Silence settles across the Winged Post newsroom as editors hover around glowing monitors, stuck on the front-page layout. Editor-in-Chief senior Victor Gong leans in, scanning his screen. Then, a spark: he clicks, drags, rearranges. Like a composer crafting a symphony, he transforms the disjointed elements into a captivating whole.

Unbounded.

That’s how Victor describes his approach to life, from designing Scratch projects and tackling coding challenges to creating bold newspaper layouts. Whether he’s teaching kids to code or reshaping a front page, he sees creativity as the key to unlocking potential in himself and others.

“I don’t have a structure,” Victor said. “Imagination and creativity come out of the blue. When I’m driving to school, walking my dog or playing piano, if I have an idea, I write it down, come back to it and act on it.”

Victor’s journey into computer science began at a young age, but truly took flight during the pandemic. Out of boredom and a desire for social interaction, he created a YouTube channel to share programming projects on Scratch, a block-coding coding platform made for beginners. On the channel, which he still runs to this day, he regularly began posting intricate projects that require out-of-the-box thinking to be executed on a beginner platform.

Soon after, he began teaching coding through structured courses that ranged from six to 12 weeks and introduced students to key concepts like variables through projects like tic-tac-toe, space shooter and clicker games. His students started taking initiative, building far beyond what he showed them.

“A lot of my students loved to expand,” Victor said. “For my space shooter project, someone made the enemies able to move and shoot back. Someone else expanded my tic-tac-toe game from 3-by-3 to 5-by-5. Seeing my teaching enabling them to further expand on their own creations and add their own spin to it really makes me excited because I used to love to do that.” 

Victor’s close friend and robotics teammate senior Nolan Chen emphasizes Victor’s drive to help others.

“Victor is the type of person who goes out of his way to help people, even if it doesn’t directly benefit him,” Nolan said. “He’s always pushing himself and those around him. On our robotics team, he’s the main coder. He’s always the first to take on challenges and follow through.”

Victor’s unbounded mindset led him to go above and beyond in his projects, constantly pushing the limits of what’s possible. This drive was especially evident during his sophomore year in AP Computer Science, where he had an optional extra credit assignment to create a chess bot that would model player behavior. However, instead of just fulfilling the assignment, Victor decided to go above and beyond, thinking of new solutions to maximize the skill level of the bot. 

Alongside his friend and co-president of the Game Development Club, senior Daniel Gergov, Victor continued to refine and expand the bot’s capabilities. Daniel worked closely with Victor on coding projects and describes Victor’s relentless drive to push boundaries.

“Victor is incredibly creative and competitive, and he doesn’t give up,” Daniel said. “He always pulls out a notebook and draws things out to solve problems. He’s stuck with this chess bot for years, which is kind of crazy.”

As editor-in-chief of the Winged Post, Victor channels his mindset into a passion for writing and design — crafting layouts, guiding junior reporters and developing strategies to elevate the publication’s impact, all while building new talents along the way.

“I’m really grateful that journalism helped me improve skills like photography,” Victor said. “Journalism is one of the most multifaceted fields at Harker. You learn writing, interviewing, teamwork and even technical design. You get to write about stories that interest you and others.”

But Victor didn’t always feel confident exploring new ideas. As a frosh and sophomore, he sometimes second-guessed himself, meticulously checking nearly every decision he made.

“In my early high school years, I overthought a lot,” Victor said. “I would double or triple-check every test answer. That created doubt. In 11th and 12th grade, I stopped worrying about whether an idea was valid. I just tried it. That helped me find better ideas and more success than if I’d kept doubting myself.”

Victor’s transformation is clear to those who know him. AP U.S. History teacher Chuck Witschorik, Victor’s adviser, saw this growth firsthand.

“He’s a really positive, upbeat person to have in class and to have an advisory,” Dr. Witschorik said. “I’ve seen him grow in self-confidence about his abilities and his place in school. He seems very comfortable with himself now, very confident and ready to continue to thrive in college and beyond. “

Victor underscores the importance of embracing uncertainty and taking risks. Whether it’s through coding projects, his leadership in journalism or his dedication to teaching others, he believes in moving forward without overthinking.

“If you try to make everything perfect, you’ll either run out of time or it’ll end up not being natural,” Victor said. “I learned to do things based on my intuition and stop limiting myself by overthinking everything. Perfectionism only slows you down, so I learned to not be afraid. Sometimes crazy ideas are the ones that turn out to be the best ones.”