UCSD Undergrad: 2013–2017

Leaving Alaska behind was hard. Going to a new place can be scary. Lucky for me, I walked into an all-time great situation in La Jolla. Being a student-athlete at UCSD was a special privilege and ultimately it helped build the foundational values that I still carry to this day.

Basketball

Playing Division II basketball at UCSD was one of the defining experiences of my life. The grind of being a student-athlete — balancing classes, practice, film study, travel, and trying to still have some kind of social life — taught me more about time management, discipline, and resilience than any course I took.

I came to UCSD as an undersized, unpolished player with a lot to prove. Four years later, I left having learned that you can always grow more than you think, if you’re willing to put in the work and embrace being uncomfortable.

Academics

I graduated with a B.S. in Bioengineering: Bioinformatics. I honestly didn’t fully know what bioinformatics was when I enrolled — I just knew I liked math, liked biology, and wanted to understand how life worked at a fundamental level. By senior year, I was hooked on the idea that computers and biology together could unlock things we couldn’t see otherwise.

Friends and Community

La Jolla became home. The team, the campus, the proximity to the ocean — it all added up to a place I genuinely loved being. The friendships I made during those four years are ones I still carry.

Up next: What’s a River Lion? My first professional basketball season →