A True Trojan: Raymond Jiang
By: Jack McInelly
Raymond speaking at math club Photo creds - Raymond Jiang
A lot of people know of him, but they don’t really know him. Meet Raymond Jiang, a senior at Jenks High School. A highly accomplished and intelligent individual that serves in the community and is a leader in and out of school.
Jiang’s academic journey has been just shy of perfect. On the ACT, he achieved a 35, the national average is 19.8. Additionally, a 4.52 weighted GPA, including 16 AP courses. Outstanding. While intelligence and academic success are necessary, they are not the only factors that define this man. Jiang serves as senior class president and raised over $1,200 in fundraising from a talent show in 2021. He also was a founding volunteer for schoolhouse.world, a website offering free online tutoring, created by Sal Khan, founder of Khan academy.
When asked how Jiang does everything, he said, “I don’t.”
“I make a list, and I tell myself, if I want to maintain my grades, I have to get everything done on this list,” said Jiang.
Next, he will head to a nearby library, and spend as much as 9 hours studying and getting all of his assignments done. Then, he “burns out” for another 2 weeks. And the cycle repeats. According to a study, as much as 40% of all students suffer from academic burnout at one point in their school life.
Raymond shooting a genesis bow at Jenks East Intermediate.
Photo creds - Hongping Jiang
Many people know Jiang for his academic abilities, but his archery career is something that might be overlooked.
“I liked it because it was therapeutic,” said Jiang. “It taught me to stay composed through anxiety, and that’s helped me in different aspects of my life, especially public speaking.”
Raymond playing in a talent show. Photo creds - Abigial Chow
During the summer when he was younger, Jiang’s parents were working and needed a place for Jiang and his siblings to spend their day. Jiang and his sister started archery at a summer camp at Holland Hall. From here, only Jiang decided to pursue it. Here, he shot a recurve bow, the same bow used in the Olympics. He continued using the recurve until high school.
A busy schedule forced Jiang to drop the recurve and pick up a genesis bow, commonly found in PE classes. Now he only competes for the school, rather than competing nationally. Archery is Jiang's outlet to take a mental break. It's his escape from everything else going on in his life.
“Jiang's consistently high scores were a big reason for our team's success over the last four years. His scores will be missed, but more importantly, his leadership will be missed,” said Coach Morrow, Jiang’s archery coach. Along with being a PE teacher at JEI, Coach Morrow coaches 5th-12th grade archery.
“There’s been a lot of people that have impacted me, but my dad has been the most persevering person I know,” said Jiang.
Hongping Jiang, his father, lived his childhood in a sod house in rural China. Despite this, Mr. Jiang was able to graduate high school at 15 and immigrate to the US with his wife, to make a better life for his children.
“Raising kids changed my life, it taught me commitment, patience, and love,” said Mr. Jiang. “I am always excited when Raymond makes progress, but I’ve always taught him to stay humble,”
One thing Jiang has achieved, that’s a little more rare, is his real and genuine intent.
“One thing I’ve noticed is that people do things for ‘artificial reasons' just to look good on a resume,” said Jiang, “I think in order to be successful, you have to do things with authenticity, you have to actually enjoy things.”
Jiang is sure to continue to make an impact on society as he grows further. Recently, Jiang was accepted into his dream school, Harvard. A great accomplishment after hundreds of hours of hard work. After college, Jiang hopes to help create policies for the Oklahoman public education system and give back to the community he’s grown up in. Although he's set on majoring in public policy and education, Jiang is entering college with an open mind.
“God can really change things up on you fast, but my central goal is focused on whatever He wants me to do,” said Jiang.