Featured for his accomplishments in STEM and academics during his time here in Terrace is Charlie Li.
Li is a hard worker and has a strong work ethic, even in the face of difficulty and challenges. He took them head-on and came out on top. Li moved from China in 2022 in his freshman year, second semester, and when he came, he didn’t have the best time making friends here throughout his school career. When he came and picked his classes, he realized early on that the classes he took for that year to be easy for someone at his level.
When he was in the 10th grade, he signed up for honors classes with one class harder than all the others, and that was honors English. As English wasn’t his first language, he had a hard time writing essays for that class. Even though he struggled in the class, he still got an A in both semesters. He earned a glorious 4.0 GPA in his high school career.
During his freshman year, he heard of the STEM program and wanted to join. When he was able to pick classes for the next year, he decided to go for the honors STEM program. He knew that he wanted to go into the biotech pathway and do biotechnology. He also wanted to do the computer science pathway, so he will be graduating with an honors in STEM with two pathways. He said he wishes he had taken the STEM pathway when he was in freshman year and hopes that freshmen go for the STEM pathway in the beginning as he should have in the beginning.
He was also in clubs for the STEM pathway. His main club was HOSA. In 10th grade, he did HOSA’s Biotech event and the medical math event. When he went to state he got first place in the Biotech event and third place in the medical math and was able to go to Dallas, Texas for the biotech event and won first place in biotech in nationals. He also joined TSA and did the event biotech design, he didn’t win but Terrace is still incredibly proud and impressed that he won HOSA biotech.
In his 11th grade year, he still did HOSA and did the clinical lab science event and won first place in that as well. Winning 4th place in nationals. In 10th grade, he also put his high intelligence and work ethic to good use and tutored at study hawks which he did in the years progressing.
In 11th grade he also made a club for the Chinese board game GO. It happened in room 202 and he taught the game to people as he saw people over here in the United States. The game helps strengthen and fine-tune math skills, strategy skills, and decision-making skills all in a fun board game like chess. This club isn’t the most successful or popular but Charlie was still able to share his interests and hobbies with people who wanted to learn about it and grow their skills. The club isn’t coming back next year but Go club does wish that someone else with the same passion for the game Go can restart the club in the future.
He focused a lot of time on his studies and his club responsibilities, deciding to focus on his studies paid off because now he will be graduating with a 4.0 GPA. He is not remorseful or regretful in the slightest about his choice of putting his academics before relationships and wishes that other people would make the same choice as him.
Li wanted to include this quote from George Lucas: “There is a difference between pleasure and joy.”
He said that the joy you get from social media or video games is only a temporary pleasure, and to make sure that you can feel pleasure from doing well on an assignment or a test that you were studying for. Temporary joy is not as good as long-term pleasure, basically.
The thing he liked about Terrace the most was that all the teachers here were responsible and kind to him, and he knew that he was able to learn a lot from them. He also enjoyed finding people he connected with in the STEM pathway and was able to find and interact with people with common interests like him.
The worst part of Mountlake Terrace for him was that he felt like his peers were not focusing on school and their assignments, and refused to use the time they had wisely, he said.
Li got into the University of Washington and has applied to major in general biology at the university. Li is a little sad but not regretful that he didn’t get into an Ivy League or other top school, and how colleges don’t say why they rejected you, but he is still proud of himself for getting into the University of Washington. The job that he would like in the future is to be a biology research scientist and to study aging and cells, something he is interested in.
He also wanted to thank some teachers who have inspired him to pursue his goals and helped him grow as a person. The first teacher he would like to thank is Jami Wollen, who has been nothing but an inspiration to him, along with being a genuinely kind person to everyone. Another teacher he would like to thank is Peter White, his 10th-grade English teacher, who helped him be the best he could, even if he struggled in that class. The last person he would like to thank is Nick Lencioni, who was his AP calculus teacher and let the GO club run in his room, and has been supportive of the club for the time it has run in this school.
Charlie Li, you have been amazing this year, and we hope that you continue to do well at the University of Washington.
