Every school day at 8 a.m., Victoria Zhang gets out of bed a mere 10 minutes before her bus leaves. After the school day, Zhang gets home between 6 and 9 p.m., and she usually stays up until 2 a.m. doing homework.  She splits her time between attending Rock Ridge on A-days and AET on B-days. The workload, along with participating in numerous clubs, sports, and other extracurricular activities, sometimes takes a toll on her. “I sometimes feel like I’m overloading myself,” Zhang said. “My parents want me to drop [activities], but I [don’t want to].” 

Zhang also spends a lot of her time in the dance studio.  She started dance classes at four years old and competitive dance at age nine. She attends Weina Dance studio and has been dancing for 11 years. Zhang does a variety of types of dance —  ballet, contemporary, folkloric, and lyrical dance — a task that requires three to four hours of practice four times a week. “I do a lot of types of dance — everything except tap and hip-hop,” Zhang said. “It’s fun to perform on stage; the community is fun [because] we’ve all been friends since we were four years old.” 

Zhang’s friends believe she is a great dancer and a great person. “Victoria is weird, funny, and unique,” sophomore Alisha Jenkins said. 

In 2019, Zhang won first place for her solo at a national competition, and won second place for her advanced teen duet. 

In addition to dance, Zhang is an active member of the Debate Team, DECA, chorus, track and field team, and varsity club. Zhang decided to join the track and field team due to a desire to join a school team, as opposed to one outside of school. “I had free time in my schedule,” Zhang said. “I wanted to do a school sport, because it’s different from doing one outside [of school].”

Tapping into her artistic side, Zhang has been singing in chorus since she was in fourth grade.  Although she took a two year break to play flute in her middle school band, she returned to chorus for high school “Playing flute wasn’t as interesting [as singing in chorus], and it wasn’t as fun, so I went back to chorus,” Zhang said. Now in her fourth year in choir, Zhang currently is in Vox Femina, the women’s chorus class. 

Though Zhang says it can be tiring, she loves all the activities she does. “It’s nerve wracking, [but] it’s a rewarding experience.”