With two educators for parents, I was raised in a home where dinner conversations sounded like U.N. meetings.

 

I was in "the nerdy kids' class" as my loving Urbana Elementary friends called it. The magnet program was an advanced learning track for students who showed an aptitude for certain subjects - mine were writing, social studies, and science. This honors curriculum often took us out of the classroom and into the world. Our fifth grade project was building a garden for the school; it came complete with a moat and bridge that we built ourselves. To this day, it's still my favorite school project. 

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My academic journey took an international turn when my family moved to Indonesia, where my parents began teaching at Surabaya International School. There, I was the kid who was in every after-school activity: soccer, theatre, debate club. I soaked up every drop of that international experience before moving back home to Maryland. Once back, I completed high school through a dual enrollment with Tuscarora High School and Frederick Community College, giving me an early taste of college-level academics.

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I went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Strategic Communication with a concentration in Marketing and Advertising from American University in Washington, D.C. I dipped my toes back into the international pool with a study abroad stint at the American University of Rome, indulging in a semester of pasta, piazzas, and perspective-shifting coursework. 

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I graduated college on my couch. The COVID-19 pandemic had just shut down the world. Launching into adulthood in the middle of a global crisis was disorienting, but I found strange comfort knowing every graduate that year was doing the exact same thing: sitting at home, staring at a screen, trying to make sense of what came next. And to a certain extent, so was the whole world. That moment - the collective uncertainty, the shared vulnerability - has stayed with me. Since then, I’ve made it a point in every job I take to make sure my colleagues know, whatever project we take on, we’re in it together.