I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California which is where my love for cycling, travel, and engineering all began. During my childhood I raced bicycles competitively around the world and for the majority of my teenage years I raced professionally on Team USA Cycling. By age 21 I set out to take on new challenges and decided to feed my desire to learn about the universe which led me to study physics. During my time at community college I discovered the convergence of my passions in the field of engineering.