I have been an avid lover of languages and music for most of my life. In addition to spending much of my free time either creating or studying music, I spent several years studying foreign languages, including French, German, Italian, Hebrew, and Russian.

I'm fluent in French, and won French Student of the Year for the State of Georgia in 2010 following my being in the national top 2 percentile of students who took Le Grand Concours French exam, and winning a 10-day trip to France (Rencontres Internationales des Jeunes) after competing against upper-level French students at the AATF French Immersion Camp with an oral presentation on conservation and ecology before a panel of native French-speaking judges.