About Me!
Hello! I’m Grace Qiu, a junior at the Massachusetts Academy of
Math and Science at WPI. My parents are Chinese, but I was born
in Chicago, Illinois. After five years, I moved to Shanghai, China,
and then moved to Westborough in the winter of fourth grade. I have a
twin brother and had eight chickens (they all died). I previously
attended Worcester
Academy and switched schools to MAMS. No matter where I’ve been, I
have always been able to find a small community of friends that I
hope will stick with me for life.
I have a wide variety of hobbies like making music, sports,
video games, drawing, baking, pen spinning, knitting, and reading.
Scroll down to learn more about me and use the navigation bar
to learn more about my experience with the MAMS courses!
Music
I love playing and listening to music; I don’t remember a life
where music was not a part of it. I started playing classical piano
when I was five but switched to pop music and game soundtracks when I
moved to Westborough. I started playing violin when I was eleven and
have played in pit orchestras, central junior and senior distracts,
and philharmonic orchestras. I have also learned the flute for two
years, viola for two years, Hu Lu Si (葫芦丝) on and off for three
years, and have been teaching myself acoustic guitar for three years.
Aside from playing instruments, I also love to listen to music.
Admittedly, I am an avid K-pop enjoyer. Although, I do have a wide
variety of music tastes ranging from pop, video game soundtracks,
movie soundtracks, R and B, C-pop, K-pop, C and K drama OSTs, rock,
anime intros, and classical. A niche fact is that I like to listen to
music in different languages like Chinese, Korean, Thai, and
Japanese. I also transcribe music into usually violin and piano
duets. So, if you ever want to play together, let me know!
Sports
I have been swimming competitively for as long as I can
remember. Even though my favorite stroke is free, I’m an all-rounder
swimmer, meaning I get put in 100, 200, and 400 Individual Medleys.
My favorite part about swimming is the adrenaline rush that courses
through my body when I dive in for a relay race. It’s so
exhilarating. In China, I usually placed top five out of fifty to
one hundred competitors in invitational-only meets, and I’ve
consecutively placed top fifteen in the NEPSAC DIII division for
three years (starting as an eighth grader). I also swam on Evolution
Aquatics (USA team), making it to Silvers and Age Groups before my
team disbanded.
I’d say that my sporting background is as miscellaneous as my musical
taste. I did two years of synchronized swimming in China, placing
second in the 12th
Singapore Synchronized Swimming National Opening for my mixed duet.
I played soccer for five years as a defender, and our team placed
runner-up in the BISP
Soccer 7s international school tournament for the Southeast Asia
region. After moving to Westborough, I did three years of fencing,
three years of tennis, and two years of ultimate frisbee. I also
restarted my sending school’s water polo team. Unfortunately,
swimming was the only sport that stuck with me after the move from
China to America.
Art
I grew up with art. From taking art classes as a child to
drawing on my bedroom walls, I cannot remember a life without it. I
started out learning traditional Chinese painting and then shifted
over to cartooning. Recently, a lot of my art deviates from K-pop, C
or K dramas, and League of Legends (yes, I do play league). I mainly
like to draw with colored pencils and markers, but I have also been
getting into painting and online art. While I draw influence from a
lot of modern aspects, I love incorporating elements of traditional
Chinese culture into my work. Whether it’s sneaking in a Chinese
character or symbol into my doodles, my pieces allow me to create a
bridge between my past and present artistic exploration. Blending
contemporary and traditional aspects of my life into drawings also
allows me to personalize each drawing to my story. Enjoy a little art
gallery below and see if you can find any hidden Chinese elements!
Colored Pencil Drawing of Ne Zha from the
2019 film
Colored Pencil Drawing of Ne Zha from my
imagination
Marker line art of Paimon from Genshin
Impact
Colored Pencil image inspired by BTS
Pencil doodle referencing a Latin Poem
First time using watercolor... Cake!
Painted cardboard, inspired by the song
Magic Shop by BTS
FOOD!
I have a deeply unexplored passion for cooking, especially in
preparing traditional Chinese foods and snacks. There’s something
about crafting dishes to not only look good but also taste like home
that is deeply satisfying to me. However, I mainly cook to honor and
celebrate many Chinese holidays. Here’s a list of foods I make for
the holidays.
I make two different types of mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn
Festival, (冰皮月饼和肉月饼); Rice Dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival,
(粽子); Sticky Rice Balls for the Lantern Festival, (汤圆).
For Chinese New Year, we make a whole table of food to
celebrate because it is the largest holiday in China. Through this
feast, we also celebrate the new lunar new year. Each year, the
dishes vary depending on which year it is. Some common foods each
year would be Steamed Buns (豆沙包子，菜包), Dumplings (饺子), Scallion
Pancakes (葱油饼), Fried Chive Dumplings (韭菜盒子), Spring rolls(春卷), and
(年糕) Rice Cake.
Aside from traditional holiday foods, I also try to recreate
the local foods. Of course, what I make never tastes quite like how
they make it in China, but I try my best. There’s Jian Bing (煎饼果子),
which is Tian Jin’s local food, Sticky Rice Dough Sticks (粢饭团),
which is Shanghai’s local food, and probably the most famous one,
(烤鸭) Peking Duck, which is Beijing’s local food.
I also made my own birthday cakes for the past two years!
Images (left to right): 20 meat Mooncakes, Snow skin mooncakes filled with red bean paste, and my 15th
birthday cake.
Volunteering
Here's a list of my volunteering experience from Freshman year
till now!
1. One year of teaching art and greyscale at CCLS. I taught a class of 10-12
children every Saturday for 2 hours. With my co-teacher, we developed
their sketching skills, improved their shading techniques, and taught
them basic color theory.
2. Three years of teaching at gbSTEM.
I started as an Engineering 1 instructor, teaching 8-10 children
through Zoom every week for 2 hours. A year later, I became the
Engineering 1 and 2 curriculum developer. Throughout the summer, I
doubled the amount of the existing curriculum and added in 20+
modules of optional classes. Then, I was accepted to become the
engineering track director. Now, I facilitate a group of over 30
curriculum developers and teachers to constantly improve the entire
engineering track. This is my third year at this organization.
3. 1 year of volunteering at a hospice. Once a month, I would visit Faith and Family Hospice
and interact with different patients. After completing over 10 hours
of training, I was able to spend time and speak with different
patients.
4. I volunteered for many school events and clubs at Worcester
Academy. I gathered over 20 hours through trash clean ups,
advertisement, clothing drives, and hosting assemblies. For theatre,
every month before a play, I would spend 2-6 hours building and
painting set pieces. Also, as a part of the swim team, I obtaining
over 30 hours volunteering to time and run middle school swim meets.
5. I am also a volunteer for the Caopeng Charity Foundation
autism education program. With two other artists, we create short
online cartoons to educate and spread awareness about autism. We have
almost finished our first publication.
6. I am also currently starting my non profit organization. It
is a branch from an international non profit dedicated to bring art
and smiles into the rooms of children patients stuck in hospitals
from a young age.