One of my greatest passions is cooking. At 5 years old I created my own tea concoctions and eventually started cooking my own breakfasts and lunches. By the time I was 10 my brother and I were responsible for dinner one night every week. My mom encouraged me to post my dishes on instagram and “icookshi” was born. So far, I have created 4 Reels, gotten roughly 5k views in exposure on my profile and posts and gained about 1000 followers, including my friends and family. Go support icookshi below!

Recently, through an incubator entrepreneurship program sponsored by my school, three friends and I developed and pitched an idea called tethrd, a platform that connects startups with pre-vetted, cost effective, and trustworthy domestic manufacturers that can fit their needs (MOQ, Location, Language, etc.). Over the course of the week we did in-depth industry research, speaking to 8 businesses of various sizes to better understand the needs of the manufacturers and clientele. We created a compelling pitch deck that demonstrated our understanding of TAM (Total Adjustable Market) and NPS (Net Promoter Score), the whitespace that we were taking advantage of in the manufacturing world, and a MVP website for “tethrd”. We placed 3rd at pitch night and were called “the most investable idea”. Since then I have been trying to keep the momentum going, reaching out to skeptics, manufacturers, and other business owners to see how tethrd could succeceed as a highschool student run venture.

I started playing the piano at age 4. In 7th grade at my current school, I joined the concert band and played percussion. Inspired by all the other cool instruments in the band, I started learning the tenor sax. I started doing lots of solo studying and practice and by 8th grade I was playing the tenor sax in the symphonic band. This past year as a 9th grader, I played baritone sax in my school’s middle school jazz band and blue note combo. We performed at 2 shows this year, many school sponsored admission gigs, once at “The Turning Fork” jazz club in LA, and even in a Nashville, TN jazz competition where we received a gold medal and first place! This upcoming year I will be refining my sax skills on my Bari and Alto in the upper school Jazz band and combos! Click below to watch some videos and see some pictures!