January 15, 2025

​

I've never really sworn, not enough to matter at least, but I hear it almost everywhere. No matter where you walk in high school, whether it's in a classroom or the hallway or our quad, you'll hear much more than a word or two. It made me wonder why. As someone who hardly does it, it's so easy for me not to, but why do other people continue to do it almost uncontrollably? Could it be an addiction, or does it have real benefits people are using? And if it does have benefits, should it no longer be hated or treated almost as sin? In this feature, I explored just this and learned something that might just convince me to start partaking in the activity...

April 29, 2025

​

My idea for this feature started when I met someone who is color deficient. Before he told me, it wasn't even something that'd ever really crossed my mind, which made me wonder if maybe that was the issue in the first place. When I started gathering interviews and laying the foundation for this project, I didn't really know where I was going. I knew I wanted to share a side not commonly spoken about, but I didn't realize quite how vast the topic really was. In this feature, I've explored what it's like to live with color vision deficiency, uncovered common misconceptions about the condition, explained its causes and infinite variations, and highlighted how people with it can still thrive in color-dependent fields like design and painting. I also delve into a range of solutions available, both genetic and temporary, that are helping to bridge the gap in perception...

November 18, 2025

​

My grandfather was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Growing up, I always heard stories about how he could fix anything, whether it was the machines at his laundromat or the furnace in his home, but when he and my grandmother retired to California, I saw how much he had changed. Some afternoons, I’d come home from school to find that he was still asleep, and when he did wake up, even walking a few steps or holding his fork steady to eat lunch was a struggle. A man who had once repaired everything suddenly couldn’t fix what was happening to him. Seeing that difficulty in someone who’d always been so capable made me realize how deeply I want to help people facing similar challenges, so I turned to research. One of the first results that came up on my search was CRISPR, a gene editing technology that could potentially remove the genetic mutation causing many cases of Parkinson's. Accepted into a wonderful opportunity, I was able to spend part of my summer at UC Berkeley studying the ways CRISPR worked and what it might be able to do for people like my grandfather one day. There, I met Phoebe Hall, who not only taught me everything I know about the technology, but also warned me of the ethical questions that would take time to be solved before CRISPR could be used in such promising ways. This is a piece based on that conversation...