Hello! Welcome to my Honors Portfolio.This portfolio showcases my undergraduate experience at the University of Washington. I am majoring in Informatics with a concentration in Data Science, and I am proud to also be an Interdisciplinary Honors Student. Outside of the classroom (and office), I'm probably spending my time outside, enjoying live music, singing karaoke with my friends, or cooking for my roommates.
This portfolio is (loosely) structured like a tree—inspired by Sylvia Plath’s fig tree metaphor and the branching logic of decision trees in computer science. Each section reflects a different path I’ve explored during my time at UW, shaped by choices, questions, and moments of growth. Read my learning statement below to get a better sense of direction! |
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Learning Statement“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.
From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet, and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America… I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” —Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar The summer before my freshman year at the University of Washington, I found myself sitting under my very own fig tree. I had just read Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and I was paralyzed with the same fear she described. Before I even set foot on campus, I felt the pressure of choosing the “right” path—the major that would shape my entire future. In one ear, my immigrant mother whispered the stereotypical Asian expectation: medicine. Stability. A job that made the struggle (mine, and hers) worth it. In the other, my father, with his PhD in philosophy, urged me toward the humanities I had always loved. And then there was my own voice—rational, emotional, anxious, and afraid to risk choosing a “less promising” field. But my young and wide eyes wanted to see it all. I wanted to step foot in every department, and follow every fork in every path. I knew the choice was mine. But what if I chose wrong? What if one decision led me to a dull, lifeless job that eroded my soul? What if taking a leap of faith into something I loved led instead to failure, debt, and my mother’s disappointment? At some point during that first year, I decided to pursue Informatics. With a 28% acceptance rate, this a challenging journey. After fighting to get into prerequisite classes and weeks perfecting my application essay, I finally got in… only to come face to face with another branch of decisions. Informatics is an extremely broad field of study, and I was now required to choose a focus area: data science, software engineering, product management, cybersecurity, or UX design. As I worked my way through the coursework, my classmates seemed to already know their niche. They were coding prodigies and spreadsheet savants. I, on the other hand, was a generalist. Well-rounded, but not exceptional in any one subject. As internship rejection after rejection filled my inbox, I questioned my place and the path I chose. Sometime during my junior year, I decided to update my Honors portfolio, and stumbled across my freshman fall quarter reflection. I read my own words, detailing the same anxieties I was still carrying: the fear of choosing wrong, of not being exceptional in one specific thing, of falling behind. But this time, something clicked. Who told Sylvia she had to choose just one fig? Aren’t there many paths that can still lead to a meaningful life? Why should we starve ourselves with so much fruit right in front of us? While it is true, and terribly sad, that I cannot fully commit to and live all of the many lives that I might dream of, I realized I can reach for more than one fig. I can follow my curiosities and let them take me down different paths. I stopped seeing my varied interests as indecision, and started seeing them as integration. The tech world might reward a linear path or a specialized candidate, but I decided to see multidisciplinarity as a strength, not a detour—to follow a path that honors connection and curiosity. I began building a life that made space for many passions—technology and ethics, systems and stories, design and data. I realized that these weren’t contradictory paths, but complementary ones. All of my figs grow from the same tree. The Interdisciplinary Honors Program helped me realize and embrace this philosophy. It has given me a space to study both STEM and the humanities, to ask messy questions and follow creative detours. It reminded me that intellectual breadth isn’t a weakness—it’s a way of thinking deeply about the world. Looking back, I no longer see my UW journey as a process of narrowing down. It was about expanding my knowledge, exploring many paths, and ultimately arriving at a place where those paths converge. This portfolio reflects that belief—not just in content, but in structure. Pay attention to the hyperlinks, which lead you to different branches of my experience. My artifacts are generally split into Informatics, Interdisciplinary Honors, and Experiential Learning "branches." Together, these artifacts form the shape of a single tree—a life rooted in curiosity and branching toward connection. You don’t have to let any fruit rot. A well-rounded, interdisciplinary life is not a compromise or a sacrifice—it’s a way of embracing possibility. I invite you to explore this portfolio by following the same principle that has guided me through college—wherever curiosity leads. |
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