对于狄邦华曜来说，创校生和学校之间的连结别具意义。他们是学校从0-1建立时的陪伴者、参与者和贡献者，他们的成长与学校的成长相得益彰，互为影响。

Doria作为学校首届学生会的学生代表，在全新的环境中发光发热。携手三年，她与学校彼此成就，拿下了自己心仪的大学Offer，也带给我们诸多美好回忆。我们和她一起回溯时光，聊了聊关于择校、申请、如何思考的故事。

For Dipont HC, the connection between the founding scholars and the school is particularly meaningful. They are the companions, participants and contributors of the school from 0-1, and their growth and the school's growth complement each other and influence each other.

Doria, as the student representative of the school's first Student Government, has shone in a new environment. In the past three years, she and the school have made each other's successes, and she has gotten her own college offer and brought us many good memories. We took a step back in time with her and talked about choosing a school, applying, and how to think about it.

Doria Chen

首届学生会学生代表

已获得大学Offer：

● 伦敦大学学院

● 爱丁堡大学

● 杜伦大学

● 加利福尼亚大学戴维斯分校

● 加利福尼亚大学尔湾分校

● 俄亥俄州立大学

Doria Chen

Student Representative of the first student government

offers received：

● University College London

● University of Edinburgh

● Durham University

● University of California, Davis

● University of California, Irvine

● The Ohio State University

不应被环境决定，

而是你来决定环境。

Doria小学就读于一所上海知名公立小学，在义务教育的初级阶段打下了比较扎实的学科基础。随着年龄的增长，无论自己还是家人老师，都认为能让个性得以发展、可以自由探索兴趣爱好的环境更适于未来的发展。Doria初中进入双语学校学习了两年，8年级毕业后，只身前往瑞士继续学业。

12年一贯制的校园，涵盖了来自不同国家地区的学生。充满多元色彩的环境中，Doria独立处理着以往从未体验过的社交感受。父母不在身边，各种关系的面对都只能靠自己，偶尔也会出现一些无法与自己情绪和解的状态。

Doria并没有因为自己中国学生的身份，而安逸地待在语言的舒适区。在英语能力的加持下，她在交流上逐渐找到自己的节奏，和其他国家的学生结交朋友，快速适应并融入了环境。

然而当疫情到来时，留学的正常生活受到了多方面的影响，Doria和家人也开始寻找能够兼顾国际化教育氛围、而又有明确的升学目标和家国情怀的学校。昆山狄邦华曜成为了选项之一。

Doria的父亲是学校的总设计师，在设计和建设的初期，Doria已开启了她和狄邦华曜的缘分。彼时对还处于图纸阶段的学校，Doria提出了切实的建议。她从一个学生的视角，希望校内的动线能够设计得更加人性化，无论上课还是活动，师生的移动能保持顺畅，不需要经常横跨校园。

在参观和备考了不同的学校之后，Doria倾向于选择去一个“新”的地方学习，最终决定来到昆山。

“我选择学校其实不会很在乎排名，学校成绩再优秀，也是有多方面因素影响的。全新的校园一方面不需要花时间再去融入既定的环境，或是去适应既定的规则；另一方面适应新意味着充满无限可能，我有机会去创建自己想要创建的东西。

寄宿生活也是我比较喜欢和习惯的，能能家人周末见面，但又可以拥有独立生活成长的空间。”

经历了国内外不同学校的教育，在Doria体验看来，每个学校都各有利弊，问题在于作为浸润其中的学生，学校好的地方是否符合你的期待，并且能为己所用；而看似不好的地方是否对于个人的发展并无影响。

Doria直言，在昆山生活的过程中，也会遇到觉得不够完美的时刻，但她认为人不应该被环境决定，而是应该去决定环境。

“我们的生活本身也并不完美，你才是处于环境本身的那个人，别人说的和你自己看到的也许并不一样。只要你认为环境是适合自己的、能在其中有所收获就可以了。”

You should not be determined by your environment.

Rather, you determine the environment.

