上一期我们多彩协和系列向大家推出了一个“一直向前冲的女孩”，从协和上海，冲向了美国纽约大学；这一期我们将继续向大家推出一个“不停自我探索的女孩”，来一起看看她的追求与收获吧。
Exploring to know myself and the world
People used to consider students from international school as outgoing and talkative, but this student doesn’t fall into this category. Although she is quiet and doesn’t speak up as often as others, she has her own opinions inside. In this report, she will share her personal school life and application experience.
Learning is far beyond classroom teaching and is intrinsic to our lives. The series of “Versatile XieHe” reports aim to help discover a diverse life in school education from different perspectives. “Whilst Mr. East and Ms. West move one step towards to each other, the gap between the two will be getting ever smaller, and I believe they would finally meet up.” Sticking to the value that “unity in diversity, innovation through collaboration”, XieHe is always dedicated to cultivate world citizenship with a great open vision, where east meets west. In Wanyuan, lives are enriched with colorful and versatile elements, which are huge enrichment to the academic achievements. In XieHe, we do have gifted pupils with their fantastic performance.
Time flies. It’s hard to believe I am about to graduate. In retrospect of these four years, I am continually changing. At the beginning of ninth grade, I just left the Chinese education system and had difficulty adapting to an International school because here emphasizes students’ own initiative. In the face of various clubs, extracurriculum activities and courses, I felt perplexed at first but gradually started to try and explore different activities. Among them, I find my interests.
At tenth grade, I attended biology class and was attracted to the complexity of living organisms: even a cell contains numerous interrelated organelles and chemical reactions, and not to mention how different cells function together. Thinking about all of these taking place in human body gave me a new perspective viewing life. When school provided an opportunity to participate in iGEM, I became a member of the experimental design group.
It is an international synthetic biology foundation which aims to promote the science of synthetic biology. Teams work all year to develop genetically engineered systems which typically aim to solve a real world global problem. Teams that manage to achieve this travel to Boston Massachusetts each year to attend a five-day jamboree where their projects are presented and judged. It is the premier synthetic biology competition in the world and is extremely well known and respected among academia worldwide.
During this year-long project, I learned about genetic engineering. Our team designed a biobrick to enhance microalgal growth. I went with the team to the Institute of hydrobiology, Chinese academy of sciences in Wuhan to improve our proposal. In the last October, I went to attend the giant jamboree in Boston, presenting our research and experimental results while learning about researches of world-class universities. Through this experience, my understanding of biology is no longer limited to textbook knowledge. I get to know more about the current application and prospect of biotechnology, involve in the process of identifying and solving real-life problems, and met people who are passionate about biology.
Besides biology, I also participated in our school’s Slam poetry club to write and perform my poems. I shared my poems in and out of school. Some of my poems also got published. I used to think it’s difficult to compose poems, but through writing, I felt this form of literature enables me to express my feelings and observations of life more freely. I am introversive and tended to be nervous when I share my poems. Yet, the moments when the audiences snapping their fingers in response to a line they like encouraged me and made me feel understood and connected.
In the summer vacation before twelfth grade, I planned a three-week campus visit. I chose about twenty schools across the east coast, Atlanta and California to attend their official information sessions and communicate with admission officers and undergraduates. Comparing to reading websites, this first-hand experience gave me a direct feeling of each university’s characteristics.
More importantly, I realized college application is a process of actively choosing my future direction. No one understands me better than myself. I know which university’s environment and curriculum best matches my needs and ability. Personally, I worry I will be overwhelmed by the crowd of a big university since I want to fully engage in the discussions with professors and other students. Together with the fact that I haven’t decided my major, I chose to apply for Brandeis University as my ED1 school. With its focus on interdisciplinary studies and undergraduate education with small classes, I think it will fit me. I am lucky enough to be admitted by my top-choice school, yet I think the match between myself and the university contributes to this luck.
College application is a process of planning the future, but also a process of reflecting the past life experience. It forces me to look back on what I have done and gained while thinking who I am and what characteristics I have. I continually questioned and doubted myself through this stressful process. However, only when we have a deep understanding of ourselves and our past, can we make progress towards the future.
