Commentary Section Editor and Axe Reporter

Senior Lily Yao is active in many communities at South, from Speech and Debate, Oregon YMCA Youth and Government, and SEHS Student Government to Tennis and Ultimate frisbee.

She says that the key to being successful at so many activities is “stepping up to meet the challenges that you create for yourself.” Yao states that she is “someone who enjoys challenging [herself]… whether that means taking a lot of difficult classes or trying something new.” 

Like many students, Yao sees the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the defining moments in her educational and extracurricular career. “Coming out of COVID, [I] really wanted to get back into the community,” Yao stated, adding that she thinks almost all of her friends did. During eighth grade and the summer before freshman year, Yao spent a lot of time and effort reengaging in and building the community. “I definitely used to be quite shy,” she adds. “I would say that I’m not so shy anymore.”

Even after this newfound interest in public speaking after COVID, Yao says she “started out high school… interested in being a mathematician or a statistician or a scientist.” These aims changed as Yao joined a Climate and Environmental internship in her freshman year. She says that internship allowed her to realize policy was interesting to her. She says that her experiences in high school made her “want to work in the fields of public policy and government and international relations while still nurturing [her] interests in math and… hard science.” 

A drive to help others characterises Yao, but she says that while wanting to help others is innate, being a leader and making change takes effort. “When you have things that you love doing, whether that’s planning events or debating, you want to be good at it and you want to help others be good at it as well,” says Yao. 

Yao is planning on attending Harvard University in the Fall, wanting to focus on Governance and Computer Science. She is both excited to leave some of her duties to others, and sad to leave her community behind.

Article by Emmett Coughlan