Conformity Through Community

Hannah Carter

It’s not common knowledge that junior Hannah Carter is 15, which means many of her classmates are a year older than she is. She didn’t skip a grade or break the rules–she just went to kindergarten in another country.

Carter was born in November 1998, in St. Andrews, Jamaica. Her mother wanted her to have the best educational experience possible, so she put her in school as early as possible–four going on five. After moving to America, Carter was always several months to a year younger than the rest of her classmates.

After being urged to move to Kansas City by family members, Carter and her mom finally came in 2008, in time for Carter to start fifth grade. They found an apartment that happened to be in the Shawnee Mission School District, where Carter went to elementary and middle school.

Once she hit high school, she took whatever honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses she could during her freshman and sophomore year.

“I tried AP, and I don’t want to say it was easy, but I just wanted to try something different,” Carter said.

Even though Carter is one of the youngest students in her grade, she has succeeded just as much as, if not more than, her older classmates. She is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, and involved in band and French Honor Society as well.

Carter’s teachers appreciate her success, especially when they consider her age.

“I had no idea that [she was] the young one in [her] class,” assistant band director Melissa Athon said. “In her performance at school, I don’t think [her age] makes any difference.”

Although many aspects of Carter’s life have changed since moving, the biggest changes being the weather and the food, she feels well-adjusted as a student and in life in general.

“I didn’t really have a lot of problems [with the transition] because I wanted to move, I like moving from places to places, so I wasn’t upset about it and kind of excited,” Carter said. “[And] I don’t think [age] has affected me that much because half the time [people] don’t really know; a bunch of people in my history class just found out, they were like, ‘You’re fifteen? Why are you in this grade?’”

This type of question is something Carter gets a lot, but by now she has gotten used to it. She doesn’t mind being younger than the rest of her grade.

“They do say age is but a number, so if you’re determined to do something you should be able to do it,” Carter said. “Just work as hard as you can.”

Xinyi He

In January 2005, six-year-old Xinyi He and her mother, Zhaohui Liao, convinced the principal of a Wyandotte elementary school to put Xinyi in first grade. The family had just moved from China and Xinyi had turned six only two months before, on October 27.

All the principal asked was for Xinyi to write American numerals up to ten. Since Xinyi spoke hardly any English, her mother translated the instructions to her in Chinese. Xinyi could write to ten, and therefore went to first grade.

Even though the cutoff in Xinyi’s hometown of Changsha was the same as in Kansas, Xinyi had been in first grade in the fall of 2004.

“She was not six years old yet at that time, but I was thinking, I need to let her learn some basic knowledge of Chinese language, have kind of a foundation before we came to America,” Liao said.

The He family originally moved to Wyandotte so Xinyi’s father could find new opportunities as a medical researcher. Starting school in the middle of the year, Xinyi was enrolled in the English as a Second Language (ESL) class.

“When we first moved here, her English was very, very limited. [She] only knew a few words, like, hello, thank you, bye-bye, sorry, something like that,” Liao said. “At that time I was very worried whether she could get adjusted to the new culture, the new way of life here.”

However, Xinyi adjusted quickly. After three months in ESL, she was able to get by with one-on-one English instruction by her teacher. Just before Xinyi’s third grade year, the family moved to the Shawnee Mission School District. Xinyi attended Westwood View Elementary through sixth grade, and then when the family moved to another area of the district, she ended up at Mission Valley Middle School for seventh. After Mission Valley closed, she went to Indian Hills and then continued to East for freshman year.

Now a junior at East, the only issue Xinyi has with her age is her inability to drive herself places.

“My parents work full time, unfortunately,” Xinyi said. “So they can’t give me a ride all the time and I feel bad asking my friends to drive me around.”

Still, she thinks her school career has been successful, overall. She is an International Baccalaureate student and an all-state flute player.

“I feel like I’m proactive,” Xinyi said. “I feel like I’ve done a lot.”

She sees both her age and the transition in a positive light. For example, she is considering taking a gap year, and if she decided to, she wouldn’t then be old for a college freshman.

She thinks the move to the U.S. is a good thing as well, since she didn’t have many friends at her school in China.

“If I had stayed in China, I would have been one of the people that you just do not want to talk to, and that only have ‘friends’ because I scared them into being my lackeys,” she said.

“I feel like [moving] has made me a more open person, and a lot nicer.”

Although the move was somewhat challenging for Xinyi’s parents, having left their roots and extended family behind in China, Liao thinks the move was good for Xinyi.

“We were kind of surprised how well and how quickly she went through the transition period,” she said. “I mean, for kids it’s always easier, you know, for adults it’s a little bit more difficult.”

Looking at her whole life, Xinyi and her parents are satisfied with her accomplishments. Xinyi mostly credits her parents with helping her, and in the end says age, in any area of a person’s life, is not a huge factor.

“I feel like as long as you have someone there to guide you, no matter how young you are, I think you can succeed.”