Doria attended a famous public primary school in Shanghai, where she received a solid foundation in the subject matter during the early years of her compulsory education. As she grew older, both her family and teachers decided that an environment where she could develop her personality and freely explore her interests was more suitable for her future development.

The K-12 campus has a wide range of students from different countries and regions. In a diverse environment, Doria independently dealt with social feelings that she had never experienced before. Without her parents around, she had to face all kinds of relationships on her own, and occasionally there were states where she could not reconcile with her emotions.

Doria did not let her status as a Chinese student make her comfortable in her comfort zone of the language. With her English language skills, she gradually found her rhythm in communication, made friends with students from other countries, and quickly adapted and integrated into her environment.

However, when the epidemic hit, the normal life of studying abroad was affected in many ways, and Doria and her family began to look for a school that could combine an international educational atmosphere with a clear goal of further study and a sense of home. Dipont Huayao Collegiate School Kunshan became one of the options.

Doria's father was the chief architect of the school, and Doria started her relationship with HC at the early stages of design and construction. Doria had practical suggestions for the school, which was still in the drawing board stage. From a student's point of view, she wanted the school to be more user-friendly in terms of movement, whether it was for classes or events, so that students and teachers could keep moving smoothly and did not need to cross the campus as often.

After visiting and preparing for different schools, Doria preferred to study in a "new" place and decided to come to Kunshan.

"I don't really care about the ranking of the school I choose, as there are many factors that influence how good a school is. On the one hand, a new campus doesn't require time to integrate into the established environment or adapt to the established rules; on the other hand, adapting to the new means that there are unlimited possibilities and I have the opportunity to create what I want to create.

Living in a residential environment is also something I like and am used to, being able to see my family on weekends but having the space to live and grow independently."

Having experienced different schools at home and abroad, the question is whether the good things about the school meet your expectations and work for you as a student immersed in it, and whether the seemingly bad things don't affect your personal development.

Doria says outright that there are moments in her life at Kunshan when she feels less than perfect, but she believes that people should not be determined by their environment, but rather to determine it.

"Our life itself is not perfect either, you are the one who is in the environment itself, what others say and what you see yourself may not be the same. As long as you think the environment is suitable for you and you can gain something in it, it's fine."

Leadership is to be the one,

and that one of many.

Doria认为，在狄邦华曜的三年，是给予自己启蒙和启迪的三年。

面对全新的系统，迎接全新的挑战，她作为置身其中的个体，会不断去探求自己希望所在的community能成为什么样子，又可以为其做出哪些贡献；在实践的过程中，发现自己有能力让它变成理想的样子，这种社群与个人的变化间互相形成的反馈，总能让自己收获诸多的感悟。

“我们不是河面上随波逐流的叶子，接受教育不是完全被动和服从的。当你开始思考你想要环境变成什么样子的时候，就意味着你在思考你想要什么样的生活、什么样的人生，这是很重要的。”

Doria是狄邦华曜首届学生会的学生代表，学生会的建设也是从无到有的历程。2020年学生领导组织在开学两个月后成立，但学生会的部门架构和办事流程，可以说是花了整整3年的时间，才最终成型。

想象中并不困难的学生会运营，在具体事务的推进和组织时，还是经常遇到阻力或是收不到积极的响应。Doria并没有把“受挫”、“失败”看得太重，她相信大家都期待着创造一个更好的校园，在生活舒适的同时，能够丰富自己的学业和阅历，让资源真正为学生所用。这样的想法推动着她持续地付诸行动。

期间组织人员的流动也为学生会工作增添了不少变数，Doria看到的则是积极的一面：不断涌入的新鲜血液，都以各自特色鲜明的形式，为学生会带来变革和影响。与不同成员的讨论和交流之中，她自身对于如何进行团队合作、如何带领团队塑造更好的机制、如何承担起领导者的责任，有了更深的认识。

平地起高楼，“不完美”恰恰带来实现自我、做出贡献的机遇。Doria在几年前一位同学发起的问卷中，对“你如何理解Leadership？”这一问题，写下了这样的答案：Leadership is to be the one, and that one of many.

