I grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska before completing my undergraduate degree at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I majored in Psychology with a Neuroscience concentration and spent a semester studying abroad in Grenoble, France. My honours thesis explored multimodal sensory processing through the measurement of the P300 amplitude of Event Related Potentials using an EEG. Through various work and life experiences, I realized that I wanted to focus my career on working with children, and particularly, how schools can be used as platforms for social change by providing improved developmental supports for vulnerable youth. I look forward to combining my passions of children, the brain, and nature by studying in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at UBC. My research interests are on school-based mental health interventions in rural and remote areas, focusing on students who have had adverse life experiences. In my spare time, I love to hike, camp, watch foreign films, and philosophize with friends.