Currently taking a semester off and living in New London doing grassroots organizing with a local organization, Hearing Youth Voices! I am in a Dual Degree program with Wash U, St. Louis, and I will be transferring to Wash U for the second half of my program next fall. As a Conn College Junior, I know the campus inside and out and I would be so happy to share my experiences, thoughts, and tips with any and all prospective students and their families.

Hometown

Dedham, MA

Major(s)

Physics with an (Mechanical) Engineering Concentration (Wash U Dual Degree (3+2) Program)

Clubs, organizations & involvement

While at Conn, I tutored General Physics for my 3 eligible semesters. I even worked for the ARC and developed a supplementary content website for Intro Physics students. In my freshman year, I was a thrower (discus and hammer) on the track team. I was the Sustainability Special Projects Intern Fall 2025 and have worked in partnership with many offices across campus. In that position, I cowrote and passed a resolution with the Student Government Association to update our plastic straw and water bottle policies to remove eco-ableism from the procedures around such tools. I also worked towards implementing the sustainability project I developed right here at Conn in our Applications of Sustainability class. I’ve engaged heavily in music education at Conn and even played trombone in the wind ensemble for several semesters. Intro to Music Theory really helped in my trombone lessons here, too! This Spring, I will be continuing revitalization work in a local elementary school garden space I started with an education class group at Conn this past fall. There, I will integrate the accessibility guidelines I gathered from our Student Accessibility Services resources. I have been working with SAS for a year and a half as a mentor for younger disabled students (through our pre-orientation program, Helix) and I have learned a lot about disability justice in that time. Accessibility has been at the forefront of my work ever since. In my grassroots work this spring, I will be working towards increasing access to voting for Conn students, engaging the community with green spaces and sustainability practices, and potentially even working with the arboretum on some accessibility projects. I’d love to talk about how I found these avenues!

Describe your college experience

Connecticut College gave me a platform to discover who I am. There, I have met people and encountered ideas that have changed the direction I hope to take my life and that will impact my ways of thinking, doing, and connecting forevermore. Academically, I was able to engage with my major, physics, in incredibly small classes, surrounded by some of the most qualified professors I have ever interacted with. They challenged me to think beyond my comfort zone and pushed me to grow as a learner in ways which profoundly impacted my approach to the rest of my studies. Being a Liberal Arts College, Conn has fantastic music and arts programming. As a decade-long musician coming from a less-than-rigorous music education background riddled with bad memories, the private lessons and wind ensemble not only sharpened my skills and transformed me as a player, but even helped me rediscover my passion for trombone and music-making. Coupled with the intro to music theory class I was able to fit in my schedule (thank you Liberal Arts!), I was able to revolutionize my sound production and understanding of my place in a band​/​as an instrumentalist. I spent some time on the track team (only thwarted by an injury) and learned a lot about that world at Conn, too. The lens I gained in this experience was vastly different from my academic and other social engagements on campus. In my first ever season as a thrower on the track team, I placed 12th in discus at the NESCAC Championships. The throwing coach, and also generally the track coaching staff, are really amazing adults to have in your corner in this community, and they are deeply committed to us students. Finding community through organizing and activism has been my biggest immediate takeaway. The disability justice, sustainability, and other human rights focused members of my community have become a source of learning, support, laughter, challenge, collaboration, and so much more. Conn has reinforced that I should never abandon my values when pursuing big things in life. Our passion for change makes a huge difference here and will eventually do so far beyond; my community makes it really clear that I am on the right path and they have been so encouraging about my efforts for changemaking​/​freedom dreaming so far. The drive instilled in me is immutable and for that, I have to thank the tight-knit community of rockstars I have found myself surrounded by during my time at Conn.

Tip for future students

You are not going to end up doing exactly what you plan because life happens, and that is completely okay! Scheduling classes seems incredibly overwhelming, but breathe and make sure to network with older students to get the low-down. The system seems to change quite frequently, but there are tons of resources to help you navigate the scheduling system and even pick appropriate classes. Talk to your professors and relevant staff! Finding an advisor that you find friendly, approachable, and easy to talk to whenever a need arises will be game-changing. They know the course directory really well and have seen these systems in action many times before. Pick a variety of classes to take your first year. You can't really mess it up in terms of "having enough time to finish your required classes" because Conn has pretty flexible major​/​program requirements, so make sure you experiment with a bunch of things you may see yourself enjoying. However, if you know you are definitely going to need (for example) a ton of math pre-requisites, you should definitely try to get at least one of those in this year!

Favorite class

Living on a Changing Planet has to be one of my favorite classes so far. It is an environmental geology class in which we studied the related socioeconomic, geological, and environmental impacts of natural disasters worldwide. In lab, we spent the first half of the semester learning techniques necessary to understand geological clues that indicate natural hazard risks related to geology and the landscape. The second half of the semester is spent inputting all of our gathered data into Arc GIS to map the hazards all across Mamacoke island and create a color coded map that accounts for a swathe of hazard types. The end goal was to select a portion of the island that could be safe​/​worthwhile to build a structure on given the risk evaluation. The skills I learned in this class related to map reading, compass use, and evaluating my surroundings will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Career goals

After college, I hope to use my skills and knowledge acquired in my Physics and Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's programs to join a sustainability-focused sector of the energy engineering sector. It would be an absolute dream to work on buildings​/​structures focused on renewable resource and energy or that are net-zero waste. I truly hope to maintain a forefront focus on social justice in my work and that my efforts can improve the accessibility of green energy technology​/​sustainability practices for many more demographics.

Ideal way to spend a free night

A movie night in with my partner and my cat, our plants all around our room accented by soft, colorful tapestries and my fish tank running in the background. We would cook something fresh for dinner and bake something for dessert before we got into bed for the movie with some steaming hot chocolate.

High school or secondary school

Dedham High School, Dedham, MA

Previous college

Massbay Community College; the transfer of my credits took a month or two to finalize on my Conn transcript, but it was seamless!