Jennifer Yeh
Xingxin (Sue) Yuan
Yiru Xia
Ho Yin (Martin) Wong
Lujia (Luke) Cao
Leyang Li
Zekai (Clark) Wu
Jiayi (Sonia) Zhang
Xiaoyu Zhang
Keyang (Swindar) Zhou
Jennifer Yeh
Morrison Academy Taichung
Our Lady of Perpetual Succor Global Scholar
Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar
I’m Jennifer Yeh, a freshman pursuing a major in Economics. Born and raised in Taiwan, I was beyond ecstatic to explore all that the world had to offer. Leaving the comforts of my home and my familiar community, I was ready to meet new people, embrace culture shocks, and step outside my comfort zone.
During my time in high school, I had the honor of representing our Varsity Volleyball, Soccer, and Basketball teams for four years. I also really enjoyed serving on the student government and class councils, where I can express my creativity through planning and executing exciting events to enhance student engagement.
Beyond Morrison, I kickstarted a personal start-up venture called “Discover the Aboriginal Taiwan,” a media platform assisting the Taiwanese Indigenous people in their economic endeavors as well as promoting and sustaining Aboriginal culture. In collaboration with Global UN’s Satoyama Initiative in Taiwan, we were not only able to provide Aboriginal businesses more opportunities to sell their products but also to incentivize them to operate in an eco-friendly manner, achieving harmony between society and nature. Later on, when a volunteering effort at a rehabilitation clinic manifested itself into an internship opportunity for the company manufacturing physiotherapeutic equipment, I was able to help create a multifunctional interactive app aimed to guide exercises with holistic integration modules.
Here at ND, I worked on a consulting project with Deloitte through the Students International Business Council (SIBC) to develop a strategic transition plan for an online-only fashion brand expanding into physical retail. Furthermore, I was on the Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and IrishAngel travel teams of Unleashed Social Ventures, where I explored sustainable consulting and venture capital respectively. As an IDEA Center Fellow, I’ve also been busy attending startup workshops and entrepreneurship training. I also served in the Department of Student Life of Notre Dame Student Government and the Social Committee of the IDEA Center Fellows Program to further my passion for event planning.
In the next four years, I hope to explore all that Notre Dame has to offer. I look forward to making long-lasting friendships and sharpening my mind and skill sets to become a force of good for the world.
Xingxin (Sue) Yuan
Frank Reilly Scholar
Benenden School, UK
I am Sue from Guangzhou, China, a double major in Anthropology and Economics. Having experienced high school in the UK, I’ve been exposed to many cultural shocks that drew my attention to cultural differences that formulate individual perceptions of the world - and the closest method to exploring this is through studying Anthropology.
During high school, I actively participated and took leadership roles in multiple social outreach clubs that aimed to empower underprivileged girls’ education in Shaoguan, China through fundraising and exchange trips. In the UK, I was the founder of a club at my predominantly white school to celebrate cultural diversity and introduce students and faculty to aspects of Asian culture.
At Notre Dame, I’m most excited to explore research opportunities in Anthropology, as well as discover career options that combine a humanistic approach with business - such as healthcare consulting. I also plan to utilize the various research funding or study abroad opportunities provided at Notre Dame to enrich my summer time this year.
Yiru Xia
Nanjing Foreign Language School
iu De Scholar
I am Yiru Xia, a Notre Dame freshman majoring in Sociology and Economics and minoring in art. With the great honor of joining the Greater China Scholars community, I am embracing all the opportunities for growth that Notre Dame offers me and trying to find my voice in this world and make a positive influence.
In high school, I used art as my language to construct, reflect and influence the world I observed. Aware of students' mental challenges, I designed the exhibition Trauma In Silence. Intended to tell teenagers that it is not a shame to encounter, I did research followed by a series of oil paintings telling those in doubt that their trauma shall not go silent and that they are not alone. As the chair of communications in the Student Union, I organized the school art festivals, cultural weeks, and other events. Also, I founded the school illustration club and literature club and planned meetings and competitions in these areas.
At Notre Dame, I keep exploring the world while I used art as my language of communicating with the world. I dive into various topics, such as international relations, integration of the US and Europe, and Economics. Meanwhile, I work on new art projects that followed the existing series or opened new topics. Cognitive growth never stopped at Notre Dame.
One experience that I would love to achieve at Notre Dame is to have a clearer understanding of our relationship with the world and set myself off as an artist that would break the silence when she is called to.
Ho Yin (Martin) Wong
Tsinghua International School
William Sexton Scholar
My name is Martin Wong, a William Sexton Scholar from Hong Kong who plans to major in Political Science and Business Analytics.
