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A Self-Described“STEM-Inspired Poet/Activist:” Jessica’s Insatiable Pursuit for Learning Leads Her to Duke
A Self-Described“STEM-Inspired Poet/Activist:” Jessica’s Insatiable Pursuit for Learning Leads Her to Duke

It was late 2021 when Jessica and her mom made the midnight drive to Seattle for a 7am SAT test. Thanks to the pandemic, taking the SAT in Vancouver was difficult to schedule, but Jessica was eager to complete the test, and despite driving throughout the night, she was feeling sharp and well-prepared.

“A perfect score on the SATs is a 1600,” says Ms. Jennifer Adriaanse, Jessica’s University Guidance Counselor at Collingwood. “Jessica got a 1560.”

Her score meant that she wouldn’t have to think about the SATs again, and that she had a real shot at getting into the most selective schools in the U.S.

When Jessica attended an application workshop put on by Collingwood’s University Guidance Department at the end of her Grade 11 year, she had no idea about the rabbit hole she was about to fall into. While she had done some preliminary preparations, she couldn’t anticipate the time writing her applications would require. For most students applying to a handful of schools, the application process is manageable, but Jessica had almost 30 schools on her list. In total, she wrote 72 supplementary applications (i.e. essays)!

“For all the universities I applied to, I always had to answer a question about why I wanted to go to that particular school. My strategy was to determine my own values and then find the schools that aligned,” Jessica says. “Every school has a Missions & Visions page on their website so it was easy to write about the values we shared.”

Jessica’s academic interests span from poetry to coding - in fact, she calls herself a “STEM-inspired poet/activist.”

“My poems combine my love for STEM and my passion for social justice issues. I use a lot of wild metaphors from math and science, like integrals, labs, and calculus,” Jessica says. One of her poems about the Asian diaspora in Canada won a Scholastic Gold Key award.

Jessica has a talent for connecting seemingly unrelated subjects together. It all started when she was 11 and convinced her parents to send her to a Minecraft summer camp. There, she learned how to hack the game using code.

“In Minecraft, I had this village of starving people, so I put in some lines of code to make chickens fall out of the sky. So when the chickens fell from the sky, they could feed the starving villagers. If computer science can improve life in Minecraft, it can improve life in the real world too!”

This led to her fascination in using tech for good. When a Collingwood teacher, Ms. Gleicher, introduced her to a non-profit called Hackergal, which aims to break down the gender gap in STEM, Jessica got involved and has been a National Ambassador for the organization for the last three years.

Back at Collingwood, Jessica’s Grade 12 research project used her computer science talent to take an innovative approach to Indigenous language preservation. Her goal is to build an AI-powered language revitalization model to preserve languages that have almost been lost.

While her accomplishments speak for themselves, Jessica was supported by her University Guidance (UG) counsellor on how to frame her experiences in her application essays and college interviews. Ms. Adriaanse would provide feedback on her writing and help pinpoint themes that certain schools were looking for. (While UG counsellors spend a great deal of time working with students in Grades 11 and 12, they make initial contact with all students in Grade 8, and commit to meeting with every grade at least once a year. They assist with course selection, application processes, writing and application workshops, and planning sessions for families that cover course selection and the fundamentals of applying to Canadian, American and International schools).

Once the university decisions started rolling in, Jessica narrowed down her top three picks: Duke University, USC, and Northwestern. She visited USC first and was wooed by the beautiful weather, campus culture, and positive things fellow Collingwood alumni attending USC had to say. Plus, she'd been offered a tempting full-ride Trustee Scholarship. She almost committed to USC right there, but wanted to find out what Duke had to offer first.

There are several Collingwood alumni attending Duke, and Jessica was eager to connect with them too. They told her about all the tech opportunities on campus and for recent grads - something she’d been worried about considering North Carolina’s distance from Silicon Valley. One also introduced her to their investment club, which she says was “the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

“When I talked to students at Duke, I could see myself being like them in the future,” Jessica says. “At USC, I could see myself having a lot of fun, but the students there weren’t doing the kinds of things I imagined for myself.” Her decision was made.

Jessica credits the University Guidance Department and Ms. Adriaanse for keeping her on track throughout the busy application season. Anytime she had a question or news to report, she could pop into the office for support or feedback.

“I got to work with Jessica for four years, which was great to have that continuity over time,” says Ms. Adriaanse. “But really, Jess did all of this on her own. She’s very driven and accomplished, and was unwavering in her commitment to follow her dreams.”

Jessica is ready to take her interdisciplinary passions to Duke this fall, and thanks Collingwood for providing endless opportunities to pursue her passions.

Grad 2023 Profiles