“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

-Winston Churchill

I’m Julian. Thank you for viewing my portfolio.

I am a very hands-on learner… I love to question everything and then go deep with my research. People call me “auto-didactic” because I also like to teach myself new things like: playing the guitar, building a more powerful antenna for my Ham Radio, composing music, or even making bagels from scratch. Currently, I am very interested in an AI called DALL·E. I used it to create some novel images of my dog and other passions of mine. It has inspired some of my paintings.

I enjoy anything technical (amateur radio, additive manufacturing) and scientific, like using my microscope, but I’m also creative and enjoy things like making music and painting.

One thing I really want to improve is my knowledge of Sailing. I took a multi-week course in the summer and I can’t wait to get back on the water!

On the weekends, you might find me teaching my Grandmother how to use a computer, collecting comic books and Pokémon cards, playing tennis, or going for a long bike ride with my family. I also got into speed cubing and I enjoy teaching others how to solve the Rubik’s cube if they are interested in learning!

Academic Pursuits

Our Middle School program includes Interdisciplinary Studies where we examine unit themes through project work, ELA/Humanities (my favorite subject), Math, Science, STEM, and Spanish as well as community service. Below are some highlights from recent projects.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) Unit on Perspective

A PBL Unit I worked on was about “Perspective”. I decided to research how people’s identity affects their perspective on controversial subjects. In the end, I didn’t have enough data points to draw a firm conclusion but I learned a lot along the way, like how to create a strong survey. The skills I learned were invaluable to my future PBL projects, like the one on “Voice”.

**Click on the image above to see my Blended Genre, Research Paper.**

Project-Based Learning Unit on “Voice”

Another project I worked on which I really loved was about deciphering the difference between analog and digital audio. I sent our a survey to my peers along with some music samples. They were tasked with identifying which samples of the same song produced on the same equipment were from an analog or digital source. I then made a presentation to share my findings and inform my classmates about the differences between listening to music from an analog vs. digital source and how digital compression alters the sound.

Community Service

How I used a passion of mine to support those who are struggling with homelessness in our community.

I believe in the power of community. I am grateful to have a roof over my head and plentiful access to food, and I wanted to pause and recognize that not all members of our community are as fortunate as I am.

I was able to use my creativity and my tech skills to create an array of small holiday “treasures” to sell at our School’s Winter Festival, with all the proceeds going towards those community members struggling with homelessness. I actually selected a person who I would see each morning on my way to school and offered him the earnings as a Holiday ‘blessing’ along with some cookies. The look of humble gratitude on his face will stay with me forever.

Raising money for Education for Ukrainian Refugees in Jersey City

One of the most recent service projects was raising money for Ukrainian refugees. My friends and I can be seen on the roof of our school, where we were interviewed by a local reporter about our efforts. It was a fun day to celebrate our contributions to the lives of others.

Music composition & other artistic endeavors

I’ve always had a passion for music. Last year, when we learned about music composition, I was moved to make my own music. Below, see my score and if you like, listen to my piece. It’s a piece I wrote mainly to learn how to make music, written for a solo pianist to play… though it may be a little challenging to play.

Here is the second page of my Score. You can listen to it below.

When I was little, my parents bought me a guitar. I really enjoyed taking lessons but then the pandemic hit. During the pandemic, I taught myself to play some parts of a few of my favorite songs. I’m excited to continue playing in high school.

A class on Picasso really inspired me to try my hand at painting. That same summer, I spent some time at the Picasso Museum in Paris, where I was able to learn more about the man behind the art.

Here is a painting I made of my dog, Summer. And… one of my culinary creations: bagels!

