ANNIE Z. FRESHMAN AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN 2017

 The phrase that best embodies my experience at New Star is one that 张老师 (Teacher Zhang) once said to me: work hard, play hard. I learned so many things, from math to reading to Chinese, and all of these helped lay the foundation for everything that I have achieved since then. Though I didn't know it at the time, speech, in particular, played an instrumental role in opening the door to my future in Debate. The training that I received from Dr. Hattie helped me overcome my initial fear of public speaking. Without those weekly sessions, I would not have had the head start in both articulate speaking and critical evaluation that I did. Yet at the same time, my afternoons at New Star reading books from the library or playing Dance Dance Revolution were some of the most fun I remember. Thanks to the wonderful teachers and students, I always looked forward to the van that came to pick us up from school each afternoon. I can't imagine what my elementary school years would have been like without New Star. It is more than just an after-school, it is a family. 

 I went to New Star for two years before middle school. New Star was a supportive environment in which I was excited about learning and making new friends. The teachers were caring and always ready to help. 

 I’m Veronica Fang, currently an eighth grade student at Hockaday. I started attending, the afterschool, New Star on the first day of elementary school. My parents had never pushed me to prepare for school academics, so I entered Kindergarten with a limited amount of English vocabulary and little experience in math. English and math being the two most important subjects, New Star provided a teaching session for those classes each day. They also provided an optional Chinese class which I took. Later in the summer of sixth grade, I assisted a teacher with teaching Level One Chinese. 

A  year later in first grade, I was accepted into PACE, a program for gifted and talented students in Plano. At the end of fourth grade, I was accepted into Math Rocks, the most advanced math program at my school. In fifth grade, I was accepted by Hockaday, an all-girls private school. Although New Star provided academic sessions, the rest of the time was filled with recess and activities, and I ended up meeting some of my best friends there. A few of the activities include table tennis, crafting classes, and dance lessons. I began taking table tennis in second grade, and it became one of my favorite sports. My first year at Hockaday, a mock Olympics was held, and I earned the gold medal for table tennis. During the summer at New Star, my favorite part was the field trips on Fridays. The whole school went ice skating or bowling. Sometimes we would even go to the zoo and the water park. These trips allowed me to bond with friends and try out new activities. Overall, New Star helped improve my academics, allowed me to experience and develop many sports, and meet new people, some of them I still keep in touch with today.