在IB選課中,張嘉辰罕見地選擇了雙母語——中文A和英文A。中文的學(xué)習(xí)帶給了張嘉辰自我身份的探尋,而英語的學(xué)習(xí)則啟發(fā)了她站在不同角度看世界。語言之中的文學(xué),更是張嘉辰表達(dá)自己思想的載體。她在十年級(jí)時(shí),就曾經(jīng)因?yàn)橐皇子⑽脑姼杼幣鳌禣de to the Moon》在Lunar Mission One國際詩歌大賽上嶄露頭角,并獲得了中國地區(qū)一等獎(jiǎng)。在十年級(jí)的暑假,張嘉辰選擇參加哥倫比亞大學(xué)夏校的創(chuàng)意寫作課程繼續(xù)追尋自己對(duì)文學(xué)與寫作的愛好。作為當(dāng)時(shí)班上唯一的中國學(xué)生,她以文學(xué)為媒介,創(chuàng)作了有關(guān)一群上海老克勒的英文劇本向美國同學(xué)展示家鄉(xiāng)獨(dú)特的文化與歷史。
He sat quietly beside her, bare feet swaying in the air as a child would do, staring at the burning horizon which changed from iron grey to dark blue, to pale yellow, to red, and finally, to gold. The color of paradise.
Below the cliff where they sat, glaciers started to crumble. A huge block of ancient blue ice cracked and plunged into the cyan ocean beneath, churning up glittering splashes and mist of snow. In the distant ice field, thousands of ravines cut through the marble tomb of memories as dark grey tearstains, with astonishingly pure blue stream. The river roared all the way down and fell. To the end of the world. The ice rattled along with the collapse of their last ivory tower.
在參與耶魯全球青年學(xué)者Yale Young Global Scholars(YYGS)的項(xiàng)目時(shí),她加入了''Asia in the 21st Century''的主題活動(dòng),并研究了之前從未涉獵過的話題,比如:廣州的非洲工人和日本的基督教信仰。許多人之前并不理解張嘉辰作為中國人為何還要學(xué)習(xí)東亞研究,她回應(yīng)道,“不識(shí)廬山真面目,只緣身在此山中”是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠的,只有深入學(xué)習(xí)這個(gè)專業(yè),才能夠跳出亞洲,以全局的視角來看待東亞文化。