What is your year and major? Where are you from?

I’m a first year student studying statistics and economics. I use he/him/his pronouns, and I’m from St. Louis, Missouri. Before that, I lived in Pennsylvania, and before that, Wisconsin.

Why did you move so often?

Because of my dad’s job.

Why did you choose to study statistics and economics?

I liked statistics in high school, and I thought it was pretty fun. Then, I chose economics just because I heard it was easy. But apparently, it was business that was easy, so maybe I’ll just be pre-Haas. Before I decided on statistics and economics, I was thinking about doing anthropology. During summer 2021, I took some anthropology classes, but it turns out I didn’t like it, so here I am.

What committees in SAAS have you been in?

Last semester, I was in External Affairs. This semester, I’m in both Internal and External Affairs.

What’s a fun fact about yourself?

I’ve had four concussions playing hockey. I got one for every year of high school I was in, so I didn’t play much hockey afterwards.

Do you think you have any side effects from the concussions?

Maybe! I’m scared that I might be messed up in the brain right now. I feel like four [concussions] is pushing it.

Were the concussions severe?

The first two were really bad. For the first one, I couldn’t remember anything in the following ten minutes after it happened. I saw a video, and I was passed out on the ice for a minute. I was out of commission for about a week or two after that. The second one was pretty bad too, I was out for a week. The third one wasn't that bad. The fourth one wasn’t terrible, but I used it as an excuse to get out of school because I was a senior already. Even though I was probably fine to go back to school, it wasn’t like my sophomore and junior years when I actually cared about school. So I basically said, “I have a severe, life-threatening concussion, I have to skip school for two weeks.”

Moving on, what are your hobbies and interests?

I used to play a lot of hockey, but I quit obviously because of the concussions. I play tennis a lot, I try to play three or four times a week here [at Berkeley]. I picked tennis up after my second concussion from hockey. I thought yeah, I should probably find a new sport to play that doesn’t put me at risk of [head injury]. I also play table tennis/ping pong. I started playing after my family got a ping pong table in our basement. I played against my dad, and I thought I was really good, but I got salty after I invited my friends over and they were all better than me. So, I practiced a lot with my dad over the summer since my dad’s actually really good at table tennis and used to play when he lived in China, and I watched a bunch of table tennis YouTube tutorials. I also play chess. I knew the rules before, but I didn’t know how to actually get good at it. One day, I watched some GMHikaru videos on YouTube and thought, “Hey, this is kind of interesting.” Quarantine was just happening too, so I put a lot of time into chess. Recently, I started playing volleyball more just because I like playing with my friends. Quick plug, if you’re reading this and in SAAS, please come play volleyball with us on Sundays. I used to watch a lot of anime, over 100 different series, but I don’t watch it as much anymore.

How do I join volleyball?

Join the slack channel! We play every Sunday.

What is your favorite anime?

My favorite manga and anime are One Piece. The anime sucks, but the manga is actually well-paced. It’s very expansive and has a lot of secrets/mysteries. My favorite anime movie is Your Name. It was the first anime movie I watched and the second romance anime movie I watched. I thought wow, this is amazing, so I made all my friends watch it, and I watched it with them each time. As a result of that, I’ve seen it at least 15 times, so I could probably recite most of the lines if I rewatch a scene.

What are your professional interests?

I was unsure, but now I’m thinking about being a project manager after talking to Kavin about it. It sounds fun to make things happen, I want to tell people what to do. I don’t want them to tell me what to do. After talking to Ellis a few times, I also thought I might be interested in being something along the lines of a project manager or consultant.

How would you use statistics in those fields?

I’m probably going to drop statistics and do data science. I’m so undecided right now. I might do statistics and economics, data science and economics, or data science and business, one of those combos. But also, I want to minor in Chinese since another one of my professional interests is working in business in China. When I talked to Ellis about consulting, I asked him if there was a way for me to travel as a consultant because I want a job where I can travel a lot. I want to get better at Chinese, and I want to be able to work with Chinese companies.

Do you have any internship experience?

I’m doing an internship this semester at a startup from SkyDeck called RangeView. I’m an operations intern there. It’s a fairly small company with only five people, so I basically just do everything they don’t feel like doing. But it’s really fun getting to see companies start from the ground up through the process of being incorporated and all the business deals being made. They’re trying to help me be more involved in that, and I feel like it's a very insightful experience.

What other campus involvements do you have?

Honestly, not that much. I’m trying to join the table tennis club, but I haven’t had a chance to make it to many meetings. Last semester, my floormates and I joined an IM flag football team just to have fun. But yeah, not many campus involvements.

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

School was just starting and I was trying to chill and do nothing, and all my friends were talking about consulting clubs. I thought, “We have to apply to clubs?” I was looking for clubs that were actually interesting, so I was looking at the Cal website for a list of clubs, and I saw one with data consulting. I thought this looked interesting! So I went to the infosession, and I joined the first breakout room. I was trying to find the breakout room with the least amount of people, so I could make a better impression on the members. We just talked for a while about random stuff, and it was really fun, and I really vibed with those people. So I thought, “You know what, I’ll apply.” I was originally planning to get into External first then go to Data Consulting, but I found out I liked doing external.

