I spent all of my elementary years in public school, an experience that left me bored and unmotivated. Even the gifted pull-out program had nothing to challenge me. And I was to a certain extent ostracized because of my ability, some of my classmates even taking it as an accomplishment when they could catch me in a mistake in class. 

            It was all different at Schilling. I loved the small classes and the opportunity they provided for discussion. I always asked a lot of questions, and the interaction with the teachers at Schilling helped me learn and motivated me to work harder so that I could ask harder questions. It was at Schilling that I became a skilled writer, and was able to take math and science classes from a teacher who had been considered in 1990 for a Nobel Prize. It was a Schilling trip to Washington, D.C. that gave me the opportunity to meet and talk with the late Stephen J. Gould. And it was at Schilling that I discovered, thanks to a very gifted teacher, a love of Asia that has developed into my career direction. The competitiveness at Schilling was not who's right and who's wrong, but finding the questions and answers that led to learning. 

            Following my graduation from Schilling in 2001, I spent a year in Taiwan as a Rotary International Exchange Student, and from there I enrolled at Tufts University, where I have been a Dean's List student each semester with a double major in Chinese and international relations. 

            And it all began – truly began – on August 27, 1997, the first day I walked into The Schilling School."