Under Construction
A life, drawn in years
From Bacolod City on March 24, 2004, to this moment — a vertical map of the path between two homes.
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A collectivist childhood on the Visayas and in Mindanao.
March 24, 2004
Bacolod City, Negros Occidental
The first chapter opens on the Visayas Islands — a family of singers, a collectivist world, and a faith that would travel with me.
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The first chapter opens on the Visayas Islands — a family of singers, a collectivist world, and a faith that would travel with me.
BackgroundMarch 2007
Butuan City, Mindanao
From age three, Mindanao became home.
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From age three, Mindanao became home. Close-knit streets, church, and a lower-middle-class upbringing that taught me how to belong.
BackgroundAugust 2009
through May 2013
Butuan City
A faith-based classroom where character was taught as seriously as the lesson.
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A faith-based classroom where character was taught as seriously as the lesson. Self-discipline became a kind of inheritance.
EducationAround 2011
Butuan City
Piano first, then the violin at seven — following my grandfather’s lead.
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Piano first, then the violin at seven — following my grandfather’s lead. Music was already the family language.
Hobbies2013
O’Hare → Des Plaines, Illinois
Pink hair on the escalator.
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Pink hair on the escalator. New languages in the concourse. Curiosity instead of fear — and a grandmother’s long work finally coming through.
BackgroundAugust 2013
through May 2015
Des Plaines, Illinois
First American classrooms.
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First American classrooms. I learned the building, then the people, then how to speak up in a room that did not already know me.
EducationAugust 2015
through May 2018
Des Plaines, Illinois
A wider world of clubs, teams, and the slow work of becoming bilingual in culture as well as language.
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A wider world of clubs, teams, and the slow work of becoming bilingual in culture as well as language.
EducationAugust 2018
through May 2022
Des Plaines, Illinois
Chorus, AP World History, and a growing public voice.
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Chorus, AP World History, and a growing public voice. The years that taught me history is not behind us — it is the room we are standing in.
EducationJune 2021
through August 2022
Des Plaines, Illinois
Violin lessons, SPEAK Des Plaines, and a Community Development Liaison role at District 207.
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Violin lessons, SPEAK Des Plaines, and a Community Development Liaison role at District 207. Service stopped being an assignment and started being a practice.
WorkJune 2022
Maine West High School
I spoke last at graduation — after a junior year in lockdown and a senior year spent finding our feet.
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I spoke last at graduation — after a junior year in lockdown and a senior year spent finding our feet. Arion Award. Illinois State Scholar. Then, outward.
SpeakingAugust 2022
through January 2024
Urbana-Champaign
I arrived undeclared — General Studies, the Exploratory Studies home for not knowing yet.
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I arrived undeclared — General Studies, the Exploratory Studies home for not knowing yet. A land-grant campus first; the college would come later.
EducationNovember 2022
through May 2023
Office of Civic Life
Service Saturdays, a donation drive, and the first formal proof that campus leadership could be civic, not just extracurricular.
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Service Saturdays, a donation drive, and the first formal proof that campus leadership could be civic, not just extracurricular.
WorkMay 2023
through May 2025
Research Park
Project manager, operations intern, data scientist.
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Project manager, operations intern, data scientist. Two years of building inside a utility’s innovation lab — and taking that team out into the community.
WorkJanuary 2024
through May 2024
Granada, Spain
Spanish Studies, a host family, local friends, and a Wednesday classroom of teenagers.
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Spanish Studies, a host family, local friends, and a Wednesday classroom of teenagers. Mid-semester, still finishing the minor, word came that the iSchool had said yes.
Study AbroadJanuary 2024
through May 2026
Admitted from Granada
Information Sciences — and later Data Science — while I was still in Spain finishing the Spanish minor.
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Information Sciences — and later Data Science — while I was still in Spain finishing the Spanish minor. The undeclared years had found their college.
EducationAugust 2024
through August 2025
International Education at Illinois
Mentoring, cultural programs, and the dashboards that made a global community visible to itself.
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Mentoring, cultural programs, and the dashboards that made a global community visible to itself.
WorkOctober 2024
through August 2025
Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning
Interviews, focus groups, and stories about learning with generative AI — made so campus leadership could hear students in their own words.
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Interviews, focus groups, and stories about learning with generative AI — made so campus leadership could hear students in their own words.
CITL seriesMarch 2025
Cuba
House by house: water filters, prayer, and the kind of week that rearranges what a spring break is for.
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House by house: water filters, prayer, and the kind of week that rearranges what a spring break is for.
ProjectsAugust 2025
through May 2026
Student Success, Inclusion & Belonging
Predictive models, Tableau, and pipelines built so the university can notice students before they disappear from the record.
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Predictive models, Tableau, and pipelines built so the university can notice students before they disappear from the record.
WorkMarch 2026
Liberia, Costa Rica
Another spring, another set of doorways.
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Another spring, another set of doorways. Clean water for a decade, and evenings of debrief under a different sky.
ProjectsApril 2026
iSchool + Undergraduate Research Symposium
A glass-box SATB co-creative system — music, constraints, and the argument that AI should show its work.
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A glass-box SATB co-creative system — music, constraints, and the argument that AI should show its work.
ProjectsSeptember 2026
Urbana-Champaign
Twenty-two years from Bacolod City to here.
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Twenty-two years from Bacolod City to here. Dual degrees underway, a life split across two flags, and the next chapter still being written.
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