By Trinity Chau
Starting piano at the ripe age of 5, junior Natalie Tran joined Baron Banner to be a part of something school-wide. She picked up a camera and wrote countless articles during her sophomore year—letting her have more creative freedom.
After a year, Tran finally found her calling: feature articles.
“Throughout my life, I’ve always felt more comfortable as a listener and being that person people can come talk to,” Tran said. “Feature writing caters to that aspect perfectly as it allows me to learn about someone’s special story…and it makes me even happier to be able to tell others about their story through my writing.”
Tran’s passions include playing piano. Starting at a young age and now being able to play music by ear, she’s learned to enjoy the instrument and plays it in her freetime.
Eager to learn and try different things, Tran is now in her junior year. Her goals include having fun alongside her extracurriculars. Tran achieves this goal through Model United Nations and at University of California, Irvine where she interns and does research on molecular dynamics and computational chemistry. Through these, she can pursue her interest in humanities and STEM.
“Model United Nations Club is by far my favorite club on campus because I’m able to feel connected with the world through global affairs, and [learn] about them,” Tran said. “[I want to] learn to have fun throughout the year because last year was online…I just hope I can go to more events and be more involved outside the paper.”
Like many other students, Tran isn’t sure about her future and career. However, she is open to new ideas and opportunities. One of these opportunities include neuroscience.
“I’m not sure specifically what I want to be…I feel like I need more experience to learn and figure out what I want to be,” she said. “I did this summer program and it was [based on] neuroscience research…I think I really liked that. So I’ll probably be pursuing a career in that potentially.”
Tran is inspired and influenced by the people around her. One of the biggest impacts are her teachers, specifically, teachers who are passionate about what they’re teaching.
“My favorite movie is ‘La La Land’ and the quote [I agree with is], ‘People love what other people are passionate about’” Tran said. “I live by that quote a lot because if [the teachers around me are] passionate about what they’re doing, then I feel like I’m interested to learn it as well.”
Tran is passionate about many things, but at heart, she is driven and able to face any challenge that comes her way.