The Blue and White interviewed Sophomore Colin Poon a high-achieving student at Apopka High. We discussed what he plans to do after High School as well as his aspirations, goals, and hobbies.
Colin Poon began with what he planned on doing after high school: “Right now I’m sort of thinking of going straight on to university for four years to major in international relations. Junior year, [I’ll] maybe study abroad and Taiwan for a year, probably in Taipei, which is the de facto capital of Taiwan.”
He then explains the reason why he wants to study abroad specifically in Taiwan, “My ancestors on my dad’s side are Chinese. Most of Taiwan’s population, around 95% of them are from our, their ancestors are Han Chinese, and they mainly speak Mandarin, which is the national language of both Taiwan and China. And so I wanted to try and learn the language. I also just find Chinese culture to be very interesting. Also, Taiwan is just very modern and progressive in terms of a lot of its policies. I really appreciate just the inclusivity and the openness that the Taiwanese people have for Westerners and just people in general.”
Because of his passion for the world and its variety of cultures and landscapes, it was a little overwhelming to think of a career that would encapsulate it all. Colin Poon begins to explain why he chose to be an international relations officer, “I’m really I’ve always just been interested in the world ever since I think I got my first globe around kindergarten ever since then, I really liked geography and different cultures. So first, I thought I would be a geographer but then it turned out that I like to focus on the more cultural part of it, the governance part of the world. So I really got into international relations, and international studies. I’m just really interested in learning about my Chinese heritage and also my European heritage, especially in Scotland and Ireland, because of those specific circumstances that they face in the UK whether or not they want to be independent or not. [It’s] all looking back on my heritage and sort of looking at all that complexity or complex circumstances have always interested me.”
You may not know that he will be skipping a grade and going into the senior class rankings and most likely will be part of the top ten.
Here we talk about some of the school activities he participated in including some of his favorite teachers that make learning the most enjoyable. He begins by saying, “I’m honestly a bookworm. Well, that’s sort of a lie but bookworm slash nerd. So I really like all the history classes, and the English classes [and] I particularly always liked Mr. Houvouras’s AP Art history class, Mr. Russell’s AP World Class, and Mrs. Gardner’s AP English language class in terms of the content, I love all my teachers, but there’s definitely those. Those courses were definitely my favorite in terms of content and then at school or out for extracurriculars, I’m president of Asia clubs because that also ties into that Asian cultural learning and exploration, and then I also am a part of a debate club.”
He however uses his time outside of school productively, “Outside of school, a lot of what I do is just sort of an extension of Asia club where I host or help host and volunteer at a lot of the Asian cultural events around Central Florida. So like the annual Lunar New Year parade down in the Mills district where all the Asian food is, and so an extension of that is also trying to Asian food around Orlando. Anything else could be anything from reading to watching some watching Chinese dramas.”
Colin has a bright future ahead of him, “A little tidbit that’s interesting about me is the first time I went to Asia was between Well, I guess if you consider me a senior now then it would be in between my sophomore and junior year where I went to Taiwan, under a scholarship by the US government. I was able to study Mandarin the main language of Taiwan for about six, seven weeks in Taiwan for the summer. That was really interesting. So I stayed on the southern tip of the island to learn to live cultures stayed with the host family. It was really cool, but that’s probably the only like, interesting thing.”
