Gavin was one of only 20 students in the United States selected to participate in Stanford’s inaugural China Scholars Program, an online course that is part of SPICE (Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education). The Agnes Irwin senior is currently taking French V Honors and has earned distinctions on two national French contests. A passionate vegan, Gavin is a co-head of the upper school’s ECO board and co-founded the Sustainable Living Club. Last spring, Gavin was chosen by the AIS faculty for the George Washington University book prize for “a high school junior who embodies the George Washington drive and spirit, specifically with her academic excellence, leadership outside of the classroom, diversity of thought, and ability to put knowledge into action.” Gavin has participated in Model UN and served as an AIS tour guide to prospective families, especially for visiting Chinese families. She writes for Frenish, Agnes Irwin’s combination French/Spanish literary magazine. Q: Tell us a little about your trip to China last March on Agnes Irwin’s inaugural China exchange program, during which you and two other AIS students attended school and stayed with families in Chongqing, in addition to traveling to Beijing and Shanghai. What was the most memorable part of the trip? What was the most interesting thing you learned while over there? A: The China exchange program has been one of my favorite AIS experiences thus far. I became very close with my exchange student Zoe (张宇婷), and we still stay in contact via WeChat. Zoe’s family lives three hours from her high school, so she lives at school and typically sees her family once every two to three months. During the week, we attended classes while staying with one of Zoe’s classmates and her family, then traveled to Zoe’s family home for the weekend. My favorite part of the trip was the hospitality I received, not only from Zoe and her family, but also from her classmates and teachers. I also loved getting to see some of the essential Chinese landmarks — from Tiananmen Square in Beijing, to walking the Great Wall, to shopping in Shanghai, all of which allowed for me to have authentic interactions in the Chinese language. Q: What has been the most interesting thing you have learned through the China Scholars Program? A: During the China Scholars Program, I participated in several video conferences on a multitude of subjects, varying from the infamous one-child policy to pop culture. The subject I found most intriguing, however, was recycling in China. As an environmentalist and co-head of our school’s ECO board, I advocate for recycling, but I was never really sure what the process truly entailed. During the course, I learned about recycling farms in China where families, often with small children, perform brutal physical labor for a menial wage. The complicated process made me understand why it is so important, not only for the planet, but also for others, to reuse products as much as possible before recycling. Q: Tell us a little about the purpose of the Sustainable Living Club and some of its activities in promoting environmentally friendly initiatives and veganism. A: My greatest passion is environmentalism, specifically how diet affects the planet. After learning about the urgency of climate change, I was moved to join our school’s environmental board (ECO), which I now co-head. One of my goals this year was to establish a TerraCycle system in the school cafeterias, allowing students and faculty to recycle snack bags and drastically reducing the amount of garbage sent to the landfill. A second major focus is working with other area schools to collaborate on larger projects; we hope to participate in Earth Hour (a global movement where everyone turns off the lights for an hour to draw attention to global warming) and to organize a conference where we can talk about our ideas and help students interested in creating an environmental group at their own school do so. Although ECO does a lot, I felt like we could do more to raise awareness of the effects our everyday actions have on the planet. Thus, my friend and I created the Sustainable Living Club to promote small changes in day-to-day life — such as turning off the lights or going vegan — that will ultimately create a more environmentally friendly world. We work to promote vegan diets by fighting the negative stigma surrounding veganism. I seek to inform others about veganism, but I’m not militant about it. Most recently, we held a workshop during AIS’s CommUnity in Action Day where we talked about sustainable living with people interested in learning more. Q: What has been your favorite article that you have written for Frenish? A: I began taking French as a freshman at AIS. Since then, my language skills have progressed quite a bit. This summer, I spent a month in Rennes, France, as part of a language intensive program, attending classes at the University of Rennes 2 and completing a homestay. When I came home, my language skills had developed to the point that Agnes Irwin’s French program allowed me to skip French IV, and I am now in French V Honors. As a member of Frenish, I have had the opportunity to write articles on censorship in China, the “butter crisis” in France last fall and most recently on Michelle Obama, one of my personal role models. Q: What is your favorite course at Agnes Irwin, and why? A: My favorite AIS course is Chinese; I am now in Mandarin III Honors. The course not only immerses us in the language but also in Chinese culture as a whole. From learning and performing Tai Chi fan dance to eating moon cakes, we are always doing something new and fun that involves Chinese culture. The class is only four students, so we have become really close — since they’re juniors, I’ll miss them when I head off to college in the fall!