Literary Goddess: Katie Ying

She’s amiable and approachable, diligent and intelligent. She’s compassionate, empathetic, fun and modest. She’s a scholar, a friend, a sister and a role model. She is senior Katie Ying.

Ying has many passions, and writing is perhaps her favorite. Whether it’s around the Harkness table or in her dormroom, writing fills every aspect of Ying’s life. On campus, Ying is the Director of Writing for Pendulum, the Academy’s oldest literary arts magazine. In her words, the members of the publication “curate the work of Exeter’s creative arts population and distill it into an accessible publication.” She joined the staff of Pendulum in the beginning of her upper year and quickly progressed from a writer to the position of Writing Editor.

“For someone who loves to read, the job is just fun,” Ying said. “I have the privilege of reading the works of passionate, creative people. Reading our manuscript of submissions constantly humbles me; there’s so much talent at this school.”

In addition to the creative writing aspect of Pendulum, Ying enjoys academic and journalistic writing. She reads the New York Times daily, and is currently taking the senior research study course focusing on intensive readings of newspapers.

Even though reading and writing has always been in her heart, the Academy further nurtured Ying’s love for literature during her time here. “I’ve always identified as a humanities person, but Exeter helped me understand this nascent curiosity and see it to fruition,” she said. “It certainly served as the catalyst of my own identity as a writer.”

Ying continued to delve deeper into her identity as a writer. “Some people write for the experience itself, perhaps the internal processes that it sets forth; others strive to communicate a particular message. I guess I just like words,” she said. “It’s been my catharsis in demanding moments.”

During the summer following her lower year, Ying attended the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio at the University of Iowa, which is an extension of UI’s established MFA program. There, she expanded on her craft and met acclaimed writers like Marilynne Robinson.

All of her literary work at the Academy culminated on May 13, when she delivered her senior meditation that she labored over throughout winter term. During the writing process, Ying drew inspiration from novelist Vladmir Nabokov’s “Pale Fire.” The book centers around a poem of the same name, on which a fictional, unreliable narrator offers commentary.

“Everyone writes a meditation for different purposes, and what you reveal or hope to reveal to yourself in the process is unique and sometimes unintentional,” Ying said. “Reading [Pale Fire] was the birth of my meditation. I took that concept and found three poems to suit the different realms I wandered into during my meditation; my meditation was my own commentary on those poems.”

English instructor Todd Hearon was one of many who admired her meditation. “She wrote, and delivered, a stellar senior meditation,” he said. “One of the finest I’ve heard in my time here.” He also described Ying as embodying “magnanimity,” one who leads her class without dominating and whose “comments, insights, questions, drive into deeper clarity and complexity.”

Senior Ann Zhang, another person struck by Ying’s capabilities as a writer, commented on her meditation. “Katie is a deeply honest and compelling writer. She has an unparalleled mastery of language which she shared in her meditation.”

Though many know Ying for her skilled and creative writing, she also engages in other spheres, whether in conducting scientific research or fostering lasting relationships in the dorm.

Last summer, Ying interned as a research assistant under Professor Swathi Kiran at Boston University’s Aphasia Research lab, a part of the Center for Neurobiology of Language Recovery. The lab focuses on understanding language processing and communication deficits resulting from brain damage, including semantic complexity and the rehabilitation of both visual and audible speech comprehension; one related disorder, aphasia, is of special and personal importance to Ying.

At the lab, Ying analyzed functional neuroimaging (fMRI) scans and data to investigate brain activation in affected regions pre and post-treatment. She also generated a database of orthographically and phonetically similar words for a study on the relationship between semantic and phonological processing deficits in aphasia severity. However, outside of the scientific and technical aspects of her internship, she found that the most rewarding component was working with individual patients.

Ying joined the treatment team for the lab’s patient with a more seere case of aphasia: a 70-year-old man who had suffered a debilitating stroke a year prior. He could barely read, write or speak. Traditional treatment avenues were proving ineffective, and fMRI scans showed little improvement. Ying, however, decided to try something new. “I grew very close to him and eventually started trying my own therapy ideas with him,” she said. “They had no real scientific or research basis—I was just trying to understand the human I was working with.”

Then, one day, Ying tried a new way of approaching the reading and writing comprension with the patient, and with “miraculous success,” he was able to read 30 sentences aloud, perfectly. Eventually, Kiran incorporated Ying’s treatment method into the lab’s protocol as it proved so effective.

“The experience, in every way, changed the way I understand human interaction,” Ying said. “When people you care about are involved—when the byproduct of action is tangible human consequence—you start to think a little harder and faster about what you’re doing and why.”

Ying’s immense understanding of people that grew at the research and touched many patients has also affected many people at Exeter. Ying has found her home in Bancroft for the past four years, a cumulative experience she described as “formative.” Her dormmates and classmates have felt the same way.

Upper Amy Azubuike, who roomed with Ying for two years, described her quite simply as an “one-of-a-kind girl” who “has a calming presence and an easy-going personality that makes you want to trust her.” She continued, “in the dorm, she has served as a person who people can openly share their problems with, and has also set her foot down on serious issues in the dorm that would not have been challenged otherwise.”

Senior Millie Dunstan, who has worked with Ying at both The Exonian and Pendulum, said that Ying was “a great person to work with,” because of her impressive work ethic, drive and grasp of how to work with others.

“Like many of us, she has faced obstacles while at Exeter,” Dunstan said. “However, through these obstacles I’ve seen how unstoppable she is. I truly admire how strong, dedicated and determined Katie has been in all aspects of her Exeter career.”