Documenting the Pandemic: Frank Zhou '19

Since receiving the 2019 Scull Award for Composition, Frank has become a prose editor of his high school literary magazine, The Courant, and 2020 alumnus of the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program and Iowa Young Writers Studio. His work has been recognized by the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and published in several literary magazines; he remains forever grateful for the sustained writing of his ninth-grade spring that inspired his foray into creative writing.

 

This past trimester, a keen interest in history—one he first discovered in Mr. Beloff's Topics in Modern America and as the recipient of the 2019 Arline and Harvey Steinberg History Award—led him to direct a student team that conducted an oral history of Phillips Academy students' experiences amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. His current project with Academy Archives explores early 20th-century Chinese students in New England boarding schools as vessels for the confluence of Sino-US culture, ideology, and pedagogy. 

 

Frank has also pursued a commitment he first encountered as a 9th-grade representative during Morning Meetings: the facilitation of campus dialogue. In high school, Frank has become the chief student coordinator of his high school's eight sustainability initiatives, a role that sees him communicating regularly with the Academy's senior administration, alumni, and 200+ sustainability-minded students. From curating his high school's sustainability-focused Orientation programming to planning biweekly speaker engagements with policy experts to collaborating with faculty in curricular development, he constantly refines the communication skills and campus awareness he first discovered behind the Fay podium.