SOW: Honglin (Lin) Zhu
Three-year senior Lin Zhu takes his seat at the Harkness table in his REL555: Introduction to Philosophy course. There, he radiates pure passion sharing his own and encouraging others’ viewpoints during the class’s many candid debates.
“Lin takes the most risks in the sense that he articulates his thoughts even when he doesn’t quite have them fully formulated,” senior and classmate Mei Li Hart said.
“He pushes us to question claims the author makes and concepts we take for granted,” Hart continued. “And his probing questions lead our class to a more nuanced and fruitful discussion.”
Born in China, Zhu credits his move to America for opening many doors, including one to his love of the humanities. “Coming to the United States really broadened my perspective in a way. If I had stayed in China, I probably would have learned more in math and the sciences, but I don’t think I would have liked the humanities,” Lin reflected.
Literature and magical realism has been another of Zhu’s pursuits since his ninth-grade year. Zhu read a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths,” which translated to his piqued curiosity about the language arts upon his arrival at Exeter.
As a first generation immigrant straddling Eastern and Western cultures and education, STEM occupies an equally prominent place in Zhu’s academic career. His exploration of math started with his joining of a Beijing math circle in the second grade. From there, it was a book titled What is Mathematics? which thrusted Zhu fully into the field of mathematics.
Zhu, a new lower at the time, immediately sought out the Exeter Math Club, of which he is an avid participant and now co-head. “He is a person who is able to become close to people, including peers and instructors. He is relatable and concerned about others. People naturally talk to him, because he's always calm and in control of the situation,” Mathematics Instructor Ivan Borsenco observed.
Along with the four other co-heads, Zhu organized and directed the annual Exeter Math Club Competition, held virtually in late February. Though he was staying in China at the time, Zhu was undeterred from helping host such a big Math Club event, especially one which he himself attended in middle school.
“I stayed up all night to do it; it was painful but so fun,” Zhu remembered. “We had to grade all the tests by 6 a.m. CST, and then we had the award ceremony at 9 a.m. We ran into 2000% more problems than we anticipated, even just compiling scores in Google Sheets.”
When personally competing in the Mathematics Olympiads, Zhu is a strong mathlete and contender in each of the tested topics. “He is extremely versatile, and he is knowledgeable in algebra, geometry, combinatorics and number theory—all four,” Borsenco said. “Honglin's strongest suit is probably combinatorics, a subject in which it is very hard to develop the problem-solving skill. He has honed this skill through his persistence and dedication regularly doing math on his own and with friends at a Math Club.”
Outside of his involvement in EMC, Zhu savors the faultless model math provides for research. “I see research as a sort of pursuit for truth,” he said. “Mathematics is the most absolute, reasonably undeniable, form of truth, whereas in other sciences, we use approximations that are relative and not perfect.”
The concept of abstraction, an idea he adapts from Plato, is also of special interest to Zhu. “In the intelligible realm, there are the abstract objects, which are perfect representations of things we see in the visible realm, the real world,” Zhu explained. “Mathematics then is the perfect representation of our world.”
This past summer attending MIT’s Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering and Science, Zhu glimpsed the inner workings of researching and writing a paper. “You just start working on the problem at hand. It's very meticulous because you have to do a lot of work, and usually you don't get anywhere at all,” Zhu shared. “But then there's maybe a day where you get lucky, where you find something, and that one moment makes everything wholly worth it.”
Looking back on his years at the Academy, Zhu greatly appreciates the Harkness pedagogy of teaching. “Back in China, I only memorized events, dates and names, which is why I didn’t like the humanities,” he said. But here at Exeter we're trying to understand and reconcile different perspectives. And I think this is a much more interesting and engaging approach.”
Zhu encouraged each and every Exonian to take advantage of living in the Exeter bubble. “I’ll miss the simplicity of life here, because we're in a bubble in which we don’t have to worry or think much about the outside world. Here, you can choose not to stress–sometimes it’s hard to do, but I think life will only get more stressful after leaving Exeter,” Zhu said. “Get more sleep when you can and make friends you enjoy being around.”
