Humans of AISG: Sofia V.

You might see Sofia playing volleyball in the gym or walking around the campus taking photos with her camera. Sofia is interested in a variety of activities, such as playing sports, reading books, watching movies, and taking photos.

Sofia is a junior here at AISG; she came when she was in third grade, and this is her ninth year living in Guangzhou. I asked her about her thoughts of living in China, including what she likes to do during free time, what she likes the most about AISG, and a hobby that she had for a long period of time.

“After I got used to the environment and culture here, I found myself really liking China as a whole. It’s mainly because of my outgoing Chinese friends, the amazing food in Guangzhou, and [the convenience] of WeChat.”

Sofia thinks her friends would describe her as “outspoken, friendly, creative, inclusive, sensitive, and athletic”.

“I like to play sports during school seasons, such as volleyball and soccer. I play as a goalie in our school’s soccer team, and I am a setter on the volleyball team. I am [also] interested in film and that’s what I want to study in college. I like to watch movies during downtime, for annotating, studying, and pleasure too. “

“What I love the most about AISG are the sports teams. Although we are not the best at any sports and we don’t always get first place, we somehow [can] make it out there in the APAC world. Most importantly, being in an APAC team allows students to interact with people that they’ve never interacted with. If it wasn’t for sports, I would never get a chance to talk to the freshmen or I would never get to know this middle school teacher that doesn’t even teach me. I also make a lot of friends from outside of the school in Tri-Cities and APAC events.” Through contributing as an athlete on our school’s sports teams, Sofia gets to meet people she normally would not have the chance to interact with.

“A good (hobby) I have is playing sports, dedicating and working hard for what I want. Although I might not be the best at it, I still want to put in the effort to do my best and contribute to the team, whether I might be on the bench or the court or the field.”

“I first got my camera in eighth grade. I remember taking the first photo of soccer for multi-media. I [excessively] edited that photo to make it look so bright and it looked terrible, but I received compliments from many people, so I thought that I should get a camera of my own. Then I got introduced to filming and photography in multi-media, and that’s when I found all these things so interesting. During my freshman year, I took filmmaking class and joined the media crew in my sophomore year. For these past years, I’ve been making films for classes and school.”