Which has been your favorite committee so far?

Obviously, I’ve been in External affairs for longer. External has you plan more events, which I like, but for Internal, I like that you get to interact with a lot more club members and make stuff happen. But for External, I really liked organizing a coffee chat with Avi Feller. He’s a political economy professor, and he’s super smart. For External, I like the professional side of it, where you can reach out to people. For Internal, I like that you can set up events for members.

What is your favorite SAAS semester?

I don’t have much experience, so I’ll have to say last semester. I don’t have enough information to say whether this is my best semester.

Why did you stay in SAAS?

I think it’s a great community. I tried to get my friends to apply. I stayed for my friends. I feel like now that I know more people in SAAS, I can get more involved in the activities. It’s a really awesome community, and I think I’ll have more opportunities to make things happen and help the club out.

What is your proudest accomplishment in SAAS?

I was really proud when I got nominated for the superlative “most likely to get food at Costco.” It never occurred to me that people would vote for me, and I was so proud that people actually noticed. Also, I was pretty happy about how I was third place in the points system. I thought I wasn’t up there since I didn’t go to some events, but I was surprised at my own performance. In terms of committee work, I was happy to see the joint social happen with B&G. It was my idea, and I was happy to make it happen. I like to think it was 50% me, even though Saumya was the main person to carry it out.

How has SAAS helped you out with your career and professional development?

One big help was finding my internship. Kish is actually roommates with the CTO of the internship that I’m working at. He has four roommates, and a lot of them are presidents of their own clubs. Each president suggested people, but Kish recommended me, and that helped me get in. Obviously, Neha, Kavin, and Frank are good at giving advice. The SAAS coffee chats are really helpful, especially the professional ones. They’re really helpful for figuring out what I want to do. The professor coffee chats are also great.

What is your favorite SAAS memory?

Probably ice skating. That was super fun since I play hockey. Last semester’s retreat was also really fun. We got to go to a river and hang out there. We made a lot of great memories. The socials were really fun. The house scavenger hunt was really fun.

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

I got lucky in the sense that I decided to just go up to Kish and call him “musty.” Then, people knew me as the kid that called Kish “musty.” I think Saumya and Neha were the first people I met, and I got to talk to Kish. On the retreat, I got to meet a lot of fun people. I also met people through Big/Little socials. I went to a lot of socials and got to interact with the people there, and I think I vibe with y’all.

The SAAS values are community, exploration, and mentorship. Pick one, and explain what it means to you.

The SAAS community, firstly, is a very involved community that is willing to go to a lot of these events that are happening. They also have a lot of fun things on Slack, like Donut bot and the Chinese channel. It lets people see each other’s personality come out, including the reactions. The community’s also very willing to lend a helping hand if someone’s in trouble. It’s also super inclusive and makes you feel safe. Another part of the community that’s less official is the uwu cult. I think the MBTI fan club is pretty funny.

What is your personal vision for SAAS?

Keep the community, keep the vibes, and make it more well-known. Get more companies to do DC. Host bigger/more well-planned events. In general, I think SAAS is amazing where it is. Same amount of people, just get more people involved.

What advice would you give to newer members?

Take advantage of all the opportunities they give you. Go to socials. Get involved. If you need help with anything, just hit up someone and ask them for a coffee chat. Everyone is chill, so don’t be scared to talk to people.

What is your favorite class?

Chinese. The teacher was very chill and I got close with some of the students and went to CSA events together. We did a lot of fun stuff, so it’s easily my favorite class and I learned a lot.

What is your favorite Berkeley memory?

My entire floor went to SF together during the second week of school. There were twenty of us that went, and it was pretty fun.

What is your favorite spot on campus that more people should know about?

More people should know about the tennis courts! There’s a ping pong bar. It’s a bar with ping pong tables, and sometimes famous people come by.

What is your favorite place to study?

I just study in my dorm.

Which are the prettiest/ugliest buildings?

Doe and the inside of the East Asian Library look cool. The ugliest is Evans.

Do you have a favorite bathroom on campus?

I have a favorite stall in my floor’s bathroom. I just drop a deuce on the first stall, and everyone knows it’s mine. I know it’s clean since the door is broken.

What is your favorite restaurant?

My go-to is this place in Asian Ghetto called Punjabi Dhaba. I always get chicken tikka masala, and it’s a very safe choice. La Burrita is pretty fire too. Nothing fancy, just nice cheap-ish foods.

Do you like boba? If so, what is your favorite boba shop?

I’m trying to limit my boba intake. I try to have most of my meals at the dining halls and spend a max of $40 per week on eating out. When I do get boba, I get fruity drinks at Yifang. It has really good lychee fruit tea. I feel like all boba tastes the same, so I don't really think about it when I get it with my friends.