Email Signup

For every Higher Achievement graduate, there is a story of academic resilience, persistence and attainment. Yizhuo Chen came to the Higher Achievement Program two years after he moved to the US, in 6^th grade. At the time he was working 30 hours a week washing dishes in Chinatown where both his parents worked 97 hours per week. Despite the loss of income (his family of six subsists today on $27,000 income annually) he joined Higher Achievement and found science.

Summer Academy was the first time I came into contact with real science. I didn’t know the stuff existed. I learned about Darwin and spontaneous generation, natural selection…..it fascinated me how certain species live and others die.

The chances are very good that his life would have remained in Chinatown were it not for the education and opportunity he received from Higher Achievement. He never missed a day. After three years, he earned a full scholarship to Gonzaga College High School. He graduated in 2006 with high honors: 3.88 grade point average with a full roster of honors and advanced placement classes. In 2006, Yizhuo enrolled in University of California, San Diego, majoring in astrophysics.

Our HAP visit to Washington and Lee University is what really got me excited about astronomy and physics. We conducted a liquid nitrogen experiment. That was where I planted the seed for astronomy. Before that trip, I hadn’t even thought about college.