When I was in high school, I played Molly in a production of Peter and the Star Catcher at an all-boys Jesuit school. While being one of the only girls in that cast was one giant social experiment for me, it was the effect that the play had on its audience that really shaped my career. After a performance, a girl from a different high school came up to me and said that she had only come because her parents had asked her to take her siblings, but that our performance reminded her that there was joy and magic in life. She hadn't had any plans for her future but our show inspired her to get involved in her own life again. She ended up joining this theater program with me the next year and it was inspiring to watch her find herself. That's how I was introduced to the way that theater could affect people other than myself.

Giving people the permission to feel, whether it be joy, grief, or anything in between, inspired me to study and pursue theater (as well as cognitive science). While I hope to be a part of projects that embrace my Jewish identity and neurodivergent self, I ultimately want to spread joy and acceptance any way that I can.