C-SPAN StudentCam
If being a kid reporter taught me to see social issues, then C-SPAN StudentCam, a national documentary competition, taught me to participate in discussions. Since 2020, I’ve won four national awards with my documentaries focusing on civic engagement, economics, international relations, and more. These documentaries have aired on C-SPAN across the country, featured in Chapel Hill Magazine, Chapelboro.com, 97.9 WCHL The Hill, WRAL, and more, and was recognized by NC Governor Roy Cooper, Senator Thom Tillis, and US Representatives David Price and Valerie Foushee, and NC Representative Allen Buansi.
In 2020, my documentary “AMERICA: This Equality” won 3rd place nationally with a $750 prize. At this time, the pandemic was gearing up, there were social justice movements erupting across the country, and people were coming together to rally for positive change. It was my first time making a documentary, and I combined my experiences from Scholastic Kids Press to make this documentary, which focuses on inequalities I saw across many aspects, racially, socioeconomically, education, and climate action.
In 2021, my documentary “US-CHINA: Survive or Thrive” won 2nd place nationally with a $1500 prize. Noticing how groceries and products were getting increasingly expensive, I decided to do something to engage with the issue of trade wars and explain a little about what was causing it. This was created during the pandemic which meant interviews were conducted via Zoom, but it gave me the opportunity to interview extraordinary people across the nation like former US Trade Representative Carla Hills.
In 2022, my documentary “STAND & DELIVER: Our Youth Voices” won honorable mention with a $250 prize. My hometown was undergoing a municipal election, which many news sources were writing about including a student journalist at my high school. However, her opinion article was under attack by a political organization. By using facts and reasoning and with the support of numerous local news sources, we proved that the youth voice is powerful and not to be underestimated. This message is strung throughout my documentary, which was my first time competing in the high school division. I was lucky to interview Peter Warwick, the CEO of Scholastic Inc.
In 2023, my documentary “MONEY TALKS: Inside the Inflation Surge” won 1st place nationally with a $3000 prize. Inflation was running rampant all over the country and in my hometown, I noticed many small businesses were either closing or struggling to remain open. Oil prices soared and some families experienced financial strife. This documentary offered a glimpse into how inflation works and how inflation rates could be brought down to help these businesses and families.
In 2023, I also founded my high school’s first documentary club, with the purpose of educating middle and high school students about filmmaking.
Chapel Hill Youth Council
I joined the Chapel Hill Youth Council (CHYC) in 2021, and now I am its president. We are incredibly active in volunteering and service — if we aren’t organizing election forums at the Hargraves Community Center, we are delivering newspapers to the historical black neighborhood, Northside, behind our building or managing renovations at the new Teen Center, or more. Although I am a NCSSM student now, I attend CHYC’s in-person meetings every week.
Since then, during this close engagement with civic affairs, I learned firsthand about decision-making in the town. As a journalist, I published an opinion article on the town’s zoning policies and housing development, which have always been hot topics, on the town’s popular news website. As a column writer for my hometown news source, my stories are often on issues in the community through a high school student perspective.
Host & Organizer of Three Municipal Election Forums
In 2021, I was invited to organize and host the municipal election forum for the Chinese School of Chapel Hill (CSCH). During the organizing process, the other students from CSCH and I researched all the running candidates’ platforms, the public’s viewpoints on each candidate and important issues in Chapel Hill, and formulated questions to ask them during the forum. This was during the pandemic, so the forum was conducted via Zoom, inviting 100+ students, families, and community members in attendance. With the rest of the student team, we employed a timing system to ensure that no candidate spoke over the time limit. As the host, I made sure the flow of debate and live Q&A was smooth and maintained an impartial representation of the CSCH organization.
In light of the town’s 2023 municipal elections, I organized the Chapel Hill Youth Council’s first candidates election forum, where the mayoral and town council candidates were invited to discuss policies with high school students before Election Day. My responsibility was to contact every town council and mayoral candidate and invite them to this forum two months before our set date, while keeping in mind that CHYC is under the jurisdiction of the local government and has to stay unbiased. During the forum, I was co-host, in charge of properly welcoming and introducing the candidates to the audience and maintaining a smooth flow of debate.
In February, after the election results were released, we organized a second forum with the newly-elected officials.
Planning Commission
The Town of Chapel Hill Planning Commission meets almost every week, and the board members and I are in charge of reviewing and discussing the latest urban development projects, proposals, and hearing the public comments by residents. It is a wonder how one high school student could influence an entire neighborhood’s blueprints, but the power of perspective is often overlooked in cases like these. Throughout the years, urban planning in Chapel Hill has been changing greatly, and as the youth liaison to the Planning Commission, my job is to make sure the perspectives of young people are taken into account in these developments.
Currently, high schoolers in Chapel Hill are concerned with green conservation and social spaces (third places), as I hear my friends at home talk about often. During one meeting with the developers of a new, highly-anticipated mixed-use development called South Creek, I brought the idea of adding more chairs and social spaces around, and weeks later, the developers presented to the Planning Commission a revised blueprint of the neighborhood with significantly more greenery and public domains, and less streets and parking spaces. This project has been approved, and is set to begin construction in late 2024.
From these experiences, I confidently say that the biggest issue with Chapel Hill urban planning is how to strike the balance between modernizing and maintaining our history. When I travel to different cities on the East Coast, I see the same issues: zoning, affordable housing, districting, controversial urban planning policies, student housing, etc.
I don’t plan on leaving the Planning Commission until I graduate high school, and in my last year remaining I hope to take away ideas for solutions (or in other words, ways that Chapel Hill chose to handle them) to these issues and bring them to whichever city I find myself living in the future.
Chapelboro.com & Triangle Media Partners
As a column writer for Chapelboro.com, I write stories about community events and developments through the perspective of a high school student. For example, in October 2023, I wrote and published a story about zoning and housing development in Chapel Hill, which have been hot, controversial issues in our town since 2021. This was possible due to first-hand experience in the Planning Commission.
Since the summer of 2021, I have been an editorial intern and freelance writer for Triangle Media Partners, who create and publish Chapel Hill Magazine, Durham Magazine, Chatham Magazine, and the Heart of NC Wedding magazine. I keep in contact with the editors to this day and often help them CQ (meaning identify), contact, or find people/story ideas for different issues. Two stories I helped connect with Chapel Hill Magazine was one about my classmates’ small business and a feature story about the president of Chapel Hill Youth Council before me.
One prominent article I wrote for Chapel Hill Magazine was actually a feature article in the January 2023 issue about my successor, a middle school student, in the Scholastic Kids Press program. He is my friend’s young brother, attended the same middle school, and worked with the same editor-in-chief. This interview took place at my favorite coffeestore.
Part-time Jobs
Namu
Since the summer of 2023, I have been working as a waitress at a local restaurant, Namu. I work on the weekends, 6 hours per day on the busiest night shift. I’m responsible for ensuring accurate and timely delivery of orders to customers while maintaining dry stock inventory accuracy and cleaning tables, bus bins, and washrooms around the restaurant. From a seemingly simple job, I have learned that respecting each other is universal and that making money is not easy. This is why I’m committed to working hard, no matter how big or small a task might be.
Moge Tee
For the summer of 2022, I worked as a cashier for Moge Tee. Working around 30 hours per week, I was responsible for processing and fulfilling daily orders at the cashier, conducting regular shop cleaning, and directly talking to customers. Although this was my first ever job, I learned important communication skills, basic finance and management strategies, how to take care of a small business, and the secrets behind bubble tea.
Teresa Fang 