I am originally from Barrington, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago, where I graduated from Barrington High School in 2000. I played violin in the Suzuki Music School of Barrington for fourteen years, and I competed on the school's debate team for four years. In general, my Chicago roots are evident by my love of windy city sports teams, my Midwestern twang, and my obsession with Baker's Square pie. Mmm.

I started MIT in the fall of 2000, and I lived at East Campus on 2nd West (Putz) for all four years. I enjoyed the many antics of EC during my time there. I majored in Physics (course 8), and I double minored in Astronomy and in Political Science (course 17) with a concentration in International Politics. I competed on the Harvard University Policy Debate Team my freshman year of college. After that, I decided to devote my extra time to astrophysics research, my real passion. I worked for three and a half years at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research on various high-energy astrophysics projects.