New Student Profiles: Zeong, Tinsley, and Hanbing

A lot of new students come to Bethany every year, and Sightline does profiles of them so you can get to know them a little bit. If you see them in the hallways, say hi!

Zeong Wang is a Chinese exchange student new to Bethany this year, joining the 11th grade. He chose Bethany because it sounded like a better academic option for him. He says that Bethany is different from his old school because it’s “bigger, and has helpful teachers.” One has to wonder what school he went to that was much smaller than Bethany. Zeong is playing soccer this year, and outside of school he says that he likes to watch movies.

Hanbing Wei is a sophomore exchange student, and she came to Bethany this year because of the quality of teachers, and because she wanted to do extracurricular activities. At her old school in Shijiazhuang, in Hebei Province (which she helpfully wrote out for me when i couldn’t spell it), Hanbing played badminton, but now that she’s at Bethany she’s running cross country. She also enjoys singing, she usually wears glasses, and she demonstrated in the hallway that she can raise one leg straight out above her head while standing against a locker. This reporter was much astonished.

Tinsley Yoder is a freshman, coming to Bethany from homeschool because she decided that the start of high school would be a good time to transition to “normal school.” Tinsley has an older sister Simia (‘19), and a younger sister Joryn (in middle school). She says that Bethany is different from her homeschool co-op (a small group of families who homeschool their children together) mainly because the learning style is different. In homeschooling there’s more hands-on learning, whereas at Bethany students spend more time sitting in desks listening. Bethany is also an adjustment for Tinsley because it’s a lot bigger than her co-op. She says that she likes it because there’s lots of socializing, but it’s very tiring. Outside of school, Tinsley takes dance classes for ballet, modern, and contemporary dance. She plans to participate in plays and musicals at Bethany, and is looking forward to spring sports, when she’ll have to decide between tennis, softball, and track.