Kally (Kangdeng) Zhao was a student at Zhuhai No.9 School from 2011-13. She was a member of the DukeEngage Acting Class in 2011. In 2012, she was a host sister of Rebecca Gil in 2012, and had joined a cappella group of Duke/No.9 School that was formed by a Duke student Ray Liu.
As an active participant of many extra curricular activities and president of student union, she became a student at New York University after graduating from Zhuhai No.1 High School in 2016. Majoring in Media, Culture and Communication at NYU, she participated in the Global Media Scholar program to spend the spring of 2018 studying abroad in Paris and fall of 2018 in Shanghai.
As an honored guest, Kally was invited by Duke University DukeEngage Community Partners Conference and delivered a speech and shared her DukeEngage experience in front of DukeEngage Board of Trustees in November, 2017. Currently, Kally is a rising senior at NYU who wish to start her career in the entertainment industry as a producer for film and theater.
Down below was the speech that Kally delivered at the Celebration of Tenth Anniversary of DE Zhuhai Program Concert on July 7, 2019.
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大家好，我是珠海市第九中学2013届的毕业生赵康登，非常高兴今天有机会再次参与到母校的活动中来。看到舞台上学弟学妹们精彩的表演，就好像回到了8年前我初一时候的那个夏天，同今天有机会上台大展身手的学弟学妹们一样，那时的我也因为杜克计划的平台，而有机会展示自己在学习生活外的另一面。
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, I am Kally Zhao, a 2013 alumni of Zhuhai No.9 Middle School. It is such an honor to be back today participating in this wonderful event that celebrates the 10 year anniversary of Duke Engage in No.9 Middle School. Watching the performance on stage today, I feel as if seeing myself from the summer 8 years ago. Like the students performing on stage today, I was lucky enough to explore and showcase a different side of me because of Duke Engage.
于我而言，在九中3年有幸成为杜克计划的一部分，为我现在的人生，埋下了许多让我自己都意想不到的伏笔。如果有人问我，杜克计划给你带来最重要的东西是什么，我想我的回答会是：可能性。
The experience of being part of the Duke Engage program during my three year at No. Middle School has influenced my life in many unexpected ways. There are countless different ways to describe the experience. But today, I want to focus on one word that I believe summarizes my experience: possibility.
对于8年前的我而言，英语更多的是学校课堂中的一个科目之一，而杜克计划让我意识到了英语作为与人沟通交流，学习和了解不同文化的可能性。
It was the year of 2011 when I became part of the Duke Engage experience for the first time. Back at that time, English is merely a subject in school that is being graded. Yet Duke Engage offered me the possibility of using it as a tool to understand other people and a different culture.
我还记得我有一次询问住在我家的杜克学生Becca，”elegant”优雅的这个单词是什么意思，她并没有直接告诉我，而是问我知不知道奥黛丽赫本与玛丽莲梦露这两位女演员的区别。那一刻的顿悟远比听写时正确的拼写这个单词要珍贵，从此elegant这个单词紧紧的和奥黛丽赫本的形象连系在了一起。这段经历让我看到了语言学习的另一种可能性。从那时起，我开始更多的尝试不仅仅在课本上课堂中，而更多的在阅读或交流的语境中去学习语言。
I still remember the time when I asked my host sister, Becca Gil, what does the word “elegant” means and she asked me whether I know the difference between Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. That moment of epiphany is priceless as it offers me the opportunity to study the language outside of a classroom setting, through communicating with others. Duke Engage provided me the possibility of comprehending a language in a different way.
然而杜克计划对我的影响，远远超过语言学习。对于12岁的我来说，美国更多的是一个出现在新闻中，出现在好莱坞镜头里，大洋彼岸一个并不那么真实的国度。而杜克计划，第一次将地球另一端的一切，变得触手可及了。与来自杜克大学的学生们一起度过的夏天，和来自小梅教授的鼓励，让我意识到前往美国学习并非痴人说梦，而是通过坚持与付出就可以实现的目标。我想现在我有幸在美国纽约大学学习文化传播与制作，正是得益于当时杜克计划让我看到的，有关未来的可能性。
Yet the influence from Duke Engage went way beyond language learning. It is through interacting and learning from all those individuals from Duke: all the amazing undergraduate students and of course the rockstar of the program, our Program Director Professor Hsiao-mei Ku who is sitting among the audience right now, that I realized what the possibility could be for my own future. Studying in America is not a fantasy beyond my ability and changing the world in my own way is a possibility that I could strive and reach for. So here I am standing in front of you, not only as a Chinese girl who once participated in the Duke Engage program, but also a current undergraduate student at New York University who wish to join the entertainment business in the future to promote representations for the ethnic minorities.
在刚刚过去的5月份，我在外百老汇的华语音乐剧《我，堂吉诃德》中第一次担任了制作人。现在想来，对于戏剧和文化制作的兴趣，恰巧也源于我在8年前的那台晚会中，出演人生第一个舞台剧的女主角的经历。
In the past May, I have served as the associate producer for the off-broadway mandarin musical Man of La Mancha. Looking back to connecting the dots, my interest in theater and producing originated partially from the very performance 8 years ago, when I starred as the leading girl in the drama piece.
站在今天这个舞台上，我在想，如果8年前的自己此时此刻就站在这里，她会如何评价今天的我。我想，她会意识到杜克计划是如何在潜移默化中改变了她人生的轨迹，也影响着同她一样在过去10年中有幸在九中就读的所有学生的人生轨迹。
Standing on this stage today, I am constantly thinking, if the me 8 years ago were standing right here at this very moment, what would she say? I think she would realize how much Duke Engage has shaped who she has become, and how much it has shaped other fellow students from No.9 Middle school who have participated in this program throughout the past 10 years.
对我们来说，杜克计划最重要的并不仅仅是提高我们的能力，而是引导我们看到有关自己与未来的可能性。正是这些可能性把我一路带到了今天这个舞台上，我相信在未来的路上，还有更多这样美好的可能性，等待着我们。
For us, Duke Engage is not only about helping us to enhance our ability, but also about showing us what the possibilities could be. The possibilities Duke Engage showed me have brought me all the way here today, and I sincerely hope that in the next 10 years to come such possibilities would bring us even further.