This was one of the most exciting and unforgettable weeks of my life!
I now have something in common with Thomas Edison: we both received our first patent in our early 20s! My Modular Roller Coaster patent (US 12,605,638 B1) was officially published, reimagining amusement rides with modular towers, dynamic multi-train interactions, and a compact vertical footprint. I prototyped and built the full design using LEGO to demonstrate its functionality and real-world feasibility as a roller coaster!
I also hosted and led a LEGO Activity Night at my company, and it was a huge success! More than 50 employees collaborated to make 100 individual 5”x5” sections to form a 26,000 piece mosaic. The design was fully planned digitally and assembled in less than three hours, featuring a beautiful Chicago skyline and our DMC Engineering logo in the background!
I was then invited to be a surprise guest judge at a local elementary school for a LEGO Masters building event! Students tackled a fun planet-themed challenge inspired by the show while I gave feedback, handed out awards, and signed autographs. Their enthusiasm, ingenuity, and teamwork were incredible to see!
This week was filled with highlights and blessings. My passion for creativity, building, and design has taken my life and career to new heights, and I’m incredibly excited to keep inspiring others!
“December grads have the best stories.”
Freshman year was filled with new friends and new classes, not to mention studying abroad in Ireland over the summer! Plus many nights of sleep interrupted by the Morrissey fire alarm, thankfully with no actual fires.
Sophomore year consisted of STEM classes, study sessions, and the start of my journey in competitive table tennis. If you look really closely, you might be able to spot me in the team photos!
Junior year was packed with projects, one of which being filming a national TV show after withdrawing from the University. Shoutout to everyone who thought I left for any wild variety of reasons other than LEGO!
Senior year was a final chance to experience dorm life, various intramural competitions, and time with those I had gotten to know over the years. The graduation ceremonies made for a weekend I’ll cherish forever!
My last semester was a blessing and great opportunity to enjoy campus one more time, whether through classroom projects or trips to the Grotto. Fewer familiar faces led me to expanding my network even further!
I’ll always be grateful for my four and a half years at Notre Dame, and a sincere thank you to everyone who made this journey unforgettable. See you later, ND! ☘️
It was an incredible honor being invited to display at the 2025 Chicago Toy & Game Fair! My custom LEGO Pinball Machine and Minions were a huge hit with kids and adults alike, and it was amazing inspiring the next generation of builders!
This summer was filled with amazing LEGO conventions! From displaying my own builds to meeting tons of new people, it was incredibly exciting!
Brickworld Chicago was in June, and it was awesome reconnecting with builders I’ve known for eight years! I displayed some of my own builds, including my life-size playable Pinball Machine, three huge Minions, and my brand new amusement park! I also gave a presentation on roller coasters which was a blast!
Brick Rodeo was in July, and this was the big kickoff of panels, signings, and photo ops for LEGO Masters! The majority of the Season 5 cast was in attendance, and we had so much fun catching up after nearly two years since filming! It was wonderful leading games, being on panels, and signing autographs!
BrickFair Virginia was in August, and this was a great way to wrap up the summer! It was nonstop action for the entire weekend, and since the show had finished airing, it truly felt like being a celebrity! There was a long line for our signing table, plenty of questions at the panel, as well as tons of meet and greets throughout!
I’m incredibly grateful for an unforgettable summer with LEGO Masters airing and going to LEGO conventions! Filming the show was the experience of a lifetime, and getting to interact with fellow builders and fans has been an unbelievable feeling! Looking forward to even more LEGO adventures in the future!
What could go wrong in a 90s themed bedroom on a reality tv show? Episode 8 of LEGO Masters featured the game “Is it Brick?,” where a set of special guests guessed whether items we created were real or made from LEGO pieces on a one-to-one scale!
With a room full of colorful and fun choices, my mom and I chose the bed. The full size bed! This was one of the most ambitious builds in LEGO Masters history, as we pushed our skills and building speed to the limit in this challenge! Constructing a frame, huge bedsheets, and a decorative headboard, we were incredibly close to pulling off this behemoth creation in ten hours! Even though our bed partially collapsed as the clock hit zero, we were very proud of everything we accomplished in both this challenge and the entire season as a whole!
While this is the end of the road for my mom and I on LEGO Masters, we’re not leaving empty handed! We pushed our creativity to new heights, competed against the best builders in the world, and became a part of the legendary LEGO Masters family! Finishing in the top five teams and building alongside my mom was truly a dream come true! Thank you so much to everyone for your support of this LEGO Masters journey, it means the world to me!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
Let’s have a ball! A masquerade ball!? Episode 7 of LEGO Masters invited our building teams to the most extravagant challenge yet, in which we had to create a wearable mask to strut down the runway in style showcasing our building techniques!
