Ethan War

   West Ranch senior Ethan War has always found solace in video games. His passion for playing has led him to decide to major in computer science at UCSD. War hopes that one day he will be able to translate his gaming hobby into a job in video game design, following in his father’s footsteps.

   War’s interest in computer science began to flourish after taking two AP computer science classes offered at West Ranch and a few additional classes at various community colleges. To him, the subject is appealing because of “the challenges that come with computer science. I like how it makes you think abstractly and I think that’s really cool and something that I’m good at.”

   Computer science is a vast field, covering everything from artificial intelligence to human computer interaction, but War said his favorite part of the subject is the actual coding. “I like the programming, I like the algorithms and I like the logic that goes into it,” War detailed. In order to sharpen his programming skills, War has learned multiple coding languages and programmed several apps in his free time, both for classwork and for personal gain.

   War explained that his inspiration to learn computer science stems from “The continuing innovations [in coding] and how games are using better graphics, how they’re getting better every day.” He hopes that in the future, he will be able to find work “at a big name video game company down here in LA as a level designer just like my father.”

Sophia Paz

   West Ranch senior Sophia Paz’s passion for engineering stemmed from a summer coding camp called Kode With Klossy that is focused on empowering young women in STEM. Paz plans to spend her next four years pursuing web design and engineering at Santa Clara University.

   Paz ultimately decided on web design and engineering as she “found it appealing how [she] can build so many websites in any style through code.” Her favorite part of the subject is the final product after planning and building a website.

   “Seeing everything that you have built and collaborating with a group of people who have the same goal is what I love about coding and engineering,” explained Paz.

   A project Paz worked on was a website called (G)-STEM, which targets the gender gap in STEM and encourages young women to join computer science and engineering. Paz enjoys creating websites for social good and hopes to strengthen her skills in college so she can continue to build apps for people and communities.

   When building websites, Paz takes inspiration from different portfolios and other software engineers. She admires their work and perseverance in the field. Seeing the work they have done has inspired Paz to pursue a career in the tech industry.

   After college, she hopes to become a user experience and interface designer or a software engineer at a large tech company. To those wanting to pursue engineering, Paz advised, “Don’t think that engineering is just building and computer science is just coding. There is so much more to them, and you can create amazing things through code.”

Chad Park

   Mathematics has always been West Ranch senior Chad Park’s favorite subject. Since he was young, Park enjoyed going to math class and taking on tough problems; he hopes to build upon his love for math by majoring in applied mathematics at UC Berkeley. Park aims to graduate with a degree in applied mathematics and then pursue data science in graduate school and later on in the workforce.

   In Park’s case, the decision to major in the field of mathematics comes from a natural aptitude and understanding of the subject. “I really enjoy going to math class. I’ve always been good at math and it just came naturally to me compared to subjects like English and history. I also love data because I love statistics too,” Park explained.

   “I think solving difficult questions is what interests me, and even though it might take a while, I like to think outside the box and that’s the challenge that math brings,” Park said of the reason he chose applied mathematics. For Park, every problem poses an enticing challenge, waiting to be solved.

   More specifically, Park has found his calling in statistics, which he hopes to use in his future at UC Berkeley and in his endeavors as a data scientist. While discussing his future career, Park explained, “Some of the topics I want to tackle are climate change and deforestation because I do like hiking a lot. I love nature and I want to make sure we have nature for prosperity by projecting data for deforestation in order to raise awareness for climate change and the need to keep our earth alive.”

Swarada Kulkarni

   West Ranch senior Swarada Kulkarni always knew her passion lay within the subject of neuroscience. Through her science classes and her volunteer work at the hospital, Kulkarni decided to commit to this field of study and continue her education at Vanderbilt University. 

   Kulkarni’s interest in the subject stemmed from her natural curiosity of the inner workings of the human body. Kulkarni expressed, “In my biology and chemistry classes, I’ve always wondered why the human body works the way it does, and neuroscience helps explain that. It helped clear a lot of my questions because the brain helps to govern the whole body.”

   The decision to practice medicine is a long and hard educational journey. However, Kulkarni has predetermined multiple career goals she hopes to achieve throughout the next fifteen years. “In five years, hopefully, I get into medical school. In ten years, I’m out of medical school, and I’m doing a residency for neuroscience. In fifteen years, I’m making $500,000 a year as a neurosurgeon.”

   Kulkarni’s commitment to pursue a STEM-related field was always an instinctual decision. Her volunteer work at the hospital and inserting herself in an environment she will soon dominate has given Kulkarni that extra step in her career as she sees first hand why she chose neuroscience. “When I volunteer at the hospital, I see how passionate the doctors are in helping people so I thought I want to do that too.”