There’s no doubt that Serena Zhang is a driven and energetic person. Over her four years at Enloe, she has racked up an incredible list of accomplishments all while never losing her spark.
Serena is an active member of Enloe’s Science Olympiad team. She first started in middle school, but said that “it’s a lot more competitive in high school.” Completely undeterred, she became captain of her team while building her knowledge of the sciences.
“I think that club has really shaped my interest in science and medicine because I do a lot of biology related events in Science Olympiad”, Serena said. “But that also gave me the knowledge to do my own independent research project, which I then [used to] design a protein to treat an autoimmune disease.”
In addition to her research project, she also went on a research trip to New York.
“Last summer, I had the opportunity to intern at Rockefeller University,” Serena said. “I was helping design cancer diagnostics that are more accessible because they don’t require electricity to be processed.”
But it wasn’t all science for Serena. In addition to becoming a medical researcher and captain in Science Olympiad she has become a decorated writer, pursuing her literary interests.
“I really thought she was going to be a math science girl,” recalled Mr. Greer. “But I was really surprised. She had a natural gift for writing too and seemed to really love literature.”
“She wrote a short story that, if I had read it in Reader’s Digest or a professional publication, I would have just thought it was excellent. But it was written by a student in my class!” Exclaimed Greer.
Among the short stories she has written include a 100 word memoir shortlisted in a New York Times competition and awards from the National Scholastic Arts and Writing contests.
Serena pulled from her favorite authors to fuel her writing, consuming book after book in her free time.
“I really like reading realistic fiction,” Serena said. “I love John Green. I read one of his books, Turtles All the Way Down. It was about a girl with OCD. It was really touching because it was the kind of fiction I want to write … I think that’s cool that [Green] was able to translate his own experiences into a fictional character.”
Serena also enjoys more musical interests. “I started playing flute in 6th grade because I’d been playing piano since I was like five, ” remembered Zhang. “And then I also joined an out-of-school orchestra, the Triangle Youth Symphony and now the Triangle Youth Philharmonic.”
How does she keep on top of it all? Well, it might have to do with one extremely powerful drink from Boba Baba.
“With my friends, we like to go to our nearby boba shop,” Serena said. “We like to go to Boba Baba and just hang out.”
“She really likes matcha,” said Ruby Liu, one of her friends since elementary school. “And so many times I’m texting her or she’s telling me about how she walked there to get her matcha drinks and how she’s really ‘addicted’ to coffee.”
Or maybe it has to do with her love of pineapples.
“I’m weirdly obsessed with pineapples,” Serena said. “On the first day of middle school, for some reason, I picked up a pineapple shirt, but then I also realized that I had a pineapple backpack…So then I was like, okay, I have to just be the pineapple girl because I also have pineapple pants.”
In any case, once Serena graduates, she has lofty goals to combine her STEM and literary talent.
“I want to be a part-time writer because I kind of want to go into science,” Serena said. “I don’t know if I want to do medicine or if I want to do research, but I think either way, in my free time or part-time, I want to be a writer.”
Thinking further about her future, she says,“But I definitely want to, in my 20s, live in New York because New York is just where it’s at … There’s like so many different cultures in one tiny place and it’s just awesome, because if I was to become a researcher, all the institutions in New York are top tier, like anywhere there.”
But even with her stack of achievements and high hopes, she still remembers what matters most.
“She’s very artistic and she’s really smart,” Julie Ye, one of her friends said. “But then at the same time, [she]’s also 100% humble at the same time, you’ll never see her boasting about everything, which is really nice because Enloe is such a competitive environment.”
When asked about her favorite thing about Serena, Julie said, “I love that she’s so easy to talk to and she’s probably one of the most reliable people I know.”
“My favorite thing about her is always how cheerful she is,” Ruby said. “And whenever I hang out with her, it’s always super silly and fun.”
It’s clear that wherever Serena Zhang goes, she’ll light up the room and bring her energy with her. From the Enloe Eagles’ Eye, we wish her all the best!
