Alumni Profile: Henry Feng, SDG Challenge Program for High School Students’24

Henry Feng grew up in Suzhou, China, but recently moved to Shanghai to attend an international high school.

“The move to Shanghai was a challenge,” he said, “because Suzhou has a domestic education system that is more exam based, and in the international high school, we do extracurricular activities and community work, so my high school journey has been very different and also rewarding. For example, I participate in a program helping people with physical disabilities, and it feels good to be able to provide that assistance to people.”

As a junior in an International Baccalaureate curriculum, Feng said he especially enjoys social science. “The psychology and economics courses are interesting, and both are applicable to my interest in public policy.”

Feng’s interest in public policy is informed by two factors. “First, my father is a lawyer, and when he tells me about his work, many of his cases are closely related to public policy—usually government or business policy. Second, my interest in education policy is based on my personal experience—seeing the differences between the rural and urban educational resources in China.”

Feng said he’d like to learn more about the education system in China—"and potentially develop more effective policies by using a researcher's lens. My high school counselor, who knows about my policy interest, recommended the SDG Challenge Program for High School Students to me. It seemed a great opportunity to develop that policy lens I desire, and it turned out to be an amazing experience.”

Feng said the academic component of SDG provided a robust groundwork for the program’s research project. “We learned the fundamentals of public policy, how to assess data reliability, data visualization skills, and also skills to organize our data through online tools.”

The online format of the program, he added, was supportive and collaborative. “That was important because we had lots of group discussions. Since there were almost 40 students in the program, I appreciated that we were often broken out in groups of three or four to have discussions. And while the guidance and support from the professor, instructors, and teaching assistant was fantastic, the SDG wasn’t just instructors ‘telling’ us everything—we had opportunities to share and incorporate our thoughts and experiences.”

And, Feng said, with such a global cohort, he learned how public policy works in different countries and cultural contexts. “Gaining those perspectives is rare with traditional lectures, so I really appreciated that.”

Choosing one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and researching a policy challenge related to it, Feng said, was incredibly rewarding.  “The entire process—finding an area you're interested in, narrowing the topic, then finding data that can support your research proposal—was very engaging, and I learned a lot. Plus, we presented our ideas to our classmates and teachers and received feedback.”

Unsurprisingly, Feng focused on education equality and noted Associate Professor Austin L. Wright“provided especially useful advice when I was carrying out my research.”

As for what’s next, Feng said, “My SDG experience definitely helped clarify potential pathways for future academic and career goals.”

However, he is also mindful of the need to recharge and stay inspired. “I have a heavy academic workload, so I relax by reading. Reading opens up new worlds, and it’s a good counterbalance to my life as a high school student. Maintaining a balance is important.”