Enter the Warrior Goddess! No matter where in the entire galaxy she visits, our beauty queen brings the party and bops to any beat! Our mask featured shades of tan complimented by gold and transparent red, tires threaded on flexible tubing for bouncy hair, and even light up eyes to stand out from across the room! Since our costume had fur and sequins, it was only fitting to make a royal deity to suit the outfit! With an undeniable sense of swagger, we rocked the party with a standout creation testing the limits of LEGO bricks!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
The Dark Knight rises… and he’s ready to roll like an eighteen wheeler! Episode 6 of LEGO Masters brought the caped crusader into the spotlight with a unique minifigure-scale vehicle challenge, which also involved creating a special gadget!
Choosing the Dark Knight era of Batman, we decided to make a massive semi-truck with eighteen wheels, a huge trailer covered with panels, an overcab lightbar, and an automated trunk which released an ATV! But wait, there’s more! We also built a monowheel, giving Batman more maneuverability and speed to traverse the city streets! Not only did we end up in the first ever Top 3 for a challenge, we also won the coveted Golden Brick which can be used to prevent elimination in a future challenge! This was an incredibly fun episode capped off with an unbelievable win and reward!
This build was also in memory of my Grandpa Dave, who was a long haul trucker for more than twenty years. He was the first person to tell me about LEGO Masters and ever since the first season, he dreamed I would be on the show. I know he’s watching this one from heaven with an extra big smile.
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
Steampunk is a world filled with huge contraptions and massive movements, so Episode 5 of LEGO Masters featured a challenge where motion was the heart of our story! As if that wasn’t enough, we also went head-to-head against another team!
Facing off against Niki & Brittain with the movement of swing, we decided to make an enormous steampunk grandfather clock! Our build, “Running Out of Time” showcases a daring escape of a hero grabbing onto and swinging from a massive pendulum while climbing towards a mystical portal! We wanted to go big with our clock and motion as well as incorporate unique pieces such as gears, chains, and even flashing lights to craft a unique creation that stood out from the rest! We were thrilled to win our head-to-head matchup with a giant build using its movement to drive our story!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
It’s time to get Wicked! In Episode 4 of LEGO Masters, the wonderful world of Oz crossed over with a unique challenge of building a magical item that featured a reveal which showcased our good or wicked spell in action!
With the good spell of “Friendship” we made a picnic basket filled with fruit, and when the blanket covering our build was removed, the story came to life! A magic potion bottle spread our spell of friendship to all of the fruit inside, encouraging them to be friends and enjoy being together! Since motion was a requirement for this challenge, we incorporated three different mechanisms including a spinning potion bottle, bouncing apple, and waving banana! Amidst a bounty of motorization, bright colors, and cute characters, we were incredibly happy with the way our spell was cast in the world of Wicked!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
Welcome to the jungle! Episode 3 of LEGO Masters featured a massive waterfall which our builds tumbled down in super slow motion! Each build was judged both on its appearance before and during the epic descent towards destruction!
We created Sylvester the Sloth, who’s not having a great day. He fell asleep holding a beehive, rolled into a river, and is now heading straight for a waterfall! He’s only awoken from his slumber by a single bee that landed on his nose, but it’s too late as he plunges over the edge! Our build features a cute central character with plenty of bees flowing out of the hive, making for a mesmerizing slow motion fall! This episode was filled with twists, turns, and spills, including my mom, who tripped with a tray full of hundreds of LEGO bricks!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
Week two of LEGO Masters featured a wedding cake extravaganza! After being paired into superteams of four builders, not only would the most beautiful cake earn a top spot, the tallest cake would immediately be safe from elimination!
It was amazing working with Maia (@mbbricks ) and Jamie (@bricks.dad ) for this epic challenge! Having the mother/son and daughter/father pairs in a superteam was a dream come true since our skills as builders perfectly complemented each other! We constructed the tallest cake in the room standing at a staggering height of 9’1”, and I’m incredibly grateful for our team putting trust in me with our towering spire and their ability to capture the essence of our story! The entire challenge was filled with twists and suspense making it an unforgettable experience!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
In the season premiere of LEGO Masters, we were tasked with rebuilding the galaxy! Starting with the remains of a destroyed planet, we assembled the “Sweet Spot of the Galaxy,” the only remaining source of candy in the cosmos!
Our build features a giant gummy worm, licorice forest, cotton candy river, candy cane tug-of-war, spaceships fighting over sour crystals, and a central gingerbread house! We wanted to create an atmosphere of tension filled with vibrant colors, all while connecting back to a family tradition of decorating gingerbread houses every year with my grandparents. Not to mention the entire planet had to balance and hang level from a single cable! This episode gave a wonderful introduction to my mom and I as a team, and there are plenty of entertaining moments!
#LEGO #LEGOMasters #realitytv
