Week 10: Strategic Moves

Weekly Report #10 Week 10 Strategic Moves: (10/20/2025 - 10/27/2025)

This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster, yet it has also been calm. AP Psychology examinations took up the first part of my week, followed by AP Physics C for Work, Energy, and Power. The remainder of the week was more relaxed. The past few days have given me the opportunity to devote more time to my extracurricular interests, particularly in chess, where I will be striving to reach a rating of 1600 for Bullet (speed chess) and 2000 for Rapid (10–60 minute) games by the conclusion of my junior year. The weekend was super busy since we had guests visiting from Houston, but I still got to celebrate Diwali with them and even light some fireworks — which was an absolute blast (pun intended)! I’m particularly looking forward to our upcoming etiquette meal at First Watch, as it will be a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a nice meal with my peers while practicing professional dining skills in a real-world setting. Although it’s a bit later than I would have like, our first Red Cross Club meeting of the year is scheduled for Tuesday, October 28. After two years as a member, I’m thrilled to finally be an officer this year and assist in leading things. I’m eagerly looking forward to this year since the other officers and I have some great regional and national events planned for the upcoming school year. This past week, I experienced a lot of high points from this week, such as planning the first Red Cross meeting, playing more chess, or spending time with family and friends. I’m glad to report that I didn’t really have a low point for the week; instead, it’s simply that there are a lot of tests coming up. With my AP Calculus BC test coming up on Friday, October 31st, it’s sure to be a little scary (pun intended again)!

This week, I made it a priority to continue researching my original work for ISM, and I read papers and academic publications about various cancer treatments. I had scheduled an interview with Dr. Brian Meckes, but I haven’t received a response to either my initial email or my follow-ups. But, I will keep reaching out to more professors and sending follow-up emails to professors at UT Southwestern and UTD because I believe they would be able to mentor me and offer me research opportunities to collaborate with them, ideally in a lab. In addition, I finished my interview assessment #8 on Thursday. The professional for this assessment was my mentor, Dr. Vanderlei S. Bagnato, and I mentioned our discussion regarding cancer treatments and micrological control. I also made sure to update my digital portfolio. Since I’ve been making an effort to update it every week, I didn’t have any significant changes to make, but I did make some minor adjustments to the mentor and résumé pages. Right now, the majority of my time is devoted to either more research for original work or the research speeches we have scheduled for the fifth.

Closing this chapter, opening the next.