Hi there! As you already know, I’m Jonathan Ferrari. Although you know my name, you probably don’t know much about me…yet; let me help with that. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, more specifically Richmond. The Bay Area is special for me because I’ve been fortunate enough to continue living here and making more memories with family and friends while I attend UC Berkeley. I live with my family and my pets, all of whom are both dear to me, and when I’m not studying or working, you can usually find me reading in bed, making a midnight snack, watching videos about outer space, or FaceTiming my friends and classmates.
Ever since I can remember, I have been entranced with learning and being able to solve problems. This passion has manifested in many ways, from my interest in photography to my fascination with origami- I just couldn’t get enough. While curiosity is the root of many of my hobbies, it has more importantly inspired my love of academia. Through my grade school education, this lead me to pursue science, a field where I could really apply what I knew. I would read or watch anything about science that I could get my hands on, from Bill Nye, to A Brief History of Time, to Vsauce YouTube videos. I participated in many a science fair and ended up graduating high school with an Honors diploma with an emphasis on Astrophysics and Calculus.
Once I started college, my passion for learning and academia only grew further. In my first semester, I began to explore the majors offered- and let me tell you- there’s a lot. I felt so overwhelmed by the possibilities, that I took an exploration course at Cal. It was in this course that I fell in love with one of my majors, Cognitive Science. I enjoyed the more qualitative study of the mind and was amazed at how well concepts from Philosophy, Psychology, and Linguistics merged with Computer Science. I was a bit scared to take the coding classes required for my major, but I decided to just get it over with, so I took a class called Fundamentals of Data Science, which was taught in the language Python. Ironically, the course that previously filled me with dread became one of the most phenomenal learning experiences of my life. That semester, I decided that I wanted to do another major, Data Science. I had never coded a day in my life before, and that introductory course helped me realize my passion for data analysis, alrogrithm writing, and explorations, which can be used to solve a limitless number of real-world problems.
So now, you’re pretty much caught up with my life. Currently, I’m planning on majoring in Data Science, Cognitive Science, and Psychology. I’m also working at the UC Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office as a Financial Peer Educator. So now you know a little bit about my past and present, but what about…my future? Well, even I can’t say for sure what it holds for me, but I can give you an idea of my motivations and aspirations; what makes me tick, why I get out of bed in the morning.
One of my biggest motivations in life is to change the world. Now, I know that’s a worn-out cliché, but hear me out. I don’t want to invent something crazy or be a politician. I don’t want fame, or power, or wealth. I want to contribute to the advancement of society and human culture, not to maintain stagnancy and support the status quo. I’ll be completely honest with you, I have no idea what that means for my future; it could mean graduate school, joining the workforce, or some other possibility that has yet to become even the sparkle of an idea in my mind.
I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d wager that you now know me better than you did before you started reading. I hope that this is the case, but if it isn’t, you’re more than welcome to interact with me using any of the buttons below. Cheers!