Joy Chang is a former PAH student who is currently in her last year at Oxford University in the United Kingdom – one of the most prestigious institutions for higher education in the world! She is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on “neoliberalism and the Global Middle Ages in relation to Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur and Luo Guanzhong's famous Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” Not only that, but she is volunteer-tutoring three students and running the Chinese Dance Society.

Unsurprisingly, Joy is extraordinarily busy right now, so we were unable to chat in real time. Although this was a real disappointment, we were able to communicate via email. I invited her to share about her experiences with AP Homeschoolers in high school, her decision to attend Oxford and her time in the UK, and any advice to homeschooled high school students or miscellaneous thoughts. Here is her response:

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I took AP Music Theory as a junior and AP Literature as a senior. I especially loved AP Music Theory and returned in my senior year as a TA. What I enjoyed about it, besides the excellent instruction and curriculum, was how it allowed me to pursue an interest of mine in depth and on a more advanced level. I started playing piano when I was around 5 and flute at around 10, but I never truly pushed myself to appreciate the workings of music until I took AP Music Theory. Especially since it was one of those classes that most high schools don't typically offer, I feel that I really took advantage of homeschooling by making such an odd class choice. Although I haven't had the time to pursue music seriously since graduating high school (I was the very incompetent drummer in a sub-par indie rock band for two months in my first year, though.), I still think taking AP Music Theory was one of the best decisions I made in high school. It was a hard class but it was the most fun I have ever had in my studies. And as a dancer, having well-developed listening skills and musicality goes a long way, so all in all it was more than worth it.

As for AP Lit, I think taking this class just pushed me in a certain academic direction more than anything. For most of middle school and high school, I was a STEM-oriented student who did passably well in my English classes and participated with mild enthusiasm. Looking back, though, I had loved literature since I was little. When I was thirteen, I read War and Peace for fun because Charles Schultz make a few jokes about it in his comics. I got addicted to reading the great classic novels after that, but I was caught up in the misconception that pursuing the humanities is not as worthwhile as pursuing STEM. AP Lang, however, in my junior year made me start paying more attention to the importance of language: its uses, its ethics, its dangers. But it wasn't until Mrs. Inspektor had us read 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T. S. Eliot for AP Lit that everything fell into place. I had never encountered a poem like that before and I found it totally magical: it was ambiguous but captivating, it painted beautiful scenes washed over with a permeating melancholy that resonated deeply with me. I think that moment turned my enjoyment of literature into a passion.

I actually did two college application cycles--the first time around, I applied as a biology major, but in the end it didn't sit right with me so I took a gap year and worked full-time teaching English. The second time I applied as an English major. I'm still not sure what was going through my head when I made that switch. Maybe I was just following a whim. My mom encouraged me to apply overseas in the UK. At first I did not want to go to Oxford, but when I did my interview, I realized how much I enjoyed the Oxford tutorial style of instruction. So half the reason I chose Oxford was for the academic environment. The other half of my decision was honestly motivated by the fact that I got really into The Lord of the Rings during my gap year, and since Tolkien went to Oxford, I wanted to go to his alma mater.

I've enjoyed studying in the UK immensely. Since I'm a humanities student, my degree is only three years long, so the total tuition works out to be comparable to if I had attended a UC school (as a Californian resident). The other huge benefit is that I don't have to take any general education classes. I spend all three years immersed in my chosen area of study. Aside from the large amounts of individualized attention from top experts in the subject, another benefit of attending Oxford is the library system. The sheer amount of knowledge available at my fingertips is mindblowing. Homeschooling certainly provides a person with a strong sense of self-motivation and self-management, skills which for me made the academic transition into university pretty manageable. Looking back though, the transition to a new culture and a new country after spending all of my upbringing studying at home was and still is pretty jarring. Oxford quite frankly is a surprisingly racist city, and as a person of color, I experienced a lot of microaggressions and more overtly racist acts that used to make me pretty upset. There are also huge differences between the UK and US in how people approach social situations, politics, and of course cuisine.... I think anyone going into university is bound to experience this culture shock to some degree, and I think it's a necessary part of transitioning into adulthood. My negative experiences have been outweighed by positive experiences, and I'm grateful for all these moments whether pleasant or unpleasant because I've been able to grow as a person through all of them.

As for advice to any high schoolers out there, here's all I have to say: everyone's journey is going to be different. Don't feel too defeated if you don't get things right on the first try. Take every opportunity to turn your work into play. I think we all understand that the college application game is brutal, so work as hard as possible at your academic and extracurricular pursuits, but also try to choose those pursuits wisely so that you can believe the hard work is worthwhile. Your applications may or may not go exactly the way you want them to, and this is perfectly normal, but setbacks can happen to someone who makes themselves miserable trying be some 'perfect' applicant just as much as they can happen to someone who works hard too, but follows their intuition in pursuing the studies and projects they find meaningful. Of course, plan to succeed, but allow for some flexibility in your definition of success. The journey is just as important as the destination.

A final tip I'd like to emphasize is that when you get to college and you have to use the communal laundry spaces, don't bother separating your darks and whites. Just put them all together in the same cycle and save yourself some money.

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Joy was an absolute delight to correspond with, and is truly an inspiration – even though I’ve never met her, I’m proud to see what our fellow homeschoolers are capable of.

Hope Hesselink has been a homeschooler in Maryland her entire life. She is an avid reader, loves politics and philosophy, and is proud to be a Scout, black belt in karate, and guitarist.