Growing up, my parents pushed me toward studying STEM and developing a passion and desire in cultivating a career in this field. If you read past this bio and look at my major, you will see my major is Radio-Television-Film, so obviously that didn't work. As I went through the ever-changing cycle of dream jobs I had when I was younger, I realized that although they may have been tailored around a STEM field, they were deeply rooted in a passion for storytelling. My obsession with building unique worlds and characters out of LEGO translated to wanting to be an engineer. The Animal Planet documentaries and Sunday morning CBS nature specials I would try to recreate with a camera and some friends in my backyard made me think I wanted to be a wildlife biologist. Throughout middle school I would watch YouTube videos of homemade recreations of popular movie scenes and trailers and convinced myself I would go into visual effects. That was the last drop that tipped over the bucket revealing how my true passion and purpose was in screenwriting and filmmaking.

The way I see it, my experiences are unique to me and therefore I am the only one with the ability to tell those stories, so I must. The stories that have accumulated through my life as an Army brat, growing up in China and Italy, as the son of Cuban and German immigrants, through a challenging four years in high school that took a toll on all of our mental health. Filmmaking is the outlet that not only expresses my creativity, but allows me to process in detail every moment of my life, to uncover the lessons I have learned, how they changed me as a person, and how I can share those lessons to hopefully help others as well.

Major
Radio-Television-Film and Advertising

Other Academic Interests
Chinese culture and politics, Psychology

Extracurricular Activities
Delta Tau Delta, Delta Kappa Alpha (Professional Cinema Society)

What drew you to the Forty Acres Scholars Program?
When pursuing a career in filmmaking, making connections in the industry is so crucial for success. With a program like the Forty Acres Scholars Program, having one of the largest alumni networks in the country at your disposal opens so many more doors than one could get through themselves in such a robust industry. Having these professional connections provides abundant support for any college student beginning their career. However, what is just as valuable to me as an out-of-state student is having my own community of fellow scholars that will be there for me throughout my four years.