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Welcome to Sophie 101

Hello all! Welcome to Sophie 101!

In this introductory “class,” you will be learning a lot about me and my general college life at University of Rochester! This is the class to prepare you for higher level UR 200 series class in the future! So now please follow me and let’s start an amazing journey together!

Lecture Materials:

My name is Sophie Xueqi Zhang, an international student roaring from the hot, humid, and exotic City of Chongqing in mid-west China.

Before I started my college career at Rochester, I spent two years in a small Catholic high school in Concord, New Hampshire. I am a current sophomore (Class of 2017, YAY!) majoring in biomedical engineering and double minoring in public health and French. I am a Tiernan dorm D’lion (a big sister/big brother freshman peer advisor group on campus), a sister of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, a current pledge of Alpha Phi Omega community service fraternity, and newsletter chair of the Biomedical Engineering Society on campus. Over the summer, I worked as a Pre-College Programs counselor and got to hang out with high school juniors and seniors from all over the place! I am also an enthusiastic swimmer (I love to work out; my highest record is hitting the gym four times in one day, haha!), an avid reader, and a huge movie buff. All of my commitments and interests keep me busy but feeling fulfilled every day at Rochester.

Everybody here works so hard and is so busy like our mascot Yellow Jacket Rocky:

Whenever people ask me why I chose Rochester, my answer will only be one word: FATE! When I was still in high school, I wrote about Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass in almost all of my SAT essays. When I visited Rochester for the first time, I walked into a random class and sat at a random seat, and it turns out that the girl who sat right next to me that day later became my freshman hall resident advisor. I also lived in the  freshman hall where my high school chemistry teacher lived when he was an undergraduate student here thirty years ago. I have struggled so much with what to study before I came to college because I have so many interests, but the open curriculum here helped me explore my interests freely and now I am studying what I am passionate about: biomedical engineering, public health, and French. This is fate, because Rochester is where I was meant to be.

This picture was taken during my freshman year orientation:

I can’t believe how fast the time passed! My first-year experience at Rochester was amazing and unforgettable; I believe that my second-year journey here will be even more memorable!

Class Expectation & Future Class Previews:

Now you’ve gotten to know me and sort of get a taste of college! Congratulations you’ve passed this 101 introductory class! Now we can dive deeper into college life materials and take more in-depth and challenging courses! In the future, you will be learning more about admissions and college life at Rochester in general from me! I am so excited to meet you and I can’t wait to share all of my experiences here with you!

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