Excited to start this TRIP! by Nadija Sulcaj

Hi everyone!! I’m Nadija, a 17 year old junior at Masterman High School. I was born in a small country called Albania and moved to Philly when I was three years old. I have lived in northeast Philadelphia ever since! 

Just like my TRIP friends, I love science! While I always had an interest in science, I vividly remember the moment when I fell in love with the field. Eighth grade physical science, my teacher was briefly introducing the concept of quantum mechanics to our class, and discussed wave particle duality. My tiny 13 year old brain was overwhelmed yet craved more information immediately- how could such a paradox exist in these tiny building blocks of matter that create everything around us? This was my first introduction to what I think are the best parts of science: how counterintuitive it can be and how no matter how knowledgeable and educated you could be on a topic, there is always something new and exciting to explore within it. I have always been a curious person from childhood, and I think this is something that attracts me to science greatly. Naturally, I’m a part of my school's Science Olympiad team, and compete in the chemistry and astronomy study events- both are my favorite topics in science to study! Aside from science, I’m in our World Affairs club; staying informed on the world’s news is very important to me. I also really enjoy studying philosophy, the last philosophical book I read was L’Etrangere by Albert Camus- definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting read!

In addition to my academic interests, I have many creative hobbies as well! I enjoy drawing in my spare time; my favorite mediums are paper and pencil, watercolor, and digital. I also have picked up photo editing and graphic design and have fun messing around with images and designs on my computer. In quarantine, I took online classes and learned how to play guitar (acoustic)! It’s a beautiful instrument and I love how there’s such a wide variety of sounds you can create with it, and I can’t wait to get my hands on an electric one too, a bass eventually as well! I love listening to music too, and have a wide taste, anywhere from American rap to Brazilian bossa nova to Japanese 80s city pop to Albanian jazz and French hip hop!

At this point in the program, we have all completed our first introduction experiments, whose topics were assigned to us. This was my first time conducting an experiment in the lab! It’s so exciting to think that by our second blog, we’ll have begun our independent(!!) projects, and I’ll have designed and created my own experiment by then!! See you all then in the next blog :)