Hello, welcome to my website!
My name is Xuezhu Zhao (English name is Gillian). Interesting fact: the meaning of my Chinese name is "snow" and "bamboo." In Chinese culture, "snow" could be interpreted as nourishing and "bamboo" signifies virtue and growth. My friends say my name is a great fit of my personality.
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I spent 18 years of my life in Beijing, China before I came to the U.S. to study Urban Planning. Currently I have a senior standing at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I enjoy studying Urban Planning very much and am dedicated to promoting vibrant and sustainable communities. I am also pursuing a Informatics minor, a leadership certificate and a GIS certificate.
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Besides Urban Planning, I am also interested in Informatics, Real Estate, and Sociology. I am a student member of American Planning Organization. I am the Vice President who is in charge of all the chairmanships of Alpha Rho Chi, a professional and social fraternity of Architecture and Allied Arts. I am a member of Rho Epsilon Student Real Estate Association. I am a James Scholar and a student ambassador of Colleges of Fine and Applied Arts. Currently, I am a volunteer usher for Krannert Center of Performing Arts.
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In my free time, I enjoy the company of cooking, music and arts. I value the composition of pictures as much as I appreciate the tune of melodies. I have played the piano for years and joined a school choir in the past. Background music is one of my favorite songs that I had recorded in 2016.