- Student Success
No matter how long you spend at Hangzhou International School, you can always try new things and discover your passion. Eventually, it will be your turn to go off into the world on your own and explore the possibilities, which is exactly what our seniors are getting ready to do. We sat down with Candy Z, a senior that has been at HIS since Grade 5, to ask her what the future holds.
Candy has played a large role in sports at school, being a part of the volleyball, basketball and track and field teams over multiple years. As she looks to the future outside of Hangzhou, Candy is planning to pursue sports management at New York University. In this article, we discuss how HIS has helped foster her passion for sports.
Hi Candy, what universities have you been accepted to currently?
For the U.S., I think it was Pepperdine and NYU, and then I applied for Toronto and PolyU in Hong Kong, as well as Loughborough, Edinburgh, and Durham.
What program are you looking at?
I already got into my early decision, so I'm probably going to New York for sports management.
What made you decide to go into sports management?
I think in the beginning, I was leaning towards marketing or maybe just business, because it made sense for my dad's work, but then I think, it just felt way too not my style. I think I'm more of a creative person, and I also like to do sports. So, sports management felt like a good decision in terms of combining all my interests.
How has HIS inspired you to think about this pathway?
I think our school offers a really good athletics program, and I think it also gives a lot of support, not only in terms of media promotion, but also just rallying the community around the teams. We had pep rallies, we havereally supportive parents (shout out to the Cheer Squad!), and I think all of those elements have made sports a really big part of my life.
What are the favorite sports you’ve done at HIS?
My favorite is definitely volleyball. Volleyball is just different in terms of team spirit. I like track too, but it’s more of an individual sport and I like the way that in volleyball I can cheer with my team, and we make up all these chants, and we act like cheerleaders on the court.
What are you most excited for at university?
I think I'm excited for the city. I'm going to New York, which I'm kind of scared about, but it's also been my dream. I have wanted to go there since elementary, and I’m also excited just to live by myself and actually get to make decisions by myself. But we'll see how it goes.
What are you most excited to learn there?
It's been a while since I've had PE (they finish in Grade 10), but I just remember I always loved PE class, just because you got to do so many things, and sometimes the teachers assigned us to do leadership roles, sometimes you were supporting, and I just hope in this course, in sports management, I can learn more about technical stuff in sports, but also be able to maybe have some internship opportunities to witness professional sports teams.
Has anything else influenced you to take this path?
I actually didn't come into school knowing I wanted to do sports management. I feel like it was more during the first year of DP (DP1), when I started shifting towards it, because in DP1, I realized the importance of sports in my life in the way that it helped with my mindset. It was just a very relieving activity that I thought I would have fun studying at university.
Even when I chose my DP classes, I wasn't set on sports management, so when I did decide that’s what I wanted to do, I think I just rolled with the subjects I was interested in, and ultimately, the school still accepted me because they were still relevant.
I took economics and art, because I was interested in them. And while this combination of subjects doesn’t make sense, to me, they did. In the end, I feel like art and economics work well for marketing, and the management major.
If I have any advice for Grade 10s choosing DP subjects, it's just to follow your heart.