Leonardo Goran

I grew up with deaf parents speaking sign language and interpreting for my parents in medical settings. I have also taken multiple years of music lessons from private teachers for saxophone, guitar, and ukulele. I have been in the Kamiak high school jazz band for 4 years, waking up at 5:30 am to arrive at school before 6:30 am. I was also involved with the school choir for two years. I played lead alto saxophone with the Edmonds Community College jazz band for two years and traveled with the band to Cuba for a salsa festival. I have also won 2nd place in the soloist category at an International Ukulele competition in Hawaii in 2017, and have received recognition from world-famous ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro. In 2018 I went by myself to Spain for three months to take flamenco guitar and Spanish lessons at a school called 'Taller Flamenco' (Also went to Mallorca, Spain for 3 months in 2022 for more Spanish immersion) I also have a YouTube channel featuring my music. During December of 2020, I had taken it upon myself to study Spanish much more seriously with a native speaker for 3-6 hours per week. As of right now, I have memorized over 13,000 flashcards through a software program (called spaced repetition) that forces me to recall information at the right time so that my past efforts were not wasted. I will soon be taking a placement-level-test as my teacher believes I am at a B2 level (which is near-fluent). I am also working on breaking the guinness world record for world's longest abdominal plank, have been able to do 4 hours.