A senior at Episcopal Academy, Karen Xiao is an active member of the Girls in STEM club and was a National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) award winner in 2021. She is the Editor in Chief of EA’s yearbook Tabula and is a Model UN delegate. Xiao serves on the executive board of EA’s Community Service Corps and also volunteers at the Easttown Library and at OurVillage Tutoring. She is part of a leadership group elected by students and faculty called EQV, which is responsible for running leadership courses for freshmen and sophomores. This spring, Xiao will be captain of EA’s varsity softball team.
Main Line Media News: Last year, you were recognized as an NCWIT Greater Philadelphia Affiliate Honorable Mention for demonstrating a strong passion for computing. Can you tell us a little about the award?
Karen Xiao: The award is specifically made to recognize and encourage female, genderqueer, and non-binary high school students who have demonstrated a strong passion for computing and engineering. For my application, I explained various computer science projects, such as the game I programmed for my final create task in AP Computer Science Principles, that I was particularly proud of and suggested ways in which I could use my passion for computing to improve societal problems in the future.
Main Line Media News: What has been your most memorable experience with the Girls in STEM club?
Karen Xiao: My most memorable experience with the Girls in STEM club was talking to Mrs. Wei Brian about her experiences as one of few female Computer Engineering students in her college class which eventually led to her founding her own skincare company called Wei Beauty. Hearing Mrs. Brian’s story was incredibly refreshing to me because it encouraged me to continue pursuing a future in Computer Science despite technology and engineering being a male-dominated field.
Main Line Media News: What has been your most memorable experience as a Model UN delegate? What do you like best about Model UN?
Karen Xiao: Last year, due to COVID, Model UN was conducted virtually over the span of four days. I was on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and represented South Africa on the topic of COVID-19 and Refugees, specifically how to aid refugees during the pandemic. By far, my favorite part about participating in Model UN was the ability to meet new people and gain a better understanding of different perspectives from all over the world despite the conference being virtual.
Main Line Media News: What has been your favorite community service project, and why?
Karen Xiao: In Philadelphia, over two-thirds of low-income people struggle to get menstrual products: a necessity for people who menstruate. So, my favorite community service project was helping to run a Women and Girls affinity group within the larger Community Service Corps which focused on reducing period poverty in our community. In this group, we conducted discussions on erasing the stigma surrounding openly talking about periods, by watching the Netflix short film Period. End of Sentence. For a more active approach, we organized small collections for sanitary pads and tampons, and packaged care packs filled with pads, tampons, hand sanitizer wipes, lotion, and other personal hygiene necessities to be donated to EA’s community partners such as Home of the Sparrow.
Main Line Media News: What has been your most interesting challenge as Editor in Chief of Tabula? How did you meet that challenge?
Karen Xiao: The hardest part of Tabula is definitely meeting deadlines. I remember having a particularly difficult time collecting photos for and laying out senior pages. Over the course of two days, the Tabula staff received photos from over 90 different students, many of which then had to be resized and reformatted before they were able to be uploaded into Yearbook Avenue, the website we use to organize page layout. Once we received all of the photos, the next difficult task was completing 132 senior pages in the course of a week and then double- and triple-checking that every single page was free of any layout errors or spelling mistakes. Thankfully, due to the hard work and dedication of the Tabula staff, we were able to get all of our assignments done well in a timely manner.
Main Line Media News: You taught yourself to crochet. What has been your favorite crochet project?
Karen Xiao: My favorite project so far has been crocheting around 14 small amigurumi triceratops which were given to friends and family to provide cute emotional support to help get them through their days.
Main Line Media News: What is your favorite course at Episcopal Academy and why?
Karen Xiao: My favorite course at Episcopal Academy this year is AP European History with Mrs. Aldridge. I’m not entirely sure if the reason why I love this course so much is due to the course materials, which analyzes various European social, economic, and political trends and changes since 1450, or because of Mrs. Aldridge, who is an incredibly engaging, encouraging, and positive teacher as well as an all-around great person to talk to.
Main Line Media News: What is your favorite book, and why? Who is your favorite author and why?
Karen Xiao: My favorite author at the moment is Ocean Vuong. I first discovered his work in Honors American Literature last year when we read his poem “Aubade with Burning City”, which hauntingly depicted the evacuation of civilians and refugees during the fall of Saigon. In that single class, I fell in love with Vuong’s style and immediately went to read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which is unsurprisingly also my favorite book right now. I love On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous so much because of Vuong’s beautiful writing and vulnerable yet powerful depiction of the relationship between a son and his mother. I plan to continue exploring Vuong’s work by reading his collection of poetry Night Sky with Exit Wounds next.
(To be selected as Main Line Student of the Week, a student must first be nominated by his or her school.)
To view a gallery of the Main Line Students of the Week from 2018 to present click here
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