Over the years I've immersed myself in a variety of projects for work or pleasure that exist outside of my research. I've always felt blessed at the diversity of talents and gifts that God has given us. These are some of the ways in which I've manifested some of the many blessings I've received.
| Webdesign | Art | Environment | Martial Arts & Dance | Curriculum Vitae |
Webdesign
I've been doing webdesign since 1997 when I was first commissioned to create a website for the Environmental Coalition at UCSD. Unfortunately, as the organization no longer exists, I have no record of my initial foray into webdesign. However, the experience inspired me to continue learning more about this relatively new field and after several courses and a lot of self-study (like many webdesigners), I joined the webdesign team at UCSD's School of Medicine where I worked for a year. I continued to do webdesign after coming to Stanford University, designing and updating websites for several university departments. I've also done a variety of freelance webdesign ranging from dance instruction to weddings. I continue to do what I can to stay abreast of the latest in creative webdesign. I try to achieve a good balance of aesthetics and practicality in my webdesign and frequently incorporate a lot of my own written content. In this way I can design a website from scratch that is both unique and capable of meeting the desires and needs expressed by the individual or organization.
Here is a sampling of some of the websites that I've worked on in the past:
Please contact me if you would like me to create a website designed to suit your needs. Whether it is for an organization or just a personal website, I am always available for consultation.
Artwork
When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Twenty years later, while I have decidely not joined the ranks of the starving artist, my passion for art and creative expression continues to be very much a part of my life. It can easily be found in my dancing, music, writing, drawing, webdesign, and my simple enjoyment of the beauty of God's creation (perhaps why I am still a California girl). The following are some of the art projects that I have done over the years. Many I still have, others were given away as gifts. If you think you'd like me to create something personal for you, just let me know.
War & Remembrance
- Conte Crayon |
Paul Wylie - Men's Figure Skating 2002 Silver Medalist
- Charcoal |
Dolphin
- Acrylic |
Sergei Grinkov & Ekaterina Gordeeva
- Graphite and Oil Pastel |
Legends of Jazz
- White Charcoal |
Wayne Gretzky - The Great One
- Graphite |
Janis - My best friend from jr high
- Charcoal |
Cirque du Soleil - Alegria
- Chalk Pastel |
Clownfish
- Acrylic |
Mountain Lion
- Colored Pencil |
Forrest Gump
- Graphite |
Spotted Leopard
- Ink |
Riverdance
- Chalk Pastel |
More still to come. The remainder of
my portfolio is still on slides. |
Environmental Work
Alas, my environmental website no longer exists! However much of the environmental work that I was fortunate to be a part of still carries on. As an environmentalist, I do not fit the stereotypical mold of the hippie flower girl pot-smoking organic vegan tree-hugger. I am far less um...interesting and you can treat me to a nice juicy steak anytime. Nevertheless, I care deeply about protecting our environment and do what I can to increase awareness and the responsibility we have to care for the world we've been given.
I first became actively involved in protecting the environment when I joined the Environmental Coalition at UC San Diego as a freshman in 1997. The Environmental Coalition is a grassroots environmental group at UCSD dedicated towards working to create a better environment for UCSD and the surrounding locality, as well as developing an increased awareness of the issues that endanger our environment and of the responsibility that must be maintained towards preserving the environment for future generations to enjoy. Early in my freshman year, I discovered through several trials that we were not allowed to recycle in the dorms. Looking for a way to resolve this and knowing that I was not alone in my desire to recycle, I began work on designing and implementing a dorm recycling program at Revelle College that would be amenable to both the students and the administration. With motivational support from the Environmental Coalition, I began the project in the Fall of 1997 by writing up a project proposal, conducting a survey of all the affected students, and meeting with custodial staff and administrative officials at various levels for support, resources, and approval. After a six-month effort, I was able to get the Revelle Recycling Program up and running by the start of the spring quarter. The success of the program could easily be recognized in the first few weeks by the sight of brand new recycle bins on every dormitory floor overflowing with scores of beer and liqueor bottles. From an administrative standpoint, the program went so well that the following year the administration set up a campus-wide residential recycling committe and a custodial incentive program to further promote on-campus recycling. As for me, my work on the Revelle Recycling program gave me the confidence and experience to be able to organize many other projects and events.
