What college or professional athlete inspires you and why?
Track athletes in the Olympics inspire me a lot, especially Jessica Ennis. She’s a hept-athlete, which is what I do. I want to be just like her, she [also] has the same body build as me. It makes me have hope that I can go to the Olympics one day.
What challenges have you faced pursuing your sport?
A challenge I face is my size. I’m shorter, especially [compared to] the girls I compete against. [They] are a lot taller than me and maybe a lot smaller. Also having to do school work as well and trying to maintain the balance. But I kind of use those challenges as motivation to help me out.
What is one of your memorable moments as an athlete?
When I competed at the Northern California Heptathlon Championships three weeks ago. And I got third place over all in Northern California.
I got to go to State, which is really awesome. [In the] previous year, I stepped on the line when I was running a 200 and I was disqualified so I wasn’t able to go to state. Coming back this year with that in the back of my mind, knowing that I still could have had chance but I made a mistake. It was really awesome and my whole team and my coach were really proud of me and I was very proud of myself too.
What will you miss most about De Anza?
It’s going to be sad leaving as a sophomore, but the time that I spent [on] the De Anza Track and Field team really made me grow stronger as a person and made me feel really encouraged to pursue my dream.