Farewell Brunch Celebrates ISP Seniors
Congratulations to the 14 residential dorm students that have graduated this year, especially Xinkai "DanDan" Dan, Jiaxi "Kelly" Hu, and Jie "Jack" Lin who are the original residents when the dorm first opened on August 10, 2019! The senior international dorm students celebrated a lovely brunch over at the Westlake Village Inn on Thursday, June 2, 2022. They bid farewell to Oaks Christian School as they journey to their future colleges. The brunch was filled with friendship, family, and overall adoration for each other.
Sometimes not every student's family members can travel to see them graduate, so Manager of Host Families and Student Life ISP Dina Castillo, known as Auntie Dina to the students, and Director of International Students Nicole Oakes have them invite OCS faculty members who they believe impacted their lives and their academic careers. Though some were shy to express their reasoning for their highlighted guest, graduates (seen above) Charles Gao and Darcy Wang, who are both going to the University of California Irvine, and Jenny Yu, who will be going to the University of California, stepped up to speak not only for themselves but for their fellow graduates and friends.
Gao invited his English teacher Mike Ziretta to the brunch where Gao gave a beautiful speech about how Ziretta has impacted his life in appreciating the English language. Yu dedicated her future career to studying history in college, all thanks to the impact that history teacher Connie Choi had on her.
Graduating Senior Rui Chen who will study film at the University of California, Berkeley created a heartfelt video of their senior year: Click to view the video!
As the brunch came to a close, Auntie Dina and Oakes gave farewell gifts to the seniors that included their college sweatshirts! Below are all the graduates, from dorm students to ambassadors, and where they are headed off in the coming fall semester!
Dorm Students:
Rui Chen University of California, Berkeley
Xinkai "DanDan" Dan Boston University
Zhiwen "Bruce" Deng Parsons School of Design
Runcheng "Charles" Gao University of California Irvine
Yifan "Yvon" Gao The University of Hong Kong
Yilin "Frank" Han University of California
Jiaxi "Kelly" Hu Pepperdine University
Jie "Jack" Lin New York University
Yiyang "Selina" Luo New York University
Zerui "Jerry" Ma Southern Methodist University
Yifei Tao University of California, Berkeley
Meiyi "Darcy" Wang University of California Irvine
Yuehan "Jessie" Wang University of California, Berkeley
Peihan "Jenny" Yu University of Southern California
ISP Ambassadors:
Atticus Andersson Georgetown University
Carlos Anguiano University of Southern California
Alyssa Didone University of Maryland
John Dulak Texas A&M University
Kristin Han University of California, Riverside
Shadeh Jaberi Northeastern University
Sofia Mena University of California, Los Angeles
Joshua Mora University of San Diego
Charlotte White Vanderbilt University
Nick Torres Moorpark College