Creative writing can be a science; programming can be an art. Jacqueline He (12) resides in that intersection.

“I think it’s kind of like the left brain, right brain divide,” she said when comparing writing to computer science. “There’s as much of a rational progression to poetry as there is an artistic element towards coding. Computer science is definitely not a strictly technical field. It’s not a pure science, [and] there’s a creative element to it, the way you design a program to try to get it to do what you want it to do. Whereas for creative writing, it’s not entirely imaginative. If you write something completely random, it’s not going to make sense, and it’s not going to be very audience receptive. There’s has to be a certain type of logic and idea you’re trying to get at.”

Jacqueline started fiction writing in her junior year, after transition from more STEM-focused extracurriculars.

“I tend to prefer fiction, I feel like there’s a certain type of bravery you need to have in order to write fiction and expose yourself in a sense to the world and to your reader that I don’t really have,” Jacqueline said. “Even in fiction, I tend to deviate from biographical instances and focus more on imagination versus reality, so I guess moving towards creative nonfiction is something I’ve been working on.”

Jacqueline’s writing career has taken inspiration from authors such as Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz and Ocean Vaughn, all authors of color that tend to portray stories of those with similar backgrounds in relation to an American white-washed society.

“I first got into Toni Morrison via ‘The Bluest Eye,’ which is one of my favorite books. It’s a very lingering book in a sense that you keep on returning to it even after a long time after you first read it. Junot Diaz is one of the very popular authors of the day right now, and so I read him a lot,” she said. “In terms of poetry, Ocean Vuong is a really large inspiration just because his way of writing is so new and very different from the traditional type of poetry that I’ve seen so far.”

Her work in the humanities inspired her to pursue her current Near Mitra project featuring the work and interconnectedness of a group of four prominent magical realist writers in the Latin American Renaissance.

“A lot of writers back then were very left leaning and very liberal in the wake of centuries of post colonial repression and authoritarian governments, so literature they produced during that time [was very different from] those styles they produced during the previous eras,” she said. “They had more of a political current running through them. They were more culturally cognizant in that they were in a sense trying to form more of a cohesive cultural identity as latin american rather than regionalist places.”

While her love for fiction and nonfiction writing has increased exponentially these past few years, she still channels her love for coding, but now through the lens of a writer.

“There’s as much of a rational progression to poetry as there is to an artistic element towards coding. I think computer science is definitely not a strictly technical field, it’s not a pure science. There’s a creative element to it, the way you design a program to try to get it to do what it wants to do,” Jacqueline said. “I’ve been taking a lot of post-AP computer science classes in my high school career, and we have a lot of projects where we have to create a compiler. The way you write down a code for that to happen, you have to think about it carefully because there’s a lot of ways to get what you want to get to finish that program.”

Her AP English Literature classmate Mona Lee (12) appreciated her contributions to discussions.

“You can tell that there’s so much depth and intellect behind her personality,” Mona said. We were doing this activity in Lit, where we had to paraphrase a Shakespearean quote into other Shakespearean language. Everyone just switched out words, like turning ‘thyself’ into ‘myself’ or ‘herself,’ but Jackie took this opportunity to write such a quality paraphrase. It was this blend of Shakespearean language, but we could all understand it at the same time. It was just that moment where I was just like, ‘This is what creative writing really is,’ because she gave so much more life to Shakespeare.”

Ultimately, Jacqueline attributes her success and ability to pursue extracurriculars in a plethora of different fields to her independence and determination.

“I’m very independent in a sense that when I make a goal for myself, I do whatever I can do satisfy that goal and to reach that goal. When I finish that goal, I start another one. I’m kind of methodical in that kind of aspect,” she said. “I also try to take on an approach towards life where I try to balance the things I like to do with the things I know are good for me.”