2020 was the year of change for many students around the world, including those at Wilsonville High School. With the introduction of the Coronavirus, schools were forced to employ all remote learning. While for many students this simply meant being on zoom with their teachers, others were not so lucky.  

The Wilsonville High School Chinese program was one of the only classes that was unfortunately shifted to a fully online program, without the use of a teacher. This was the consequence of there being no teachers willing or able to teach such a difficult language. 

Chinese student Mandi Lee described the experience as, “very very challenging. I didn’t understand a single thing. It was not a good time.” 

Many students who are in Chinese did not know if they were going to continue the course in the 2021-2022 school year given the situation. However, in the summer it was announced that there would be an actual teacher this year: Gao Laoshi. 

Having just quit her job in California, she decided to move to Oregon, where she stumbled across a job opening in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. Thanks to her teaching degree from Stanford, with a focus in Chinese, she was immediately hired. 

Believing that education is very important and interesting, Gao Laoshi tries to make her class very enjoyable by teaching Chinese history, food, culture, and language to her students. Even though she has to travel back and forth between schools during the day, she finds that it is well worth it. 

When asked why she has to move around so much, she responded, “There are not enough students in Chinese yet to have a full time teacher. There are only two classes at each school, and a full time job is five classes.” 

However, there are high hopes at Wilsonville High School that the Chinese program will only continue to expand throughout the next couple of years. Junior Henri Villeneuve stated that, “Because of Gao Laoshi’s compassion for students and captivating curriculum, [he] plans to take Chinese again next year.”