Name:
Huishan Chen
High School:
Amphitheater High School (Class of 2024)
Postsecondary Plan:
Princeton University majoring in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Journey:
Huishan Chen, a senior at Amphitheater High School in Tucson, Arizona is set to spend the next four years attending Princeton University on a full-ride scholarship beginning Fall 2024. Chen, a first-generation college student is excited to be a Tiger and credits her family and school staff support for helping make this all possible.
“I always knew I wanted to go to school and my mom would always encourage me to go and I decided real young that I’m going to college,” Chen said.
Huishan plans to study civil and environmental engineering while at Princeton.
“When it came to picking a major, I really liked taking math classes throughout my high school years and I knew math would definitely be part of my major. For the environmental part, it comes from taking AP environmental science where I liked the idea of finding solutions to environmental challenges,” Chen said.
Huishan is a recipient of the QuestBridge Scholarship, a prestigious award that connects high-achieving, low-income students with top colleges and universities across the country. Recipients of the QuestBridge Scholarship receive a full four-year scholarship to their chosen school worth over $200,000.
The QuestBridge Scholarship application process is rigorous and comprehensive. It includes essays, letters of recommendation, academic records, and more. In her essays, Chen wrote about her background and embracing her culture.
Huishan was born in China and moved to the United States with her family when she was 3 years old. Huishan’s first language is Taishanese, a language native to the Guangdong Province in China. In her essays, she wrote about growing up in the U.S. and learning more about her culture from her grandfather.
After going through the application process, Huishan found herself a finalist for the award out of over 20,000 applicants. As a finalist, students are asked to rank colleges and universities based on their interests.
“At first, I didn’t know where to rank Princeton, because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get in,” Chen said.
In the end, Huishan ranked Princeton as one of her top schools as she was interested in attending. After submitting her schools, she would have to wait a month to receive an acceptance letter.
The day finally came and letters were delivered in school and Huishan was nervous to open hers. Huishan said the nerves kept building as she was in a group chat with other finalists who started sending their acceptance letters. Huishan ultimately decided to wait to open her letter during lunch so she could call her family and open it with them.
“I was in class and waited about 30 minutes before opening it and finding out my decision. When I opened it, I saw confetti and it said ‘Congratulations!’. I skimmed through the letter and it said ‘Princeton’, and I was like ‘there’s no way I got into Princeton’,” Chen said.
Huishan, on the phone with her sister, looked through the letter that led her to a website to see the final decision. Logging on to her computer Huishan signed in to the website and saw, that she had been accepted to Princeton University.
“My sister was super excited for me since she understood the weight of Princeton. She brought both my parents into the call and explained to my parents the school I got into and they were like ‘Oh my goodness’ and my mom started crying – we all started crying right there,” Chen said happily.
Huishan and her family will be making their first visit to Princeton, New Jersey this April to check out the campus and learn more about her program.
Huishan is a proud participant in Arizona GEAR UP and spends time in the GEAR UP office working with her GEAR UP Coach Ms. Pye.
“I would say GEAR UP is really useful because the coaches here know a lot about the college process, especially Ms. Pye. I would really recommend going to Ms. Pye about the nitty gritty of college,” Chen said.