Duke Statistical Science · Financial Economics
A rising sophomore at Duke University from Toledo, Ohio. His work so far spans piano and math competitions, student government and track and field, solar and energy research, nonprofit and church service, and the strategy and financing side of sustainability.
Joshua grew up in Toledo, Ohio, competing in piano and in mathematics. He took first place in the Gene Marcus Piano Competition at Purdue University.
In mathematics he finished first in the Ohio Mathematics Contest and qualified for the MathCounts state competition multiple times.
At Maumee Valley Country Day School, Joshua took 14 AP tests with an average score of 4, earned a 1600 SAT, and held the highest GPA in the school. He was a National Merit Finalist, a Presidential Scholars Candidate, a Seal of Biliteracy recipient in Spanish, and received the Outstanding Senior Athlete Award.
As Class President he raised more than $6,000 through six fundraising campaigns, including designing custom clothing and connecting with local businesses. He organized and funded Prom 2024 for more than 200 students, overseeing budgeting for decorations and vendor coordination, led weekly student government and prom committee meetings, and managed the official class social media account to more than 30,000 monthly views.
He was the single student in his grade selected for Alumni Council, where he hosted alumni and student events, served as the student voice at bimonthly council meetings, and raised awareness of alumni activity through assemblies. He also took part in robotics and Science Olympiad, placing at regionals.
In track he was three-time all-conference, a six-time district finalist, a two-time regional finalist, and a two-time state qualifier, set two school records, and received Most Improved. He also played basketball and soccer, and worked as a cashier at Three Happiness and at Raising Cane’s.
Joshua worked across five research settings. Through ESAP he studied nanotechnology with Professor Kim, learned cleanroom etiquette and techniques, and researched and presented on lithography, quantum dots, and microfluidics.
At First Solar he supported CdTe thin-film solar cell development, conducting surface photovoltage, electroluminescence, infrared light-induced thermography, and spin-coating deposition across more than 60 production samples, and operating optical microscopy to inspect thin-film layers and identify defects.
In bioinformatics he coauthored a manuscript, “Shared and Unique Transcriptional Changes in the Orbitofrontal Cortex in Psychiatric Disorders and Suicide,” published in the peer reviewed Translational Journal of Medical Sciences. He used R to process RNA-seq data covering more than 200,000 gene expression calculations from 60 postmortem brain samples, quantified the top 100 differentially expressed genes, performed pathway enrichment analysis, and drafted the abstract and generated figures including heatmaps, pathway enrichment plots, and Venn analyses.
Through these projects he developed an interest in sustainability and renewable energy, and in solar panels in particular.
Studied nanotechnology with Professor Kim, learned cleanroom etiquette and techniques, and presented on lithography, quantum dots, and microfluidics.
Supported CdTe thin-film solar cell development across more than 60 production samples using surface photovoltage, electroluminescence, infrared thermography, spin-coating deposition, and optical microscopy.
Researched organic redox flow batteries with the Shaw Research Group under D3TaLES, running more than 30 cyclic voltammetry and rotating-disk electrode trials across five electrolyte concentrations and calculating diffusion coefficients and electron transfer rates by hand.
Characterized more than 80 perovskite solar cells using J-V, electroluminescence, and photoluminescence, performed copper thermal deposition for more than 100 device contacts, and CAD-modeled and assembled a custom mass spectrometer.
The SSTP redox flow battery findings were presented and defended to university chemistry faculty and industry mentors. The poster is available as a PDF.
Open the research poster (PDF)Joshua personally filed Toledo Minds for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and directed a week-long STEM education camp and a winter reunion for more than 30 children annually in underserved communities.
He supervised marketing and financial operations through the organization’s official social media accounts, connected with four local school districts, and coordinated the annual community fundraiser.
He also volunteered with the Boys & Girls Club and taught basketball to children at a local Chinese school. At church he prepared rice for a congregation of more than 100 every week and instructed children to do the same, and served as pianist, presider, worship leader, slideshow operator, mentor for younger generations, and group leader for the annual VBS summer camp of more than 50 children.
He was baptized on Easter 2022. He attended Urbana 2025 and hopes to do missions in China at some point.
Joshua is a rising sophomore at Duke University, majoring in statistical science and minoring in financial economics. He is a small group leader for Asian InterVarsity and serves on the new member committee for Alpha Kappa Psi.
He has developed an interest in the strategy and financing side of sustainability. In summer 2026 he held two finance internships.
M&A Analyst Intern
Summer 2026
Joshua supported buy-side advisory work for two clients: The Fremont Company and Seneca Label & Packaging. He ran company research across Capital IQ, ZoomInfo, Orbis, Grata, PitchBook, and LSEG Refinitiv, and sourced about 30 acquisition targets that received serious review.
He built an Airtable and Claude workflow that the firm adopted, and prepared a General Press tax-return summary used for live diligence.
Venture Capital Intern
Summer 2026
At CoreNetwork Fund, Joshua supported investor communications, a website redesign, and work on a Satelytics capital raise or sale. He authored much of the Q1 2026 investor report sent to about 50 limited partners, covering Cycle, 7Signal, Astronomer, Enosix, and Satelytics.
He built the CoreNetwork Fund website with Astro and Tailwind CSS, and researched comparable transactions and investment banks.
