Anissa

All these different voices and perspectives I'm hearing and experiencing – this is not something to be taken for granted.

Anissa

Anissa’s passions include sociology (with a particular interest in issues related to immigration and race), tennis, dance, singing, and —  perhaps most of all —  jazz. Though Anissa, who came to NMH from Shanghai, decided to apply to boarding school as an eighth-grader just weeks before the deadline, the school’s emphasis on community and responsibility made her choice easy.

“No other school asked me about how I was going to act with humanity and become a better person,” she recalled.  

The intentional diversity of the NMH community was another key influence in Anissa’s decision to enroll. “Seeing all these different people from different countries, of different races, different ethnicities – that’s something I did not see in the parts of the world I lived in,” she said. 

Although Anissa was excited to start her journey at NMH, she got off to a rocky start. “I was a very bad student at first,” she said with a laugh. “I had horrible grades. I don't know exactly what happened; being in this environment, one day in my sophomore year, it just clicked for me.” 

Anissa resolved that while she might never be at the top of her class, she wanted to fully engage with activities at school. “I realized there are no limits for how engaged you can be. So for me, it's always a growth mindset, because I don't know what my limit is.” As it turned out, she could be at the top of her class: Her senior  year, Anissa was inducted into the Cum Laude Society, the independent school equivalent of the National Honor Society.

“I climbed very much,” she said.

Anissa’s interest in sociology inspired her to create documentaries based on subjects close to her heart, including the development of the first Chinatowns in America. The piece won a gold medal in the Massachusett Historical Society’s 2023 National History Day competition. For her senior capstone project, she dug into the school archives to explore the history of foreign students at NMH, looking at what she calls “the intentionality of recruiting a diverse student body” from the earliest days of the school. Her final project combined writing, audio, and photographs to connect the school’s early mission of educating a diverse student body to the contemporary iteration of that goal.

“I like seeing myself in that thread of the school’s DNA,” she said. “All these different voices and perspectives I'm hearing and experiencing – this is not something to be taken for granted.”

Academics were just one facet of Anissa’s engagement at NMH. She enjoyed visual art courses; took part in several performing arts productions, including dance; and sang in the Select Treble Ensemble. A multi-instrumentalist, Anissa studied oboe and clarinet in her younger years and has played piano since she was in elementary school. Today, her main focuses are singing and piano.

In her senior year, Anissa played in the Honors Jazz Ensemble, an experience she treasured. “Playing jazz makes me feel really happy. It's not even the joy of performing for other people, but joy from being on stage and communal joy with my fellow bandmates,” she said. “Smitty [Director of Music Programs Ron Smith] always gave me time to shine on stage.” 

Tennis was another of Anissa’s loves. “The tennis team is very small and inclusive. I really felt like a part of it,” she said. “Honestly, everything I do right now makes me feel like I'm an important contributing member. That’s why I try never to be absent. If I’m not there, I feel like there's a part missing.”

Anissa spent time in Shanghai this summer before heading to the University of California, Berkeley in the fall. While she’s a little bit nervous, she’s mostly excited. In college, she plans to study sociology and take part in community service. “Community service and its social impact is something I find joy in,” she said.