In addition to my pet project on dorm recycling, I also worked with the Environmental Coalition to have the UCSD administration adopt several environmentally-friendly policies, such as to bring plastic recycling to campus, cut down on disposable dinnerware at all the campus dining facilities, and utilize only post-consumer paper for printing. As president of the Environmental Coalition for two years, I also coordinated several campus-wide events such as Earth Day, Recycle Week, a green energy fair, and Whale Day. Above all, my work with the Environmental Coalition gave me the opportunity to help promote environmental awareness for myself and the UCSD community.
Martial Arts & Dance
Ever since I was ten years old, I've wanted to do martial arts. Unfortunately, being a girl, my parents were against the idea for fear that I might get hurt. It's not that they weren't interested in athletics; to the contrary, my brothers, sister and I had already done a year of gymanstics, two years of baseball, and six years of soccer. However, my parents viewed these as existing in a more controlled and less violent environment than karate. Not to be deterred, I read every book I could on martial arts from the library and asked my parents on a regular basis if I could start training. After about a year, they finally relented and started all four of us kids in the local dojo. But after the four month introductory period, my parents took us out again. Again I asked if I could continue, but they kept stalling. Finally, after several months of asking, my parents let me start up again on the condition that I pay for half of my lessons. After discussing ways to earn money at 12 years old, I was able to don my gi once more.
Fifteen years later, I have studied a myriad of different martial arts styles, what I like to call "a lot of a little, and a little of a lot." I continued with my first style - Shaolin Kempo Karate - for six years and became the fastest person at my dojo to earn a black belt in only three years (the average time was about five years). When I became competent enough, I began working as an assistant instructor for several years and also started offering free self-defense lessons to some of my friends. For my 17th birthday, the head instructor gave me my own class to teach and, knowing that I would be leaving for college soon, began teaching me nearly all the material he knew up to his 4th degree ranking. I learned alot during my first six years of martial arts. I very much enjoyed my time as an instructor at the dojo. It was through martial arts that I first discovered my love for teaching and working with others. I also credit my early martial arts experience for helping to break me out of my naturally quiet self into the energetic fun-spirited person I am today.
After leaving for college, I began "dojo-hopping" to find something new to challenge myself with. However at UCSD I found that many of the martial arts programs were taught by people with far less experience than I had (but with much bigger egos), and so ended up turning to styles that were vastly different from anything I had studied before. This is what led me to studying Iaido (katana) and Kendo (bamboo swords) for a while. It was during the summer, when I returned home, that I received the most training. On a referral from a friend of mine, I began studying several hours a day, three days a week, in Fullerton with a new instructor with advanced degrees in Kaju Kenpo Karate, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and Eskrima (Philippino stick art), among others. My summer workouts were very intense and covered a whole gambit of styles and advanced techniques. It was through my summer training that I participated in my first and only tournament in Hawai'i - placing 1st and 4th in two different divisions.
During my year in Japan after graduating from college, I took up Aikido, Kyudo (Japanese archery), and Goju Karate. I also helped teach a children's karate camp during my first month in Japan. Contrary to popular belief, however, I discovered that "the real martial arts" is not necessarily found in Japan. Having studied martial arts in the U.S., Japan, and China, I've found that you can find just as good a dojo back home as you can in Asia and just as wimpy a dojo in Asia as you can through the many commercialized family karate programs in the States. For example, when I would go to my Saturday morning aikido practices in Japan, I would go home feeling much sleepier than I had when I arrived because the class was so slow and unchallenging.
At Stanford, the martial arts offerings were much better. When I compare UCSD and Stanford, I look at UCSD as having awesome dance programs and pathetic martial arts; but at Stanford, it is the martial arts program which stands very strong and the dance program that is lacking. So while at Stanford, I dipped into as many martial arts styles as I could. Since their martial arts programs were so expanded, I decided to continue trying new things rather than sticking with styles that I was already fairly competent at. This led me to do several years of Wushu, a year of Eskrima, and a smattering of Tai Chi Chuan, Aikido (since my Japan experience was so bad), Judo, and Tae Kwon Do. The instructors for all the styles were very good (in fact one of our wushu instructors used to be teammates with Jet Li on the Beijing National Wushu team).
While I was at Stanford, I did get the opportunity to do a little teaching again, working as a volunteer instructor for two years through the Stanford Martial Arts Program which offers free self-defense seminars for Stanford students. As the classes were generally smaller than what I was used to teaching, it allowed me to give more individual instruction in basic self-defense techniques and awareness.
