Say “Hi” to a Former Editor-in-Chief of The Beacon

On a lackadaisical Monday morning, I received an email from Ms. Barga, our Beacon advisor, asking The Beacon staff if anyone was interested in interviewing an alum of our school named May Hong, who was also the former editor-in-chief for The Beacon. She graduated from AISG in 2015, before Ms. Barga and I even came to AISG. As a current co-editor-in-chief, I was eager to meet her.

After considering whether I should do a semi-structured interview or an unstructured interview (non-IB psychology students: you may not understand what these are), I decided to do a semi-structured one which would allow me to prepare a few questions but also leave room for an unstructured conversation afterwards. I left my advisory classroom, clutching my phone and MacBook, and met her at the picnic table in the amphitheater.

May is currently a senior at Tufts University. She majors in English and plans to go directly to graduate school and study education in secondary English. After finishing her masters degree, she hopes to become a teacher and eventually become an education policymaker. She told me about her high school life. Not only was she the editor-in-chief of The Beacon, but she was also the editor of LitMag, the chief editor of yearbook, the president of National Chinese Honor Society, and a member of National Honor Society. Her extensive list of leadership positions and extracurricular activities was enough to make anyone, including myself, awestruck at her commitment and academic excellence.

After learning about her background, I immediately asked her a few questions that I was the most curious about: how The Beacon was run back in 2013-2015 and how she views the changes from then to now. I showed her the current online homepage of The Beacon and her eyes widened, amazed that The Beacon changed so much in four years. She replied, “I’m really impressed. [The Beacon website] looks really professional. For a school of this size, I’m amazed that there are so many staff writers and the website looks so clean and professional.”

Of course, I thanked her (feeling very proud inside), and asked her to describe how The Beacon was run when she was still at AISG. According to her, The Beacon used to have one editor-in-chief, one managing editor, illustrators, photographers, and regular staff members. Each month, they had a deadline, and they all carried out their roles, aiming to finish whatever project they had by the deadline. On the deadline, the editor-in-chief, managing editor, and The Beacon faculty advisor would review everyone’s work to see if there were errors. After checking everything, they would print out The Beacon newspaper and distribute it the next day in homeroom. She said, “I think the current online system is so much better. It’s less labor-intensive, but more professional. The paper copy system required so much effort from all the staff members and the editors.”

After listening to her recollection of how The Beacon was run in 2015, I felt very fortunate that The Beacon is now published on an online platform which certainly takes off a lot of stress from us.

Due to time constraints, there was not much time left and I had to ask her my last question. I asked her for advice for current high school students who are stressed out about studying and the college application process.

She replied, “Grades do matter at the end of the day, so try your best. But then, at the same time, definitely don’t lose track of who you are and don’t forget why you’re working so hard. You shouldn’t make studying and getting good grades as your main goal. You should know what your interests are, what [you] want to do for the society, and what issues [you] care about the most. I think everyone who can come into this school is an extremely privileged person. So if someone privileged like you has a level of self-awareness and empathy, you have the opportunity to do so many great things.”

She concluded, “I’m almost done with college already, and I can tell you that college isn’t everything. Don’t be so concerned with which college and which major you will end up in. Uphold your values and most importantly, be aware of what you really want to do for the society in the future.”