Tell us a little bit about yourself and your plans for college.

I am currently a senior at Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas. I have lived here in Sugar Land with my mother and sister, while I spent my childhood in Guangzhou, China, where I have grown up with great Chinese cultural influences and memories. In addition to my culture, my lifelong passion in music, particularly in piano-playing and drumming, also constitutes a big part of my identity, as music is not only my sanctuary from the stress of academics but also a vessel through which I express my love to the world by becoming a worship team leader and a competitive band member. I am also an academically oriented student who takes on challenging curriculums such as Academic Decathlon and leads various organizations such as the National Chinese Honor Society and National Music Honor Society. I will spend my next four years at UT Austin studying Business Analytics.

When first deciding to pursue a path in business and economics as a seventeen-year-old, the idea of changing the world seemed somewhat arbitrary, unlike the vivid perceptions of an angelic doctor combating the devil of death or a tenacious environmentalist at the forefront of the battle against climate change. However, as I delved deeper into the values behind my fields of interest, I came to appreciate the no-less-impactful potential in business and economics.

With UT Austin's education as a springboard, I will be ready to launch for the once-thought-arbitrary idea of changing the world. Like a doctor, I could dedicate myself as an advocative economist to cure today's economy by designing policies that encourage long-term economic growth while improving the well-being and financial awareness of those in poverty; just like an environmentalist, I could fight a battle on behalf of the working class by becoming an attentive business leader who endorses fair labor practices and minimizes environmental footprint. After all, a business education is not just moneymaking tools; it is the key to improving society.

Zhicheng from Texas
High School Senior
John Foster Dulles High School