A new Carmel High School student, Victoria Quan, comes all the way from Belize to Carmel to pursue new experiences, where she traverses a new life

by Diana Smith, Bloomington High School North

Victoria Quan is a coming up senior at Carmel High School, but she only recently started this part of her life in Carmel. About six months ago, Quan moved from her lifelong home in Belize to Carmel; this was originally promoted by her parents, as they wanted her to experience a place outside of her hometown. Although living with her aunt and uncle in an unfamiliar area to her was nerve racking at first, Quan soon found some nice things about her new living arrangement. 

She said “I really like the new culture. The people here are great.  It’s nice to know that there’s easier access to some things.” 

 Not only did Quan have to move to a different area and house, but also to a whole new school. In Belize, she originally went to a small private high school, with around 180 students. A huge adjustment was made when she moved to Carmel and found herself at a much more bewildering school, Carmel High School, which has around 5,000 students.  Adding onto this, Quan said 

“Switching from a pretty small school to a much larger school was definitely interesting; the building size changed as the student population did, so navigating the school at first was hard.” and, 

“It was nice to have more people, since there were many different types of people, and you could find people to connect with.” 

Quan was also involved in a robotics team in Belize, which she enrolled in at Carmel High School when she started attending. Even though she only started going to high school at the start of the second semester, she still wanted to participate in her robotics club as well as other things. She’s found a place in a debate class that has influenced her to join yearbook, which led to a journalism camp she took over the Summer at the High School Journalism Institute. 

This school year, Quan will become the marketing manager of the Tech Theater at her school as well as robotics.  Quan is soon finding herself in some welcoming new activities in these past months, after working passed a huge curveball in moving from a completely different housing arrangement to a new area and school.

Victoria Quan during her time at HSJI, enjoying the nature and campus experience at Indiana University. This is her first year at HSJI and first experience in Bloomington, Indiana. She said
“I really like the dorm experience at IU, it’s quiet but nice to talk to the staff and other attendees,” and, “I haven’t really done the type of work we do here before, but I really like that you can collaborate with other people but also work on your own things.”