融尚南希伙伴校友 Jeffrey Zhai 毕业于 The Hotchkiss School。Jeffrey 生于香港、长在北京，丰富的经历和广泛的爱好让他对生活有了更多理解，并用图像的形式记录在个人网站上。

Jeffrey 的网站 jeffreyzhai.com

“Hello! I am Jeffrey and I’m from Beijing, China. I am currently a senior at The Tilton School, a boarding school in New Hampshire. Prior to this, I studied at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut for my first three years of high school, and before that, I was in Chinese public schools for 7 years (6 years of elementary and the first year of middle school), then studied in Dulwich College Beijing, a British international school, for my second and third years of middle school. I currently live in Westchester, New York.

I have two sisters, my older sister, Jennifer, is a junior at Columbia University, and my younger sister, Jacqueline, is a ninth-grader at Horace Mann in New York, but she is already a businesswoman (my sister and I are the co-founders of @monkkeyslimes). My family has two dogs, Fluffy, a four-year old Pomeranian, and Harley, a five-month old Labrador.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Beijing, I was always surrounded by many different people with different interests and hobbies. Mine happen to be photography and fashion.”

Jeffrey 热爱摄影，对时尚也有自己的理解，今天的校友风采，让我们一起走进他的图像世界。

Photography

“My love for photography didn’t come until my arrival at Hotchkiss. Living in the big city for almost my entire life, I’ve never experienced living in a place like Hotchkiss, which is almost in the middle of nowhere. There aren’t shopping centers nearby, barely any restaurants - the beginning was very boring for me.

Mixed with being homesick, I wasn’t feeling very well mentally. It wasn’t until January of 2017, when my uncle gave me a Sony Alpha 7 as a birthday gift. One Sunday morning, I had nothing to do except lying on my bed texting my friends, so I decided to go to the woods right across from campus with my camera. That experience changed my whole life and it’s something I will never forget.”

HOTCHKISS
“My second home.”

HONG KONG
“My birth place.”

BEIJING
“My home. Forever and always.”

NEW YORK
“Where I live now.”

Fashion

“Fashion became a huge part of my life since almost four years ago. Starting from my last few months in Beijing before leaving to the States for high school, I became familiar with the “Hypebeast” streetwear culture - my friends started buying brands such as Supreme, Stüssy, BAPE, and so on. The way my friends appeared with their outfits was very enticing to me, so I dug into the trend and bought my first streetwear apparel and the simplest t-shirt you could find on the market - a Supreme Box T-shirt.

Every fashion season since then, new clothes filled my closet. However, when I first arrived at Hotchkiss, where the majority of students wore Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, I was not well received because of the way I dressed. I got insecure and put away all the streetwear pieces. I felt very uncomfortable wearing clothes that I didn’t like, and with the encouragement from my new friends, I slowly gained back my confidence and continued my ensembles.

This time around, more people in the community seemed to be supportive and I received many compliments. Now, I may be known as this kid who wears “elaborate” clothes, but through this experience, fashion has become a huge statement for self-confidence, rather than just the pieces of clothing. Below I will show you guys some of the outfits that are the most memorable to me.”

感谢 Jeffrey 精彩的摄影作品，在他的作品中我们看到了个性、多元化，和他对自我和周围世界的认识。也很高兴他能在申请中得到成长，一步步认识自我。

你可以通过以下方式联系 Jeffrey。

INSTAGRAM  @ZHAIPHOTOS

MAIL  yzhai1@hotchkiss.org