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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, May 19, 2005

ALL-STAR KID
La Pietra student $5,000 closer to career goal

By Treena Shapiro

As a small child living in China, Ke Chen remembers hospitals as bad-smelling places where her father warned her not to touch anything.

Ke Chen

Age: 16

School: La Pietra-Hawai'i School for Girls

Grade: 11

Who helped you: Fifth-grade teacher Kay Zane, who instilled in her a love of reading and helped her get into La Pietra. "She was a complete blessing to me. She showed me I could be something more than just another face at Washington Middle," Chen said.

What advice would you give to other kids who want to follow your example? "Learn because you want to and not just to get a good grade on a report card," said Chen, who advises learning about topics you find interesting that will help you later in life.

The teen recommends paying attention to detail, too. As she learned from one of her teachers, "Every time you write your name on a piece of paper you should be proud because it's your very best work." She also advises people to "be humble and remember the people who helped you along the way."

After moving to Hawai'i at age 6, she was surprised to learn that in America, a hospital is a safe, clean place. "It's a place where people went to for help, instead of a place people avoided," she said.

Now a junior at La Pietra Hawai'i School for Girls, Chen has been given a $5,000 scholarship by the Executive Women's International Hawai'i Chapter in part for her goal of becoming a pediatrician or other type of medical professional.

"One of my goals — after the 11 years of school — is to open a hospital for the poor people that don't have the same advantages that we do, and where there are people that care for them and they don't need money," Chen said.

The award allows Chen to compete for further scholarships on the national level. In addition to having clearly defined career goals, recipients are all high-school juniors with strong scholastic records, extracurricular activities, leadership qualities and awards and honors.

Although she now holds a 3.9 grade point average, Chen did not have the easiest academic start in Hawai'i. "I spoke absolutely no English," she said. Upon entering first grade, "I was so utterly confused ... I just cried and cried and cried."

She made it out of English as a Second Language classes by second grade, but did not develop a love for the language until fifth grade, when her teacher, Kay Zane, gave her a book on baseball that captured her interest and turned her into an avid reader.

She now has a reading list from her teachers that includes nonfiction works she hopes will broaden her horizons so she "won't be completely ignorant or apathetic," she explained. She is a writer as well as a reader, and next year will edit the school yearbook and co-edit the school's foreign language magazine.

In her spare time, Chen has played the piano for almost a decade, for pleasure, as well as for her church worship team and during the summer at a nursing home. Her talent has earned her a place on the state and national rolls in the National Piano Playing Auditions.

And Chen gets lots of experience working with children by volunteering at Olivet Preschool and teaching Chinese to 3- and 4-year-olds in the summer, as well as tutoring math and science.

She is even getting a head start on her professional career by volunteering for her pediatrician at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children. The doctor gives her the opportunity to talk and play with the kids and even write prescriptions.

"It's a totally awesome experience," she said, "I like it."

Reach Treena Shapiro at 525-8014 or tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.