“展开解读这句话，就是最开始的时候好像我是唯一的那个人，但成为这个唯一的目的，是为了让自己不成为唯一。Leadership是我可以激励更多的人，而不是一场一方独赢的零和博弈。既然有想法，也有能力，那就不能让自己关在舒适区里。有时候校园里的问题比我们想象得还要难以调和，我们只能尽力找到一种缓和的方式，不能因为做不到就不去做。”

Doria对于大学也如此期待着，被周围的人影响，自己也影响着其他的人，在良性的互动中相伴成长。哪怕会遭遇新的问题，也能用于面对混沌而不沉迷于消极。

Leadership is to be the one,

and that one of many.

Doria believes that the three years she spent at HC were three years of enlightenment and inspiration for her.

Faced with a new system and new challenges, she, as an individual in it, would constantly explore what she wanted the community to be and what she could contribute to it; in the process of practice, she found that she had the ability to make it become the ideal, and this kind of feedback between the community and personal development always made her gain a lot of insights.

"We are not just leaves on a river, and education is not completely passive and subservient. When you start thinking about what you want your environment to be like, it means you are thinking about what kind of living and what kind of life you want, which is very important.

Doria was a student representative on first student government at Dipont HC, and it has been a journey of building the student government from scratch. 2020 saw the establishment of the student leadership organization after two months of the first school year, but it took a full three years for the departmental structure and processes of the student government to take final form.

Doria doesn't take "setbacks" or "failures" too seriously, but she believes that everyone is looking forward to creating a better campus and a more comfortable place to live. She believes that everyone is looking forward to creating a better campus where they can enrich their education and experience while living comfortably, and where resources are truly available to students. This is what drives her to continue to take action.

While the turnover in the organization has added to the variability of the student government, Doria has seen the positive side: the constant influx of new blood, in its own distinctive form, has brought change and impact to the student government. Through discussions and exchanges with different members, she has gained a deeper understanding of how to work together as a team, how to lead a team to shape better mechanisms, and how to take on the responsibility of a leader.

In a questionnaire that one of her classmates initiated a few years ago, Doria wrote down the following answer to the question "How do you understand leadership? Leadership is to be the one, and that one of many.

Leadership is to be the one, and that one of many." Interpreting this statement, it seems that I am the only one at the beginning, but the purpose of being the only one is to make myself not the only one. Since I have the ideas and the ability, I can't let myself be locked in my comfort zone. Sometimes issues on campus are more difficult to reconcile than we think, and we can only try to find a way to de-escalate them, not just because we can't do it."

Doria is looking forward to college in the same way, being influenced by the people around her and influencing others herself, growing together in a positive interaction. Even if they will encounter new problems, they can be used to face the chaos without indulging in negativity.

宁愿以真实的自己被拒绝

也不因虚假的自己而接受

大学的申请， Doria贯彻了自己择校的理念：排名不是首要的考虑因素，校园的环境，包括外在环境和内在的学习研究氛围才是重点。

与高中不同，大学已经形成了健全成熟的体系，那么选择的就是可以帮助到自己的4年生活的地方。如果把一天分为学习和非学习时间，只有非学习时间感到充实安全，才能更好地支撑学习时间内的专注和积极性，让大学生活节奏进入良性的循环。

大学作为研究型场所，重点还是为了享受学习的乐趣，探索学科的深知。Doria直言，她上大学的目的不是为了赚钱或者找到令人艳羡的工作，而是浸润于知识研究的场域，实现志趣的修习。所以主要以环境静谧优美、有着明确边界的学校为目标。

申请准备并非一帆风顺，文书是Doria遇到的最大挑战。纠结于多个主题，拟写了好几版稿，和家人的意见矛盾，以及内心不同想法之间的矛盾混杂其中。对自己进行深度挖掘，并将这些全部外化成语言清晰地表达出来，没有一个步骤是简单的。

