Jia is first in family to graduate high school

Jia Dong is poised to do something that has never been done in his family. Jia is a senior at Washington High School and will graduate this May. When he does so, he will be the first member of his family to graduate from high school. Jia was born and raised in China. His parents and grandparents did not attend high school because they began working at a young age.

?They didn?t get a chance to go to school when they were little because they had to work,? Jia said. ?It was hard for them.?

Jia?s parents are from the countryside, where there are fewer opportunities for formal schooling than in the city.

?My mom had to take care of her whole family when she was little,? he said. ?She had to make the meals. She dropped out of school so her brother could go to school.?

Jia?s grandparents faced the same hardships when they were young. He said his grandmother finished elementary school and then had to work. Jia plans not only to finish high school but to continue his academic career at Kirkwood Community College in either Iowa City or Cedar Rapids. He wants to study nursing. He said he has enjoyed his four years in the United States but that he would like to move back to China when he finishes his studies.

?I?d like to move to China at some point,? he said. ?My grandmother, my aunt and other relatives still live there.?

Jia moved to the United States in August 2008. He even remembers the exact date, Aug. 8, because that was the start of the Beijing Olympics, which he had been looking forward to for a long time. The Olympics had finally come to China, and Jia had to witness the festivities from a foreign country.

?A lot of people were flying into China but I was flying out,? he recalled.

At the start of the 2008-2009 school year, Jia was placed in ninth grade. He knew very little English at the time.

?The teachers and students were nice to me, it was just hard to communicate with them,? he said. ?I went to football and basketball games with them, and we went out for ice cream.?

Shortly after Jia moved to the United States, he began living with Gwen Ying and Ying Chong Gong. He lived with them for a year and a half and became very close to them. He refers to them as ?grandma? and ?grandpa.? Gwen teaches violin lessons. After listening to a number of Gwen?s students practice in the house, Jia asked Gwen if she would teach him the violin, too. Gwen said Jia has become a dedicated violinist.     

?What he has accomplished in the past three years is remarkable,? Gwen said.

Jia spends much of his time outside of school working at Taste of China, which is run by his uncle, Zhong Qin Dong, whom he also lives with. Jia said he has less homework at Washington High School than he did at his school in China.

?School is very easy,? he said. ?I have no stress at school. The teachers are easier to talk to here and they?re much nicer. You can make friends with teachers, which you can?t do in China.?

In China, Jia went to school nine hours a day for six days a week. He was recently asked to write an essay about what he would change in American schools. He said he would make them more challenging, as they are in China.

Jia grew up in the province of Fujian, which is in southeast China and just west of the island of Taiwan. He grew up in the countryside, which is where he lived until he was in third grade.

?We lived in a little house there,? he said. ?It was not a pretty house. It was very simple and it was smaller than the houses here.?

The school he attended in third grade had thousands of students. He said one of his favorite things to do in school was to learn about computers. He spent his free time playing computer games and chatting online. He also enjoyed climbing mountains with his cousins.  

Jia?s mother, Mei Fang Chen, moved to the United States when Jia was about 7 years old to work at a Chinese restaurant in Fairfield. When he was 15, Jia and his father, Wei Dong Dong, moved to Washington.

?I didn?t feel sad when I left China, but after I moved I felt so sad,? he said. ?I started crying after three or four days. I didn?t think it would be a big deal but it was. I wanted to go back to China.?

Although he was sad at first to move to America, Jia has found some perks about living in the U.S. He said he likes American food, which is much more expensive in China than in America.

?I like your food,? he said. ?I can?t afford it in China.?