Although I was born in Hong Kong, I dedicated most of my life to another fascinating city where I call home—Beijing, China. At Tsinghua International School in Beijing, I developed my interests in political science, ranging from International Relations to Human Rights Studies. Outside of class, I was honored to serve my beloved community by taking several leadership positions, such as being the President of the Student Council (and its branch United Schools of Beijing), Secretary-General of the Model United Nations Club, founder of the non-profit organizations De-Stress Mini Mart and Aid for China, and co-captain of division 2 varsity volleyball team. Furthermore, I am also an eight-time best delegate in international-level Model United Nations conferences hosted by universities like the University of Oxford, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University. These individual pieces of experiences not only strengthened my interests in community service and social justice but also reinforced my pursuits to higher levels of academics—and this is why the University of Notre Dame is the best fit for me.
At Notre Dame, I continued to express my interests in Model United Nations by joining the club, where I was honored to be elected as a traveling team member and the Public Relations officer. In addition, it was my pleasure to be a part of the Student International Business Council (SIBC) McKinsey & Co. and Montaña de Luz project, in which I collaborated with 7 other upper-class students to propose recommendations for this non-profit organization to fundraise.
After spending my first semester at Notre Dame, I cannot wait to enjoy the rest of my time here! I will continue to treasure every part of this university—the community, values, and resources—and develop an everlasting memory. Love Thee Notre Dame!
Lujia (Luke) Cao
Wuxi Big Bridge Academy, China
I am now a freshman majoring in Computer Science at the College of Engineering and will consider a minor in Data Science or Econ.
I choose to major in Computer Science because I am impressed by the power of technology used in daily application. Computer Science is now one of the most essential and efficient ways to better society and solve real-world problems. I started coding in high school. I designed and implemented a website using Python to help post and respond to urgent needs for suppliers when Henan was impacted by the flooding and succeeded in contributing to the recovery of Henan. Moreover, I learned about the machine learning algorithm YOLOv3, the function of OpenCV, and knowledge of computer vision in order to improve the IoT (Internet of Things) design to reduce safety issues among tourists; I appreciate previous programmers’ design of comprehensive algorithms like YOLOv3 and OpenCV since other programmers can develop further applications based on those programmers’ work. I will further pursue Computer Science and hope that I can also create useful algorithms to join with other people in the great project of improving the world.
At Notre Dame, I participated in the CS4GOOD Club to help analyze the demographics of Indiana prisoners. In addition, I joined the final travel team of the Uber project in SIBC (Student International Business Conference), analyzed with the team members how to solve the detention problem of Uber Freight's loading and unloading dwell time, and went to the Uber headquarters in Chicago to give a presentation. In the future, I hope to use the GCS funding to study a course during my first summer, and try to find opportunities for research with professors. Moreover, I plan to find potential research opportunities during the academic year and internships during the summer. I will also polish my basketball skills and try to get into the basketball club in the future.
Leyang Li
Shanghai Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU, Shanghai
I intend to major in Computer Science with a minor in Studio Art.
I had robotic and coding experience in high school. I attended RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze and gained second place in China and two championships in Shanghai as the team leader. The competition required each team to present its own robot that can automatically come through the slopes and obstacles on the floor, with robust algorithms for exploration strategies and detection of rescue objects in the forms of heat sources, color blocks, and printed letters on the walls. I was responsible for algorithm design, debugging, and parameter adjustment.
I also explored computer vision and deep learning during high school. I did research aiming to achieve real-time autonomous detection and recognition of road traffic signs by employing lightweight neural networks. I collected a data set of traffic sign images and trained it via a variety of lightweight neural networks. By comparing their recognition speed and accuracy, I was able to select the most suitable model to detect traffic signs quickly and correctly under economic hardware equipment. The experimental results suggested that the models with higher recognition speeds tend to have lower accuracy. Relatively slower lightweight models, such as YOLO-V4-tiny and YOLO-MobileNet-V1, performed well, achieving real-time recognition based on complying with the requirements of accuracy, and thus can be employed in fields such as navigation for the blind, driver warning system, and vehicle assisted driving.
Meanwhile, I have a hobby of painting. I have painting experience in gouache, sketching, oil painting, and digital painting. I'm currently trying to employ deep learning in painting and looking forward to further developing my hobby at Notre Dame.
I intend to attend the London Summer Study Abroad program in the summer of 2023. I also plan to join major-related clubs and search for research and internship opportunities in the future.
Zekai (Clark) Wu
Nanjing Foreign Language School
I am Clark Wu, a freshman at the University of Notre Dame majoring in mathematics and planning to double major in philosophy. I come from Nanjing, and it’s my pleasure to be a member of the Greater China Scholar family.
