My name is Chris Kitchen. I am currently attending NuVu studio for eighth grade, and have been home schooled for most of my previous education.

Although I focus most on the sciences: engineering, design, and innovation from NuVu, as well as the more academic sciences, like physics, and Chemistry (personal favorites). My education has also been heavily influenced by the arts (mostly music). My parents are both professional musicians in the Borromeo string quartet (Dad: first violinist Mom: cellist) and I play violin myself. Due to that, music plays just as large a roll in my life as the sciences, and is inseparable from anything I do. I’m almost constantly listening to music while working at NuVu, but unfortunately am usually too busy to practice violin. At NuVu, I am currently working on an educational visualization of binary communication between computers. In the visualization, I have a two way, full duplex, serial communication between two computers, where I replace 0’s and 1’s travelling through wires with oil and purple water travelling through a clear tube (water: 1’s oil: 0’s). The visualization sends full ASCII binary, and follows standard ASCII protocols, essentially creating a large, extremely slow, and colorful wire. This will eventually be a temporary exhibit at the Boston Science Museum (hopefully).

An example of activism in the youth that I find inspiring is the Affordabili(T)/Mobili(T)/Youth way by the MBTA movement. This 8 year long youth movement was started to improve affordability and accessibility for youth on the MBTA. The main goals of the movement were to reduce restrictions on student passes on weekends, as well as adding what’s called a “youth pass” which would give free transit for youth, charging $10 a month, rather than the $27 that a normal student pass charges. Where I found the story: http://youthactivismproject.org/success-stories/ . Main sources: http://dailyfreepress.com/2014/03/16/activists-hold-rally-to-fight-for-reduced-fare-student-mbta-passes/ , http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Board_Meetings/YouthPassPilotfinalpresentation.pdf . I also have to warn that my understanding of the movement is a bit jumbled, and is partially based upon assumption, but I am still trying to find more information on the movement, and the progress it has made.