Growing up in a household with three older brothers, she has broken the mold that the rest of her family has followed. Rather than pursue a career in the medical or engineering fields, senior Sarah Tien (12) enjoys the field of art and architecture.

She has always enjoyed the aesthetic way of life since she was a child, and despite growing up in a family of engineers and being raised to view everything very technically and analytically.

“[Viewing things technically] is a mindset I ended up breaking out of just because it never clicked with me,” Sarah said. “As I grew up, art became my form of creativity that was a little bit different than the rest of my family’s.”

This summer, she spent six weeks at Cornell University for an Architecture summer program, and produced many pieces of art during her time there.

“When I do art I feel like I can do whatever I want, and there really are no limitations to it because it’s such an ambiguous subject,” Sarah said. “When you produce something that people end up liking and [they] support your ideas it does make me feel more powerful because it’s my own personal vision being supported by others.”

To Sarah, art is an aesthetic way of life, and one that cannot be expressed any other way.

“Art is a great way to communicate,” Sarah said. “It’s a little more ambiguous than other forms, but I think it gives leeway for other’s interpretation and that’s a really interesting form of conveying ideas because there’s such a wide range of possibilities.”

Sarah believes that success is simply being where you are the happiest and doing the best that you can.

“I think if you are in some field you’re not enjoying, you can’t do the best that you can because you won’t be able to put your whole self into it,” Sarah said. “If you’re doing something you really enjoy, and you’re putting your whole heart into it, I think that’s the most successful you can be.”

On her middle right finger is a ring engraved with the words eunoia, which means beautiful thinking in greek, and also has a cross at the bottom right. Both of these are values that strongly resonate with her.

“It’s a goal for me to always think in a way that is positive and not harmful to others,” Sarah said. “Beautiful thinking is just a really nice way to encapsulate the whole thing, and the cross just reminds me where I come from.”

From working at soup kitchens in San Francisco to leading younger children at her local church, Sarah enjoys giving back and doing community service. If only able to be remembered for one thing, she wants be remembered as someone who helped.

“All I can ask for is to be able to know that my existence in the world made some impact on someone’s life,” Sarah said. “I want to know I was there for them in a positive aspect.”

Her favorite pastime is traveling the world and experiencing the multitude of different cultures, as every culture do the same things, just in different ways.