Community Services

Ark Project in Maine

Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, our academy moved from Boston to Maine in March 2020 to escape COVID-19, as Maine was a state less affected by coronavirus infections. We stayed in a remote and isolated mountainous area, where people from other states flocked during the summer. A camping site near us was full of people from elsewhere, as many of them had lost their homes due to the catastrophic impact of COVID-19. Some even lived in the woods under poor conditions. To better help these people, we initiated a Habitat for Humanity program to create sheltering facilities for them. As part of my understanding of the needs of others, I joined our Task Force team. We built log cabins near the local lake and a floating ark on Sebec Lake to accommodate families in the greatest need. COVID-19 has brought immense mental stress to those who have lost loved ones in this unprecedented pandemic.

Building floating mobile home for homeless people:

1. The initial period of the ark project involved building the main structural frame. This was the groundbreaking work. We designed everything to fulfill basic living functions, utilizing the rich natural resources available in Maine.
   
2. We built an ark on a lake with my peers to help homeless people fleeing from COVID-19. The most challenging task was launching the ark. It required a tremendous group effort to accomplish this. Ultimately, the ark was successfully towed to the lake. We used a boat to transport the ark, finally moving the main structural frame into the water. Maine, with its abundance of lakes and rich natural resources, is ideal for this project. Floating an ark on the lake legally does not infringe upon private spaces, thus providing a temporary public space to shelter those in urgent need.
   
3. This was a test for floating the ark in the water, which proved that the building project is both doable and replicable. We planned to create more arks later to help those in great need. This project allowed me to apply what I learned in high school to a real-world situation.
   
4. The entire project was finally completed after two weeks of intensive work. The ark looks stunning against the backdrop of the sunset. On the first deck, we placed a sofa and a couch in the open air on the ark. We designed it this way to keep air circulating, thereby reducing the chance of coronavirus transmission. This is the very first prototype we built. Now that it has proven successful, we plan to create more.
   
5. The ark successfully floated on the water. It has two decks: the first deck is designed for people to sit and relax, while the second deck is reserved for sleeping and storing food and supplies.
   
   

Special Research Experience

Research with EPIC center at Teachers College, Columbia University for Resilience and Failure Studies

The EPIC Center is a research institute based at Teachers College, Columbia University. Under the guidance of my research advisors, George Xue and Prof. Xiaodong Lin, I was given the opportunity to join the EPIC Center for resilience and failure studies by conducting comprehensive educational research and curriculum development, aiming to cultivate the next generation of leaders in science and humanities. To renovate our current curriculum, our research group is conducting in-depth studies of some 900 Nobel Prize laureates to identify the factors that most significantly nurtured the abilities leading to their superior intellectual achievements. By reviewing interviews and analyzing extensive research data based on autobiographical and biographical accounts of most laureates, we have identified many key factors contributing to their extraordinary gifts, talents, and results. These findings will help K-12 students understand what it takes for accomplished scientists to make important discoveries and the steps that led to their extraordinary accomplishments, including overcoming any challenges they faced on their journey to success.

The unprecedented pandemic has changed the way of learning. Many kids, while in remote learning mode, have become addicted to playing games. Using cutting-edge media tools, our research aims to design a smart curriculum that motivates students to engage in self-learning by exploring their own unknown world. This curriculum also facilitates parental supervision and amuses children with a multimedia format of learning. Our current research examines a wide range of childhood and adolescent experiences that can deeply affect the application of giftedness, talent, and expertise, providing insight into the processes and experiences that lead to superior critical thinking. By studying Nobel laureates who have had great success and created a legacy in human knowledge and understanding, this special research project will fulfill our mission with an eye toward educating and encouraging children of the next generation to achieve their own milestones and successes. Based on inputs from many distinguished Nobel laureates, our research team conducts intensive qualitative and quantitative analyses and creates a mathematical model to identify key factors contributing to accomplishments. Hopefully, these research findings and new understanding of education will enlighten us and lead to insights that can influence future educational innovations and policy advocacy.

EPIC’s goals are to inspire people to persist and triumph over adversity; to help them channel frustration and use negative emotions constructively; to identify effective strategies for overcoming failure; and to learn how organizations can help employees ‘fail successfully.’ Partnering with the Nobel Academy, an online learning school based in Cambridge, MA, our research group aims to convert our scientific research into real-world educational practice by developing the Nobel Smart Curriculum (NSC), a pipeline leading to elite education. Founded by a group of scholars, educators, and psychologists from Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, our research group is committed to developing theories, curricula, and assessments to assist K-12 students in coping with the struggles and failures they encounter in their education and, more broadly, in life. Our existing research shows that many children believe great scientists or high achievers were born with exceptional talent and that lacking this inherent ability precludes exceptional achievement. This belief leads many students to give up on school and other challenges they encounter. Through our research, we will share the stories of accomplished men and women with millions of children through textbooks and classroom instruction. The goal is to inspire the next generation of students by telling them the reality behind success. We know that people typically focus more on the accomplishments of exceptional achievers rather than the processes they undergo to achieve those accomplishments.