Kyle Liao '04

“It’s a pretty special culture in Queens. For the Chinese American families I grew up around, there was a special coveted nature about these three schools. Every summer, it was sitting in a corporate classroom going through test prep materials […] I realized that I never really had a sense of independence, or the ability to do identity forming and figure out who I was […] My little brother went on the same road as me with the test prep to get high marks and get into the schools […] I made sure, before he went to Stuyvesant, that we went on a hiking trip, just sat and talked about how he was feeling about high school, just things that any kid who’s embarking on this crazy high school experience has to talk about.”