Yuki Chen Finds Strength Between Two Worlds

For Yuki Chen and her family, bridging the distance between their roots in China and the life they have built in the United States has been a challenging endeavor.

A Journey Between Two Cultures

The Mountain View High School senior has lived in the Loveland area since she was a small child, attending Ponderosa Elementary School, Lucile Erwin Middle School, High Plains School, and Mountain View High School. But before she came to the United States, she was living in China, where she learned Mandarin as her first language. Yuki lived with her grandparents from the age of one until she was six, when she moved to the United States to live with her parents.

Now, as she prepares to graduate and move across the country to attend the University of Pennsylvania, Yuki is again on the verge of living far from her family — including her younger sister, who will also graduate this year. But although she knows she will miss them, she’s feeling prepared to venture off on her own.

“My parents are first-generation immigrants,” Yuki says. “They didn’t graduate from high school, so I had to teach myself a lot of math and reading. I’m also very thankful for that, because it taught me how to advocate for myself.”

Learning Independence and Family Values

However, self-sufficiency is just the beginning of the many lessons Yuki learned from her parents, who also taught her the importance of hard work as she spent much of her free time helping out in the Loveland restaurant her parents own.

“We grew up in the restaurant,” Yuki said of herself and her two younger siblings. “At first, we would do small tasks like peeling snow peas. My parents always said, ‘You see how hard we have to work and how long we have to work. If that’s not what you want to do, work hard in school.’”

Yuki took their advice and, in addition to playing varsity tennis and serving as a top violinist and the chamber orchestra concertmaster at MVHS, is graduating near the top of her class. Her goal is to major in biology and eventually become a cardiothoracic surgeon to help others.

“There is a lot of medical history with my whole family, and I want to be someone who can heal people and not let their family members have to worry about them,” Yuki says. “I want to be that reassuring presence.”

This is especially important to Yuki since much of her family still lives in China. She doesn’t see them often, but she returns every few years to visit. Yuki’s family still speaks Mandarin at home, which is something she has come to appreciate despite it creating challenges for her when she started elementary school.

“I would try to speak Mandarin to my classmates. It was a rough start,” she remembers. “I don’t know how kids do it. You just kind of pick it up as you go.”

Embracing Opportunity and Individual Voice

Language is just one way Yuki’s life in the United States is different; as Yuki explains, China has a very different culture, where doing and saying what you want is not encouraged.

“In China, you have to stay humble and not stand out,” she explains. “In America, we really value individualism and having our own personalities.”

For Yuki, that means taking chances and bravely pursuing her goals — even if it means moving far away from the family she is very close with.

“I think one of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten is from my counselor: You have to live in the moment, and live a life you won’t regret,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions and try different opportunities. That’s how you make the most out of your high school career. Of course it’s scary, and it might even be embarrassing, but that’s part of life.”