Here is some of my AI art below:

Clubs

I’ve been a member of the following clubs and extracurriculars during my school years:

Chess Club
HPMS Basketball Team
Robotics: We competed twice in the First Lego League Challenge pre-pandemic
Student Ambassador: It’s been my pleasure to tour many adults and prospective students over the years during school Open Houses and Curriculum Nights; often I am asked to present part of the curriculum
Stock Market Challenge: This class inspired me to try my hand at the stock market with money I have earned from after-school jobs
Montessori Model UN: See more below
Newspaper Club: Started the “HPMS Middle School Times” Newspaper & am Editor-in-Chief
Percussion/Drumming
Stewardship: We cleaned up the neighborhood, took care of the school’s apiary, nurtured the rooftop garden and learned to harvest honey and herbs to make things like lip balm that we sold in the school store, using the proceeds to invest back in our garden/apiary
Sailing: I am working toward being an instructor
Screen Writing Club: I took a class where we learned how to write scripts for movies and television. In the end, we wrote a script for and filmed a short film. And, it led to me being in a motion picture that premiered at the Chelsea Film Festival this year; see more on this below
Coding Classes: I participated in many ID Tech classes where I learned to code in JAVA and Python
Virtual Reality (VR) Research Study: I participated in a multi-week study where researchers were trying to determine the effectiveness of teaching and learning using Virtual Reality; I also got to experiment with the VR headset
St. Peter’s Prep Higher Achievement Program: I attended a 5-week summer program this past summer (focused on academic and athletic skills) which was really fun

Public Speaking

I have always wanted to improve my public speaking skills as I feel that this is a great skill to have in life. Whenever I get the opportunity, I try to practice my public speaking skills. As early as 2nd grade, I served as a Student Ambassador.

Here (below), I volunteered to give a tour to all my classmates of some of the notable sculptures in NYC and their significance.

The Newspaper Club

This year I am the Editor-in-Chief of our school’s newspaper. Last year was the first year of the newspaper. Because the club was quite small (~5 people) we all had to put in a lot of work to make the paper a reality. We all had to participate in many different jobs including raising money, selling the paper, layout editing, writing articles, marketing, etc. Through this experience, I learned how difficult but rewarding it is to write a Newspaper. We ended up publishing 3 issues and completely selling out of copies. This year the club has nearly tripled in size. We have many new members and articles. We are super excited to publish our first issue soon which has 5x more articles than our first issue last year.

Amateur Radio: Call Sign KD2UFN

Ham radio has been an interest of mine since before I was even licensed (that’s my call sign above). I was first introduced to it when I was a Boy Scout. There was an event where a Ham Radio Operator was teaching us about Amateur radio and I was very interested. I never really had the time or the courage to get my license until I took it upon myself in June 2020 to study and pass the exam to get my amateur radio license. Ever since then I have been absorbed by different aspects of the hobby. I got into DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) and constructed a hotspot. This allowed me to talk to other “hams” around the world that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise reach. Recently I built an antenna that allowed me to communicate with hams all over New Jersey and even Upstate New York.

Fencing & Sailing

When I was younger, I used to do Tae Kwon Do and I made it up to Brown Belt. Once I discovered Fencing, however, I realized that was one of my true passions. Then one summer, I was inspired to try Sailing. Now I am completely hooked! I can’t wait until next season to work with my sailing instructor and hone my skills even further. My goal is to be an instructor.

Montessori Model UN

I participated in MMUN when I was in Upper Elementary. I always enjoy learning about current events and enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. I was part of DISEC Committee representing the Union of the Comoros. Click below to read my position paper.

Acting

I was pretty excited when I was asked to be part of a production. It was supposed to be a show but they ended up turning it into a movie. We filmed the scene below right before the pandemic and it wasn’t until October 2022 that the film came out at the Chelsea Film Festival. It was the closing film at the festival. It was very exciting to go see it on the big screen.

Other Fun Stuff

I’m also a Rubik’s Speed Cuber. The pandemic gave me the opportunity to try new things… and I always wanted to learn how to solve the Rubik’s cube. I taught myself how to cube and then how to “speed cube”. My best time is sub-30 seconds.

It was my idea to try sleep-away camp when I was in 3rd grade. I continued to go to New Hampshire for a few summers for sleep-away camp and really enjoyed trying new sports like Archery and Fishing.

As part of my “Stewardship” class, I also learned how to take care of an apiary and harvest honey!

I also love to travel and spend time with my family and friends.