Commander Marisa Sandoval
Name Marisa T'Fala Sandoval
Position Executive Officer
Rank Commander
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Vulcan/Human | |
| Age | 45 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5' 7" | |
| Weight | 137 lbs | |
| Hair Color | Black | |
| Eye Color | Hazel-Green | |
| Physical Description | While Marisa has the physiology of her Vulcan heritage, she still has some of her father's Hispanic looks. She has the thick, long hair of a Latina and prefers to wear it loose whenever possible. When necessary for work, she'll pull it back into a ponytail or braid. She prefers to dress casually when possible and often wears simple clothing with embroidered collars and cuffs. She is quite comfortable in jeans and coveralls when doing field work as a scientist. Because she is Vulcan and has a longer lifespan than humans, she looks to be in her late 20's to early 30's. |
Family
| Father | Marco Sandoval | |
| Mother | T'Vala | |
| Brother(s) | Stann, Pedro, Carlos, Talor | |
| Other Family | Has several family members on her father's side. |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | In spite of being ½ Vulcan, Marisa is generally friendly and cheerful -- a fact to which her mother is resigned. Her mother frequently gave her mental tests and exercises to train her in the Vulcan ways. Because of this, Marisa loves puzzles and mental games. She is also very adept with her Vulcan mental abilities.. She has four brothers and a dozen male cousins. She spent a lot of her youth competing against them in physical activities. Her cousins didn't like the fact that she was better at shooting and climbing than they were. Because of this, she developed a strong competitive streak. She is a marksman and adept with a phaser, slingshot and handgun. She also has excellent aim with thrown weapons. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Marisa is highly intelligent and loves to learn. This comes in part because of her Vulcan heritage, and in part from her Mother's tutelage. She will often get caught up in reading, studying, or observing, which makes her seem to stay on the outside. She is fascinated with the history, culture, and people of the Federation, both ancient and modern. She enjoys a good intellectual conversation about these and a number of other subjects. At the same time, she doesn't appreciate more banal conversation and has little to no interest in talking about men, fashion, or ship gossip. She does not quite fit in with non-academics outside of work environments. Although she is half Vulcan, her physiology is Vulcan with the mental and physical attributes of the species. This enhances both her love of learning and her ability to spend long hours on a project if necessary. When she works, she often works in silence, preferring not to talk until she has enough information to discuss the nuances. She likes to use a variety of techniques to solve a problem. These can include researching ancient solutions to modern problems, talking out a problem with colleagues to come up with new ideas, or simply getting back to nature for a few days to let her head clear. She will occasionally bring these methods into her counseling as she finds they bring results. As a counselor, she will often urge her patients to write out their feelings in a journal, use physical activity like building something or painting to vent their emotion. She may also use music as catharsis or encourage patients to do random acts of kindness and service to get outside of themselves and thus get a better perspective of their own problems. She is optimistic and believes that gratitude and a positive outlook are directly related to health and well-being. Marisa loves puzzles and mental games. They not only make her think, but they make her look at things from different angles. This is especially helpful in her work as a scientist and counselor. Both occupations benefit from looking at life and people from a historic and cultural perspective and not simply the current trend. The more Marisa learns, the more she realizes how little she knows. This drives her desire to keep learning, and keeps her from thinking that she is smarter than others. She believes that you can learn something from everyone and so will often choose to listen rahter than to talk. As a listener and observer, she is able to understand people better and perhaps understand how to help someone. She is a marksman with guns and phasers and adept with a number of thrown weapons such as knives, spears, slingshots and rocks. |
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| Ambitions | Marisa would like to settle down and establish a clinic where she can work with people who have problems adjusting to being from two different cultures. Ideally, this would be in the mountains where she can raise a family and spend time outdoors. |
