“I’m ready to brag!”
Alan declared when he sat down to be interviewed. Alan is not given to bragging, so this demanded an explanation. “There aren’t a lot of moments in life,” he went on to explain, “when people notice your accomplishments. Graduating from high school is one, and I’m going to take advantage of it.” He said this with a knowing smile that suggested he was joking.
Sort of.
Because Alan does have every reason to be proud. He has left his mark on BASIS Independent McLean. He’ll be remembered for his dry humor, the WWE-style wrestling match he held for the December talent show, and his sleeping mat in the Reading Room, which he donated to future classes. And the list of schools he was admitted to this spring is equally impressive: Berkeley, Duke, Michigan, Emory, Rice, UCLA, UNC, UVA, and Washington University.
Alan arrived at this point with good humor, a big personality, and hard work. It all started in 8th grade, when he joined BIM after four years in the US and a year spent in China due to COVID. Alan settled in at BIM quickly. He recalls meeting students in orientation that he is still friends with today. Academically, he felt like he was up to speed after only a few months.
The one thing that did take time, Alan says, was coming out of his shell. It’s safe to say that with the support of teachers and his fellow students, he had certainly overcome any shyness by the time he was a junior in high school. His teachers remember him as bold and funny.
Madame Sèye recalls a time on a French exam when Alan encountered a free-response question to which he didn’t know the answer. Rather than leave it blank, Alan wrote an entire page flattering French President Emmanuel Macron. He reasoned that since Madame Sèye had mentioned she thought Macron was handsome, a heartfelt tribute to the president might earn him extra points. “I had to admire his creativity and confidence,” she concludes. “His essay had absolutely nothing to do with the prompt, but it did earn a permanent place in French class history!”
BIM also helped Alan focus on his future. He shares, “Even in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to go into finance… but I didn’t really know what it was!” That changed in AP Economics in his ninth-grade year. “It transformed how I see the world and led me to the path I’m on now.”
That path has involved a lot of work outside of school, helping others with their finances. For three years, Alan worked with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. It was a lot more than just a way to polish his resume. He recalls spending two hours helping a woman who came in clutching crumpled pay stubs and receipts save a few hundred dollars on her taxes. Tears in her eyes, she told him she would use the money to buy a tablet for her son’s schoolwork. Alan used the skills he learned in the IRS program to create a website that helps immigrants with taxes. This last year, his Senior Project explored how family businesses responded to the COVID crisis, with the goal of creating a playbook to help these businesses cope with systemic economic crises.
Between volunteering and school, Alan had a heavy workload, which he handled in two ways. First, he kept school and home separate. “I didn’t work on school stuff at home at all,” he says. He took advantage of lunch, free time during the day, and time right after school to get his work done. Second, he practiced martial arts seven days a week to keep himself centered. As a kid, he said he played tennis, basketball, and soccer, but as he grew older, he was drawn to what he calls the “directness” of martial arts. He did boxing, kickboxing, wushu, kung fu, and jiu-jitsu.
All of this helped Alan remain calm as he entered the college application process, which he mostly enjoyed.
“I liked how we were all working together towards the same goal.”
The part he didn’t like was the writing. He said it was hard to make himself vulnerable in his personal statement. It took eight drafts for him to get it where he liked it.
And it worked! Of all the schools he was accepted into, Alan found himself choosing between Duke, Berkeley, and Michigan. Michigan, he says, was out because it was too cold. He liked Duke, but Berkeley offered him in-state tuition. That, combined with their excellent business program, tipped the scales. In the end, it was a “very, very, very easy choice.” Alan is excited that he will be joined there by fellow BIM grads Gabe Z. and Adithya P.
Next fall, Alan will bring his warmth and good humor to the West Coast. We wish him the best of luck!
BASIS Independent McLean is an Age 2–Grade 12 private school, providing students with an internationally benchmarked liberal arts and sciences curriculum, with advanced STEM offerings. Considering joining the Red-Tailed Hawks community? To join our interest list for the next school year and receive admissions updates and more, please click here.
