Welcome to My Site

Hello! My name is James, and I'm currently a student at Shanghai American School Puxi Campus.

 

Community has always been a huge part of my life at school. I've spent most of my time focused on service and community building through a few key roles. I'm an active member of EQED, a service club that teaches English to visually impaired students. I've also served as an Executive Officer of the Citizen Action Council, where I helped honor societies and service clubs expand their impact both inside and beyond the school community. Currently, I'm an Executive Officer on the Executive Council, which serves as the main body of student voice, acting as a liaison between students and the administration while promoting student life.

 

Beyond school leadership, I love swimming—I started when I was seven and now serve as captain of the Varsity Swim Team. Outside of sports, music is another big passion of mine. I play the alto saxophone and hold an ABRSM Grade 8 certification, and I've recently started exploring conducting and music theory.

I'm also deeply interested in history. In college, I hope to pursue a combination of musicology and anthropology. I've already started exploring these interests through research: the first project analyzed the role of jazz in Shanghai and its influence on Shidaiqu, a new form of Chinese music that blends Eastern tradition with Western jazz. The other research on anthropology examines the role of joking relationships as a mechanism to sustain secularism in Senegal, which I've submitted to the Concord Review.