但即便再难，Doria也有她的坚持，为此不惜和家人争吵，终止与外部机构的合作。

“有时候我知道爸妈也好，机构的老师也好，他们会以对申请有益的视角给到建议，这些建议客观来说有一定道理。不过文书的写作以及大学申请，是从‘我’出发的。如果输出的内容并不符合我的主见或经历，存在一些浪漫化的修改，即使有用，我也无法照做。从大学的角度来说，这样的我是失真的。所以我宁愿以真实的自己被拒绝，也不想因虚假的自己被接受。”

狄邦华曜的升学指导唐老师在这期间给予了Doria相当大的支持。在遇到磕绊的时候陷入困惑的时候，Doria会在周末找到唐老师讨论。唐老师以尊重她的想法为前提，帮助她厘清思绪，提炼精准的用词和语句，将那些之前模棱两可、无法准确描述的念头梳理成为更好理解的观点。

真实的Doria，在申请季接到了剑桥大学的面试邀请。尽管遗憾最终未能收获Offer，却也为自己积累了人生经验值。在被校方考察的同时，她也从提问和交流中了解到对方看中自己哪些方面的特质，包括自己的精神面貌是怎样的，这些都是实际参与后才会知道的事情。

I would rather be rejected for my true self

than to be accepted for being a fake self

For the college application, Doria implemented her philosophy of choosing a school: ranking is not the first consideration, but the campus environment, including the external environment and the internal study and research atmosphere, is the key.

Unlike high school, college has developed a solid and mature system, so it is important to choose a place that can help you in your 4 years of life. If you divide the day into study and non-study time, only when the non-study time feels fulfilling and safe can you better support the focus and motivation during the study time, so that the pace of college life can enter a virtuous cycle.

As a research-oriented university, the focus is on the enjoyment of learning and exploring the depths of the discipline, and Doria says that her purpose for going to university is not to make money or get an enviable job, but to immerse herself in the field of intellectual research and to achieve the cultivation of her aspirations. Therefore, her main goal was to go to a school with a quiet and beautiful environment and clear boundaries.

Preparing for the application was not always easy, and the paperwork was the biggest challenge Doria encountered. She struggled with multiple topics, wrote several versions of her draft, and mixed conflicting opinions with her family and different inner thoughts. Digging deeper into herself and putting it all into clear language was not an easy step.

But even though it was difficult, Doria had her perseverance, going so far as to argue with her family and end her work with outside agencies.

"Sometimes I know that mom and dad, or teachers at agencies, will give advice from a perspective that is beneficial to the application, and there is some truth to that advice objectively. But the writing of the documents and the college application is from 'me'. If the output doesn't fit my opinion or experience, and there are some romanticized changes, I can't do it even if it's useful. From the university's point of view, such a me is distorted. So I would rather be rejected for my real self than accepted for my fake self."

Karen, Dibang Hua Yao's college guidance teacher, gave Doria considerable support during this period. When she was confused, Doria would come to Karen on weekends to discuss her ideas, and Karen helped her clarify her thoughts, refine her words and phrases, and sort out her previously ambiguous and inaccurate thoughts into a better understanding.

The real Doria received an invitation to interview with Cambridge University during the application season. Although she regretted that she did not get an offer in the end, she was able to gain life experience. While being examined by the university, she also learned from the questions and exchanges what qualities the other party looked for in herself, including what her mental outlook was like, things that she would only know after actually participating.

理解个体的体验

定位所处的时代

和Doria共同相伴三年，我们看到了她作为学生领袖，以及一名有想法的高中生的担当。她选择了社会学作为未来的专业方向，继续对于人与社会关系的审视和研究。

高中阶段并没有专门的社会学课程，但Doria认为社会学的影子无处不在。例如文学，她会思考作者所处的时代是如何导致TA的文字显示出相应的精神面貌，这种精神面貌又是如何影响他的时代的。

又例如身边同学之间会产生矛盾，她不会去盲目地判断谁对谁错，而是通过对他们的了解，思考背后的行为逻辑，他们的教育经历、家庭环境等又是如何影响到他们的选择的。

“社会学它既看你作为个体在整个系统中是什么样，又看你是怎么影响到这个系统。我比较喜欢想这种问题。在网上冲浪看到社会热点事件，也会习惯性地把自己抽离开来，从更大的维度去看待讨论它。”

