Alumni Check-in: Clifford Lee (Class of 2025)

Q. Where do you live now? Why? What are you doing?

A: I’m currently a freshman at University of Minnesota twin cities studying chemistry.

The reason I choose Minnesota is to experience the big Midwest lifestyle but also the campus is 10 minutes away from downtown, so I’m not living in the middle of nowhere like Iowa. 

Q. What are the biggest differences between there and Kaohsiung? What’s the biggest similarities?

A: the biggest difference here is definitely the weather, the coldest time I experienced was -34 degrees which was absolutely hell during my finals week.

Beside the weather, the people here are nice and kind, a lot more international Chinese students than I expected as I thought Minnesota is white majority state. 

Q. What does a typical day look like for you?

A: A typical day of mine start with one or two lecture in morning and lunch with some friends. I have two labs per week which takes up 2-3 hours.

Later at night if there’s an intramural basketball game I will be at rec playing basketball with my teammates from the Chinese club team. If there’s no intramural game, I usually study at the health center study room. 

Q. What's one thing you miss most about Taiwan?

A: the number one thing I miss about Taiwan is the food, in Minnesota, there’s quite a few Chinese or Vietnamese cuisine around but not a single Taiwanese restaurant.

Beside that, I miss my dog and my family.

Q. What advice would you give to the HS students?

A: one advice I would give to HS students is to be prepare things that happen unexpectedly. There’s a lot of expectation when you enter college but a lot of times that expectation isn’t what you actually experience.

Especially grades, don’t stress about how badly you done on your midterms, since it’s so different than high school.

It might be easy to get an A in high school but in college, it’s hard to achieve a high score. 

Q. Did your KAS experience prepare you for life after HS?

A: I think IB did actually help me prepare for college. Especially that mock test period, it was kind of the first time I experience real stress and long time of studying.

That experience kind of just build up my study habit since I’m no longer training for sport teams, I actually have way more time to study compare to high school. 

Q. What are you looking forward to most in the next five years?

A: I hope I will graduate with a chemistry degree and apply to a decent pharmacy school.

But before applying to pharm school, I wish to finish up my military service if I’m planning to work in Taiwan.

Otherwise I wish I’m happy in the next five years.