// ariel.pollard

// hello, world

Hi, I'm Ariel
I'm a builder

Explore my portfolio (I built this too)!

Currently, I am researching potential characteristics of the Proximal-Inflammatory (previously Squamoid) subtype of Lung Adenocarcinoma using public datasets. When I'm not researching, I work to expand access to literature through my online book club and to journalism through my free school newspaper software.

See my work Say hello
  • 📍 Washington, D.C.
  • 🎓 Maret '27
  • ⚡ Intended major: Electrical Engineering
Headshot of Ariel Pollard
ariel — zsh
~ $ whoami
Ariel · builder · learner
~ $ cat interests.txt
[ "STEM Learning", "Robotics", "Bioinformatics" ]
~ $ ./status
✓ currently working on lung cancer research
~ $

// 01 — experience

Where I've Contributed

  1. June 2025 — present, year-roundCurrent

    Bioinformatics Student Research Assistant

    Wilkerson Lab, Uniformed Services University / Walter Reed National Military Medical Center · Bethesda, MD

    • Wrote the full statistical pipeline in R to test whether a common chromosome 7 gain drives the inflammation-active (proximal-inflammatory) subtype of lung adenocarcinoma, across 515 tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas.
    • Found that the subtype's key marker gene tracks tumor identity rather than extra DNA copies. Reported the results to the lab in August 2026; first-author manuscript in preparation.
    • The lab's only high-school researcher.
    • R
    • Genomics
    • Statistics
  2. Apr 2026 — present · staff writer since Sep 2023 · Op-Ed Editor 2025Current

    Online Editor-in-Chief

    The Woodley Leaves, Maret School · Washington, D.C.

    • Ran for the position on a promise to rebuild the paper's website, then built it solo over summer 2026: First Edition, an open-source site with an in-browser editor dashboard that runs behind any school's login.
    • Maret approved it and asked Finalsite, the school's web vendor, to deploy it (in progress).
    • Wrote and edited 30 op-eds as a writer and Op-Ed Editor; nine are collected below.
    • Web dev
    • Git
    • Editing
  3. 2020 — presentCurrent

    Co-Founder & Student Leader

    SPARKS Book Club Inc. · Montgomery County, MD

    • Started a free, youth-led virtual book club during the 2020 pandemic, with my older sister, for 3rd–5th grade girls in Montgomery County, MD public schools; now a registered, all-volunteer 501(c)(3). Wrote the IRS application that earned the status.
    • $12K raised, 7 volunteers, 15 students a year, 75 students served.
    • Design the curriculum and run monthly sessions pairing a novel with a STEM or art project (Scratch coding, bionic-limb design, herb gardens); built sparkslearning.org.
    • Curriculum
    • Nonprofit
    • Teaching

// 02 — projects

What I've Built

Things I've built, mostly for other people to use.

First Edition demo home page, styled as The Wildcat Times
Featured2026

First Edition

An open-source school newspaper website with an in-browser editor dashboard that runs behind any school's login.

Learn moreShow less

I built it solo over summer 2026 for The Woodley Leaves. Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no build step; an editor dashboard that works behind any school's login; a WordPress importer; 1,151 automated tests across 26 suites and a Lighthouse accessibility gate in CI. MIT license. Report: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23455214 · Software: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23445561.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
Live siteSourceWhy no build step
The Center Spread: The Woodley Leaves games section online
2026

Woodley Leaves Center Spread

A website that brings my school newspaper's games section online so readers can play them on any device.

Learn moreShow less

Built for The Woodley Leaves at Maret so the puzzles that used to live only on the printed center spread are now digital.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
Live site
sparkslearning.org home page
2025

sparkslearning.org

The website for SPARKS Book Club, the literacy and STEM nonprofit I co-founded.

Learn moreShow less

Now adding a login so students, parents, and volunteers can see upcoming meetings and book deliveries, and so volunteers can order books directly.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
Live site
Ariel adjusting the team's robot at the Botball competition
2025

Maret Botball robots

Built an autonomous robot for the national Botball competition.

Learn moreShow less

Coded in C; our team won Best Rookie Team.

  • C
  • Circuitry

// 03 — courses & certificates

Courses I Loved 

HarvardX
CourseIn progress

Statistical Inference and Modeling for High-Throughput Experiments (PH525.3x)

HarvardX on edX · 2026

Statistics and modeling for genomics data.

HarvardX
Course

Data Science: R Basics (PH125.1x)

HarvardX · 2025

R programming fundamentals for data analysis.

HarvardX
Course

CS50: Introduction to Computer Science

HarvardX · 2024

Harvard's intro to computer science and programming.

Brown Pre-College
Course

Introduction to Arduino

Brown University Pre-College · 2024

Programming Arduino microcontrollers and circuits.

// 04 — publications

Ideas and Publications

ORCID 0009-0002-5287-7579

// 05 — leadership

Clubs and Leadership

Apr 2026 — present · Op-Ed Editor 2025 · staff writer since Sep 2023

Online Editor-in-Chief

The Woodley Leaves, Maret School's student newspaper

Run the paper's website (I built the current one; see Projects), edit and publish stories and op-eds, and manage the online editing team.

2025 — present · member since 2023

Robot Team Co-Leader

Maret Botball Engineering Team · Best Rookie Team, 2025

Co-lead the team that builds autonomous robots in C for the Botball competition and mentor younger students.

2025 — present · member since 2023

Co-Leader

Maret Girls Who Code Club, supporting girls in STEM

Recruited 10 members, cultivated a safe space for girls in STEM, taught C and Python, and shared exciting, unconventional coding projects.

2025 — present · member since 2023

Co-Leader

Maret Makerspace Club, a student-led 3D printing and building group

Run creativity competitions and recruit members. Teach and certify 15 middle-school students a year to 3D print: 15 certified in 2025–26, the next 15 in progress.

2025 — present

Co-Leader

Maret Creative Writing Club

Co-lead the club's meetings and keep a space where students share and workshop their writing.

2025 — present

Co-Founder & Leader

Maret Taylor Swift Club, a student-led celebration of Taylor Swift's music and community

Founded the club to build a community of Maret Swifties: bonded over new music, and built and donated 50 gift baskets to the NIH Children's Inn.

// 06 — volunteer

Giving Back

Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington
2025 — presentOngoing

Group Leader & Student-to-Student Ambassador

Jewish Community Relations Council of Washington DC

Lead a student team facilitating interfaith dialogues at local schools, sharing my story to put a teenage face to Judaism.

Ariel on the family farm
2017 — presentOngoing

Farmhand

Ohana Valley Organic Farm, Potomac, MD

For almost 10 years, I've nurtured livestock, gathered eggs, cultivated crops, and kept up the fields and fences.

// 07 — fun facts

Free Time and Hobbies

// get in touch

Let's build something

Please reach out if you are interested in a collaboration, or just want to say hi!

ariel@arielpollard.com GitHub LinkedIn ORCID