Doria曾参加过一项公益活动，与乡村孩子一对一绑定成为笔友，交流彼此的生活。一年短暂的陪伴，对方的分享让她得知了很多周边生活中完全不知道的事，建立起超出日常场域的新的认知。两个所处环境迥异的人，也会有共通的烦恼；但又正因为环境的迥异，问题的解决方式却无法共享。

这让她想到，一次公益和长久公益存在的巨大的区别，如果真的想要做什么事情去帮助别人的话，不是为了帮助而帮助，不是为了展示自己，而应该是对长久的影响力比较大的事情。

Doria将作为社会人的作用发挥在了实践当中。她在10年级时发起了一项名为“卫生巾互助盒”的行动，帮助狄邦华曜的女性师生，表达女性力量，打破人们对生理期的偏见。从调查问卷开始收集意见，并且组织购置互助盒和卫生巾等，与老师们一起将想法最终落地普及。

“我最近在读米尔斯的《社会学的想象力》，我认同他所提到的“社会学的想象力”是人应该具备的一种品质。你对所处的位置和时代保持思考，才能不会在面对各种事情时感到疑惑混沌。”

从Doria的经历来看，她总表现得勇往直前，将自己决定想要做的事情贯彻到底。采访的过程中，我们看到她的不惧并非源于没有经历过打击或迷茫，而是在不断的思考之下探索内心的声音，冲破“小我”的局限，看向更宏观的世界。

正如Doria自己所言，申请并不是End of the word，高中的最后一年，换个角度看正是大学开启前的第一年，所有的成长都不只是为了申请，更是为了申请之后的人生。

Understand the individual experience

Positioning for the times we live in

Having spent three years with Doria, we have seen her take on the role of a student leader and a thoughtful high school student. She has chosen sociology as her future major to continue her examination and study of the relationship between people and society.

There is no specific sociology course in high school, but Doria sees sociology everywhere. For example, in literature, she would think about how the author's time led to the corresponding spirituality of his/her writing, and how this spirituality influenced his/her time.

Another example is that conflicts will arise between classmates around her. She will not try to blindly judge who is right and who is wrong, but through understanding them, she will think about the logic behind their behavior, and how their educational experience, family environment, etc. affect their choices.

"Sociology it looks at both what you are like as an individual in the overall system and how you affect the system. I prefer to think about this kind of question. When I surf the internet and see a hot social event, I also make it a habit to pull myself away from it and see and discuss it in a larger dimension."

Doria once participated in a charity event where she bound one-on-one with rural children to become pen pals and exchange information about each other's lives. After a year of brief companionship, the other person's sharing allowed her to learn many things she didn't know at all about her surrounding life and build new perceptions beyond the everyday field. Two people in very different environments can share the same troubles; but because of their very different environments, they cannot share the solutions to their problems.

This reminds her of the huge difference between one-time charity and long-term charity. If you really want to do something to help others, it is not for the sake of helping, not to show yourself, but something that has a greater long-term impact.

Doria puts her role as a community member into practice. In 10th grade, she started an initiative called "Tampon Support Box" to help female students and faculty at HC to express female power and break the stigma of menstruation. Starting with a questionnaire to collect opinions and organizing the purchase of support boxes and sanitary napkins, she worked with teachers to get the idea off the ground.

I recently read Mills' "Sociological Imagination" and I agree with him that "sociological imagination" is a quality that people should have. You have to keep thinking about your place and time in order not to feel confused when you are faced with things."

From Doria's experience, she has always shown the courage to go ahead and follow through with what she decides to do. During the interview, we saw that her fearlessness is not due to the fact that she has not experienced any shock or confusion, but rather that she is constantly thinking and exploring her inner voice to break through the limitations of her "small self" and look at the bigger picture.

As Doria said herself, application is not the end of the word. The last year of high school is the first year before college starts, and all the growth is not only for the application, but also for the life after the application.