University of California Berkeley
Founder: The Girl Effect international scholarship

I’m a business student, devoted girls leadership advocate, and published singer-songwriter. I’m currently a junior at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and finance. I was selected as a Regents’ and Chancellor's Scholar (top 1% of all students) and a 2-time Leadership Award Scholar from the Cal Alumni Association.

I’m fortunate to have inherited an optimistic, entrepreneurial, “can-do” attitude from my father, a Naval Commander. His guidance encourages me to work hard, step out of my comfort zone and seize every opportunity to lead. From him I learned that failure is just success in-progress and that significant change can start as a “ripple effect” with one small step at a time.

As a result, I’ve held many leadership roles. From advocating for student welfare as class president for three years, to starting clubs, and fundraising for schools in Africa, I’ve learned that to be a leader is to be a changemaker. I developed an entrepreneurial tenacity that leads me everyday. If I see a problem, I work to find solutions. I’m not satisfied with the status quo.

I also grew up on stage. For ten years I was a soloist in a professional world music choir. I sang in multiple languages, as backup for famous musicians, and performed internationally in venues from Michelin star restaurants, to Carnegie Hall to Olympic Parks. Performing with other choirs from around the world, I developed a deep appreciation for diverse cultures through the lens of their music. I experienced firsthand how music connects us. Sometimes we couldn't understand each other’s languages, but we could sing together in perfect harmony. Most importantly, this experience sparked my mission to foster positive world and community social impact.

Eventually, writing music and performing for over a decade, I not only raised over 5 years tuition for a girls education, but I also cultivated key business skills. I gained the fortitude to adapt, bounce back, and to always stay positive. I learned that musicians are born entrepreneurs. It takes creative vision, constant iteration, and relentless drive to transform lyrics into a song and a passion into a profession. By age eighteen, I independently released an EP. And a year later, I won the national Nashville Songwriters Award from the BMI foundation. I also used my music to benefit my community closer to home. Knowing that music programs had been cut from many schools, I designed and taught a Boys & Girls Clubs world music summer program. For four years I taught solfege singing method, ukulele, and drums in three clubs and to over 125 children.

The culmination of these experiences then sparked my latest mission to extend “The Girl Effect'' closer to home. Two years ago, I approached my local Community First Credit Union with an idea. I proposed a scholarship program to reward girls that have started a program or business that positively impacts our community. I designed the website, gathered a panel of prominent female business leaders as judges, and managed outreach to 39 high schools. In 2021, we officially launched the annual “The Girl Effect - Scholarship,” for entrepreneurial high school girls.

I love how life has a way of bringing things full circle. Singing on a street corner to help one girl 10,000 miles away in Africa, eventually led to empowering girls in my own community. And for me, it was these experiences that led me to the Haas Business School at Berkeley, a top entrepreneurial university. Since being accepted, I’ve earned two certificates of entrepreneurship and held six internships, including a year at Berkeley SkyDeck (high-tech incubator & accelerator) where I helped to launch startups and developed interests in private equity and venture capital. With a solid Haas foundation, my goal is to combine my entrepreneurial and finance skills to launch women- owed transformative companies. Success depends on more than just a positive income statement. We need more companies like Patagonia, NorthFace, and Toms; businesses which are not only financially successful, but also focused on having a positive social and environmentally sustainable impact.

The magnitude of “The Girl Effect” is real. We are living in a politically, socially, and economically turbulent time. In the same way a tiny spark can light a fire, it only takes one voice to start a ripple effect of change. And I plan on being that voice.