My Response to the New Yorker article: "Can we get kids off smartphones" by Jessica winter4/23/2024
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 This is a picture from the social media app BeReal during Raider baseball camp this summer. In the main picture James Stewart ‘35 is in the front, then his brother Henry ‘33 and behind Reed Guyer ‘33. James and Henry are sons of the Head of School Armistead Lemon and her husband Calvin Stewart. James is wearing the shirt her mom brought from Shanghai, China when she visited there this summer. And Reed is the number one ball boy for the varsity baseball team. In the inset picture are me and two kids from the baseball summer camp. Photo by Eason Zhou
I transferred to North Cross School, a new environment with a completely different culture.
I come from China and came to North Cross in November last year. I was 16 years old at that time, but I was enrolled as a sophomore, because I’m reclassing to play college football. “Be healthy and safe, study hard and play well,” my parents said. “Strive to achieve your goals and keep happy every day.” These are my parents' expectations for me to study abroad. So wanting to play college football as a linebacker or defensive end, this is the reason why I came to North Cross. The school's football team recruited me to play football here. And I’m the only international player who is not recruited by Gridiron Sports. I had to submit an application to the school to get in here. I’m not just a student who can only play football, I'm also the photography editor of last year’s Journalism class and the athletic coordinator of the Media Club. I will keep doing this job and I became the Photo Editor of the yearbook this year. “I hope I can do something for NCS in the future.” This is what I said at the end of my last year’s staff introduction on Willis Hall Herald. I will telp take pictures for journalism class, yearbook, media club and the whole school. Running the athletics account and making sports calendar. I hope I can get a D1 offer to prove myself this year. And I want to stay in Virginia for college, so William & Mary and UVa are my first choices, even as a regular student. There is a phrase that inspires me to be a better person. “With great power comes great responsibility.”  I think most of your students from upper school have seen me, a new face from China, more or less times in the past week. I'm Eason Zhou, from Beijing. I'm a sophomore and a new member of the football team. I'm going to talk about how I came to NCS family.
Half a year ago, because I was dissatisfied with the teaching management of the public school I attended, various situations at that time, and special policy reasons, I first transferred to an international school in Beijing, where I completed the rest of the last semester. At the same time, I began to study football. Because football is still in the early stage of development in China, there are only three teams in Beijing, so I chose the most reliable team, contacted them and get in to the trial training. After several weeks of training, I mastered the foundation very quickly. The coach didn't expect that I directly participated in the training of the adult team. In fact, our tactics are not simple, but I quickly mastered them, so I quickly participated in the game. At present, there are dozens of Chinese football teams from three different leagues. The Beijing barbarians team I participate in is among the strongest Z League. I finished the first game of my life in Wuhan and received the ball in the first down of my career. At the same time, I also started strength training, two hours each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I continued to train on the field for two hours every day on weekends, and team training on Saturday nights for another two hours. So I changed from zero foundation to a player who can squat 164kg and deadlift 201kg when body weight is 82kg in four months. With the end of the semester and the beginning of the summer vacation, my family and I also discussed going to a better high school. Then I thought of why not try to apply for American high school. Anyway, I want to go to university in the United States. Why not go earlier and play football better. So at the suggestion of another teammate who went to high school in the United States, I put some of my videos on my twitter, then went to the official website of FindingSchool to screen the schools, and sent emails or twitter private messages to the head coaches. After the coaches read the recommendation letter written by my coaches and my videos, I got the reply from some school coaches. Because our club has cooperates with IMG, I can also choose to go IMG. But finally, considering various factors and after the communication with Coach A and others, I chose NCS, so after completing the necessary steps such as video call interview, standardized language test and online application, I got the offer. So I signed some documents, applied for visas, bought plane tickets and some other work. All these things about applying for school are done by me alone, because my parents are not English speaker. It took me more than two months, and I also played in the football season in China at the same time. So on October 31, after more than 20 hours of connected flights time, I came to Roanoke and the NCS family. Nice to meet you guys. I hope I can do something for NCS in the future. |
AuthorI’m Eason, a student of North Cross School. I was last school year’s photography editor for the journalism class. I’m wearing goggles in the picture because I was flying the drone. It was taken around one and half months ago, at the top of McAfee Knob. The reason I chose this picture is because it's a picture of me and it looks cool. Archives |