The purpose of this column is to highlight a Northeastern student each week. Our goal is to shed light on students who may otherwise not get an opportunity to share their story. Each week will showcase a different student’s unique traits or passion.
This week, our Husky Highlight is Yuchen Zhang, who is a second-year Nursing major from San Diego. Like any Nursing major, he is a hardworking and dedicated student. His passion for nursing first developed in high school and since then he’s been determined to realize his dreams of becoming an unforgettable nurse by making a “small but meaningful impact.” He had already taken the initiative to volunteer during high school to get a taste of what he was in for. He was quickly intimidated by the long shifts that came with being a nurse. He also knew that studying nursing would be difficult because of the amount of science classes it required. That being said, he also learned why he wanted to be a nurse. Through interactions with patients and friends who had monumental experiences with nurses, he quickly realized that he wanted to be the nurse to positively impact a patient’s experience at the hospital.
“When my friend’s mom gave birth to him, she really wanted a massage so one of the nurses gave her one and she still remembers that to this day,” Zhang recalled. It is clear that his passion isn’t lacking. Nursing was “a perfect marriage of [his] interests and character.” He showed a caring side, so nursing was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate his selflessness and passion to make a difference in someone’s life. To Zhang, nursing wasn’t only about the medicine and healing; it was more personal than that.
It’s easy to put nursing majors into a box of students who do nothing but study, but Zhang has another passion too. Since his mom sent him to an SAT training center his junior year of high school, Zhang discovered his love for watches. His teacher was his first watch role model and taught him to follow his dream of learning about watches. Since then, he’s “[liked] watches to an unhealthy degree.” He started out with a simple fashion watch from a “fashion microbrand” that marks up the price just because it’s stylish. He had to start somewhere. From there, he was able to learn more about the mechanics of watches. Watch forums became rabbit holes that he spent hours reading through. He was fascinated by the intricacies and complexities within such a small diameter that were present in a watch; there was so much beauty in such a small area.
Not only were watches themselves exciting to Zhang, he valued the community that is created by watch lovers. It’s almost like an exclusive club of individuals who can appreciate the true beauty of watches. This opened up a new world for Zhang. He said he only had two or three friends who could actually talk to him about watches, but the boundaries of the online watch world were endless.
The experience of going into a watch shop was an important part of Zhang’s passion. At first, he was intimidated by the idea of walking into a store where thousands of dollars are spent on each transaction. His first visit was at Heathrow Airport in London at age 17. He had finally plucked up the courage to enter the store and was welcomed with open arms. The more high-end the shop, the more attention they pay to the people who walk in. Their goal is to build a relationship with anyone who walks in, in hopes that they could become a potential customer. Even if it’s clear that you’re unable to afford one of their watches, they will treat you with the best customer service. On the other hand, “pre-owned” or “third party” shops who carry multiple watch brands are focused on immediate sales rather than building a relationship, so they may not give you the time of day if you are unable to afford the watch. Because of this, Zhang felt validated and felt that his dreams weren’t just dreams. He could actually practice his passion.
Something that stuck out to Zhang in his adventure discovering the world of watches so far was the wise words of a content creator on YouTube. He said that one should always follow their dreams, whether it is a career or hobby and Zhang has demonstrated how he’s been able to do both.