Hello, my name is Xiao!

I was admitted to Pomona as a Questbridge National Match Recipient (fancy way to say that I got a full-ride) as a high-achieving, low-income student. Most of my activities in high school revolved around athletics (I'm sure there were a couple others that I can't think of now), but when I got to college, I practically became a different person (or it's more accurate to say, I had the ability to explore my interests in a more profound way).  At Pomona, I continued to play volleyball and basketball in intramural competitions, winning three times in a row as captain of my IM volleyball team (let's not talk about basketball), but I started to develop my political consciousness in courses and organized as a student activist on and off campus. I became really passionate about research and was awarded the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the end of my Sophomore year to pursue my research and documentary filmmaking on gentrification in Chinatowns, and in my senior year, the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to expand my research on a global scale: exploring how "Chinatowns" functioned for diasporic Chinese communities in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I have plenty of stories about Pomona and the Claremont Colleges (we call them the 5C's), so feel free to reach out! Look forward to speaking soon~