Téa – 2025 West Sound Region Rising Star
Her cradle-to-career journey
What was an important learning experience you had before you started school?
When I was little, my Auntie lived with us (my parents, my sister, my grandma, and me). She had a great job working at the zoo and could get us in for free. I was fascinated by all of the animals. One day, there was an ornithologist (bird scientist) there who quizzed me on various feathers and species. Even though I was only four, I got each increasingly difficult question correct. My mom still loves to tell this story. I also had tons of animal and scientific books at home, and even though I couldn’t read yet, I spent hours looking at the diagrams and pictures.
I was obsessed with heavy machinery and would make my mom bring me to all the local work sites. We visited so often that the construction workers knew me by name. I learned all of the machines and their parts. When I was two, before bed, I told all my family members to “dream of backhoes.” I was a very curious little kid.
If you could use STEM learning or skills to solve one problem, what would it be?
If I could solve one problem, it would be ending inadequate medical care for marginalized people. We all know that women, people of color, the disabled, and other oppressed groups are completely underrepresented in the medical community as practitioners and in studies. Did you know that women are ~50% more likely to be misdiagnosed than men? Similarly, people of color are ~20-30% more likely to be misdiagnosed than their white counterparts. This percentage only increases in small communities like mine, where there are fewer specialists, and the ones that are here are more overworked and less educated than in larger communities.
A big part of the reason I want to go into the medical field is that I was misdiagnosed multiple times. Often, as a teenage girl, I felt that doctors belittled me and made me feel like I was crazy for feeling what I was feeling, or that it was just “lady problems.” After 6 years, I finally got a diagnosis when I was able to go to the city and see a specialist. It shouldn’t have to be that way. Most people can’t afford to travel and see specialists. My parents are still in medical debt. None of this would be a problem in the first place if we had adequate medical professionals in underserved communities.
What are you thinking about doing after high school?
In the future, I want to become a nurse of radiology. I have been taking prerequisites for nursing school at community college and have really been enjoying it. My next plan is to get my ultrasound tech qualifications so I can at least be in my goal field. Then, eventually, I will get my full degree and become a registered nurse of radiology.
Pursuing a career in nursing
Téa shares her steps to becoming a registered nurse of radiology.
Nominated for her commitment to learning
“Téa enjoys challenging people’s concepts and ideas. She enjoys STEM and science, especially when it relates to humans both medically and societally. Right now, she is in Running Start working toward her Associates Degree of Nursing and wanting to move into the medical field.
In middle school Téa competed, and her team won, a NASA Drone competition out of Forks Middle School. In both 9th and 10th grade, she competed in MATE ROV (underwater robotics) at the navigator level. She focused on the presentation aspect of it. She also participated in Science Olympiad taking on Human Anatomy among other competitions. Currently she is volunteering with COASST as a Beached bird surveyor working with two interns.”
—Téa’s science teacher and ROV mentor
The Washington STEM Rising Star Awards encourage young women and trans and nonbinary youth to embrace STEM learning in ways that will support their education, career, and community.
Meet all of the 2025 Washington STEM Rising Stars!