How Much Can a BJ Teen Accomplish Before Graduating High School?

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Qinglan Du is a global citizen. This young woman will be graduating from Beijing City International School (BCIS) this year and heading off to the University of Cambridge to study law. She has already lived on three continents and is a scholar, musician, community organizer, and a journalist.  In her 18 years, she has done and experienced more than most 80-year-old’s.

I met her last year and I learned about her initiatives - Cleaning Up Beijing and Cleaning Up Jerusalem. Her passion and drive for her community are truly inspiring. Not only is her program still running in Jerusalem but she told me she intends to keep it going here in Beijing while she studies in England next year.

I’m currently looking for student leaders to continue Cleaning Up Beijing after I graduate. The school is also working with me on this. After several failed attempts, I am thinking of combining my cleaning up initiative with a different student’s project, so more people are willing to lead it.

And she will take this passion project with her across the pond. “I will definitely continue this initiative in university. I have no idea what the natural environment is like at my future university. I don’t know if there are large nature reserves or if people are responsible for picking up trash there. These are things I intend to find out first before organizing cleanups. I will probably have to change the nature of my cleanups to fit with the local circumstances. For example, I might need to change the equipment and add more protective gear because COVID-19 is more serious there… I also have other ideas such as not solely focusing on picking up trash, but maybe raising money to buy upgraded trash-pickers for local cleaners.”

But her Cleaning up initiative isn’t the only way she has affected our community. Last summer while interning here with us at Jingkids International she wrote an article about the practice of westernizing Chinese names and it resonated.

It’s something very personal that I thought about for several years before finally bringing it into conversations. I always wondered why I had to have an English name to fit into international communities but never really challenged this belief until writing this article. For me, writing this article was my first step to truly embracing my Chinese identity. I remember there were people commenting on the article that they related to my story or agreed with my opinion. Writing this article gave me the confidence to write my main Common App essay and UK personal statement on this topic, as well as getting rid of having a preferred English name in school and outside of school.

Despite all her accomplishments, Du is still plenty nervous about the next big step “I’m very very nervous about independent life. I know for sure I will miss my parents, my current room, my friends, etc. The workload in university will be even more than high school and the thought of balancing that on top of household chores and keeping my life together is very unnerving.”

But being an expat kid gives her some advantages. While nerves and homesickness are to be expected, young people raised like Du innately know something it takes many adults a lifetime to learn; Home is not a place, it is a feeling.

Home is anywhere where I feel comfortable. It’s very hard to describe but it’s the feeling of being free to express myself anytime – on good days and bad days – and knowing the people around me will accept me regardless. Home is not a perfect environment surrounded by the perfect people who are always supportive and compassionate…It’s about being able to share your opinion when you disagree with something or being able to cry when you’re sad instead of bottling these thoughts up. Home is essentially somewhere where you can have really high ups and really low downs without fear of judgment.

And her next step is to make her new home. “I usually don’t plan very far ahead. At the moment, my dream for the future is to make it to university, settle down in my dorm, and build a group of friends. It’s not a big profound dream but it’s what’s most important to me right now. I usually only look at what’s in front of me because I think planning too far ahead can only get me lost.”

I highly doubt this young woman will ever be truly lost but I am certain she will help a lot of other people find their own trail and probably get them to help clean up the path while she is at it.

Images: Qinglan Du

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