[on his heroes] My parents, because they came to America with absolutely nothing, and they work like crazy every day to support me. No one has made a bigger impact on me.

My mother did professional Croatian folk dancing when she was younger. My dad did a few traditional Lebanese dances and some martial arts when he immigrated to the U. S., but I think that may be as close as he got to professional dancing (although he does pull out the robot from time to time).

Engineering, the major itself, is so stressful that I really needed an outlet of some sort and I feel like dance has provided that easily whenever engineering gets too stressful. But at the same time, it held me in my dance because my dance was more mathematical-minded than human emotion-driven. So yes, it's been a really interesting relationship between the science and the dancing.

[on being on So You Think You Can Dance] As far as the competition aspect, I just look forward to challenging myself to move outside of my comfort zone and unleash the dragon inside, or maybe the baby hippo... depending on my mood. More generally, I would like to gain perspective on how to truly entertain, gain skills in all styles of dance, and gain motivation to continue to improve myself and my art form.

I learned that outcomes are so often out of your hands in life, that when you finally have an opportunity to change your situation in life, you have to pour your blood, sweat, and tears into every second so you never need to ask "what if".

[His final speech on So You Think You Can Dance] I'd have to say, just being able to grow in ways that a lot of people from my background really don't really get to. I think it's pretty clear I'm as far from a trained dancer as possible and just to have this opportunity is incredible. I hope, if anything, I've inspired some people to realize that you don't necessarily need money or the option for a studio or all those things, that if you just have passion and creativity you can do anything you want.

I'm really glad, because honestly that's the main reason why I came on this show. I feel like there are certain people made perfectly as a vessel for someone to choreograph, their strength is adapting. I feel like I came on this show knowing I'm a mental, more mind oriented person. I'm more of a creator type person. I know that choreography is more of my avenue, I'm definitely going to be pursuing that and hopefully getting back and choreographing hip hop in a couple of years.