By Jessica Nguyen, Staff Writer
Stepping foot in the first rehearsal of orchestra changed her life forever. With no prior experience of training and music, she was lost, confused and on the verge of giving up. This was what set up her for success for the next four years of her life. She realized that she couldn’t give up that easily一she had to give things a chance before letting go. To this day, Flora Wong is the embodiment of hard work and dedication that has lead her to where she is now: Senior of the Month.
As November Senior of the Month, Flora Wong displayed many achievements in leadership, clubs, extracurriculars, performing arts and athletics.
As co-president of Make-A-Wish, Flora Wong helps enrich the human spirit with hope, strength and joy by fundraising money every year to grant children with life threatening medical conditions wishes. At the end of the year, a leader from Chapter Headquarters comes to perform a wish granting ceremony to recognize who all the money has helped in order to give them a fun time instead of being stuck in a hospital.
“[Being president of Make-A-Wish] has developed my social and community involvement but as a leader, I have been able to learn that it’s not only responsibility and organization that makes a successful event, but it is also leadership because if you don’t take charge and lead a group of people to where you delegate and organize responsibilities, an event can be chaotic. Leading a group of people involves organization and teamwork,” said Wong. “I always want to give my members the best experience and teach them the values that embody the club’s mission because I think that’s very important to represent our school and any success we have. It is hard work but I just always keep in mind what our goal is in the end.”
Her leadership skills are also emphasized as vice-president of Boys and Girls Keystone Club, a new club that started last year.
“The club was started last year by my friend, Amanda Hay,” said Wong. “I was also involved in these after-school programs so it brings me back to my childhood and it’s fun to work with kids and get a sense of away from high school to see what elementary and middle school kids are doingーit brings me back to when I was in elementary and middle school.”
Wong is also involved in California Scholarship Federation and UNICEF.
Not to mention, Flora Wong is in the Huntington Beach Academy of the Performing Arts Program, where she is given the experience of going to a performing arts school but also a chance to be a normal high school student and focus on academics, extracurriculars and athletics too. She played second violin, was a section leader her sophomore year and currently is a first violin. Being in both string ensemble and chamber orchestra, Wong is involved in main stage shows.
“[Main stage shows] are more collaborative and we work with dance, musical theatre, tech crew and costume design. It is more integrated and what I really like about it is the collaborative aspectーit shows the all the different elements that are required to put on a show and give entertainment to the people,” said Wong.
Wong additionally excels in golf. Being on junior varsity for two years and varsity this year, she has received several awards, including season’s most improved, and learned how to keep a good mentality, improve upon herself and work as a team.
“One of the things I tell myself in every game is to always improve upon my previous score and even if I don’t reach that goal at the end of the match, as long as I know that I had that mentality then I know that I tried my best for that day and I can’t be mad at myself for not doing well,” said Wong. “Golf is not only a physical sport but also a mental sport. When you don’t do well in the beginning, you have to keep a good attitude and mentality throughout the whole game because that’s how you are going to get through. Although golf is a very individualize sport, you still need to win as a team. I think that it is more valuable to win as a team because it is not just us focusing on ourselvesーit is focusing on ourselves and everyone else.”
Wong’s method to getting work done and juggling everything is focusing on getting things done instead of worrying about the immense amount she has to do. Even when things get stressful, extracurriculars put her at ease while still being productive and doing something she loves.
“I’ve noticed that if I try to think about everything together at once, I usually overwhelm myself so I usually do things one at a time. At orchestra, I solely focus on orchestra because I want to do my best and make every rehearsal count,” said Wong. “If I were to just go home and do homework, then I feel like my brain is always on school mode and I don’t really have a break. [Extracurriculars] lets me relax in a different way where I am able to do something I enjoy and spend time with other people and interact with my coaches, teachers and instructors.”
Her motivation for doing all these things are her goals to take advantage of the high school experience, soak up everything it has to offer and reach her fullest potential.
“I feel like prior to high school, I didn’t really reach out of my comfort zone. I didn’t really try the things that I knew inside of me that I really wanted to try so I hold myself to a high standard to try new things and pursue my goals. I just want to make an impact on this school and hopefully leave a mark where I can leave this school happy, knowing that I did everything I could,” said Wong.
Her grandfather is another source of inspiration. All the way in Hong Kong, his impact on Wong is great. On her travels to Hong Kong and China, she saw her him unable to walk or travel to visit her but regardless, made the most of his life anyways.
“[My grandfather] really motivated me and showed me life is short and time is short and that no matter what happens and what obstacles come your way, you have to make the most of your opportunities,” said Wong. “Every time I saw him, he was always still smiling, asking how I did and trying his best to eat with us. He made the most of family life, experiences he had and still enjoyed the present day of living where he was. Before he got injured, he always talking about how much he enjoyed living in the area and telling me all these places to go and he continued to do that so nothing has changed and that was really inspiring.”
Despite her numerous accomplishments, Flora Wong is still a high school student and in her free time, she likes to spend times with her friends.
“The friends that I have made throughout this high school journey has been incomparable to the friends that I have made in my previous years because not only have I influenced them; but, they had influenced me a lot because I’ve learned from them the value of friendship. They have motivated me and given me encouragement through any hard times I’ve had and support that I don’t think I can ever thank them enough for,” said Wong.
Wong also enjoys travelling internationally in the summer. Since second grade, she has spent at least a month with her family in Hong Kong.
“It has opened my eyes to a new color of light on the other side of the world. When I first went [Hong Kong], I never thought how different life was there and I attained a more cultural worldly perspective by trying new foods, seeing new landmarks but understanding their social conditions and standards in society because the people don’t have the same opportunities as we do,” said Wong.
Flora Wong has grown immensely into the person she is now. From being shy, closed-off and not doing things that put her in the center of attention, she developed into an outspoken, outgoing and extroverted leader.
“My extracurricular activities have taught me how to make an impact on this world and on this high school. If I don’t speak out or share any of my ideas or thoughts or collaborate, it is hard to progress in an industry where teamwork is important because you need to communicate and speak out in order to obtain progress. If you just sit there and let somebody else try to tell you what to do then you are not doing to know what to do when it comes time to make a decision,” said Wong.
Wong has also gone through numerous setbacks that have molded her as a person, even sometimes letting her emotions get the better of her.
“I will get overwhelmed or stressed about something but I try my best to be relaxed and then think about what I want to achieve from what I have to do and moving forward from that. Setbacks are what I learn from the most because if I didn’t experience setbacks, I would have gone through with what I think is safe and had not learned about life lessons and become more motivated to become the better person that I hoped to be,” said Wong. “The mistakes are what you remember the most in life and if you made a mistake, it is going to set a different mentality in your head in order to make you learn and grow from it.”
To all the freshmen out there, Wong, who was once a freshmen herself, offers some advice.
“Try out new things. In middle school, you are not given the opportunities that will make you the person you are and high school does that. It is important to take advantage of the opportunities. If you had the slightest idea that you wanted to play an instrument, then try it. It cannot hurt you to try itーyou may love it or hate it but in the end, you know that you won’t regret anything at the end,” said Wong.
In the future, Flora Wong hopes to study undergraduate at University of California, Los Angeles or Berkeley. For graduate school, she hopes to go to Johns Hopkins for biomedical engineering. One of the things that she wants to get out of college is to take advantage of research, internships opportunities and experience from the people that she will meet.
Throughout her years at FVHS, she has been a true Baron who is always optimistic and motivated and the world knows that she will continue to carry this legacy and impact everywhere she goes.
