Keira Jia Zhuang’14 wasn’t even 15 years old when she traveled across the world from Shanghai, China to St. Bede Academy. She was young, but charged with ambition and desire to experience an American education.
She enrolled at St. Bede as a sophomore and moved into the girls boarding house on campus, where she got acquainted with her house parents. They helped acclimate her to the American culture and become accustomed to life in the United States. She found comfort in sharing the boarding house with other female students from China who spoke her language, came from the same sort of background and were an easy shoulder to lean on during the tough moments of adjusting to a new country.
At the Academy, Keira exceled in her classes and found she had a knack for math and science. So much, in fact, she blew through all the math honor courses offered at St. Bede and was encouraged to enroll in courses at the local community college, which were offered through a partnership with St. Bede Academy. Looking back on this, Keira calls that opportunity “very precious” as it gave her a taste of college curriculum before she had even graduated high school.
Keira’s English-speaking skills improved overtime through the rigorous literature and English classes, which prepared her well for the reading, writing and mythology studies she would take in college.
Outside of academics, St. Bede’s small, close-knit community embraced Keira and all she had to teach them about her own culture and nationality.
“Everyone at St. Bede was so nice and open-minded about foreign students joining their classes and becoming friends with us,” she says. “It wasn’t something that would have happened in China, because the schools are so much larger.”
Keira’s community encouraged her to try athletics and extracurriculars outside of her comfort zone. She ran track and field, played tennis for a semester, was in the band, participated in the WYSE competitions and even ran for student government.
“Even if I wasn’t good at most of the things I was doing, it was OK. If I wanted to try it out and learn, people were always so welcoming to let me learn and try different things. That was probably one of the most valuable things I got from St. Bede – be brave and try it out,” she says.
Keira also took part in school traditions, such as Spirit Day, Homecoming, student masses and Prom, which deepen her understanding of the St. Bede culture.
During her second year at the Academy, Keira yearned to experience a home stay with an American family. She was invited to live with Tim’86 and Eve’84 Postula, who took her in along with their three children and treated her as one of their own.
That interaction and bond built with the Postulas was an unforgettable, comforting experience, which Keira says gave her “a huge emotional bump.” While living at the Postula home, Keira even let down her guard for house pets – something that terrified her when she moved to the states. She laughs as she reflects back and shares, she’s a proud cat owner today.
In her third year at St. Bede, Keira moved back to the boarding house and took on a big sister role to the younger boarding students moving in that year. She supported them academically and emotionally as they underwent the cultural transition she had experienced.
The academic preparation, supportive cultural transition and extracurricular exploration at St. Bede built a solid foundation for Keira when she went on to study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduated from St. Bede in 2014 feeling confident, responsible and emotionally strong. At UW-Madison, Keira double majored in electrical engineering and computer science, earning her degrees within three years.
After Wisconsin, she enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Standford University – her focal study being in electronics and circuit design.
She spent five years working towards her doctorate. As a Ph.D. student, Keira heavily researched and master areas that only one or two people had ever researched before her. This extraordinary process allowed her to break boundaries, create innovation and leave a footprint for future research. Part of her research was done on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, which she worked to improve the technology and workflow to better the experience for both radiology staff and patients.
In 2023, with a doctoral degree in hand, Keira was hired as an electrical engineer at a start-up company in New York City that provides power solutions for industrial applications, such as automotive and robotics. She currently designs and tests wireless charging systems for electric cars, and has found an appreciation for the freedoms in research exploration a start-up company allows.
Although worlds away from St. Bede Academy, Keira attributes her life successes to the invaluable education and unforgettable experiences she received at St. Bede.
Her advice to current Bruins and boarding students is to never stop exploring outside their comfort zone.
“You might find something you have a passion for, something totally different you had no idea was there. It allows you to develop a more mature view on the world around you,” she says.
