Qingni Lin was born on August 31, 1987 in the city of Fuzhou, province of Fujian, China. At the age of eight, she immigrated to the US in order to unite with her parents and her younger sister in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although she endured much teasing in the bilingual class at the Martin Luther King Jr. School because of her lack of English speaking skills, Qingni’s ability to communicate fluently quickly picked up when she was placed in a regular classroom.

At school, Qingni’s favorite subjects are, particularly French, Latin and History. She particularly enjoyed the challenge of Ms. Woodward’s French Language AP class, where she laughed and learned as much as she did in Ms. Kirpatrick’s US History AP class. Although she enjoyed all the classes she took in her junior year, Qingni ardently wishes that Boston Latin School might offer Psychology AP and Russian Language & Literature, both of which she hopes to pursue extensively in college. To her great delight, Qingni will be taking Ms. Freeman’s Facing History & Ourselves, a class she has been waiting for since her introduction to it in Mr. Aversa’s Connections English class in eight grade.

Outside of school, Qingni’s greatest passions include art and music. Having picked up crayons at the age of four and drawn many murals over her grandparents’ living room wall (a good canvas as any), her artistic abilities were hindered when her grandparents decided enough was enough and cruelly whitewashed her great masterpieces. Fortunately, they recognized her affinity for art, letting her take preliminary art classes in pencil drawing and Chinese watercolors, for which she won some awards in regional and national competitions before she came to the United States. Although she does not paint anymore due to the plethora of academic and social activities she took up, Qingni vows to resume Chinese painting and calligraphy during the summer. During her sophomore year, Qingni took a photography class with Andrew Warren, utilizing the school’s brand new dark room. Since then, she has had her photographs published in the school magazine. Although the dark room was closed down during her junior year, Qingni still indulges in this artistic pursuit occasionally, knowing that the toxic fumes wafting from the dark room on the few days that it is open still stimulate a wave of nostalgia. Qingni also likes to listen to music of all kinds and enjoys singing as a Soprano I at the Handel and Haydn Young Women’s chorus.

Qingni’s involvement and devotion to the Register magazine has increased over the years. Although she does not know what her position on the Register staff will be during her senior year, she looks forward to another year of great productions, surpassing even those of 2004. Qingni also enjoys working as a staff writer for the Arts & Entertainment section of the Argo, although her dedication to the Register reigns supreme.

Qingni has been interested in public service since a very young age. She has tutored younger students in the peer-tutoring program since the ninth grade and finds great pleasure in helping younger students gain more confidence academically. Qingni has also served as an active member of Student Council during her junior year and participated in many sponsored activities. Additionally, Qingni also spent an amount of time every week in the Genetics Diagnostic Lab at the Children’s Hospital as a volunteer lab assistant during the summer and her junior year. Her duties there include performing gel eletrophoresis, PCR and DNA classification.

However, Qingni’s proudest achievement up to date is an art class for elementary students, which she planned in her sophomore year and finally started during her junior year. She first conceived of the idea when her younger sister, a very artistic soul, complained of the lack of funding for an art class at the Farragut. Qingni, along with her friends Lily and Caitlin, taught a class of fourth and fifth graders various artistic techniques, such as pencil drawing, water color, charcoal drawing and origami (to name a few) after school every Monday.
In the future, although Qingni only has a vague idea of which colleges she might like to attend she is trying to find institution that has excellent programs in both biology and international relationships. She also wishes to minor in different languages including Russian, French and Arabic.

Although she does not know what the future holds for her, Qingni plans to enjoy senior year and the Ward Fellowship intensely. She would like to state that the institution she currently works for as a Fellow contains people who are very intelligent and wonderful to the extreme.

Her sponsor is Gregory W. Sullivan, the Inspector General of Massachusetts.