Unfortunately, after leaving Stanford, I have yet to find a new outlet for my martial arts training, though I'd like to get back into teaching again (or perhaps a bit of sparring with my cousin who trains with some of the guys from UFC).
As for dancing...
I love dancing. No two ways about it. The irony of it all is that as a martial arts instructor, I used to belittle dance all the time as a "sissy sport." Now you can't tear me away from it.
My love for dance definitely comes out of my love for music. Music touches me in a way that other things seldom do. Music has a beautiful way of releasing the passion inside of me. Ever since I was young, I always longed for a way to express the way music made me feel beyond just passively listening to it. My first attempt at making this happen was to learn how to play myself. I couldn't afford any music lessons, so I instead had my best friend from high school copy off sheet music for me so that I could teach myself how to play piano. I did whatever I could to practice regularly, but it was difficult sharing the house with three other siblings who were decidedly not interested in being around while I was learning to play. (It's not that I was so bad, than the fact that they were getting sick of hearing the same piece of music over and over as I was learning new songs. Later, when I would come back for a while after being away at college, it was nice to hear them actually request for me to play something. Now I'm teaching my sister to play piano.) For me, I still get excited to hear music that I love originate from my own hands, especially when I am learning to play something new. Creating your own music is something special that I can't describe well with words. It fills me up and carries me away - it's wonderful.
In college, I didn't have access to a piano like I did at home and so turned to singing - another love of mine. I sang for a year in the UCSD gospel choir and concert choir as well as in my church. I started learning a bit of guitar, but not having a guitar of mine own, I wasn't able to get very far with it. However, it was in college that I would find a new way of expressing the music that so touched my soul - dancing.
While growing up, I wanted to dance but didn't know how. I could feel the music and wanted to move to it, but I had no concept of it at all. During my senior year in high school, a bunch of my track and cross country buddies and I got into swing dancing. We helped put on the first swing dance at our high school in decades, even inviting the Disneyland Big Band to come play at Troy. I picked up on it pretty well and wanted to continue with it when I went to UCSD.
Much to my chagrin, UCSD didn't have any kind of swing dance group (as we had gotten into swing dancing just ahead of the swing craze revival when SKA was still pretty popular). So I decided to "settle" by auditioning for the ballroom dance team. Unfortunately, right in the middle of tryouts week, I suffered a shoulder separation after a bad fall in aikido and so had no chance of making the team. However, they did have a separate option where you could still learn social dancing through the team, but without the competition aspect. So I chose to go with this and later, through a lot of effort, was selected as one of the alternates for the competition team. My position as a female alternate ended up allowing me to dance in half of our performances that year. My dedication was rewarded by receiving a dance award at the end of the year for best attitude (the other two awards given were "best dancer" and "most improved"). It also helped establish my love for all matter of dancing - not just swing.
To supplement my ballroom and latin dancing, I also took ballet and jazz dance classes at UCSD. The ballet was great for solidifying my foundation and dance technique, but the jazz dancing was my favorite, because it emphasized style and expression with the music. Tony Caligagan was also an awesome jazz dance teacher whose musical and choreographic tastes (particularly in latin adult contemporary music and lyrical choreography) identified well with my own. For something that began as a secondary interest (next to my martial arts), dancing soon became a daily exercise for me that I sought out regularly. Throughout my time at UCSD, I was on the ballroom dance team for three years and spent my fourth year as president of the Ballroom Dance Club, organizing free dance parties with lessons and doing community outreach activities.
After having only spent a few weeks in Japan upon graduation, I found a ballroom dance teacher that took me in despite my poor linguistic abilities. Iwamoto-sensei was wonderful, treating me to two private lessons a week, trying hard to learn English, and failing miserably at trying to get me to drink beer when we went out to dinner with his wife after practice. Together we competed in waltz in two pro-am competitions and performed a cha-cha at a prefectural-wide dance exhibition. Still, dancing in Japan had its limits. I think due to the Japanese majime nature that is more contained and not outwardly expressive, the passionate nature intrinsic to latin dancing just doesn't materialize on the dance floor. In general, Japanese are great standard ballroom dancers, but when it comes to latin dancing, they just completely miss the mark. So when I put in Sergio Mendes' "Magalenha" to dance a playful samba, they were sufficiently astonished (and salivating) at the floor show. (Afterwards, whenever there was a dance party after a competition, they always requested that I dance a samba.)
Dance video clips
Curriculum Vitae
My resume remains current from 2005 and covers work, skills, and other valuable experience that I have acquired over the last ten years.
