The rocket that George Wang spent months theorizing never flew. Although it remained as a sketch in a notebook, it was a testament to hours spent combing through NASA documents, self-taught physics and deciphering English, his second language. It was the material goal that marked a transition in Wang.
Wang was born in a university in Hong Kong, where his father worked as a philosophy professor. Under these circumstances, it should have set Wang on a path of academic success, yet Wang was an anomaly.
“I hated it a lot because I was a terrible student in a place where people define you by grades,” Wang said. “It felt pretty toxic to me.”
Under Hong Kong’s educational system, Wang felt like nothing more than test scores and grades. Its intense environment left no room for creativity or divergent thinking. As Wang continued to struggle with conformity, he thought his future was set in stone.
“I genuinely thought that I would grow up not going to college and be a construction worker,” Wang said. “That’s how competitive society was. It was a pretty realistic outcome for many students like me.”
As 2019 approached, the tension between Wang and the school system mirrored the broader conflict that plagued Hong Kong. Protests broke out all over the city as citizens demanded police accountability and for arrested protesters to be released. What had started as opposition to an extradition bill had turned Wang’s home into a warzone.
“My home got turned into a battleground,” Wang said. “People were fighting. They burned down stuff, and police were fighting the protesters.”
Wang, now unable to stay safe while living in Hong Kong, began a series of moves. As his parents moved to America with their citizenship, Wang stayed with his cousins. During this time, Wang officially dropped out of elementary school.
The world continued to spiral as COVID-19 spread. Before the borders officially closed, Wang and his family moved to Macau. Known as the “Vegas of the East,” Macau is the world’s largest gambling city. As a child out of school, Wang had nothing to do except play video games. For the first six months of the pandemic, Wang spent his time immersed in Call of Duty and Fortnite.
But, video games were not enough to fulfill him. After watching “October Sky,” a movie about a boy intent on building a rocket, Wang was inspired. He decided with absolute certainty that he was going to learn everything there was to know in order to build a rocket.
Although Wang thought the process would be easy, he soon realized it would be the most difficult journey of his life. He had an elementary school education, did not know physics and only spoke Mandarin.
Through the struggle, Wang found what he had been missing in his previous education: learning how to learn. While analyzing NASA documents, he developed a system to break down the complex symbols and intricate wording.
“I found this NASA document that was in all English, and I didn’t know English,” Wang said. “I translated it, searched up every symbol, every formula in there, and tried to make sense of what they are. I pretended that I understood them, although I just searched it up, and Wikipedia told me what to do.”
When the world returned to in-person learning, Wang immediately started applying to middle schools in Macau, without any luck. After repeated rejections, he had to get creative.
“I emailed the principal and attached the video of my rocket engine test firing,” Wang said. “He gave me an interview.”
The interview resulted in a unique deal: if Wang could learn English and pass the entrance exam at the end of the semester, then he could stay at the school past the first semester.
“I had one semester to learn English, and I only really knew my name,” Wang said. “I read 46 books that semester.”
With his determination, Wang passed the entrance exam and stayed at the school until July of 2021, when he moved to America to attend Medea Creek Middle School.
He started to love robotics and worked on innovative projects on his own. Although he conquered his academic struggles, Wang now faced a social identity crisis:
assimilating into American culture.
“The first two years of high school, I was kind of going off the path of everyone,” Wang said. “People said, ‘You have to do this, volunteer, research,’ but I realized most of that is not the best for me. Starting 11th and 12th grade, I started realizing, ‘You know, it really doesn’t matter.’ I can just be myself.”
This realization was profound. Assimilation was not the answer, but neither was pulling away from society. He continued to explore computer science and embrace the “open source” philosophy.
“I decided to open-source every single project I work on because I realized that there is so much gatekeeping. I wanted to be the person that I needed when I was younger.”
Wang has continued working diligently on pursuing robotics. He is currently designing a mini-computer that bridges the gap between high-level operating systems and coding. Wang continually breaks conventional norms, reflecting a singular aspect of his multifaceted personality.
“I realized that maybe I’m better at making stuff and doing things on my own. In that field, I actually did way better than competitions, debate, or robotics competitions because that’s what I truly enjoy.”
