Jia Jia Zhang '20

A girl with long bleached hair wearing a white shirt and hat smiles at the camera on the beach.

Harvard College ’20 (Quincy House)
BA, East Asian Studies

In her Sophomore year, Jia Jia chose to concentrate in Human Evolutionary Biology—not quite fully knowing what the concentration entailed. However, after taking the sophomore tutorial, she realized that HEB didn’t best suit her interests—so she went back to the drawing board. After looking through her advising report, she found that she had taken quite a few East Asian Studies-related classes simply out of interest—in fact, enough to fulfill the secondary requirements at the time. Having grown up in Guam, she had always been exposed to Japanese culture and took Japanese language classes throughout high school, but it had never occurred to her to concentrate in East Asian Studies. She was stronger in the hard sciences than the humanities throughout high school, and was not a fan of history. Furthermore, being on the pre-medical track, she thought it more practical to concentrate in the sciences.

 

But Harvard’s EAS classes continuously surprised and engaged her intellectually. And rather than a science-only track, she came to enjoy the balance and variety of humanities and science classes. The professors and teaching fellows were extremely passionate and understanding. Furthermore, she got more personalized attention from EAS professors than in the huge science lecture classes. So, she thought, why not make EAS her concentration instead? She never regretted this decision.

 

She wants to impart this message to current and prospective students. If you think it’s too late to switch to East Asian Studies as a junior—it’s not. And if you think it’s impossible to pursue pre-med while simultaneously concentrating in the humanities—it’s not! Jia Jia was a first-generation high school and college student, so she understands that choosing a concentration may be a daunting process. But she highly recommends EAS, as she believes it is truly one of the gems of Harvard.

 

After graduation, Jia Jia returned home to Guam to help the island in its fight COVID-19 at the local hospital as an infection control volunteer. She also worked in the Infection Control Department at Guam Memorial Hospital as a program coordinator and data analyst. As of Fall 2021, Jia Jia is pursuing her graduate degree at Harvard Medical School.