The Class of 2011 is the fifth graduating class of HSDLAS with seventy–eight students. 17% of our classmates are native English speakers and some of them speak other languages, including Spanish, as well. The rest are Chinese immigrants who speak various dialects, including Mandarin, Fuzhounese, Chaozhounese, Taishanese and Wenzhounese. All of our classmates started their 9th grade with limited proficiency in either Chinese or English. However, after more than three years of effort, all of us have improved greatly, and some of our fellow students are even taking AP English or AP Chinese language classes. And we all have Chinese names now, whether we are Chinese are not.
The class of 2011 is incredibly diverse. "You can find all kind of freaks here,” one anonymous student joked. You can find a student who scores 2400 in three SAT2 subject tests. You can find students who play guitars like professional musicians. You can find students who know taekwondo and kick the height of two people. You can find bowling, basketball, volleyball, badminton, swimming and handball athletes here. You can find students who talk eloquently about politics on the morning and play Yu-Gi-Oh cards in the afternoon.
The size of our senior class may be limited, but our possiblities are infinite.
