Third year has been an incredible time; my friends can attest to this, and I have said this multiple times: this year has felt like my freshman year. It has had incredible highs and some unfortunate lows but ultimately it has been a wonderful teacher to me. Academically, it was a challenging two semesters: the intermediate physics classes are by far the hardest courses I have taken so far, however it felt great challenging myself with new physics and finally making that transition to college level courses. It has given me some clarity of thought in terms of how I want to approach post-graduation. This also marks my one year in the NEXT Innovation Scholars program, and it has been everything I had hoped for and better. I have met some incredible people, great professional connections, and most importantly worked on projects that have challenged me beyond my current capabilities. I am a very self-introspective person, and the growth I have seen in academic, professional, and personal domains have been exceptional. I have learnt so much hanging out with the incredible people I get to call my friends, and the support I have received through this program has helped me a great deal in my self-discovery. Professionally, I held three different on-campus positions this year: I was a Resident Advisor for the whole year, Supplemental Review Session Leader for the fall semester, and the Strategies and Partnerships Intern at Office of Innovation during the spring. I was the RA for an engineering learning community, and it proved to be a very transformative experience for me. I was able to connect with incoming STEM freshmen on a personal level which in turn showed me many of the pain points they face in their transition from high school to college. Having lost my freshman year to COVID, the RA role was very fulfilling to me: helping students feel welcome and loved in a new community. I will be returning to the same building my next and final year. The SRS leader role was a similar experience, I was leading the review sessions for an introductory STEM math class. These two on campus positions have allowed me to understand and connect more with students from majors similar to mine. It opened my eyes to struggles that I thought were unique to me at the time but in retrospect were representative of more widespread and underlying problems. This realization has inspired me to help solve at least a small fraction of the issue, and I am currently working on creating a physics/STEM newsletter (name TBD), with the goal of keeping an inventory of the research positions in and out of UC, with some fun sections like student/alumni interviews sprinkled in. I am very excited to get the project rolling and embark on the journey to make 'navigating STEM majors easier'. My final position as the Strategies and Partnerships Intern was a very new and exciting experience that I got to be a part of thanks to my connections through the NIS program. It was my first ever office job and I had a personal cubicle. Getting out of my STEM bubble and working with people from different backgrounds in an official setting was a much-needed experience for me. I was allowed a lot of freedom with my workflow and time management; this role really stretched my skillset asking me to perform tasks ranging from competitive analysis to analyzing funding proposals. At the end it was a very rewarding and educational process that I am thankful for. Over the year I was also able to undertake the responsibility of being an UHP ambassador; the program has been an integral part of my student life so far and to be able to represent it meant a lot to me. Working with the fellow ambassadors, the advisors and the directors felt so natural, everyone was welcoming and accepting, and the team felt like it existed from the start. A major part of my year was dedicated to the NEXT Innovations Scholar Program, and it is only fair that it gets a whole paragraph for itself. This has been THE most transformative experience of my college life. Breaking it down, I worked on 3 major projects over the year: New Life Furniture Bank space optimization, Futures Forecast, and 1819 Student Engagement. Each one flexing a different part of my brain and skillset, they have forced me to learn, relearn and improve over so many aspects. The friends I have made through this program have become people I spend the most time with, the authenticity, love and ambition that oozes from the group whenever we are together is positively contagious. A big thanks also goes out to Aaron Bradley, the director of the program who made this all possible; he is the definition of an incredible leader and I try my best to absorb and learn whatever I can from him. This program has given me access to an excellent professional network, helping me meet people that would generally be outside my domain and reach. Overall, this was the best part of my year, and I am truly thankful for the people that have made it possible. My research over the year has been a little slow due to me overcommitting elsewhere. But I have made some significant gains in skills, and I am thankful to Dr. Connor Henderson for his continued confidence in me. I am assured that this summer will be a good time to catch up and get to a stage where I will be setup for my final year capstone under him. I want to end this year's reflection by thanking the people that have been a part of my life, I am eternally grateful for the great friendships, phenomenal mentorships and supportive family that I have access to; I feel excited and ready to take on my final year.