What is your name, year, pronouns, major(s), minor(s), and your hometown?

My name is Sarah, my pronouns are she/her, and I am majoring in data science and minoring in stats. I was born in Korea, but then I moved to West Virginia, and then I moved to Oregon, and then I moved to Fullerton

Please list your past and current committees in SAAS along with the semester and year you were in them.

In Spring 22 I was in DF, then I became DF director. After that, I went into DM and now I’m the EVP.

How did you find out about SAAS and why did you join?

I changed my major from MCB to stats right after phase two of my freshman year so I was already enrolled in all bio classes. And then I was like, you know what? Data science. And then I was like ok, I need external help, so let me join a club that can help me meet people in the field and also develop me professionally. I looked up “Data Science Club" on the UC Berkeley subreddit, clicked on the first link, and this deleted user recommended SAAS because the club was ‘very wholesome.’ I think this was the day before I attended the info session, so I applied and that was it!

What was your favorite SAAS memory?

When I was DF director, I hosted a trivia night, and that was the most fun social ever because I came up with the questions and my co director Skyler. We added a literature section because–fun fact, I contemplated being an English major for 0.5 seconds–which was notoriously the worst section of the trivia. I can’t remember who won, but we recently reused these trivia questions for a general meeting.

What advice would you give to newer SAAS members?

I feel like SAAS has a huge range of opportunities that you could utilize For me, I found my closest friends through this club and the only reason I was able to do that was because I started talking to people. I was such a huge introvert to the point where I could not talk to people and I was so bad at small talk. But from the coffee chats, I feel like you meet a diverse range of people from all over the world and all over the US. You get to talk to them, ask about their experiences, and everybody has a pretty different journey on how they got into data science. And also the professional help We have so many cracked people. You can just DM them and ask for help–if you want to make a website some people can help you code. We have the PCA program so people have been getting recruitment help. People have been getting referrals through our alumni network. So a lot of great opportunities that you can definitely utilize–including leadership members and exec. We’re your friends! Treat us as your besties, just DM and ask for a coffee chat.

How did you make friends with people in SAAS / how did you meet them?

In my first semester in SAAS, I was very dead because I was taking 19 units so I didn’t go to many of the socials. But then my second semester, when I became director, I was like OK, I gotta step up my game. I gotta be a role model so the DF children can attend these socials with me. The biggest way I made friends was by going to retreat. Retreat is at the beginning of the semester. You go to retreat, you meet all those people, you spend 2 days sleeping with people on the floor, and it changes people. You come back trauma bonded. And then after you connect with them, you get their numbers and every time there’s a social you ask if they’re going, and if they’re not, you still show up and make new friends.

What is your proudest accomplishment in SAAS?

I’m really proud of myself for finishing the DM project last semester because I came into Berkeley not even thinking about data. I hated coding in high school. But then we pulled through with that project and had a really successful final deliverable. I was like, look you did it girl! Pat yourself on the back.

What are some of your hobbies?

I like creative writing. I’m stuck writing this super long fantasy series I’ve been writing since my junior year of high school. I’m at chapter 40 but it goes up to chapter 75. Now, I prefer writing more slice of life sci fi, dystopian. I also like to read a lot, and my favorite reading genre aligns with my favorite writing genre. I’m a huge fan of Margaret Atwood.

Prettiest building on campus (maybe ugliest building too)?

Prettiest building–Stanley. The outside is decent, but I really like the inside because there’s a lot of tall windows and you get a lot of natural sun. I also trauma bonded with Stanley because I was there during the shooter threat lockdown. If I had to stay for a day I would. The ugliest building…is it too basic if I say Evans? It is really ugly. There’s another ugly building, the outside is very brutalist. It’s the architecture building. I took this global studies class last semester and the professor was telling us about how the architecture building is actually a very abstract version of a Chinese dragon. I was like, there’s no way that’s true, and then I go look at it and lowkey I see it though. Like there’s the tail. And there’s the head. It’s the ugliest one, but I respect that. It’s abstract art, although I’m not a huge fan of modern art.

If you had a warning label, what would it say?

She will literally run out of battery.

What is your favorite class at Berkeley and why?

Global C10, a class I took last semester for my international studies breadth. It’s an interesting class in itself because it’s global policies and the professor is just so cool, this man is so funny. And the way he teaches is very very interesting, it’s very funny. You learn a lot and it's an easy A. I learned so much, like the Chinese architecture thing, which is my go-to party fact.

What is your spirit animal?

I took a test recently and they said I was a frog and that made me really mad at first because I was like, be for real, but then I thought about it and I read the description, which was actually kind of similar. Frogs are symbolic of change and adaptation and honestly, I vibe with it as someone who has moved so many different times in her life–probably over 10 times. In my life, I had to adapt to things to survive and I really like change. I like changes in environment, I like new sceneries, and sometimes frogs can be cute, like the poisonous ones, the colorful ones. And they can go on land and water, and I used to swim.