By Ellie Smith
Staff Writer
As a young five year old girl, Yi Zhang traveled with her family from China to the United States. Her family shared a small, one room apartment and struggled to speak the English language. They had difficulty adjusting themselves to the American everyday life.
Zhang took this life changing experience and used it as motivation to pursue her academic goals. After years of hard work and dedication, she was recently named valedictorian for the class of 2013.
Upon hearing the news, Zhang felt honored to be apart of such an ambitious and hardworking student population.
“WA is such a big school and it’s so competitive. It’s really a great honor to be valedictorian of our class,” said Zhang.
A senior at WA, Zhang has an impressive course load, taking five AP classes including physics, calculus, English, Latin and psychology as well as Microsoft Certified for an elective. During her junior year, Zhang took four AP classes including biology, chemistry, Latin and US history.
During her freshman and sophomore years, she participated in orchestra as her only elective due to her full course load.
Zhang most enjoys her math and science based classes. Of all her courses, her favorites were AP Biology, AP Chemistry and AP Calculus.
During her junior year at WA, Zhang took AP Chemistry with one of her favorite teachers, Tim Knittle. He feels that she will succeed in the future with her incredible work ethic and highly motivated personality.
“Having taught for twelve years, you don’t see students like Yi very often,” said Knittle. “She is a unique individual who possesses unique talents.”
Outside of school, Zhang participates in math team, National Honors Society, latin club and plays violin in her free time.
For community service, she has volunteered at many hospitals including Emerson Hospital and Lawrence General.
After receiving multiple college offers including a full scholarship to Boston University, Zhang decided to attend Harvard University in the fall. She likes the idea of having a small campus and tight knit community that Harvard offers as opposed to living in the city with many scattered buildings on campus at BU.
“I think she’ll be served well by [her unique talents] in her future at Harvard and during her professional career,” said Knittle.
Zhang became interested in the subject of neuroscience at a young age and has decided to major in neurobiology at Harvard. She hopes to become a Pediatric Neurosurgeon.
“I decided to study neuroscience when I was about seven. I have always thought it was very interesting,” said Zhang. “The brain is such a mystery that nobody really knows about.”
She feels that WA has done an outstanding job preparing students.
