![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
Walking around the school, there was a large group of people, laughing, talking and getting to know each other. There were people of all ages speaking multiple different languages. Some were teachers, some were students and one was a special visitor.
Andrea Yang, the head of education for the Taiwan Embassy of Education, visited on Nov. 8. She was the first foreign diplomat to visit the school. Yang was given a tour by sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung, and senior Yushan Pan, all of whom currently take a Chinese class with Joyce Chen. Pan is in AP Chinese, and Trung and Ou are in Chinese III. Ou’s family is from Taiwan, Pan’s family is from China and Trung is from Vietnam.
“I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.”
The student tour guides were chosen on a volunteer basis. Pan said that she knew Chinese before taking the class but that she has been able to improve her understanding of the language through taking AP Chinese. Pan was in charge of showing Yang the band hall and choir room. She said that the tour was a great way to improve the school’s relationship with the ambassador.
“This [was] definitely a great experience and opportunity,” Pan said. “We’re doing some collaborations with the [Taiwanese] students as well. I’m happy to [get to help] and do what I can.”
Cedar Park Chinese teacher Joyce Chen was introduced to Yang by Charlotte Chen, the long-term sub for Vandegrift’s Chinese teacher. Charlotte Chen also teaches at Goodnews Mandarin Academy. Charlotte Chen helped give the tour with the student volunteers and Joyce Chen. She is from Taiwan and said she wants to educate America about Taiwanese culture.
“[In Taiwan], I think the food [creates] common conversation, and we talk a lot more,” Charlotte Chen said. “I’m from Taipei, and it’s a very modern city. It’s very diverse. You can see so many people from different countries around Taipei.”
Yang has worked as a diplomat for over 20 years, and she was a diplomat to Paraguay until 2019. She now works as a diplomat to the United States, covering eight states for the embassy. In addition to working in Paraguay and the United States, she also spent a year in Spain at the national university for language training. She is fluent in Chinese, English and Spanish.
“I want people to know that Taiwan is a very friendly, diverse, and democratic country,” Yang said. “We welcome all of our international friends.”
During the tour, Yang saw the broadcast studio, culinary kitchens, choir hall and dance gym. At the broadcast studio, she was given a tour by juniors Reid Cummins and LuLu Lynch, anchors for The Wolfcast. Yang said that she was impressed by the professionalism of the students in The Wolfcast program and offered to come back to the school and give an interview with The Wolfcast.
“I’m blown away by the fact that she made time to come here,” Lynch said. “We were able to teach her stuff and she’s willing to be on our show because she wants to be here. I think it’s a great opportunity to share what Taiwan is doing and get those connections started. We can get [more information] out into our community because I feel like a lot of students don’t have a lot of information about [Taiwan]. It allows us to broaden our audience in a really cool way.”
Joyce Chen said she hopes to form a sister school partnership with a school in Taiwan by having her students write letters to pen pals from Taiwan once a month. Chen plans to make the first prompt for their letters holiday-related because Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Taiwan and Christmas traditions are very different in Taiwan. She said she wants to share American traditions with the Taiwanese students.
“I’m really excited for our students to learn more about Taiwan [through their pen pals] because it’s my home country,” Joyce Chen said. “I’m also excited to see opportunities that the Taiwanese government could help us with, like study abroad or scholarships. They’re very active in the United States with travel abroad and exchange programs. It’s expensive to study abroad, so it would be nice to have some systems and partnerships [established].”
