User:Pikachu4919

pikachu4919 is a proud alumna of the Carmel High School Science Olympiad team, located in Carmel, IN. She served as a team captain for two years in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. She competed from 9th to 12th grade. Over her years of experience, she has participated in Forensics, Designer Genes, Forestry, Anatomy and Physiology, Rocks and Minerals, GeoLogic Mapping, Entomology, Protein Modeling, Fossils, Cell Biology, and Dynamic Planet. Of those she has participated in, she mostly enjoys biology events with the exception of Forensics and GeoLogic Mapping—in fact, her crowning achievement is her 4th place medal in Forensics at the 2016 National Tournament at UW-Stout. But she often gets frustrated that she usually always has event conflicts that prevent her from competing in all her favorite events.

pikachu4919 is currently at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, majoring in Biological Engineering with a concentration in Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering and a minor in Forensic Sciences. Her family, however, moved to TX (the Houston area) before she started college and then moved again to the suburbs of Philadelphia halfway through her college career.

Username Origin
pikachu4919 has really loved pokémon for quite a chunk of her life. The exact start of that phase is unknown even to her. Her favorite pokémon by far is pikachu. She freaking loves pikachu. She finds it to be a super cute and even OP pokémon. Most noticeably, her scioly.org avatar is a pikachu, and if you've ever met her you might notice that her primary phone and computer desktop wallpapers are also of pikachus. Occasionally she will change it to an APOD that she finds super pretty but most of the time, it's a pikachu. A lot of her friends and even one of her previous SciOly coaches can say that she is a huge fangirl of pikachu (however much she attempts to deny that) and that her personality basically embodies that of a pikachu too. So there's part one of the nickname.

Now the number. pikachu4919 's favorite number is 19 for some strange reason. She claims that it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Indiana was the 19th state. She also likes squares of prime numbers, which is also quite odd. She's not sure where that comes from either, but somehow it tends to draw her in. Seven is a lucky number and a prime number, you know? And 7^2 is 49. Put those two together, 4919. It's strange but somehow it worked out that way.

So there you have it.

2012-2013 (9th grade, Year 1)
This year was my very first year in Science Olympiad because my middle school did not have this program. Although I joined late in the season (late October-ish) and had a rough start to my events, this year was pretty successful, considering it was my first.

By the end of the season, my three main events were Designer Genes, Forestry, and Forensics. I competed in Anatomy earlier in the season, but I did not have very outstanding scores at invitationals, so I was not selected to compete for Regionals or State. My success in each of my events fluctuated throughout the season. I did well at regionals and state, not so much at invitationals.

2013-2014 (10th grade, Year 2)
This year had been pretty good for me. Forensics and Designer Genes are my two strongest events, but I also did Entomology (that took the place of Forestry D:) and GeoLogic Mapping. I did much better at invitationals and fairly well at Regionals. State went well for me too since I medaled in all of my events that I competed in.

2014-2015 (11th grade, Year 3)
This is the first year that I became a officer (equivalent of a captain in some people's terms) for Carmel SciOly. Events that I competed in included Forensics, Entomology, Protein Modeling, and GeoLogic Mapping, but I was assigned to write team tryout tests for Dynamic Planet, and apparently I was an OK candidate for Fossils because I am a good memorizer, which is what Fossils kind of encompasses with the identifications. By the end of the season, Forensics and Protein Modeling emerged as my two strongest events.

Whiting was great--four medals and my team (Carmel brought three teams) got fourth place overall :D I wasn't able to compete at Northridge this year due to it conflicting with Indiana All-State Orchestra D: I would have liked to compete in Cell Biology this year; however, it conflicted with at least one of my other more urgent events for all my competitions leading up to State. Regionals went well for me although I was only put into two events. While I didn't do as well as I would have liked to at State, our 2nd place finish as a team made up for it :)

2015-2016 (12th grade, Year 4)
I don't want to consider this as my final year! :'( but it's going pretty well so far, I guess. I didn't specifically compete at Whiting this year since it's a usual officer tradition to not do so and let other members do so, but I went along to support them! I wasn't able to compete at Northridge this year due to it conflicting with Indiana All-State Orchestra again D: Could've done better at Wright State but I felt pretty good about how I did, considering it was my first time. Regionals went really well for me, State did too (and we qualified for Nationals!!!! Aahhhhh!) and, well, considering I managed to medal at Nationals, I guess I did pretty well for a first time (but alas, a last too)! :D

Division D Adventures
pikachu4919 is still very involved in Science Olympiad to the extent that she can be, mostly throughout the midwestern U.S., especially IN, but sometimes in other states too, such as MA and NJ in recent times. She is currently an exec board member for Purdue's Regional Tournament.

"There's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait! Just you waaaaaaaaaait!":

Besides SciOly ...
pikachu4919 enjoys other things as much as she enjoys science. While a member of the Science Olympiad team, she was also a violinist in the well-known Carmel High School Symphony Orchestra, and was a part of the Symphony Orchestra when they attended the 2014 Midwest Clinic and has been in two recording projects (Dvorak's 8th Symphony and Beethoven's 5th Symphony). Additionally, she has made it to the Indiana All-State Orchestra three times consecutively in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and she has also made it to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Side-By-Side program for 2015 and 2016. She also served as an op/ed editor for her school newspaper, the HiLite. She also ran cross country for all three years of middle school and all four years of high school. Some people ask how she does all of that and somehow still survives. She doesn't even know the answer to that.

Hobbies include wasting ridiculous amounts of time re-watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Legend of Korra" episodes despite having finished ALL the episodes of both TV shows, listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, taking photos (she would love to shoot a senior/LinkedIn photo session someday!), making crafts, stress cooking (or attempts at cooking), sleeping, procrastinating, chatting with people about life, playing violin or piano, surfing the Internet (esp YouTube), bugging her two brothers (she is a middle child), and writing SciOly exams (refer to the "Division D Adventures" section for more info on that).