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| Hobbies & Interests | Marisa loves to read, especially books about history, folk and fairy tales and ancient cultures. She loves Shakespeare and classic Earth literature. She collects books (folklore and fairy tales from various cultures and books on history). She plays several musical instruments including the sampoña, guitar, Vulcan lyrette and flute. her favorite type of music is Andean folk music. She also enjoys ballroom and folk dancing. She enjoys the outdoors, especially the mountains. Mountain-climbing, camping, rappelling, hiking, and white-water rafting being chief among her preferred outdoor activities. Marisa likes to tinker with computers and archaic communications devices (a hobby she got from her father). She also loves astronomy and can navigate by the stars on her homeworlds of Vulcan and Earth. Sports include fútbol, target shooting, paintball, and knife-throwing. When she can't get to a holodeck to exercise, she uses a pole in her bedroom. |
| Personal History | Marisa was born on Vulcan and spent the first 13 years of her life there, receiving a Vulcan education and training. Her father was a Starfleet engineer and her mother was a Vulcan diplomat. When Marisa was 13, her father was given the opportunity to transfer to Earth and work at Starfleet HQ. Her mother was assigned as part of a Vulcan delegation to Starfleet Command so that she could be with him. Her family settled in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where her father was born and raised. From then on, Marisa and her siblings were raised as both Vulcan and Human. Her father believed that life was too short to not be cheerful and that this philosophy fit into the Vulcan IDIC. Because of this, Marisa and most of her siblings believe that being happy, cheerful and Vulcan is a good balance. They are at peace with both sides of their nature. Marisa’s mother had a difficult time with her husband's sometimes-boisterous family. To help "balance" her children, she taught them logic and how to use their mental abilities. She made them practice every day. Any time spent with the cousins was followed by deep meditation. In return, they were allowed to laugh, sing and dance -- as long as they did it in moderation. Marisa loves to read and to learn. She became fascinated with Pre-Columbian Central and South American history and culture. That interest spread to include other ancient cultures of Earth and Vulcan. When she finished school, she went to Peru to get her undergraduate degrees in computers, communication, history, archaeology and psychology. She found ways to tie her interests together to help her understand ancient cultures. She went to the University of Mexico City to get her Master's Degrees in history, archaeology, and anthropology. She spent some of her time talking to her friends and helping them with their studies and their problems. This led her to also get a degree in counseling. She took a job as a teacher at Cambridge while she got her PhDs in clinical psychology, history, and archaeology. When she graduated, she was offered a permanent job. But she still wanted to travel and learn. While she was spending the summer with her family, she was offered an opportunity to teach Earth history and study Vulcan history and counseling techniques in Shi'Kahr. It was a fascinating opportunity, and one Marissa quickly accepted. Her desire to travel and learn more led her to leave academics and join Starfleet. After all her academic work, she had no trouble graduating near the top of her class in history, archaeology, anthropology and counseling. She believes that a good understanding of history and culture is vital to understanding people -- you cannot take a person out of their environment and understand them. Her father is now retired and travels with her mother, who continues as a Vulcan diplomat. Two of her brothers are also in Starfleet. She finds Starfleet the perfect way to travel and learn while she helps those who need her other skills to cope with the rigors of life on a starship. In 2391, Marisa almost left Starfleet because of what happened on Kreanus and her subsequent problems getting another position. But she was finally accepted aboard the Gaileo-A for its three-year deep space assignment. While there, she reconnected with Luke Wyatt and the two began dating. After an accident that left Luke losing much of his short-term memory--including all memories of her--Marisa accepted a transfer to the USS Serengeti as Chief Science Officer and Second Officer. The transfer came with a promotion. After three years, she accepted a transfer to the USS Resolution to serve as First Officer. Languages Spoken: Federation Standard, Spanish, Vulcan, Romulan, Betazoid, Bajoran, Cardassian. She reads a number of ancient languages. |
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| Service Record | Graduated near the top of her class from Starfleet Academy in counseling and social sciences (history, archaeology and anthropology). Served as a counselor aboard the USS Tiuanaco. Served as Chief Counselor aboard the USS Asgard. Served as Assistant Chief Science Officer and then Chief Science Officer aboard the USS Alabama. Served as Chief Counselor aboard the USS Cartagena. Worked with the survivors of the USS Galileo as counselor. Served as Chief Science Officer aboard the Galileo-A. Served as Chief Science Officer and 2XO aboard the USS Serengeti. Now serves as XO aboard the USS Resolution. |