
Born in Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines and raised in Tokyo, Japan, I have vivid memories of moving approximately every four years due to my father’s military career. Immersed in a variety of different cultures, I developed an initial curiosity about cultural and individual differences in the way that people think, respond, and behave in their environment. When I enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle as an undergraduate student, I became fascinated with psychology after taking courses such as Psychology 101 and Abnormal Psychology and later becoming involved in a research lab, which focused on biological and environmental correlates of adolescent depression and self-injury. Well into my second quarter of sophomore year, I decided to change my major from pre-med to psychology. This decision was an easy one for me to make when I decided I not only wanted to treat symptoms of a disorder, but also have the opportunity to hear an individual’s story in their attempts to heal.