Hi everyone! I’m Ona. I’m assuming pretty much everyone following this site will already know who I am but just in case you’ve stumbled upon this page without knowing me, here’s a brief introduction.

I was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountain region of the Appalachians of Western North Carolina. I decided to stay in my hometown for college to play Division 1 volleyball for the UNC Asheville Bulldogs. While at UNCA, I studied abroad in both Granada, Spain and Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. I majored in Political Science and International Studies and I minored in Asian Studies, presenting my senior thesis research at a national student research conference in Washington, DC and publishing my work in Dignity: An Undergraduate Human Rights Journal. After graduating as the UNCA Valedictorian, I spent a year working with a local government in rural Murphy, North Carolina through an AmeriCorps program called Lead for North Carolina. During my year in Murphy, I connected deeply with the local community and helped found a youth development program: the Mayor’s Rising Stars. This work, as well as experiences coaching youth volleyball, teaching astronomy to community youth as a Lookout Observatory docent, and working as a course ambassador in college, led me to my current role as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Chiayi County, Taiwan. I’ve created this blog to document my time in Taiwan for the next 11 months and I hope to use it as a personal space for reflection and community while I am away from home.