After parachuting into Year 8 from Shanghai, Xiaoyu Sun's lifeline was her English
dictionary. "I had to carry it around everywhere for about a year or so," she says,
remembering overpowering culture shock as she tried to navigate an entire curriculum
in a language she could barely comprehend. "The language barrier was significant. It
was all the more difficult because nobody here speaks Chinese!" Today, "Yuki," as she
is popularly known--her peers found "Xiaoyu" (She-OW-you) too difficult a mouthful--
hangs out lunchtimes in the SGY Common Room, joking with friends, catching up on
homework, and getting buttonholed to solve knotty math problems.
An all-round top student who garnered 10 GCSEs in Year 11 and AP Scholar
with Honour status last year after completing just one year of SGY, Yuki achieved
an "A" in the A-Level Pure Mathematics exam--one of just two students worldwide
to do so (no A*s were awarded). Asked to describe why she finds that subject so
stimulating, she says simply, "It's beautiful."
"In over 30 years of teaching Mathematics to a high level, I have never come
across anyone quite like Yuki," admits her advisor Sandy White, calling her "one of
those rare individuals who can actually read a Maths textbook and understand it.
This is a young lady with the world at her feet." Yuki was accepted by four top UK
universities, and chose her "dream school"--London's Cass Business School--
"because it's the best in the world for actuarial science," the career she has set her
formidable sights on. "The more difficult something is, the more excited I get because
I love challenges," she enthuses.
"But I'm going to cry on graduation day. Saltus has changed my life--the teachers,
the students, the academics and extra-curricular activities have shaped me as a decisive
thinker and an efficient team-worker." Best of all, she says, "I learned to speak English
here--the global language that opens up a whole new world."
FUN FACTS
Nicknames: "Yukes," "Mama Yukes"
AP subjects: Chemistry, Micro-economics, Macro-economics, Statistics,
English Language, English Literature, Chinese, Human Geography (and
A-Level Pure Mathematics)
Heading to: Cass Business School, London
Career dream: Qualified actuary
Listening to: Classical and instrumental music
Pet peeves: Slow and full-of-attitude service; the Twilight series;
E! Channel; Lifetime Channel
Book: Anything by Stephen King
Little-known talent: Songwriting
Weak spot for: Cats!
Inspired by: John Maynard Keynes, Kevin O'Leary
Best Saltus memory: Arguing with the Economics teacher [Dafydd
Hermann-Smith] every day and never coming to agreement.
Words of wisdom: A long-term investment is a short-term investment
that failed
THE MATHS WHIZ
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S A L T U S M A G A Z I N E
Xiaoyu (" Yuki") Sun