Student Leader - Xueying Ding (Age 17) - based in MA

Going into the first full week of May, sometimes I feel like I’m on my way to my impending doom. AP exams start May 4th, and are just a tiny bit important, even more so during junior year—the last full year of coursework colleges will see when we apply this fall. Maybe we shouldn't be as stressed as we are about exams. Many have discussed how competitive admissions are in this day and time. But if one person were to decide to “chill out,” but the entire group as a whole doesn’t, then they...

Understanding Teen Development I was invited to attend NIF’s Teen Signal workshop last Thursday to write a blog about it, and it was an interesting experience. The workshop was enlightening, focusing on the importance of treating teenagers as individuals with their own rights and perspectives. Overall, the main takeaway from it can relate to treating kids (and especially teenagers) as people. While it might seem simple in theory, I think that society has had a longstanding issue with viewing...

A while back, this post came up on my Instagram feed, amidst the usual flood of STEM related (getting force fed calculus, computer science, or other STEM things is very effective against doomscrolling) accounts I typically follow. It was interesting, but I didn’t think much of it, simply sending it to a friend and then taking it as a sign to get back to studying. It is an interesting piece, and now just because it merges something people may be tempted to call "soulless," robotics, with art...