Ahanu Youngblood: Chasing Adventure With Boundless Curiosity

When I first sat down to interview Ahanu Youngblood ’25 at Amherst Coffee, I thought I knew what to expect: your classic chemistry and computer science double major, and an amazing snowboarder to boot. In short, the kind of guy Amherst loves to stick on the cover of an admissions brochure or perhaps put in a panel for accepted students on Be A Mammoth days. Within 10 minutes of our nearly two-hour chat, I soon realized that I was right, but for very different reasons than what I had originally understood. 

To say that Youngblood is “laid-back” would be accurate, but it misses the depth of his presence: While he carries himself with an ease that suggests calm, there’s a quiet intentionality to everything he does. If you spend even five minutes with him, you’ll realize curiosity, passion, and hard work all run quietly beneath his easygoing surface. He made constant quips and jokes during the interview, as if we had always been friends — even though it was our first time meeting.

“His energy is contagious and he never fails to bring a smile to my face,” said America Rangel ’25, a longtime friend.

Youngblood has carried his warm energy and passion through his four years at Amherst: He has qualified for and competed in three national championships as a snowboarder on the Amherst College Alpine Racing Team. He’s a co-president of the Native and Indigenous Students Association (NISA) and president of the college’s skateboarding club. As a senior, he competed for Team USA in the World University Games in snowboarding. On top of it all, he’s a chemistry and computer science double major who wrote a chemistry thesis on the synthesis of zinc complexes. 

Perhaps the most unexpected thing I learned about Youngblood during our conversation was that he races pigeons. It might make sense in hindsight, of course: a speed demon on the mountain has to translate that love of speed somewhere off the snow. Although hearing about Youngblood’s hobby was hilarious and incredibly surprising, it’s this unconventional mix of interests that makes Youngblood stand out: a blend of curiosity, dedication, and the constant pursuit of something beyond the ordinary.

Local Roots, Racing Pigeons, and Big Dreams

Youngblood grew up with his mother in nearby Belchertown, Massachusetts, and attended the Amherst school system, ultimately graduating from Amherst-Pelham Regional High School. Although it was just him and his mom at home, he grew up with a full house of pets: three guinea pigs, his dog Caesar, and 10 pigeons.

“It’s kind of popular in places like [the Northeast] and Maine and New York,” Youngblood explained when I, bewildered, asked him how he came to race pigeons in the first place. “In high school, I had a friend who joined this club where you trained and raced pigeons. All throughout high school, he and I would train and race our pigeons together,” he said. 

(Note that our conversation then got side-tracked for a solid five minutes as we talked about baby pigeons and looked at pictures of them.) 

Racing pigeons was just one way Youngblood spent his childhood. He grew up actively connected to the Amherst community. Aside from playing recreational league soccer and baseball, Youngblood participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters throughout middle and high school. The program provides children from 6-18 with a one-on-one adult mentor to build strong relationships and foster youth potential. It was through this program that he got his first sneak peek at his future school.

“My big [brother], Denzel Wood [’18], was actually an Amherst College student, so every Friday, I would go to Amherst College and hang out with him and his friends,” Youngblood said. “He was probably the most influential person for me growing up. I kind of felt very isolated as a middle schooler, so that's why I joined the big brothers and sisters program.” 

Youngblood hadn’t originally planned to attend Amherst. Having grown up in the same town and already being connected to the college, he was initially “a little bummed.” However, that feeling quickly shifted. He found Amherst to be a great fit, especially for someone like him who enjoys being outdoors. “It felt like a bubble,” he said, “but even if I wasn’t in town or on campus 24/7, meeting new people was a refreshing change.”

The Three C’s: Chemistry, Computer Science, and Community

Youngblood had always been drawn to science, spending a lot of time watching YouTube videos on scientific facts, including planets. Yet, he joked, “I also grew up playfighting and having Nerf battles with my neighbors.” By the time he reached high school, Youngblood’s curiosity evolved into a deeper interest, especially after taking chemistry classes. That was when he began to see the broader possibilities: Science wasn’t just something you studied, but something you could apply beyond the classroom.

It makes sense, of course, that he chose to pursue and declare the chemistry major at Amherst. He jumped into general chemistry immediately in his freshman year, and the passion only grew. “The subject can be absolutely ruthless,” he joked when I asked him astonishedly why he chose to continue, especially as the Chemistry 151/155 and 161/165 sequence is notoriously difficult. But ultimately, his passion for the subject prevailed, and he chose to stick with it. 

Over the years, Youngblood participated in chemistry research through the STEM Incubator; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and joined Assistant Professor of Chemistry Christopher Durr’s inorganic chemistry lab for much of his time in college. Ultimately, it was his time in Durr’s lab that sparked his thesis work on synthesizing and analyzing zinc complexes. Youngblood’s thesis is a joint project, combining his work in inorganic chemistry with Abigail Robbins ’25’s work in biochemistry with the hope of inhibiting cancer-causing protein synthesis. 

