As a freshman in high school, I found myself frustrated by the daily hassle involved in staying informed about what was going on at my school. Having to check various websites, calendars, social media accounts, and newsletters just to keep up with school schedules and events was exhausting. Knowing that there had to be a better way, I decided to build it. I envisioned a single app with a newsfeed, calendar, staff directory, schedules, and more, all in one place. At the time I called it Rider App, named after our school mascot.

I got to work with the goal of solving this problem, not just for myself, but for everyone at my school. I knew little about the technologies and programming languages that would be required for such an ambitious undertaking, but I was able to teach myself the necessary skills using free online resources. I worked on my app at school in computer science class and for hours every day when I got home.

I launched the app at my school's 2018 Winter Assembly during my sophomore year. It wasn't long until most everyone at school was using it, and I received lots of positive feedback from students and families about how helpful it was.

I've now been working on the app for over three years, and it has only continued to grow and evolve. Shortly after launch, I began to hear from other schools that were interested in adopting my app to solve their own communication needs. The following school year, I rebranded Rider App to Trivory and started my own company, Terren LLC, in order to support its expansion into more schools. I am proud that Trivory has made it easier for students and families to stay connected, while also streamlining communication for schools. When I first started working on my app, I never would have imagined that it would grow to be used by thousands of people across four schools in my district.

A friend and I co-founded the Community Betterment via Engineering and Technology Club at our school. Our club is open to computer science and engineering students who want to help work on projects with real-world applications. Our initial projects included building a device to generate electricity from downspout rain water, and creating an app to connect restaurants that have excess food with people who need it. We made good progress, but the pandemic forced us to switch gears and focus on finding ways to help the most vulnerable members of our community during the health crisis.

We decided to create a free food delivery service for seniors and other at-risk people to make sure that they could get food safely during the pandemic. We took orders over the phone for maximum accessibility, and recruited student volunteers to help with delivery. I had to work quickly to build call routing and order management systems so that we could start fulfilling food delivery calls right away. We delivered from both grocery stores and food pantries, and took orders over the phone in both English and Spanish. Our service was picked up by the media, which helped promote it to more people in our area. We were interviewed on several local TV stations, and were featured in The Oregonian newspaper.

The student-led nonprofit Mission: Citizen has provided free citizenship classes in the Portland Metro area for over a decade. Immigrants in our country face extraordinary challenges, and Mission: Citizen aims to break down naturalization barriers and help address the broader absence of resources in critical areas.

The pandemic forced a unique challenge for Mission: Citizen. With in-person classes no longer possible, we had to find a way to teach lessons and administer practice quizzes remotely. Last summer, I built an online learning platform so that Mission: Citizen could safely continue offering these classes. The new website allows people to watch pre-recorded lessons made by student leaders, and then take practice quizzes to gauge their understanding of the content.

Lessons and practice questions are provided in multiple languages, and the website includes a full-length practice test that simulates the real civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Exam. The website reports useful analytics information back to Mission: Citizen, allowing commonly missed questions to be identified and future lessons adjusted accordingly. Providing lessons online also had other benefits, such as allowing students the flexibility to study whenever they want and at their own pace.

People who have already completed the online course have found it to be convenient and easy to use. I'm glad to have helped make sure that the pandemic wasn't a barrier for immigrants in our community to continue moving towards citizenship.