Arielle Tycko

On May 8, the Washington Nationals came to Los Angeles Angels for a lovely Mother’s Day Game. I, being a D.C. native and avid Nationals fan, of course had to attend– the Nationals play the Angels very rarely because they play in different leagues and on opposite coasts. My dad and I have a goal of going to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums, and we had to take advantage of our home team being in L.A., so my mom and dad both flew out for the weekend.

The email app has always been one of my most used apps on my phone, and this was especially true my senior year of high school. One Saturday, I was checking my email for maybe the 7th or 8th time that day, which was normal for me. What wasn’t normal that day though, was the surprise email I received from the Caltech admissions office. When I saw the message sitting in my inbox, my heart immediately began racing. I quickly opened it, and my heart rate doubled; I had been accepted. In total shock, I ran into the living room of my boyfriend’s apartment (who I was staying with at the time), and told him the good news. After celebrating, he told me to call my parents. I called my dad first, and his reaction was “Really?! I was not expecting that”… (thanks, Dad). I then called my mom, who was very excited and happy for me. Needless to say, that was one of the best emails I ever received.

As a Caltech student, I obviously have a love for STEM. But for me, that love is incomplete without the bigger picture—the role that STEM can play in helping society. That connection between science and humanity served as the initial motivation for one of my primary passions: organizing for environmental justice.

Now that the 2021 baseball season has come to close, I want to take a little trip down memory lane to the 2019 Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs. To set the scene, after an exciting wild card game win, the Washington Nationals (my team) began a five game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers win the first and third game of the series, and the Nationals win the second and fourth game, making game five a do-or-die situation. The final game took place at Dodgers Stadium, a mere 20 minute drive from Caltech. I pounced on this opportunity, going to the game with my fellow baseball-fanatic and Caltech student, Arya.

This summer, from the confines of my Brooklyn apartment, you could find me typing away on a tiny 13-inch laptop screen. At times I was looking for answers on countless Stack Exchange pages, editing a Jupyter notebook, or making blood flow measurements on a software called Arterys. This was my 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURF) experience.