Mentoring as a Little League Umpire

Serving as a Little League umpire in my hometown has been one of the most rewarding and formative experiences of my life. What began as a spring job quickly evolved into a leadership role where I could mentor young athletes, model sportsmanship, and foster a love for the game. Beyond making calls behind the plate, I take pride in helping players understand the rules, encouraging them after tough plays, and showing how respect and composure matter more than individual performance.

Umpiring taught me how to make quick, fair decisions under pressure. More importantly, I learned how to communicate effectively with coaches, parents, and players, often in emotionally charged moments. Through it all, I try to stay calm, consistent, and focused on setting a positive tone for the game.

Developing leaders of character deeply resonates with the values I practice on the field. Mentoring young athletes has prepared me to identify the needs of others, act with integrity and lead by example. I’m eager to bring that same mindset and dedication to future leadership roles.

Serving Community through Westport Youth Commission and Service League of Boys

Community service through the Westport Youth Commission (WYC) and the Service League of Boys (SLOBs) has profoundly shaped my character and sense of responsibility.

Research through Summer Fish Study

For the last three summers, I have volunteered for Harbor Watch at Earthplace, a nature research facility, to collect data on the health of Long Island Sound. I crew a trawler that catches, identifies, and records native and invasive marine life. We synthesize data to find long term trends in water quality and ecosystem health in Connecticut.

Model United Nations

Participating in Model United Nations conferences, including Yale Model United Nations (YMUN), has been instrumental in shaping my skills in collaboration, composure and public speaking.

At YMUN, I represent nations in crisis simulations and complex geopolitical debates. Each committee session challenges me to work with students from around the world, many of whom bring vastly different perspectives. I quickly learned that successful resolutions aren’t about speaking the most, but about actively listening, building alliances, and finding common ground. Working through late-night sessions and negotiating across cultures taught me how to lead by building consensus.

Finally, YMUN sharpened my public speaking skills. Standing in front of hundreds of delegates and articulating my nation’s position demanded clarity, confidence, and conviction. It pushed me beyond my comfort zone and taught me the power of words to inspire and influence. In 2025 I won the award for “Best Position Paper” for verbal defense of my thesis to the delegation.

Data Science

Self-study using R Programming has helped me learn about baseball and statistical inference. To begin learning about R Programming I took an online class from Johns Hopkins, and the analysis below uses baseball data sets from Jim Albert’s, Analyzing Baseball Data with R. Currently, I am running a local SQL database with data from MLB Statcast for Advanced Tracking Technology and Metrics and analyzing large data sets.

In addition to answering baseball questions, I have learned about regression, file handling, data wrangling and data presentation. In fact, this web site is built using R Studio.

Naval Engineering

The first boat I built was a 10’ rowing dory. It introduced me to boat building techniques as well as the principles behind them. Currently, I am building a 16’ skiff powered with an electric motor. My design of the 16’ skiff, illustrated below, is inspired by small boats fisherman use in Long Island Sound to retrieve lobster pots and shellfish. Lofting, or enlarging my planned boat lines to full size, was the first step towards getting on the water and learning boat building skills.

16’ Skiff Plans

Materials
In addition to the lofting and table of offsets the materials list is:
- Transom: 1 3/4” white oak
- Galvanized pins between the transom planks: 12” x 1/2”
- Chine: 2 1/2” x 3/4” white oak
- Post / Rib: 2 1/2” x 1 1/8”
~ estimated 12 frames

Propulsion
Per the U.S. Coast Guard Boat Builders Handbook we can determine the maximum gas-powered (4-stroke) horsepower capacity:
- Compute a Factor by multiplying the boat length in feet by the maximum transom width in feet: 16 * 6.25 = 100
- For flat bottom hard chine boats: (0.5 * Factor) - 90 then is (0.5 * 100) - 90 = 10 horse power
~ Electric motors tend to overestimate their gas-equivalent horsepower, so an electric equivalent would be 15-25 horsepower.
~ Propulsion based on 48-volt batteries

International Relations Journal

Looking West, a student-run International Relations Journal published on Substack

Violin & Orchestra

I began learning to play the violin in Hong Kong. Since elementary school I have chaired and participated in orchestras, and small ensemble groups. Working with other talented musicians to conquer difficult pieces requires teamwork and practice.

Baseball

Playing baseball has always been a constant in my life, whether playing on informal teams in Hong Kong, to playing at a more competitive high school level. Through baseball I have learned how to play to my full potential while maintaining sportsmanship and respect. As a Pitcher and Infielder I work to manage my body to stay healthy throughout the season.

Baseball is more than an individual sport. I take pride in being part of a team, and able to help something greater. In both success and failure, I have learned to remain positive and encouraging, and always improve myself and the people around me.

Track

Track and field is a sport of endurance where continual challenge leads to improvements in results. Through hard training, competition, and setbacks, I have learned to embrace the team aspects of track and to pick others up even when I struggled.

Schools win track meets by accumulating points, and the more events our team wins, the more points we accrue. As a sprinter and long jumper, I aim to provide utility for the team to compete.

Some of my most meaningful lessons have come during tough losses. Track challenges me to go out of my comfort zone and to push myself and my teammates for success.

Sailing

Sailing has been lifelong sport from Hong Kong to Long Island Sound. I love the constant reassessment that sailing forces you to make.

My first experiences with sailing forced me to meet new people at different harbors, whether it be learning to work with a sailing instructor who spoke a different language in Hong Kong, or learning to navigate between lobster pots while sailing off the coast of Maine. As I got older, I sought to refine my sailing skills by learning how to race small boats in class races. Quickly, I learned how challenging racing was, to compete against the conditions of the course but also other boats. I try to constantly look ahead, to find flaws in my race to bring it to its full potential. In 2024 I placed second in the Longshore Sailing School Racing Techniques race series, a race I had watched from shore many times before as a sailing student.

Now I enjoy both racing competitively, but also leisurely sailing to help my family learn my love for the water. Sailing gave me an appreciation for discipline, preparation, and accountability, and helped me get used to teaching others. I hope to always keep learning on the water how to perfect myself and improve those around me.

I am a qualified sailing instructor, and working for Longshore Sailing School in the Summer of 2026.

Marksmanship

Marksmanship is a new sport for me. Training on the safe use of weapons and familiarizing myself on the operation on semi-automatic rifles has made me more effective at the sport. Practicing at various distances helps me to understand the unique characteristics of each, including recoil, sight picture and handling.

I have experience with red dot and iron sights.