It’s hard being a junior, but even harder to be a junior transfer student who was raised with a different language on the opposite side of the world. Junior Siyi Xu, known to Mercy students as Samantha, is managing those challenges amazingly well.

Although originally from China, Xu went to a community college in Seattle before she came to Michigan. She finds China and America dramatically different. In China,  Xu’s educational requirements were so demanding that there wasn’t time to be social or play sports. In fact, to get into one of China’s colleges, a “college entrance test” is what determines which university the student goes to.

“They don’t look at GPA or clubs or sports,” said Xu, “so high school life in China usually consisted of homework, classes, and tests.”

When big exams are near, teachers begin to focus on just teaching the major classes, like Chinese, English, and math. All the “fun classes” like art and music stop so that students can focus on their academic classes.

At Mercy, Xu takes government, Bible, U.S. history, major American authors, physics, and pre-calculus.

After school, Xu goes home to her aunt’s family, and enjoys living in America. Her parents, however, are still in China. She misses them very much, and looks forward to them visiting this December for Christmas.

In the future, Xu is not sure if she will stay in Michigan after graduating, but plans on applying to a college here in America. She also looks forward to possibly joining sports and clubs when she gets the chance.