excited this year when I was admitted early decision to the college I have long hoped to go to: Princeton University. Fifth, I was deeply honored to be chosen a National Merit Scholar just a few weeks ago. Sixth, my Fed Challenge (an economics team) team has been doing great, as we won our first competition just last week. And to top it all off, I couldn’t have been more excited than when I found out about making the U. S. Physics Team last week; after months of preparing and learning about every area of physics on my own, it was an enormous relief to realize all of my efforts were not in vain! I am thrilled to head down to College Park next month and only hope I can make a contribution!