Faith Chang has curiosity and drive. She’s willing to dive into the unknown to forge a path for herself. That path has taken her from Hillbrook middle schooler to Biomedical Engineer and Researcher and is launching her into medical school next year.
But that path hasn’t been straight. Or easy. There have been disappointments along the way. But Faith has learned that it will all be okay, and when plans don’t work out — when she “fails” — what comes next can be surprising and wonderful.
Currently a senior Biomedical Engineering major at University of Michigan, Faith works on a research team investigating the effects of testosterone therapy on fertility in transmasculine gender transition. Faith was drawn to U of M because of its research program. “Creating new knowledge for the world felt very appealing to me,” she says. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Faith finds her work especially rewarding. “The LGBTQ+ community and transgender people in particular are severely underrepresented in research. To be able to work on research affecting a particularly vulnerable part of one’s own community is exciting.”
“To be able to work on research affecting a particularly vulnerable part of one’s own community is exciting.”
Faith credits Hillbrook with her start as a scientist. “I think early on, I was taught and felt that you [the student] are somebody who can participate in discovery and learning,” she says, “both learning new things and making new things.” She counts Ms. Dohmen and Mr. Ravizza as two of the best science teachers she had in her pre-university education. Through projects like creating water striders out of wire and testing student-designed and -built rockets, Faith developed a strong interest in discovery and engineering. Mr. Ravizza noticed Faith’s development as a scientist as well. “I remember her being so inquisitive and engaged in just about any science activity we worked on,” he says.
Faith sees her time at Hillbrook as more than just being taught the scientific method. She was expected to perform as a scientist, designing experiments, documenting her work and findings, and sharing her results — all skills she still uses today.
Her eyes light up when she talks about the research group she works with being the first to publish a transgender mouse model. “It’s not even that complicated of a model,” she says. “There’s no gene editing or anything. We’re just administering testosterone to mice. But nobody had done it before.”
Back in middle school, Faith didn’t expect that she would become a scientist or go to medical school. “I think most people thought that I was probably going to do an English degree or an art degree,” she muses. Mr. Ravizza remembers her as multi-talented. “It doesn’t surprise me that she is interested in pursuing med school,” he says, “but she could totally be an author or artist.“
At Hillbrook, Faith spent endless hours in Ken’s art room, and she still has a few of art teacher Ken Hay’s paintings on the wall in her room. She also thrived in Ms. Rubin’s English classes in 6th-8th grades. She still considers Ms. Rubin the best English teacher she’s ever had. Faith recalls, “I was a voracious reader in middle school, and she gave me a lot of book recommendations. She even bought me a copy of one of the books she had recommended.”
In class, she learned to believe in herself and her ideas. “I feel like I was really encouraged that my ideas were interesting and valuable to [the discussion of] whatever book we were reading,” she says.
Ms. Rubin remembers Faith, who went by her nickname “Mei-Mei” until college, as a lively and passionate learner. “Right from the moment I met Mei-Mei, I was struck by her strong sense of self,” Ms. Rubin says. “She was very self-possessed, even as a sixth grader. I could tell she really craved knowledge and seemed to experience deep satisfaction from learning — especially hard-earned learning that challenged her (and she wasn’t easy to challenge). She still stands out vividly in my memory for the intensity of her intellectual curiosity and her joy in learning.”
After Hillbrook, Faith attended Notre Dame High School in San Jose for two years, before transferring to the Middle College program, where she attended a public high school and a community college concurrently. Making the change to Middle College felt like a huge risk to Faith, but she loved the program and thrived in it, valuing the diversity of students in her classrooms, where she might sit next to a middle-aged woman who had taken a break from school to raise children or a college-aged student completing their associate’s degree before transferring to a UC.
While at Hillbrook, Faith, who didn’t think of herself as athletic, played an afterschool sport every season of her middle school years. (Her parents made her do it.) It was a risk for the self-professed perfectionist to try something she didn’t see herself as good at. But she grew as an athlete. “Competing in a really supportive environment with excellent coaches (shoutout to Mr. DiMarco!) totally shaped me into an athlete,” she says. Faith started fencing her freshman year of high school and is now the women’s epee captain of Michigan’s fencing team, the reigning national Collegiate Club Fencing Champions.
Risk-taking for Faith isn’t just about trying new things. Her freshman year of college, it meant getting creative about reaching her goals. She chose Michigan for its undergraduate research programs, but she didn’t get into either that she applied to. She was deeply devastated. But as soon as she got to campus, she set to work. “I emailed like 30 Principal Investigators [heads of labs], and three of them responded,” she says. One of those offered Faith a spot in the lab. Her risk paid off, and this unexpected turn had a wonderful surprise ending: “By chance I fell into this lab that was doing research on issues I’m really passionate about.”
Faith’s advice to current Hillbrook students springs from her experiences of disappointment and recovery. “Try to resist the prestige trap or the prestige draw,” she says. “Something will work out if you don’t get into your dream high school.” She didn’t get into her dream high school or her dream college, but the path she has taken has worked out and come with great reward.
“I’ve been really happy here [at University of Michigan]. It’s been a great experience for me. Remember that, whatever happens with the many admissions decisions that happen in your future, it’s going to be okay.”
Faith embodies Hillbrook’s vision for students to reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world, both through homeless advocacy work and through her research that blends her care for transgender people and passion for science. She encourages students to pay attention in Reach Beyond Block and Week and “to learn how to have productive conversations about privilege and what it means to be somebody who has access to a private education and all of the privilege that comes with that.” She challenges Hillbrook students to ask, “How do you want to move forward and use that privilege for good?”
Wherever Faith’s future leads her, and whatever path she forges, she will be a force for good in the world, taking the spirit of Hillbrook with her.