#GraduateStory | Nina Li: Looking Inward, Reaching Out: Making My Path by Walking



My motivation begins with a longstanding desire to understand what is unfamiliar and contribute to expanding our knowledge. That desire reaches across possible majors.



Part 01: Understanding Myself and Connecting with the World



Since childhood, I have been interested in questions with open-ended answers. Where does consciousness originate? How do dreams relate to reality? How does technology change society, and what role do people play in its development? These questions introduced two areas of exploration:

• Exploring the wider world: energy and the universe, space and large social systems.
• Exploring ourselves: human mechanisms and cognitive structures, consciousness and experience.

Connecting our understanding of ourselves with the world around us has become a question I hope to pursue throughout life.

Part 02: Art and Emotional Understanding

Art occupies a large part of my life. Dance has been especially influential. Daily practice over many years developed my skills and continual awareness of my body.



I also developed projects from those interests. Our art group organized Under and Over the Waves, an ocean conservation exhibition addressing pollution and marine ecosystems, alongside ocean-themed emotional healing. Break the Wall explored identity and feminism, along with teenagers' mental health. Original music and videos addressed conditions including bipolar disorder and erotomania. I helped plan the UNDEFINE dance competition across schools and launched Wish Upon a Star, offering broader educational opportunities to migrant workers' children in Picun.



AID Music Video Project



UNDEFINE Dance Competition



Wish Upon a Star Program

These projects explored how different media could connect individual experiences with social concerns. Through them, I learned to identify actual needs and specific difficulties, using that understanding to develop new responses.

Part 03: Considering the Role of Knowledge

High school gave me opportunities to examine my interests in self-understanding and relationships with the wider world through theory.

Coursework provided a foundation: AP Biology and Chemistry, Psychology and Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Statistics, Calculus and Physics, and Computer Science. With comparatively limited neuroscience in the school curriculum, I pursued further study outside school.

I took Coursera's Neurobiology of Everyday Life and Medical Neuroscience, researched Chronic Diseases through GPSI, and studied neuroscience and behavioral decisions, along with attention and movement, through Pioneer School projects. In the Global Academician Research Workshop, I wrote a review of spinal cord injury and neural regeneration. UPenn's Neuroscience Research Academy offered laboratory work and neuroethics debate, alongside academic writing. An internship at a brain-computer interface (BCI) company introduced current technologies and practical applications.

These experiences taught me that knowledge requires decisions about how to apply it.

Contributing to brain-computer interfaces would require expertise across neuroscience and engineering, materials and computing. My time and energy were limited, so identifying a particular area where I could contribute became important. Broader technological developments soon prompted me to reconsider that question.

Rapid AI development is making knowledge more accessible and changing the relationship between study and research. People can increasingly begin practical investigation with a question and draw on existing information as they work. This led me to ask:

What should education offer in this changing environment?

Part 04: Education, Continuing to Learn and Create

I believe education should develop ways of thinking and practical abilities alongside knowledge. These include identifying problems and making decisions under uncertainty, combining resources across fields and taking calculated risks, and implementing ideas.

That belief led me to choose The University of Hong Kong's Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Technology from several offers, even before my U.S. application process had fully concluded.

The program emphasizes learning through projects across engineering and architecture, science and business. Students develop knowledge and methods while implementing projects through practical work.

Technology creates opportunities and challenges while changing established expectations. Adapting and creating within an increasingly competitive environment are abilities I want to develop.

Part 05: Teachers Who Supported My Development

Grades 10 and 11 brought overlapping academic and personal challenges. At times, I felt close to breaking down.

Exams were difficult for me. I took TOEFL often enough that the proctors recognized me and greeted me with a smile, and grades in some subjects varied considerably. Beyond schoolwork, situations outside my control and external pressures created further strain. I worked to progress while responding to conflicting demands.

My family and BAID both provided indispensable support.

I remember Ms. Zhou canceling a scheduled meeting to spend considerable time talking with me. Patiently, she helped clarify my problems and uncertainties and offered practical advice, allowing me to begin moving beyond the difficulties I faced.

My mother continued supporting me. My Homeroom Teacher and Head of Grade, along with subject teachers, paid attention and responded with timely care. Feeling recognized and understood helped me develop. I began appreciating education as a community sustained through relationships and care.

Several teachers were especially involved in that development.

Ms. Hu Jie guided our art exhibitions and dance competitions from their earliest ideas. She helped refine plans and identify resources, coordinate partners and visit exhibitions beyond campus to observe and learn. Through repeated adjustments, she continued supporting us until the projects were completed. I learned how implementing an idea requires work at each stage.

Ms. Li Hui helped me gain confidence from our first conversation on the Grade 9 spring outing through application season. During that outing, she responded with specific encouragement to experiences I had considered insignificant. Under application pressure, she continued helping me understand myself and develop my own judgment within complicated choices.

Ms. Mingming offered dependable support in Calculus and Statistics and as my Homeroom Teacher. While my AP practice exam results were still inconsistent, she repeatedly helped me review and improve. On score-release day, I woke overseas and immediately sent her the good news. She seemed even more excited than I was and said I had finally made it through.

My other subject teachers also supported me diligently in different ways.



Mr. Hu Mingbo repeatedly helped me review before AP exams and gave up holiday time for final preparation. Ms. Dai Ying's varied experiments and classroom activities encouraged my interest in biology from Grade 9. Through engaging lessons and creative assignments about Dream of the Red Chamber, Mr. Wang Pengyu encouraged connections between Chinese literature and art, including interaction design. Ms. Sia guided my dance and theater work, from school training to professional filming outside school, helping me develop more accomplished artistic expression. Other teachers and staff, alongside classmates, also contributed ideas and encouragement.

Looking back, I understand development as a process supported by our environment and relationships, including timely help from others. Helping one another achieve our goals can itself offer fulfillment.



Many teachers find significance in watching students develop and enter a wider world. I benefited from that commitment. Their support also influenced how I understand relationships, something I will continue valuing wherever my future work leads.

Part 06: Looking Forward

I began by seeking answers within existing directions and now want to help decide those directions myself. I will continue exploring across fields.

As the world changes, I hope to keep developing understanding and relationships while creating new work. Begin early and allow exploration to take unexpected directions. Action often helps clarify questions that reflection alone leaves open.

Part 07: From My Mother

Looking back, these years involved growing alongside my daughter and learning to accompany her with greater trust. We became one another's trusted partners.

During high school, academic pressure led her to doubt herself and become tense and sensitive. I felt helpless, unsure how to offer support or advice without adding pressure. Seeing her struggle brought pain and uncertainty.

Gradually, I recognized her need for a dependable, safe support system. A reassuring home could reduce emotional strain and help her use her energy to develop and address problems herself.

With support from school and family, she gradually became more relaxed and confident, and better able to manage herself. She planned her studies independently and gained courage to face setbacks, developing her own motivation.

I learned to offer room for exploration and sufficient support, giving guidance and acceptance while respecting her pace. Accompanying her through uncertainty helped her develop the maturity to face the world independently.

Developing a fulfilling inner life and approaching the future positively can take many forms. That understanding has helped me alongside my daughter. Thank you to Beijing Academy's teachers for your care and support throughout her development. I wish the school continued success.