My academic experience in high school mainly focused on linguistics and economics. I took part in many Linguistics Olympiads, including national ones such as International Linguistics Olympiad China (IOLC), Panini Linguistics Olympiad (PLO, India), the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO, the US, and Canada), and also international ones, such as Asian-Pacific Linguistics Olympiad (APLO), and International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL). Because of my performances in the final round of IOLC, I was selected to be a member of Team China for the International Linguistics Olympiad 2021 and eventually got a Bronze Medal in the global final. Besides the Linguistics Olympiad, I also led a team in my high school to the International Economics Olympiad China (IEOC), playing the role of coach, captain, and member, and eventually got a Gold Award for both team and individual rounds in the national final.
During the first semester of my college life, I tried to explore myself comprehensively. Academically, I chose a 3-level German language course, which is quite challenging for me considering I only had five months of German learning experience. I also tried to determine my true academic interests by reading and taking classes in different fields. Besides academic life, I also tried to understand the American education system and its popular culture and reflect on my own culture from a brand new perspective. I hope this exploration experience can broaden my understanding and make me a more inclusive and independent person.
Jiayi (Sonia) Zhang
Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School
I am Sonia Zhang, planning to double major in Economics and Global Affairs.
During high school, I developed an interest in leadership and public policy. I explored my perceptions and abilities in different leadership and service-related projects. I was the president of our student committee, responsible for communications and running school-wide projects. I started to work with an educational NGO “Shining Star Organization” focusing on the mental health issues of left-behind children in China. I led the student business development department, using marketing methods to raise funds for the NGO. In addition, I worked on research related to economics, public policy, business, and arts, and participated in competitions such as the National Economic Competition, and Future Business Leaders of America. Thanks to these experiences, I can understand leadership from an interdisciplinary perspective and strengthen my determination to serve the world.
At Notre Dame, I am involved in different activities to expand my boundaries. In the fall semester of 2022, I participated in the Student Policy Network (SPN) Early Learning Advisory Committee (ELAC) project to work as a researcher. I collaborated with a team of seven to research early childcare and learning grant policies for ELAC in response to the pandemic. We wrote a 7k+ word white paper “Indiana Early Learning Provider Grants'' and presented it to ELAC. I am engaged in the Student International Business Council (SIBC) West Monroe & Child’s Cup Full project. We created pricing and inventory calculators to help estimate production costs and determine production progress. In addition, I am also a member of the logistics team of the Human Development Conference 2023, working with my team to prepare for the conference in the following February.
At Notre Dame, I have met amazing people who are passionate about their causes. In the coming years, I hope to connect with them through platforms such as the Kellogg Institute, Center of Social Concern, etc. so that I can better leverage my impact and contribute to global issues such as education inequality.
Xiaoyu Zhang
Shanghai Pinghe School
I major in Medieval Studies and I am a member of the Glynn Honors Program.
In high school, I devoted my time to debate. Debate not only developed my skills of communication and coordination but also allowed me to view major societal problems from different perspectives. My position as the president of the Debate Club allowed me to establish interpersonal connections and gain experience in the organization.
As an ethnic minority, I value my identity as a member of the Wa ethnicity. In the summer of 11th grade, I participated in a field research project as a research assistant to a Wa village. What I learned there became the theme of my visual arts graduate exhibition, where I introduced my ethnic culture through paintings, animations and comic books.
My high school literature class evoked my interest in Medieval literature, which led me to Notre Dame. I plan to pursue my interest in Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute. I hope to enrich my knowledge and help with the promotion of the field, and let everyone know that the Middle Ages is not the ‘dark ages’.
Keyang (Swindar) Zhou
Shenzhen Senior High School
Coming from Shenzhen, China, I study sociology and computer science.I am honored to be part of the Greater China Scholar family.
Back in high school, I cared about social issues and wanted to be a change maker. I was the chapter founder and club leader of Girl-Up SSHS, a girl-centered leadership development initiative for gender equality. I organized regional and global activities to address hygiene issues for women in rural areas.
Empowering others enabled me to empower myself to explore more possibilities. Given the prevalence of mental health issues among my peers, I created a meditation app on the Wechat platform with my team to offer mindfulness meditation designed and targeted at young people, which drew over three thousand users and received numerous positive responses.
At Notre Dame, I joined the SCNO (Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations) club and helped a local NGO, "Women Entrepreneur Matters," raise donations through website development with seniors. In the future, I want to utilize the abundant resources at Notre Dame to explore the intersections between social justice and technology.