“Books, La La Land, and Hawaii: A Conversation with Ava”

By Eva Palmeri and Madeline Frank

1. What was your major?

I am a recent graduate from UCI, just graduated in June. My major was in Earth System Science, and I have a minor in biology, along with two specializations in oceanography and hydrology and terrestrial ecosystems.

2. Where are you from?

My hometown currently is Rancho Cucamonga, CA, (an hour northeast in the Inland Empire).

3. What is your favorite part of COSMOS?

Getting to know my residents and all of the 235 residents. I have to supervise 12 on my floor, but I love making connections with residents from all different halls. One of my favorite parts is doing panels for resumes and college applications. So really I love to connect with the students through workshops and activities.

4. What hall are you an RA for?

I’m currently in Whispering Woods, floor 2: the Despicable Me hall.

5. Why did you decide to be a part of COSMOS?

So I was introduced to COSMOS by one of the program PI’s, Elizabeth Crook, who is the academic head of COSMOS at UCI, and she’s also a teaching professor here. She was one of my first Earth System Sciences professors, so I've gotten to know her over the course of the last three years during my time at UCI. I took 2 of her classes during the last quarter of my second year, and got more involved doing outreach with her. She let me know that there were positions available to do COSMOS when she advertised it to me, and I was immediately like “Oh I’m so interested!” So now it's my second year being a COSMOS RA and I really enjoyed it last year.

6. Favorite food?

I’m Colombian and one of my favorite foods is called a Bunuelo; it's a small ball of cheese dough that gets fried at a very high temperature, so it becomes a perfect little ball. If I had to second Colombian food, I would probably have to go with sushi and poke… actually let's put poke on top, betraying my own country. I’ll put poke on top because I have a favorite go-to Uroko Cafe poke spot in Costa Mesa, and that's my comfort food.

7. Favorite part of campus?

My favorite part of campus is probably Aldrich Park because it's such a nice place to go to during the day. I went there during my day off and listened to Planetarium from La La Land, and I use it to just walk through to stare at nature to get a break from the screen and class. One of my core memories at UCI was sharing headphones with my roommate as she and I walked around Aldrich Park with the song Planetarium and it was so nice in between our classes, and the weather in Irvine is always ideal. My favorite building or place to be is probably my lab in Crowl Hall, in physical sciences, and it's also the building for the Earth Systems Science department. I spent so much time there this year because I was writing my senior thesis and doing my independent project on marine microbes. There are good study spaces there, and it's also where my lab is, so I'm kind of biased already. But there are a lot of good memories there for me.

8. Favorite movie?

La La Land is probably one of my favorite movies. It's the first movie to ever make me cry, because of the ending since it's so sad, but so real. I do like the Devil Wears Prada; it's a good one and it's always really fun. La La Land is a good coming of age movie, it has music, and is an unfortunately very realistic love story.

9. Favorite song / music genre?

That's so so difficult. I do listen to a variety of songs and genres, but Beyonce would have to be my favorite artist as of currently, because I do have all her songs on repeat very often. I also love Chappel Roan. So Chappel Roan and Beyonce are my top two artists right now. They probably would show on my Spotify, also here's a fun fact: you can get Spotify premium for a reduced price when you go to college and enter in your email and it gives you it for 4 years. Not an ad for spotify, just a life hack. I’d probably say that Red Wine Supernova from Chappel Roan is my favorite song, and from Beyonce, I really do have all of her songs on repeat ever since I saw her live in LA for Renaissance. I mean Virgo’s Grove, probably since I am a virgo (September 12) and she's a virgo, and I feel like that's very powerful to have Beyonce on our side. I’ve also listened to Beyonce ever since I was in middle school; I remember when she came out with music videos and I would try to copy her dances, and now, getting to see her live, it was so crazy. I like a variety of artists, and my recent likes are: Megan the Stallion, Shakira, and I am also Team Kendrick!! I used to be in band, too, so I've really listened to every type of music, from instrumentals to musicals. I was especially big into Hamilton when it came out in 2015. And the reason that I think my music taste is very wide is because I tend to just play daily playlists and turn on shuffle based on my likes, and listen to whatever comes up.

10. Favorite book?

I was really big into reading when I was younger. I feel like college did not give me the time that I wanted to read as much as I wanted to, unfortunately. But I was really big into Y/A, fantasy, and always fiction. The last book I read was in a tiny little book club with my friend and I in it, and honestly it wasn't great. After he went on a trip and we both read the book separately, we came back and were like, “What was that?” That was “Tower in the Sea”, about octopi evolving to become extraterrestrials on the planet. But I do mainly enjoy fiction and fantasy, so I read a lot of Sarah J. Mass, like “Throne of Glass”, Romina Garber’s “Zodiac,” (I met her when I was younger and she was lovely, we both still follow each other on instagram.) “Red Queen” by Victoria Aveyard, really a lot of world-building fantasy genres. There was one historical fiction that I did read when I was much younger, and it was called “Between Shades of Gray.” It’s a very good book, very heartfelt story, and it's about a family going through difficult times surrounding the Holocaust. I have a signed author’s version of “Salt to the Sea”, by the same author, which I got at Barnes and Noble, and I took it and bought it immediately. I should probably read it and take it with me to Hawaii, since my post-grad plans include starting a masters in Marine Science at Hawaii Pacific University in August, so mid-august after COSMOS I’ll be here for a bit and then I'll be moving to the Island of Oahu. Hawaii Pacific is specifically in the downtown area.

11. Any advice for COSMOS students?

I would say to all COSMOS students, you're only here for a short time, so make the most of activities and hanging out with friends. You have access to an incredible amount of resources here, so if you really have questions for anyone, just ask. If you hear someone in a program or a department that you're really interested in, ask them about it because maybe they might be able to get in touch with some people or show you some resources that you're interested in. Also, it's definitely going to go by fast, so like I said, enjoy it. I don’t think a lot of you all recognize that being in COSMOS is a really big achievement, and that will push you far, just like having the experience of being in a lab and doing a poster. Doing these scientific posters that you'll be presenting, I’ve seen them, as I said it's my second year. Presenting those posters is something that some students in college wait like two or three years to do. So the fact that you're doing them now with realistic data is really cool and I'd say just give yourself credit for that. Because I feel that a lot of students are like, “It's not too big of a deal.” But it is a big deal and you should all give yourselves a pat on the back because you deserve it.

Ava, we wish you luck in Hawaii and hope you have more time to read!