“I built a family of zinc molecules, basically synthesising and taking data on them. And the hope is that someone can … use these for protein inhibition,” he said. “I make the molecules, and then she takes them and tests them to see how well they inhibit proteins that are found to be causes of cancer.”

He didn’t limit himself to just chemistry in his time at the college, though. In true liberal arts fashion, Youngblood experimented across various fields, taking classes in everything from Japanese to art history and computer science. 

“During freshman year, we had J-term classes, so I signed up for an ‘Intro to Coding’ class. Then I took ‘Intro to Coding’ again the following fall. After that, I just kept going with it,” he said. “But computer science wasn’t something I initially planned on pursuing seriously. I never really considered becoming an engineer or a software developer. I just thought coding was a fun skill to learn. I enjoyed some of the classes, so I decided to stick with it.”

Outside of the classroom, Youngblood found his niche in a variety of clubs, particularly within NISA. As a Native American student, it was through joining NISA that Youngblood felt he developed a stronger connection to his cultural identity. “In my freshman year, it was just me and a few other first-years, and everyone else was a graduating senior,” he recalled. “Come spring, they were like, ‘Hey, do you guys want to learn how to do E-board with us?’ I sort of got indoctrinated into [NISA] and forced into the role of doing it. But it’s worth it, it’s a nice community,” he joked. 

Some of his favorite NISA moments included the annual Native Heritage Month event, held every November, which has become a beloved tradition. “We’ll get a performer to come sing traditional native music or contemporary music, or [we’ll] get speakers and a food vendor to prepare traditional dishes.” 

NISA became a way for Youngblood to find a community, including via smaller gatherings like crafting nights and beading, porcupine quill weaving, and ribbon skirt making. "It’s super chill vibes.”

From Bunny Slopes to Team USA

There is no way to truly know Youngblood without understanding how much snowboarding means to him, and just how much it has characterized his time at Amherst. He began snowboarding at seven years old, during a family vacation to his grandmother’s timeshare in Vermont. “My mom noticed I was bored and put me in [snowboarding] lessons,” he said. Needless to say, a spark was lit and has only continued to grow. 

Yet despite snowboarding since childhood, Youngblood never actually raced competitively until his sophomore year at Amherst. 

“As a snowboarder, I think he’s come a really long way. It’s been really cool to just watch him develop over the last three years as an athlete,” said Harrison Lundy ’25, co-president of the Amherst College Alpine Racing Team. “He definitely has a natural talent, but also has a lot of passion for [the sport]. He really loves the sport and the community, and I think kind of lets that drive it for him,” Lundy added.

Youngblood’s love for the sport, combined with his talent, has seen him soar on the national stage, competing in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) National championships three years in a row, placing 14th, 15th, and then 16th as a sophomore, junior, and senior respectively.

“He’s very adept on the board, and he’s able to control his speed and his body positioning very well, and that all put together in a non-racing stance. When you go into the racing standpoint, he basically was able to out-snowboard everybody else on the race course — [and that] actually brought him to Nationals his very first year on a team,” said Jack Dunham ’25, another team co-president. 

His most impressive feat, however, came in the form of being selected to compete for Team USA in the World University Games. The Games are the highest level of competition for university athletes around the world. Sports range from ice hockey to snowboarding, Lundy explained. 

The invitation to compete for Team USA came as a huge surprise to Youngblood. “One of the delegations for [Team USA] emailed Harrison looking for top individuals who had placed at Nationals to compete in the Games, and [asked if] I would be interested in competing.” 

It seemed that the experience was beyond amazing, if the smile that stayed on Youngblood’s face the entire time he talked about the Games was a good indicator to go by. Although he placed 38th out of 40 in one event and 32nd out of 40 in another, it was an incredibly valuable experience. “I was up against people who had competed for their national teams, or World Cup events … I think doing that made me a better snowboarder. Just from that one week, I learned a lot, because I’ve never had a coach before tell me what I’m doing wrong,” Youngblood added. 

The Next Run

As he looks ahead to his life beyond Amherst, it is beyond clear that although Youngblood isn’t entirely sure of the future, his adventurous spirit is what will guide him. 

“Racing is definitely something that I want to keep going with,” Youngblood said. “I only really got into it during college and after the [Games,] I’m excited to see how much further I can go with it,” he added. 

The rest of his path is still in flux, with plans to obtain a chemistry Ph.D., go into research or industry, and travel the country in a tricked-out van all on the docket. But as we walked out of Amherst Coffee, two hours after having met for the first time, I knew that if anything is true about Ahanu Youngblood, it’s that his journey, whether on the mountain, in the lab, or traveling across the country, will be fueled by the same boundless curiosity and pursuit of the extraordinary that he’s always faced things with. The future may be uncertain, but it’s clear that he’s not just waiting for it to unfold. He’s chasing it, with a sense of adventure that will carry him wherever he chooses to go.